the ratings questin?

Recent news aricles suggest that games should be rated by age in the same way that films are. do we think that this would help our young people, would they pay atteention to it, and here's the big one, what difference would it make to what we provide for our young people in outh clubs and places? Would we or could we stick to the rtings that they might put on games. It's a challenge and a thought, because if they rate those games, and part of me thinks they should, then we have to take that into account in our youth work as well.

Different situations!!!!

Isn't it interesting the different responses from different young people when you put them in situations they aren't necessarily used too. Let me encourage you over this term, let your young people experience different things, face new situations, and then reflect on these with them, and just see what their responses are. You never know, they might just enlighten you as well.

positive and negative

How many of you can think of situations where something negative can be turned into something positive? Hee we are at good friday,and the murder of Jesus on this day is refered to as a good day. Of course this is true, but can you imagine being there on that day, could you think of what was happening as good? Are there things today, in our lives, or in our work, that we think are bad, tough or wrong, but yet, they just might be good?

Salt or light?

Here is an interesting question as far as our youth work is concerned. Because to me a light attracts, it stands out trying to attract people to it, whereas salt actually flavours, gets involved with what it is changing. So which approach do we have for our youth work, are we the light attracting people, or are we the sat that is involved in theirlives and flavouring what is happening in their life? Interesting thought?

How they speak

I was recently having an interesting conversation with a taxi driver, yes indeed, a very interesting one. He was interested in the work that I do with young people, and wanted to know more about it. We got on to the subject of how people view young people, and the way they are, and he made a point in the way they speak that I had not thought off, but is quite obvious really. Sometimes people will judge young people for being loud, and always shouting, r wanting to put their point across and this taxi driver suggested that rather than being awkward, or ignorant, just maybe that is the only way that they can get themselves heard at home. I thought thiat this was a really interesting idea, and will be following this up in other work that I do at some point. Just makes you think, that the way people appear on the outside, may be because of other reasons, as oposed to the reasons tat come to yor mind straight away.

Still have things to learn

This is one of the amazing things about our job as youthworkers. Even if we are the people leang the session and the person leading the young people, I don't think that any of us would say that we have all the right answers at the right time. The great, and yet challenginthing about our job is that different situations, experiences and attitudes all bring different things to our life and our job. So is it wrong for me to suggest that we should not addopt the position of knwoing everything when we work with young people,but allow ourselves also to learn, especially if we are commiting ourselves to go on a jounrey with them through life.

The challenging questons?

I was in a class in a school recently and they had a few minutes at the end of the lesson, so I asked if anyone had any questions. Daft, I know, of course they did, and the questions they had were deep meaningful and challenging. What I was left with, was the thought of the stuf I had done in the lesson may have meant somethng to them, but they also had their own quesitons, their own exploration to go on, and was I trying to teach them what I wanted them to know, or was I trying to help them along that journey of exploration. Wat do we all do, do we give thoughts, and ideas, or do we see where our young people are going on their journey and try and impact that journey with meaningful stuff? Jesus always seemed to meet people in that journey, and engage with where they were,and where they needed to be, and I want to aim to be in that place as well.

All in a story

So which menas more to our young people today, a picture or a story. I would suggest that young people today love telling sotries, they love telling us what they have done during a day, or over the weekend, and they tell it in such expressive manners. Maybe we need to let our young people express themselves in a manner that they are confrotable with, ie that of stories, and allow them to express their stories and tell them.

What works?

I have recently had the pleasure of visiting a youth work not to far from where I live. They seem to have a thriving work going on with about 40 yong people on their books. When I sat down and chatted to the workers there, I came aware of thee issues that seem to have made a difference tot his work. I wonder if they could make a difference elsewhere? 1: consistancy, they do nt put the workers on a rota, the young people know who is going to be there week in week out, and this seems to demonstrate, reliability, and also the fact that the young people are worth being there for every week. 2: Relationship, this is certainly born out of the first one, consistancy. Because the more consistant you are, the more you can build relaionship, and the more you build relationship the greater the impact of the work, and the greater the trust, and all sorts of things can develop from there. 3: Driven by Youth, The young people in the group have asked for a separate Bible study during the week, and have come up with a whole range of questins and ideas that they wish to pursue. although the workers are there, and offer protection, relaitonshioship, consistancy, and to an extent guidence, the young people are allowed to develop their relationship with God, and not rely on others, and this seems to have made a huge impact on the lives of the young people that are there.

who has impacted you?

Here is an interesting challenge, because we often think of the lives we can influence, the lives we have an impact upon, but who is it that has impacted upon us, and maybe even greater challenge than this, is which young people have impacted us, or impacted our ministry? Let's just not think about impacting young people's lives, but allow ourselves to be impacted by them.

