Encouraging the value of life?

Again this year as I sit to write there is another murder of a young person, and there are young people being arrested for the murder. There needs to be some kind of understanding that people are different, not all of us are the same, we will have differing views and opinions, and there are ways to discuss and sort issues out if we can't agree. We need to instill into our young people the fact that they themselves will want people to respect them, and their values and ways of doing things, so if they expect that they also need to demonstrate this. We also need, as youthworkers, maybe to change a culture, to change a thought process, to change the way people think of things, rather than the process, or the underpinning of defending, and being aggressive in our defending, I would contend that there needs to be words such as cohesion brought into societies vocab. Not everyone needs to be seen as an enemy, people all people, have tallents and abilities, and many will be different from our own. Let's try and instill into our young people values of tollerence, encouragement, cohesion, belief in each other, support, rather than the terms of defense, them and us, the enemy, only once such phrases are removed will we see some kind of change in soicety. And maybe the challenge is there for us as yoth workers to start that pocess.

Commitment?

tis is a subject that has been around in the news this week with the greatest team on earth, Man United, winning the champions league on wednesday night as well as winning the premiership the week before. Not many people know, that Man United nearly got rid of Sir Alex Fergison just before thsi great winning streak started, because he ahd not won anything in his first gfew years. But the club committed to him, and he committed to the club, and now they are the most successful club over the last 18 years or so. And a large amount of this is due to cmmitment, commitment on behalf of the manager and on behalf of the owners of the club. The intersting thing is that people have left Alex Fergison alone to go and do what he knows how to do, and sometimes people need to leave youth workers alone to do what they know how to do, but also there is something in the commitment, the long term commitment that Alex has shown to Manu. I know of a youthwork near us here in Harrogate that now has over 30 young people on their books and it is growing, and that is largely due to the cmmiment of the people who run it as wlel as the leaders of the church leaving them alone to get on with what they know how to do. So there is our challenge, how committed are we to what we are doing.

Universal truths of Youthwork?

Here is an interesting challenge that someone on another blog that I look at regularly has set us all. Are there universal trths about youthwork that we would share with other people? ?what is there about youthowrk that you would suggest, could well e true in all situaitons, this is meant to be slightly commical, but also maybe thereputic, as well as possibly, just maybe true as well.

Opening up to God

there is a lot on God tv at the moment with an outpouring of God's spirit taking place in Florida America. What do we do with our young people, I would suggest that we open them up to the possibilities of what is happening there, and see what they think of it themselves. We should be able to allow our young people to make up their own minds, and decide for themselves if they accept what is taking place there, and want to be involved in it themselves in any shape manner or form. After all would we want our young peole to miss out on something that God was doing? Why not video, or record some of it, and bring it to a meeting of your yong people and let them discuss what htye see and what they think god might be doing.

Breaking away from traditions

This is something that I have thought about for a while, what do we do when we are faced with tradition, but also look at how young people live today. I was speaking with someone last week, and they said, and admitted they were, and still are very much traditionalist in their approach, but wanted to see yuoung people touched by the love of God. So the challenge is for us, are we prepared to keep hold of the things in tradition that are helpful, let go of those things which are not, and in essence listen to God as to a way forward as aoposed to the tradition we are used too. I am sure that many founding fathers listeneed to God, and am sure there is some good stuff in traiditonal elements, but to listen, follow, and accknowledge God is always going tobring more fruit than following what always happens.

Prepare for the unexpectant

This is a bizzare thing maybe to put as a title, but the unexpected is always just around the corner when we allow God to do things in our lives. this week I have had two extra bits of support which I knew nothing about, and which will be an amazing assistance to our help. But preparing for these would not have been possible, accept for letting god in and giving him permission to do things. How often do we try and do things in our own strength, when really we need to leave things down to God and let him do what he wnats to do. Someone stated once, that allowing god to do things is like an explosion, then we come along and try and tidy up, but maybe we shold just leave the results and see what God is doing.

According to the Management

According to the manageent part of my blog, htis will be the 200th post I have put up on this blog. So as we have reached a kind of landmark, it is probably time to do something, a blittle different, and have some fun on the blog. Next time you have a team meeting, for your youthwork, why not just spend 2 minutes shouting out all the great things you enjoy about your work. It will be a great release and a bit of fun, as well as poitning out that youthwork is a blast as well as sometimes being a struggle . thanks to Ian for this idea.

Listening to them!!!!!

