Fun at Christmas,

Does anyone here remember the 12 presens of Christmas sung by Frank Kelly, a number of years ago, got reminded of this o a different blog, and thought it was really funny. Christmas is the birth of Jesus, but it is a load of fun as well.

Dealing with emotions

How can we put our emotions aside when in the midst of a situation? time and time again I have thught that we need to stay professional in our approach, stay calm, stay real to our faith and our calling, and yet, we face al sorts of situations in our work. I wonder what strategies Jesus put in place, so he remained faithful to his call, without getting overly angry, frustrated annoyed with the people aorund him. How do we continually show that unconditional love to our young people, and let them know, that whatever the situation, they will always be loved?

Representing them all

I have recently got into a discussion with someone from a film company because they only want those young people who achiev, they only seem to want to use the young people they know rather than looking at the whole of young people. Do we sometimes fall into the same position, do we notice all our young people, all their gifts, all their abilties and all their tallents, or do we nly recognise those who could be up front and in the public eye. all our young people have gifts and abilities, so let's remember that God loves them all and so should we.

Bringing hope

If we think about Christmas, and the meaning behind it, can we take a principle here from the Christmas story and apply it to our youthwork. I think the idea that God recognised a world that had drifted from him, a world that had lost hope, and yet he sent Jesus, to give us hope, to give us a new chance of that relationship with him. So are we prepared to give our young people a second chance, can we do anything within our work, to give our young people a second chance and let them know that they are worth so much, a life, a lifetime of work, and also new beginnings each time something goes wrong.

what's most important

What is it out our work that makes it the most important thing? Is it the number of young people we reach? Is it what we actually do with the young people we have? Is it how the lives of the young people we work with turn around? And in all of this, where does Child Protection issues fall in, and do we pay enough attention to them?

Youthwork a future?

I was recently at a conference where this was the title, with the word Christian in there as well, and thorughout the day, there were many discussions on various issues. But the one thing that I suggested on one of our tables was the fact that our work is centred around young people and God, not us, not us trying to validate our jobs, but if we are committed to youth work, then the young people we work with should be at the centre of our work, not us. So as long as there is young people around, then youthwork should be around, and this should include Christian youthwork as well.

Embracing the future

recently I was in a conversation with about 8 other youthworkers anwe were trying to decide what the future would look like for young people in our country. There were all sorts of issues that came up, but the big question was, that whatever the future would look like, were we prepared to embrace that future and addapt and change and ensure that we were relevant to the young people of the time? Any thoughts?

Meaning of relationships?

I was at a conference recently, and we got into a debate about the ethics of relational youthwork. I argued strongly, that if we are in any kind of relationship then we stay in that relaitonship regardless of whether people do what we want and when we want them to do it. This came out of a discussion as to whether or not we act ethically by not telling people that we are in relaitoship with them because we want them to become Christians. But surely the deffinition of relationships means that we are in that relationship whatever the outcome, and just because someone does or does not become a Christian does not determine whether the relaitonship carries on or not. any thoghts on the ethics of relationships.

Christian workers dilemma

So here is the dilemma when dealing with life, or issues, or with other people, how do we balance our Christian herritage, IE, all those things inbedded in us through our Christian faith, and our experience, the things we go through in life. Where is the balance, and how do we find God through the experiences of life?

Principles of youthwork

I have thought about this for a while, as having two daughters, I have had to check myself, as sometimes i have treated them differently to the way that I treat other young people, applying different principles and different expectations, which is notalways fair or right. So it was just a thought, what Principles are there that underpin our yothwork?

Mission shaped Church?

This is something I just want to throw out there as a thought, or a challenge, or even as something that is just a little provocative. When I examine some of the stuff written in the New Testament, it suggests to me that Church, whatever that may mean was created of the back of various mssions that took place. This is particularly true within Acts. So why is it that we expect young people to go through a double converstion, first of all to believe in Jesus, but then also into the culture of church which is alien to the culture that they have to exist iin. Shouldn't church be part of life, not something that means us changing as people at a certain time during the week to be in a different place. Thnk of how we gain information, and then think about how information is given out in church. How do we learn things, and then how do people try and teach us at Church. It is just a thought that maybe we could create something around the people who we are meeting, and create something that is relevant for them and where they are at. Thoughts please!!!!!!!