How we ensure we don't let them down!!!!!

with everything that has gone on in Bridgend over this last year, how can we ensure that we do not let our young peope down. Something is happening in that area, whether the police, or oters wish to recognise it or not, there is something happening for 17 young people within a year to commit suicide. The challenge for the country, for the world, is to look after our young people, to ensure that tey know they are valued, they know they are appreciated, and they know that there are people they can go to if problems arise, and if things aren't right. And most of all, they need to know tat their life is worth something, they are alive for a reason, they have a purpose, so let's be there, and let's encourage these young eople.

young people in public places

What does it say to a generation when sops and areas have devices that only they can hear, and that are meant to deterr them from gathering there. what does it say to a generation when in essence these devices are saying that they aren't welcome there? What is wrong with young people wanting to gather together, isn't that what we encourage in Church? We encourage people to gather together, we encourage them to meet together, we encourage them to share issues and life together, so what is so different about young people wanting to gather together? There is a campaign, petition on the Prime Ministers website to ban these devices, and the Children's commissioner is behind it as well, so let's sign up and ensure that young people are allowed to meet, and actually just be themselves.

understanding teenagers

Someone else pointed this ut to me recently, how to understand teenagers, how they interact in tough situations, dealing with sleep deprevation, testing their levels of sneakiness, and testing their planning skills, could all come under the umbrella of a sleep over. Are you brave enough?

connecting with culture

Here is a subject that could be devisive, or could be provocative at best, Where are we as Gods people meant to fit in when it comes to culture. Obviously the Bible says that we are not of the world, but we are in it, so if we are in itthen we need to engage with it. This surely means that whatever our message, we need to put it across in a manner and format that is relevant to those living in the current culture. So all it suggests is that a repackaging of a meesage is required. Not that we change the message, because I am sure and convinced that it is possible that we can keep the message, but just engage with the people in the culture, who we are meant to reach, in a manner that is apropriate, relevant, to where they are at in their lives. there is no point in presenting something in the same way that it has been presented for the last 20 years or so, so there lies the challenge, can we present our message, our message of hope, of love, of forgiveness, of value, of God, in a manner tat is relevant, not just for today, but for the next number of years.

Guiding without forcing

I know I have posted on this before, but again it is an issue that has come up recenlty in my work. Many young peole ask about the Christian faith, and they have all sorts of issues due to the way that people react to them. So all that I should do is to guide them, give them the honest answers and allow them the opportunity to do what they like with the information. shouldn't this be true with all that we do with young people, offer them information, offer them our thoughts and guidence, but leave them to accept, reject, or do with the information that thy wish too. After all young people can't hang on to our beliefs and thoughts, they have to go through life with their own beliefs, principles and ideas.

Calling!!!!!

this is a great thing to think about, as those of us involved in christian youthwork, should know that they are there because God has called them. If we don't know that, if we are unsure of that in our hearts, then maybe our call is to be elsewhere. The problem is that osmetimes even though we have a call, even though we try our best to follow that call, and even when we set down guidelines for that call, other people try and get in the way of tha call, and push their way in and can even divert us from the call that we have been given by God. Let me encourage all those who are called by God to e involved in yothwork, to stay true to your call, to stay true to the things that God may want you to do, and I am sure that we will all see great things happen amongst young people. Let us not try and take other people's call away from tem, nor get in the way of their call, and ensure that we encourage people in their call, and acknowledge our own.

What is centre of our work?

Maybe the title of this post is wrong, maybe I should have asked Who is the centre ofour work? Because if we have the right person or the right people then our focus is right. So if Jesus is the centre of our work, then we will have the right focus for us to continue in what we are mant to be doing. If we focus on Jesus, and what he wants us to do, then we iwll be able to focus on our young people better, and then we will be able to achieve even more in our work.

Standards for youthwork

Just to let you know that the Life long learning council have produced new standards for youthw ork. do go and have a look, see what you think. www.lifelonglearninguk.com

a new language?

So how aware are we of the new language that young people are using in textology. preditive word text have taken over from proper words, so I have found out from another youthwork blog. cool reads as book, beer reads as adds. so what would our texts read if we were to follow this line?

Give thanks for people!!!!

At the beginning of his letter to the phillipians, Paul gives thanks for them, he tells them that they are people who e always gives thanks for they encourage him for the things they do. How often do we give thanks to God for the people around us, for our teams, for the people that enable our youth work to happpen, or even give thanks for our young people, for all the different things about them. Here is paul, and he does it in other places as well, giving thanks for peoplle, all sorts of people, because they encourage him, maybe we could take something from this, and rather than pointing out people's faults, which is easy, maybe we should learn to give thanks for the great ngs about people aorund us.