Here is a scarey thing, but something I know that some youth workers do in their work. Do we ever ask our young people what they think of our sessions, or are we to scared to think of what they migt say. Do we ask the following questions, what they remeber, who said what, what they have put into their lives, what they have enjoyed, and maybe even what they haven't enjoyed. It might be an interesting thing to do sometimes, that way we can see how much of an impact our work is having on the peoploe we are working with. Jesus could see the outworking of his work, becaus eof the poeple that followed him, came to find him, wanted to listen to him, wanted him to heal, so hwo do we see the outworking of our work.

giving them a chance

I have come across so many youth work situations where young people are not given a chance, not allowed to do things, just because they are young. I have even faced this myself, but in a different way, being blind. People are reluctant to beleive that I could do something, that I would be able to do it, just because I was blind. this has generally made me more determined to show people what I can and what I can't do. I am generally aware of what I can and what I can't do. So why should others make that judgment for me. And the same is so true for young people, why should we be the ones who decide what they are capable of and what they aren't. Jesus always said, that we should go to him like little children, so why don't we? And if he believed in young people so much, then we shoudl do the same.

Inspire or control

there are many types of people within leadership, but for today I just want to focus on two, and see if we recognise ourselves in either of these, and the consequences to them. 1: controller: this might be someone who has their hand on the situation, and knows exactly what is going on, and how things should be happening throughout the whole place. 2: The inspirer: this is someone who encourages people, believes in them, gives them freedom, let's them believe that they can do things. In our youthwork, I have seen both of these kinds of youthworkers, and even parents as well. those who shout, control, tell young people what should happen, tell them when they haven't achieved, and then there are those who inspire, bring out the positive, demonstrate encouragement, enable the young person to beleive that htey can do, they can achieve. So when we think of these two types of people, who are we more like, and more to the poitn, who was Jesus more like, and what does this say to us if we are meant to demonstrate something of God to those around us?

Infectious personality

I have noticed by watching various people, tha tthe people you hang aorund with actualy impact you as a person. If you hang around happy people, you become happy yourself. If you hang around misserable people you become miserable yourself. So what do you think it would have been like when people hung around Jesus? I reckon that it would have been exciting, chalenging, and amazing, so why don't we demonstrate some of that today. We all like people to be around us, but people aren't going to be around us if we are angry miserable people are they. People generally generate around happy, positive, forwrdt hinking people, not negative people. So let me encourage you, and challenge you in your youthwork, be positive, be happy, and be forward thinking as this will enoucrage people to be around yo, and the god that we serve.

Youthwork plans, and relevance

It is interesting that there are a load of different youthwork palns for youthworkers to use with their youth groups, but how many of them actually tackle the reality of real life. One part and it is only one part of the Bible that strikes me to be relevant is the 10 commandments, and yet how apropriate these 10 guidelines are for real life. Keep tuned to this blog for 10 sessions on young people and the 10 commandments, as it will hopefully tackle real issues, in real life that young people have to face.

Balanced approach

I have anoticed recently a change in approach for many people. In society we seem to be keen, very keen in fact to pick people up on their faults, point out where they o wrong, and the things which aren't quite right, and we do this even more with young people. But isn't it true that we all enjoy having people say nice things about us, we all seem to do better with some encouragement rather than constant criticism. We all need to be picked up on the things we do wrong, Jesus even did it with his disciples, but he was also loving, caring and showed it constantly to people. So why don't we as the church, change things in society, and yes, pick people up where necessary, in kindness and positivity, but let's also remember to be positive, and encourage others in life and the things they do, you never know you might just see greater results from a positive approach rather than a negative approach.

So how would you describe yourself?

Challening one this, as your face and attitude say a lot about how people would view you, and maybe how you would view yourself. so pick one of the options below from each choice, and see where it fits to you: 1: cheery or misserable 2: angry or relaxed 3: happy or sad 4: critical or positive 5: forward thinking or staing in a rutt 6: relaxed or tense 7: calm or aggressive I am sue there are other choices we could put in there, bt this is a good start, and it is interesting also to ask two other questions attached to this lst: 1: which one of each of these choices would you say Jesus was? 2: Whic option do you think on each list actually atracts people too?

Child protection

This is always a contentious issue, but one that has become more and more imortant over the years. It is so important for us as the church, or as people who work with young people, to demonstrate a level of care, of protection, and of supervision above all others. There are of course times where this might be questioned, ie, in the film dangerous minds,ayoung lads life was at stake so the teacher let im stay with her, this might bring questions, but on ur weekly work with young peole we should not compromise on our protection or care of our young people.

Scary parts of youthwork

I have a youthwork friend who had a dream about a session he was leading. The dream was remarkably close to the session he was likely to lead. the room was the same, the poeple were there, but there were a number of comments already up on the board, and they weren't possitive. He woke up at this point. Have you ever had one of those moments, and how do you treat it when it arrives. do you treat it as a dream, or as something prophetic, and allo it to bother you. Personally, for me, it would be a dream, bt it might awaken me to somethings that I might need to change before the activity started.

What would you suggest?

A good friend of mine is doing some youthwork training, and he asked people what they would say to people who were doing the training. What is there about youthwork you would say to people in training, that may be different to their training. You weren't allowed to e to cinical, so what would you say. If you were talking to anyone who was in training for being a youthworker, what would you say about youthwork?