Empowering!!!!!

One of the great things I enjoy about youthwork, is seeing young people taking on responsibilities and making tasks their own, and devloping them further. When I postedyesterday about helping young peopleachieve things, one of the things I had in mnd, was enabling them to take on resposnibilities and help them to realise what they had achieved, and even think about what they could ahieve in the future as well. I know in some quarters this is seen as using young people, and using them as dogs boddies, but rally it is empowering, releasing, letting them be the people who Gdo wants them to be, and allowing them to find their own strengths, and weaknesses and realise who they are in god.

Achieiving!!!!!

It is always useful when we are working to have a time of rflection when we look back at all the things we have done over the last year, and all the issues that we have covered. It is useful to reflect on the issues, and look at how they have impacted peoples lives. When people look at what they have achieved, it si also useful to think about what people want to achieve in the coming year, and what things would help to develope their lives further, and what would help them achieve things over the coming year. Get people to think about where they woud like to be a year's time, and how they want to get there, and what issues or work, would enable them to get to where they want to be.

the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!!!!!

I have been thinking about this as I sit and write some material I might use for a book at some point. I don't think that there is any real point about looking at separate ministries and saying wow, look at all those different ministries, they are all different, but yet working with possibly the same young people. Surely it makes much more sense to look at a whole, whether it be a Church or an area, and sy wow what a difference is being made here. This would indicate to me the whole, IE, the whole church or area, could actually make a bigger difference, just by the waty that they are viewed, than by looking at all the different ministries. So yes, I wold say that whole is deffinitely more porductive, better, more helpful than the some of the parts.

Something most of us ain't thought about!!!!!

Most of us do our youth work for one of a couple of reasons. One, because noone else is doing it so we took it up, or we felt that we cared about young people, or maybe some of us actually felt that we were called by God into working with young people. So what is the basis of our work? god, or Jesus is not necessarily the answer I was looking for, althoug they are right and fine answers. But what is our theology behind our work? What is it that gives our work that Christian emphasis, or grounding? the answers to tis will be different from one person to the next as many factors need to be taken into account, but just something for us to think about, what is our theology behind our work?

What affects which?

When we work with young people, and obviously we want God to touch them through the work that we do, but do we go to God and work out what we should do with our young people, or do we look at their circumstance and try and work out our Theology around their circumstances. Do we go to God first, and then try and work that into the situation we find ourselves, or do we look at the situation and then try and see if we can fit God into that circumstance? I am sure that there are benefits to both, but which way round do we do things.

What grabs the headlines?

So many times we here only bad things about young people in the news or in the press, so what is it that grabs the headlines? Do we live in a culture where people are only interested in the bad things, or in things that go wrong? Why is it that we don't really here much about the good things, andwhat is there that we can do to change this culture? Is it down to us, to go for the extraordinary publicity to try and show something good, something that actually makes a difference in peoples lives. Let's do it!!!! Let's go for those bitof publicity which look wierd, but get the point across and make young people seen in a different light, that they are people, they are exciting, and they are decent and lovely people. Is that how God sees them?

Ideas or vision

I am sure that this is an issue that many people face, and us as youth workers are probably more guilty of this than many other people in ministry. How many times have we come up with an idea, and think that it is reat, and we go ahead with it, and try it out, and just see what happens. I am sure that most of us have done this at one time or another. But are all our ideas from God? Do they all fit into his vision? The big challenge is for us to have those ideas, and as youth workers we should be the nes who almost have the most ideas in a church, but then we need to ensure that they fit into God's vision, because our vision shoudl be God's vision, and there is no pint in going ahead with an idea if it does nto fit into God's vision. So let's come upwith those ideas, and be ready to refine them into God's vision, to ensure that they work, andare an amazing success.

belonging and believing

I have often wondered why we do things sometimes, is it to give our young people the feeling of belonging, and is it sometimes the opportunity to believe? I would suggest that if we give young people the chance to belong, and feel that they belong, then there could be an even better chance they will believe. Believing very often comes from belonging to something. If you look at life, how many times do we start to believe something, or accept things, largely becasue we belong to a certai group. Maybe the same is true for young people, if they start to feel as thugh they are involved, or they belong, they will soon start to believe.

why Label?

Came across an amazing thing that Frontier Youth Trust have been doing. Recently had some research done about views towards young people from adults, and also what young people thought of themselves. The research showed nothing surprsing, but it did highlight a few things, to the extent that FYT, took a large Jar around London, and had the slogan, lables are for jars not for teenagers, sounds a cool move, and hopefully will make people wake up and think.

Sacrefice, Good and Bad?

Kim spoke on Sunday about good and bad sacrefices, she got us to think about sacrefices that could bring good results and also sacrefices that could bring bad results as well. She showed us pictures and both her and Pete spoke about how in past there used to be sacrefices of animals ad of people, but none of that was relevant anymore, which I sahll post about later this week. But what sacrefices are there in our lives that are good ones, and what is there that would be a bad sacrefice? What is there in our lives that would make ur lives better, or help us achieve something if we sacreficed something else? We have the ability to sacrefice things to ensure great things for our lives, so it is always good to look at our life and see what is good, or wht could be better if we sacreficed something else.

How much responsibility do we give our young people?

with a new report out by Oona King, suggesting that young people need to be, and need to feel more of a part of their community, how much responsibility do we give our young people in Church? The report suggested that there should even be a young Mare for communities to start giving them responsibility in an area, so where can we give our young people more responsibilities?

Internet good/bad?

