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I’ve just finished publishing the latest Youth Ministry Update newsletter. Click below to view it online, or download it in PDF format. Whilst it’s great to hear the news of new and existing projects, please pay special attention to the final section about how to support us – this is what makes the projects possible. Thank you…

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1. Blessed, Refreshed, Resourced & Encouraged
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“Holiness is consecrated closeness to God. Holiness is in essence obeying God, living to God and for God, imitating God, keeping His law, taking His side against sin, doing righteousness, performing good works, following Christ’s teaching and example, worshipping God in the Spirit, loving and serving God and men out of reverence for Christ. In relation to God, holiness takes the form of a single-minded passion to please by love and loyalty, devotion and praise. In relation to sin, it takes the form of a resistance movement, a discipline of not gratifying the desires of the flesh, but of putting to death the deeds of the body. Holiness is, in a word, God-taught, Spirit-wrought Christ-likeness, the sum and substance of committed discipleship, the demonstration of faith working by love, the responsive outflow in righteousness of supernatural life from the hearts of those who are born again.” J. I. Packer

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1. Evangelistic Imperative
2. In All Comes From Here*
3. The Touch of God…

Last Saturday the second Youthwork Summit took place in Manchester. I attended along with about about 750 other youth workers/ministers, paid & volunteer, full & part time, along with 20+ speakers, the Rend Collective Experiment, Mark Yaconelli, and the amazing team who put the event together and served us on the day. It will take a while to properly reflect on and process all that was said, all that happened, and the conversations which took place. I met some amazing people – some I’ve been chatting with on Twitter for some time and felt I knew them, but met them in person at #yws11, others I met for the first time.

I spent Friday with 150 other youth workers/ministers on a Retreat day led by Mark Yaconelli – that too will take a great deal of processing and putting into practice what was learned.

At the end of the conference we shared the following powerful liturgy which written during the day by one of the attendees, and is shared here with permission:

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Yesterday was Trinity Sunday, the day when preachers cower and hide away from the challenge of trying to explain the Trinity (God: Father, Son & Holy Spirit).

I felt challenged by a few updates on Twitter yesterday. The first read:

Well, I’ve been invited to preach at a local church next Sunday and as they didn’t have a Trinity service yesterday, and because I’m feeling brave (or stupid), I’m going to preach on the Trinity.

The other tweets read as follows:

If you’ve been going to church for a while I’m sure you’ll have heard some of the many analogies used to help explain the Holy Spirit. Here’s my incomplete list – just from memory:

• Egg: shell/White/yolk
• Water: ice/steam/liquid
• Jaffa Cake: sponge/chocolate/orange jelly
• Man: worker/husband/father
• Apple: skin/core/pulp
• Human: body/soul/spirit
• Three blade propeller
• Three leaf clover

So:

1. How would you critique these analogies?
2. Would you add any other analogies to the list?

But my main question is this:

Is it helpful to use these analogies, even knowing that they are imperfect representations of the Trinity?

Discuss…

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Source: Becca Dean

Have you ever felt discouraged? Like life is tough and there’s little support around? Or perhaps you’ve felt that life is just a bit dull and ‘samey’ sometimes, but it starts to get you down. I’m sure we’ve all be there.

But have you ever been encouraged? I mean actively encouraged. Not just that something has gone well or life is good for a while and it feels good, but that someone has taken the time and effort to speak to you or do something for you to lift your spirit. Have you experienced that? Doesn’t it make a difference?!

There’s a guy in the New Testament called Joseph (a good Biblical name if ever I heard one!) but Jesus’ apostles called him Barnabas which means ‘son of encouragement’ (one who encourages others) after he sold some land and gave them the proceeds to support their work/ministry. He also encouraged the Apostle Paul whilst everyone else was still (rightly) suspicious of him, encouraged the Church in Antioch and stood up for the young disciple John Mark when Paul was critical of him. He’s the kind of guy you’d want to count among your friends; he made a huge difference to the people around him.

How much like Barnabas are you? I wonder if your friends consider you a ‘son/daughter of encouragement’… Why not take the opportunity to encourage a friend, colleague or family member and brighten someone’s day?

