Giving Direction

I have often wondered what would happen if marathon runners did not have a blue line to follow. The likelihood is that some of them would get lost and not folow the root they should be going on. If anyone has seen any of the horse racing at Cheltenham, there is a cross country race there apparently and on a number of occasions a number of the horses and riders go the wrong way and are disqulified. Are we the blue line for young people in their lives, instead of in a marathon race. The marathon race goes on for a long time, and sometimes can seem tough, hard, dull or even boaring, but yet peole need to keep on going to get t the finish line. Maybe this is the position that God has put s in so that we can help young people get to the right finish line, and follow the right direction in life.

Being creative

This is always a challenge, because not only does the youth worker have to be able to relate to young people, understand them, but they also have to have a creative mind, so that they can creatively get across the message that they are wanting to get across. Is it possible to be someone who is able to build relationships, and also someone who is creative. Possibly, but I would suggest that maybe a team context is the most helpful. There are always different roles for people to perform within a team, from building relaitonships, to creative thinking, amongst others, so do you have a team around you to enable you to do all the things you want to do for young people?

Opportunity or loss?

In many situations in ministry we are faced with things we just don't understand. And we have no idea how they could work out for the best. Even when situations change on us, and we don't eem to be able to have any control over them. the challenge for us is how do we approach these situations. A writer once said, that life is 10% what you go through and 90% how you go through it. so how do you go through situations? Do you see them as problems or do you see them as opportunities? Much of how we look at things will determine our approach on life, and whether positive things will happen, and we will enjoy life. Let me encourage you to look at things as opportunities, and then you won't get down when things change, and positive outcomes may well arise.

Dealing with change!!!!

I guess that this is something that every youthworker will go through on a regular basis. Not one session is the same as the next, or even the previous ones. But we can do things about some of the change that takes place, infact we might even initiate some of that change. The porblem arises when change occurs and we have had nothing to do with it, and we don't even have any power over it. How do we cope with that level of change. Change is always going to be there, and many changes will take place that we don't have any control over, so the challenge is not avoiding the change, it is how we deal with it. Someone once wrote that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. If we look at Jesus, he went through so much change, and he stayed calm, reflected upon it, and spent time with his father. Maybe this should also be an approach that we should take as well.

Encouragement vs support

I have been thinking bout this for a while, as there are often situations where I want to encourage young people into doing something, being involved with something, and yet, the support I give them might be very different. this may well be due to the fact that I may have experience, knowledge or knowhow in a certain situation that they don't. But the problem then arises, of how to encourage, but yet support in a way that will ensure success. I totally believe in empwering young people, but maybe we need to examine how we empower, and can give guidence at the same time.

Send in your stories

Pleaseremember to send in the stories from your young people and all that they did on Go MAd day, info@rolltheorck.org.uk

Using young people in what we do?

I was recently at a Church where the youth leader was wanting to reach out to some more young people. The idea he had I thought was fine, but he said that noone under the age of 18 was allowed to go out and be involved in the work he wantd to do. I have often found that reaching young people works best when using other young people, any thoughts on this?

Go MAD day January 21st

Just a quick reminder to get all your young people to do something on Monday, 21st January, go MAD, go Make A Diffrence, just do something that makes a difference in someone's life. Let us know about it and we shall publish the stories, send your stories to: info@rolltherock.org.uk

Retreats?

Someone has recently invited me to go on a retreat next month. Which is very kind of them. I was recently reading another blog where someone was on a retreat and they asked a great question. Had they advanced enough to go on a retreat? How far hav I advanced? or how far have we all advanced?

Making you aware

Just incase some people weren't sure about the new situation that comes into place on 1st April this year. The rate of income tax drops, which will mean a dropage in the rebate for charities and Churches with charitable status. Where up to now, people were able to claim back 28 p in the pound, it will drop to 25p, instead. It is just something to bear in mind when thinking of income and payments for youthworkers and Churches.

Balanced commitment to work

I am currently recovering from that sickness bug, and mixed in with it, I had a touch of flew I think as well. And before any women start it wasn't man flew. I was sick over the weekend, and am trying to get back to work today, things to plan for , and things to ensure our supporters know what is going on. Still very hot and shivery though, so where does the balance between realising our sickness and our commitment come in. I have felt a need to get back to work, but don't know how effective I am going o be Id there any point in being at work if not effective? How do others work this balance?

Sport and church

There has been a recent discussion on another blog that I ften look at and leave comments on, about young people's attendance to Church, and whether their sport practice gets in the way on Sunday monrings. There is a debate as to whether we should make young people go to Church, or whether they should have the choice. There is also a debate as to when people should woship, shoudl that be on Sunday mornings, or could that be at another time. It is an interesting debate, with something quite central. Should our time be prioritised by going to church, and everything else fit in around that, or is our prioriy, to be in the world, and also include and ensure that we are worshipping and praying to God. Personally I think it is important, vital that we are part of society, part of twhat is going on in the world, but yet, influencing it, helping to bring Christ into those situations. So if a young person has sport training on a sunday morning, then fine, as long as they are involved in worship and prayer at some point during the week. Faith and society, there needs to be a balance, as we need to worship, but also need to be lt and light in our world.

Every family should have one!!!!!

I was recently chatting to a youth work adviser friend of mine, and we were chatting about the difficulties that parents have with tenagers. He suggested that every family doesn't need a social worker but very family with a teenager should have a yoth worker attached to them. Often the relationship between the yoth worker and the young person is different than that between the parent and the young person, and maybe if there are problems, then the working together between the parents and the youth worker may make life that bit easier and better for all, and enable the young person to have the best of all worlds. Any thoughts?

Values in young people?

Where do most young people get their values from, and if it is us, how much influence does that mean we have over the future of our young people, and of society in general. If you think that we try and install values into young people, then the values we try and instill into th are the values they will demonstrate in the years and years to come, that is if they have taken on our values. The lfip side is that they may not take our values and create theor own, and again this will say a lot for the society we have in the decades to come. So let's think about the values we have as people, and the values we wish to instill into our young people, and the values we wish to see in our society in the years to come.

Panarama on social networking sites

Did anyone watch this programme last night. Ian Macdonald the DYO for the Oxford area has been flagging this up for some time, as well as others. I thought they dealt with it really well, and I have thought about showing it to some of my young people and even to my teenage daughter. Do we really think that our teens realise all the probs with social networking sites on the internet? And yet where do we fit into this as youthworkers, if we engage on a social netowrk site, do we give it permission, and if we don't get involved are we missing out on a segment of young peoples lives that are important. Difficult blanace here, but Panarama tackled the issue really well, and lots to chew over.