There has been a lot on this over the last few months on Tv and Radio, and I have also heard some talks on this subject at various conferences as well. Below I will just put out some stuff and allow people to comment, and even suggest other things as well. 1: Internet, Good, because of being able to get information fro around the world, being able to contact friends quicker, being able to put our own information up there easier, as well as being able to buy stuff, and sell stuff as well. 2: Internet Bad, due to things such as myspace and facebook,due to grooming, these companies ability to use your picutres and info to sell their product without your concent, chatrrooms, which abllow people again to groom and lead others into false sense of security, dangers upon life and information about you as a person as well. These are just osme of the thoughts from other places as well as my own, and the challenge for us is to think abot whether we as youthworkers by taking part in some of these things actually give credibility to any of them, and say that they are ok to our young people who we work with, and therefore lead them into dangers.

SacreficesIn ministry there are a whole load of sacrefices that need to be made, and maybe this follows in the way that Jesus lived his life. Below

In ministry there are a whole load of sacrefices that need to be made, and maybe this follows in the way that Jesus lived his life. Below are just a few of te sacrefices that probably need to be made, and I am sure there are more, so do add to them, and even comment on how difficult some of these sacreices are to make. 1: time: This means that we probably work fairly anti-social hours compared to most other jobs, lots of evenings, and maybe even some weekend work as well. 2: Relaitionsips: we need to ensure that the person we marry or are going out with understand sthe demands upon our lives. It takes a special person to understand the sacrefice that needs to be made not just by the youth worker but also by the family. 3: commitment: the youth worker probably has to be single minded about their post. It owuld be ery difficult if not impossible to have more than that particular roll within the Church. 4: Self: there are probably a number of things that you would want to do in your life and even during your life, but sometimes these things need to be put on hold to ensure that the calling that is upon your life is fulfilled. 5: Aspects of life: there are probably various things in a lot of peoples lives that could not necessarily be part of a youth workers life, depending on the time, and even the company. Some times the youth worke may have to think about where they go out to socialise, or even go out with their families, so that they can be themselves, and even have some family time without others taking over that time. As I said there are probably more, so add to it, and even comment on these ones.

The kind of youth work we do!!!!!

Just something that occurred to me over this last while, what youth work do we do, and what youthw ork actually works? Only I ask as this ia kind of vision question, what do we want to do? What do we feel that we do best? And What actually works for the young people we aim to reach? I have posted before about youth work initiatives that haven't worked accept for those who have taken part, so what is it we do best, and wha is it that actually makes the difference for the young people in our country today?

where does youthwork stop and begin?

ecently I have posted a comment on another youthwork blog, where this issue came up and was being discussed. where does youth work start and finish. More and more it is becoming obvious that young people are reaching teenage life quicker, IE, those aged 10-11 are prity much teenagers already n attitude and approach. And following that those at the other end into their 20's and 30's are thinking and even doing similar things to those in their late teens. So where does it start and finish, couple of quick points to think about. 1: do we put oung people into age boxes, or have we the ability to treat them all as individuals and look at their situations differently, if someone is 10 and yet thinking and acting like a 12 year old, does this come under youth work or childrens work, I think Youth work. 2: Those at the other end ar gradually living in a culture where things on tv and in mags are being aimed at them, because they have come thorugh the teenage culture that currently exists. Maybe there needs to be an 18-30 group in churches who are tought and do things in their own particular way rahter than beng expected to suddenly become that age group of adults, which generally means over 40. Our approach needs to be thought through, and also we need to ensure that we are not just neglecting the needs of some because they don't fit into where we currently think.

Overcoming the giants

If you look at the story of David, He didn't really see a giant in front of him, largely because he was close to god and knew that God would protect him and look after him. The problem here was, that Saul and David's brothers wante to make the giant real for him, and even make it bigger than what it should have been. So when we work with young people, do we help them overcome their giants, do we assist at making the giants smaller, or do we actually make the giants bgger than that of what they have see ifn the first place. Would we go and stand with them to face the giant? or would we stand back and encourage them like Saul did? I am not suggesting that we take the place, although there ay be times when taking the place of someone is apropriate and useful, but sometimes we all need to face up to our giants and eal with them. So let me encourage you to encourage others to face up to their giants, help them realise that the giants they see aren't as big as they think they are, and with the right support, IE, God, then the giant has to stand down, and they will live a life in confidence and the knowledge that they can overcome all difficult situations when they rely on God.

something that makes the difference!!!!!

It is really interesting for me to read about youth initiatives that really seem to have had an impact on the serface, but when you get down to it, the impact was minimal if anything at all. I have recently read a survey which looked at a major event in the uk over the last couple of years, and people didn't even seem to register it it a few months later. surely one of our rolls is to leave something impacting, something that is lasting and something that maes the difference in poeple lives. So let's do that, let's leave something that will challenge, provoke thoughts, and ultimately leave the difference of God in their lives.

How are you known?

This has been a really interesting question that myself and others have thought about on another blog that I make comments on. The question was about our title, are we youthw rokers, youth pastors, youth evangelists, and then youth an children's workes, youth and community workers, or where did we fit into this. So what is our primary goal, what is our title, and does our title really fit into the expectations that upon us. does a pator really make a good evangelist, and does ayouthw orker really make a good leader, I have looked a t is before. So where do you fit in, and does oyour title fit the expectations around you.

reap what you sow

How much are we prepared to sow into a situation or into those work situations that we are faced with, to see the best conclusion from any of those situaitons. The more that I look back upon my youthwork life, I see that the best results, the greatest things have happened due to the fact that I have sown, time, commitment and effort into a situaiton. So here's our challenge, how much are we prepared to sow into situaitons and poeples lives to see a change take place, so that God can reap what we sow.