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up. – 1 Thessalonians 5:11

There’s a small but steady ‘movement’ on Twitter to use Mondays as a specific opportunity to encourage others. It’s called #loveMonday and it works like this. You send an encouraging message (public or private) to three other Twitter users, and invite them to encourage three of their friends/contacts/followers. Don’t forget to include #loveMonday in the message. Simple. Of course, it doesn’t have to just be via Twitter. Feel free to do the same but on Facebook, via email, or even offline (send a postcard, leave a message scrawled on a post-it note, etc.).

Imagine for a minute that I encourage three people, and they each encourage three people, and so on. That’s twelve people encouraged (and we know what Jesus was able to do with just twelve people!). If that continues for another five cycles, that would result in almost three thousand people who have been encouraged (assuming none of the encouragers were then encouraged by the encouragees – are you still with me?!). What a difference that could make!

If you want to join the revolution movement, you know what you have to do: choose three people to encourage, do it and encourage them to do the same.

If that Monday feeling has got to you, you’re feeling a bit grumpy and not in the mood to encourage others (yet!), check out some of the ways that others have been encouraged today and have your faith in humanity restored. Go on – I dare ya!

Hat tips: @martinsaunders, @stevecampion & @beccadean
Image Credit: beccaislearning.com

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On Palm Sunday, at the start of the Easter(LIVE) project, I shared my critical thoughts and fears about approach the 2011 approach was taking, and suggested an alternative project to support. There were some great comments on the post and via Twitter: many in support of my critique, and some from people who wanted to reserve judgement (participants & skeptics alike).

So as both projects have ended, it seems right to reflect on them in light of my original comments & my experience.

Easter(LIVE) 2011

Initially I feared that the Easter(LIVE) updates would swamp my Twitter stream (because at least 10 of the people I follow were participating in the project). This fear was realised. After a particularly frenzied start, the posts in my Twitter stream calmed down a little, to an almost manageable level. My twitter stream wasn’t completely overwhelmed, but was considerably busier than usual, which made catching up a chore and took much longer than usual.

I decided that I would try to follow two users’ Easter(LIVE) updates, and try to ignore the others. It didn’t feel right skipping over the majority of the updates (due to my slight OCD tendencies), but it was necessary, otherwise my productivity would’ve taken a serious dive last week.

Even though I was following just two versions of the story, I found the experience very confusing. One user created a story using a vast array of characters and tweets; the other used one or two characters and far fewer tweets. But I found the two stories following different time lines and the events they were describing not aligning with each other. This detracted from the overall experience. On Good Friday and Easter Sunday the updates (predictably) reached a peak, creating a ridiculous amount of Twitter updates.

During the course of the week I ‘overheard’ discussions on Twitter between two participants who were niggling about their different interpretations of the project (too many characters & updates vs single character and fewer updates).

Of the participants I followed, very few made use of anything other than text updates. The project had encouraged the use of other media too – video, images and sound. I recognise that text updates are easier and require less preparation which probably explains the proportion of text to other media (that’s not to rubbish the amount of time and creativity expended by everyone in creating their stories). I saw a few uses of images, and heard about one user who created a number of videos for the project.

So my fears about the project’s approach in 2011 were entirely founded. But of course that’s based on my own experience – I can’t speak for anyone else. But the team behind the project retweeted a number of messages on Sunday & Monday which expressed how helpful they’d found the project and thanking the team for their work. So it was clearly of value to and appreciated by many.

As I said previously, the number of participants and updates generated is clearly testimony to the fact that the project captured people’s imaginations. I still appreciate the project’s use of Twitter as a vehicle for such an innovative project, and still question the downside it had (for me at least).

I look forward to seeing what they have planned for future projects, but hope they tweak the approach to eliminate the downsides. I also hope they don’t simply keep innovating for the sake of it. If a project works well (as it seemed to last year – one creative telling of the story, great story-tellers, and a more cohesive approach) stick with it, making tweaks along the way.

The Passion Experience

At the end of the original post I suggested that people support the Passion Experience project as an alternative. It was following a similar approach to the EasterLive 2010 project, but encouraging users to sign-up to text updates on their phones (at no charge), or to receive them via email.

I signed up to receive the updates via text, and followed the instructions they sent back. Unfortunately, despite the process reporting that everything was OK, I didn’t receive any updates via text. I received them in my Twitter & Facebook streams, and by email. But not via text message. I had been relying on the text messages to break into my busyness during Holy Week and Easter preparations, providing a constructive disturbance and a chance to remember & reflect. The lack of updates detracted for the overall experience for me personally. However, I had encouraged others to sign-up (and 23 did via our Church affiliate link) and they successfully received text updates and found it really valuable.

So I received the updates via other means, and loved the content and found it really helpful (if not timely).  It provided a manageable number of updates from one source, resulting in a more cohesive way that the Easter(LIVE) project.

On reflection, I think more people would’ve signed up if they realised they could follow in the Facebook stream (this didn’t appear to be made clear), rather than the slightly more complex text/Twitter sign-up process.

Conclusion

Both were innovative projects, attempting to use a new method for retelling and old story, and are to be commended. Both had weaknesses, but in spite of these, they were hugely valued by those who followed them. Each to their own ;o)

Questions…

• Did you participate in Easter(LIVE)? What has the feedback been like from your followers?
• Did you follow any Easter(LIVE) stories or the Passion Experience? What was the experience like for you?
• If you could make one suggestion for an improvement to future projects, what would it be?

Possibly Related Posts:

1. Easter Live: a critical view
2. links for 2007-04-05
3. Happy Easter…

I’m a big fan of Easter. No really, I am. But this year I’m feeling a bit grumpy about it. It all started about two weeks ago, and has been building since then. Let me try to explain why:

I’m also a big fan of Twitter. I find it an incredibly useful tool for connecting with people who have shared interests and discussing said interests. I use it to learn from others, to reflect with them, and to interact on a whole number of things. This year Easter & Twitter have aligned – or perhaps collided.

Easter(LIVE) 2011 is a project run by ShareCreative & the Evangelical Alliance and a number of other partners. It aims to encourage people to retell the Easter story in their own words:

It’s Passover week in 1st Century Jerusalem. A bustling throng of Jewish pilgrims have gathered in the city. But this year a preacher/carpenter from Nazareth is set to turn the tables of history – right before their eyes. This is the Easter story and this is your cue.

By Tweeting your story, the Easter(LIVE) website allows you to showcase your very own Passion Play. Be it a historical and Biblical account or a poetic, visual, musical or creative retelling – it’s up to you. It’s a chance to explore, to learn and be creative. Give it your personal stamp, bring it to life and share it with everyone.

So they’re encouraging people to send out their own version of the Easter story, using Twitter as the underlying tool, and collating the tweets into a user profile on the Easter(LIVE) website. Last year they took a slightly different approach which I encouraged our Church to support, and I found very helpful & valuable. Everyone was encouraged to follow the @easterlive account on Twitter, and they published a retelling of the story to anyone who was following. I thought this was a fantastic idea, and was well executed (similar to the Christmas story being told through the Natwivity project).

There’s a lot about this project which I love

• anything which gets people hearing & talking about the Gospel has to be a good thing
• I love that the story is being retold from different perspectives – some people will be writing their account with their own friends, family, community, context in mind which is really important
• it is encouraging people to reflect on an “old” story in a new way
• and as a recovering techie, I love the fact that they’re making great use of an existing & popular tool (Twitter)

But I have number of issues with it too:

One gripe is that a number of the people I follow on Twitter have signed up to the project. So they’ve been busy developing the characters through whom the story will be told, and carefully crafting their updates, waiting for the launch today (Palm Sunday). When I read about the project I quickly realised that this was going to have an impact on my Twitter feed. With approx 10-15 of the people I follow having signed up, and with one or two of them having mentioned that they have 120-160 updates “ready to go” during Holy Week, I was bracing myself to be inundated with Easter(LIVE) tweets. Since midday approximately 70% of the tweets in my Twitter feed have been #EasterLive updates (of course, that represents a great success my the project’s organisers to get people involved). Initially I feared that my general use and experience of Twitter would be negatively impacted by an abundance of EasterLive updates. It’s still less than a day into the project, but so far, that fear has been realised. That’s a bit of a selfish gripe though – who am I to moan if my experience of Twitter is impacted, when potentially thousands of people will hear the Gospel message?

I may also sound like a bit of a hypocrite as I’ve said it must be a good thing to tell the Gospel story in a new way and encourage people to reflect on it (some for the first time). But I want to question just how useful it will be for people to hear the Gospel told from multiple perspectives, in multiple styles, and each of them crossing over the other. How easy will it be for someone to follow the story for the first time? How helpful will it be at helping someone reflect on the story in a new way, when it’s actually presented in a number of new perspectives all at once? Only time will tell.

Personally I haven’t signed up to join the EasterLive project, not out of protest, but due to a lack of creativity (and time) on my part. Instead, I’ve signed up to a project called “The Passion Experience” which is using a similar approach to that of EasterLive 2010. It is also a retelling of the Easter story, and uses Twitter as it’s underlying vehicle. For me it seems to involve most of the positive aspects of Easter(LIVE) without the negatives.

What do you think?

• Am I being selfish?
• Is it confusing to retell the same story from multiple perspectives at the same time confusing?
• Do you feel the approach taken by Easter(LIVE) this year is effectively spamming Twitter?

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On 21st March we held an event, in partnership with the Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust [MKBT], which aimed to ‘bless, refresh, resource & encourage’ Christians in Education across Milton Keynes.

We were joined by 18 attendees, representing 9 Churches & 11 schools/institutions/organisations. Delegates included teachers (current, supply & retired), teaching assistants, deputy headteachers, assistant principals, administrative officers, KS3 coordinators, a reading recovery teacher and private tutors. We were also joined by the MKBT Office Manager and a Trustee.

The evening started with refreshments (yummy cakes, freshly brewed tea & real coffee and the option of apples, of course) and time for delegates to introduce themselves and chat. We then assembled to introduce the plan for the evening and the presenters (myself & Rachel Foster, Primary Schools Worker for MKBT). The primary audience for the evening was those involved in teaching, but the event was also intended to bless the whole range of roles involved in the Education Sector. We wanted to say a big ‘thank you’ to Christians involved in Education, for the long days and late nights, for their hard work (blood, sweat and tears) and for enduring stress and occasionally despair.

I shared some of my reflections from my school days, the adults who stood out among the many I encountered. Some for the right reasons (tailored teaching, excellent personal care and attention) and others for the wrong reasons (because I was a hormonal adolescent – but enough about that).

I included this video by Taylor Mali, which seemed to catch the mood of those present:

In preparation for the event I had been asking friends, family, colleagues and, occasionally, strangers about their experiences at school and what made individual adults stand out to them when they look back now. Their reflections helped to shape part of the evening. I shared two testimonies with them:

Lauren (pseudonym)

• The person she reflected on was her 6th form tutor and A-level Psychology teacher.
• ‘she understood that I didn’t want to talk about the issues I was dealing with, but realised that I was depressed and self-harming’
• ‘forced me to sit down with her and organise an action plan – helped me stick to it’
• ‘took walks with me during lunch breaks just to chat about how things were going’
• ‘treated me more like a daughter than a student’
• ‘was concerned with my welfare as well as being an awesome teacher’
• ‘she let me take naps in her office when I had insomnia’
• ‘she stayed in touch with me for a few years after school to see how I was doing’
• ‘generally took care of me when I was unable to take care of myself’
• ‘I definitely wouldn’t have made it to Uni without her support’
• ‘and may not have even made it out of A-levels alive’

Alison (pseudonym)

• She reflected on her secondary school RE teacher
• a ‘consistent presence during six years at secondary school/sixth form
• ‘an amazing teacher who knew and loved her subject’
• ‘she genuinely cared for the young people in her class
• demonstrated personal care and support during a key crisis point in Alison’s life
• above and beyond what was/is expected
• long term support, care, encouragement – two years after the crisis
• ‘two of the toughest years of my life’
• ‘she helped me to believe in myself, because she believed in me’
• ‘her constant encouragement and reassurance enabled me to achieve my A-levels when they seemed to be impossible’
• ‘she inspired and encouraged me to follow the path of higher education’
• ‘I will always be massively grateful to her for that’

I followed up by reflecting on my own experiences of pastoral care & support at school.  But then pointed out that simply providing great pastoral care isn’t what makes a Christian teacher distinctive from any other teacher. We would be pursuing that later.

We moved on to briefly introduce the resources which we’d provided around the room which delegates were free to browse and take away as they wished. Rachel started us off by explaining the role of the Bridgebuilder Trust and detailing some of its projects, then I introduced the following resources:

• schoolswork.co.uk
• selfharm.co.uk
• Mindset Conference
• Prayer Spaces in Schools
• Pray for Schools Network
• Association of Christian Teachers

Then we broke for further refreshments and delegates had time to chat together and browse the resources.

When we reconvened we spent some time considering what makes Christians in Education distinctive by exploring Ephesians 2:12-18. I summed this up with the phrase ‘I AM @ work’ – that God is at work in each one of us, through all our interactions & relationships. [Further notes on this section can be made available if desired.]

Then Rachel led the part of the evening where we commissioned the delegates to go in the name of Jesus and continue their ministry in the Education sector and prayed for them. The evening closed with further chat, and delegates completing feedback forms about their impressions of the evening. They were overwhelmingly positive, and have given us a great deal of food for thought about future events. Plans are already in motion…

‘If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 30 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn’t want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher’s job.’

Here are a few images of the set-up – I didn’t get any once the delegates arrived as I was busy chatting…

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This is part six of the series looking at the inclusion of Children & Young People in Worship. I’ve updated recently on my presentation to and the outcome of the Church meeting in relation to the changes I proposed. Now I want to start updating on the progress which has been made so far and where we’re going next.

With the review in mind, following the Church meeting a number of us attended a training session by Doug ‘Duggie Dug Dug‘ Horley. The following is a brief summary of the sociological challenges, theological reflections and some practical tips which we felt were pertinent to our process of change:

He set out the imperative for children’s work – that children represent the greatest opportunity for evangelism:

• moral and spiritual foundations are set by the age of 9
• world view is formed by 13 years
• 66% of Christians accept Jesus before they are 18
  • over 50% before they are 13

He explained the conflicting pressures which shape children’s worldview; the things we’re battling against as we seek to define their worldviews with Christ’s values:

• media: TV (celebrity), age-inappropriate video games
• family status: divorce & separation
• drugs
• peer pressure
• internet: pornography

Theological reflections:

• Deuteronomy 6:5-7 – ‘Impress [the commandments] on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up’
  • the importance of relationships in our work
  • parents share the responsibility to teach their children about the Lord
• Joel 2:16 – ‘Make sure that everyone is fit to worship me. Bring adults, children, babies…’
  • everyone is to be included in the act of worship
• Psalm 8:2 – ‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’
  • the innocent but heart-felt praise offered by children is powerful & valued by God
• Psalm 78:4 – ‘tell the next generation of God’s power and the wonders He’s done’ [paraphrase]
  • it’s important for us to share our experiences together (young & old)
  • drawing young people into worship
• Mark 10:13-16 – ‘Let the children come to me! Don’t try to stop them.’
  • children are not to be excluded from the Lord’s presence – not even by those who ‘know better’
• Matthew 18:6 – ‘Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time!’ [Msg]
  • we are to encourage children in their relationship with the Lord, not hinder them

Headline points:

• follow Jesus’ example
• teach children well
• build friendships & relationships
• must encourage questions
  • never shut down a child who is engaging with faith
  • encourage an atmosphere of questioning
  • genuine inclusion vs tokenism:
    • ‘children will feel included not because they have been told they’re included, but because they have experienced it for themselves’

There were few practical nuggets of wisdom shared verbally about how to engage children and young people well, but many were modelled by Doug throughout the session (and the evening event):

• simple language
  • even though his target audience for the seminar had an average age of 40+
  • genuine enthusiasm in delivery
    • don’t fake it – with children you might get away with it, but young people will spot it a mile off!
    • energy in ‘performance’
      • moving around, rarely standing still
      • short bursts
        • no one segment was more than 10 minutes before moving to the next
        • style & approach of segments contrasted

Next I’ll outline the outcome of our meeting to start making the practical changes needed, then let you know how it’s been going. Thanks for sticking with it – I hope you’re finding it helpful.

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2. Worshipping Together: Update
3. Including Children & Young People in Worship