Reminded of the urgency and importance of the gospel…

Chris Kidd is a youth worker in Kent, and regular delegate at Youthwork the conference. He shares his thoughts on returning from Cape Town 2010…

Chris Kidd

Towards the end of October I spent 10 days as part of Cape Town 2010, the Third Lausanne Congress.  The main theme of the congress was the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world, it was a conference on the evangelisation of the world.  One of the main points that jumped out to me was both the urgency and importance of the proclamation of the gospel and the need for more creativity in our proclamation.

In the West we seem to have forgotten the urgency of the gospel (in its broadest sense) people need hope now.  I was struck by the passion and the evident effect that some of the evangelistic projects are having around the world.  For example, a youth minister from Germany shared how they’re doing an evangelistic project called ‘House’, which is literally reaching thousands of young people with the gospel through one-off evenings around the country.  Whilst I’m not convinced that their model would work in the UK, I was challenged by the need to find new creative ways to proclaim the gospel and to do so urgently.

Reminded of the size of the need

The need of the world is huge.  In the local estate on which our church is placed it’s estimated that nearly 500 young people don’t have a relationship with Jesus, that’s my mission field.  The mission field of the world includes 2 billion children, millions of people who can’t access scripture in their language and so on – it is huge – it’s the kind of thing that only God can help us to resolve – we need to trust in Him more in our evangelism.

Out of this flows a need to rethink evangelism into our UK culture, and then for each of us as individual youth workers to reflect on how evangelism is best done in our community, with our unique blend of young people, volunteer leaders and resources.

Let me tell you about a couple of examples that excite me in my ministry:

• Lydia, one of my team, has a passion for young people to express their faith creatively so she’s recently co-ordinated, with a couple of young people, an art exhibition in our town leisure centre displaying over 30 pieces of art from young people expressing their faith and emotions.
• One of the stand out statistics from the Congress was that 25% of people coming to faith do so through media, often media on their phone.  Whilst I find the statistic hard to believe, it is clear that the role of the media, technology and specifically social networking needs to increase in our evangelism.  Questions like how we use facebook, youtube, and twitter not just to share information or attract young people to specific events, but how we seem them as a mission field in their own right are increasingly important.  This is leading us to look to use a flip camera to record the testimony of some of our young people and then upload onto facebook and youtube.

What thoughts do you have on how we could be more creative in our evangelism?

A reflection on ‘The Faith of Generation Y’…

The Faith of Generation Y

Part of the beauty of Youthwork the conference, is being able to share ideas between youth work practitioners and bounce ideas off each other. Dan Crouch, a youth worker from Bristol shares his reflection on a recently published book, ‘The Faith of Generation Y’ by Sylvia Collins-Mayo, Bob Mayo, Sally Nash and Christopher Cocksworth…

” The Faith of Generation Y is a superb summary report of a piece of longitudinal research conducted over the last five years by the authors that deserves a place on the shelf of every church leader, youth worker and indeed anyone interested in the future of the church.The research is cleverly separated into two parts that can be read separately or as one.

The first includes the sociological findings and this is followed by the theological implications. Generation Y (born after 1982) are the ‘memoryless’ generation in terms of the Christian faith. It is wrong to assume young people have an inbuilt hostility towards the Church. They are not hostile to the faith because they simply do not know the stories well enough, they don’t have the memories previous generations were negatively influenced by.

Our mistake is assuming that they don’t want to know when in reality they simply don’t know. The challenges for youth work practice are significant and the researchers do not shy away from telling us that we haven’t been getting it right! Young people need to be told the story and then given the space to make sense of the narrative they have heard.

The first section of the book builds on Grace Davie’s concept of ‘vicarious religion’. The research suggests that Christian youth work keeps alive the plausibility of faith for the ‘unchurched’ and ‘dechurched’ but does not engender a deepening interest in Christianity (though it does raise Christian consciousness). For the churched young person, Christian youth work provides a vital role in both the exploration of faith and Christian identity as it is recognised that ‘faith does not emerge on its own; it always develops in a social context.’

As a youth work practitioner I found myself regularly nodding in agreement as the researchers found words to articulate the observations I had found in my own work but had not been able to explain myself. There are a number of key understandings that I would suggest emerge that are central in moving this research from a fine academic work into a practical framework;

1. Young people do not need to know their ultimate purpose, the idea that there is one is simply enough. This places plans above purpose which is indicative of the fact religious narratives are not a strong feature in how they approach day-to-day life. How do we ensure our youth ministry recognises this?

2. The researchers coin the term ‘bedroom spirituality’ – praying in your bedroom, alone, last thing at night – showing that many young people do believe there is ‘something or someone’.

3. Young people are looking for authenticity. They feel that the profession of Christian faith should make a real difference to how one lives and they want to see this in action.

4. Young people don’t want to be told what to do but equipped to know how to think and make good choices. Does our youth ministry create space for questions and journeying or look for easy ‘right’ answers?

Dan Crouch, youth worker

5. The Church can be so keen to contextualise that it loses the ability to transform. As we seek to make our message relevant do we lose sight of the power of the gospel? There is much to think about, reflect on and consider from research that I am sure will influence youth work practice in the coming months and years. For now, the final word should be the challenging final sentence from the report. ‘The primary social responsibility for the church is to simply be its own authentic self.’

Now, how do we do that? “

Dan Crouch is a parish youth worker near Bristol.

The fine-tuning of surrender

Vicky Beeching

I’ve been thinking about ‘Surrender’ as we’ll be exploring that theme together at the conference. What does it mean and look like to be surrendered to God and what difference does it make to our lives?

Maybe it’s because I’m a musician but one image that speaks to me of surrender, is a well tuned piano. When I was recording my latest album, Eternity Invades, we were unexpectedly given access to the most incredible Steinway grand piano, worth about £80,000!

We went round to meet the owner and to see the piano a few weeks before we recorded. The thing is, on our first visit, the piano had been in storage and hadn’t been tuned. Even though it was worth 80 grand, it sounded terrible…

A professional piano tuner came and meticulously tuned every string and key, so by our second visit, it had become the most breath-taking piano I’ve ever heard!

Our lives are the same. It doesn’t matter how ‘good’ we are as people; how hard we work for Jesus, or how many youth we see saved and discipled. If we aren’t surrendered to the Holy Spirit controlling and ‘tuning’ our lives, we’ll just sound like a terrible noise to the ears of heaven. 1 Corinthians echoes this, when it says we will sound like a clashing cymbal, if we are without love. Without surrender, we will sound out of tune.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a piano being tuned, but it’s a pretty long process. It involves the strings being stretched and put under pressure until they are the perfect length and tension.

That sounds a lot like life doesn’t it? God’s methods of bringing us to surrender can involve a lot of tension and pressure. It can also take a long time, and leave us wondering if he’s forgotten us.

It also involves the piano tuner getting very close to the strings, right inside the piano, opening it up and removing the lid. That sounds a lot like surrendering to God too, as we must let him up close and personal, taking down our guard, in order for him to do the work of helping us get surrendered and ‘in tune’ with him.

When that piano was played, it took my breath away. I knew that all the work of the tuner had been worth it.

So let’s encourage one another at Youthwork the conference, that the most fulfilling, beautiful and exciting way to live, is to be fully surrendered. Then our lives will sing their song, and it will sound just the way God dreamed that it would. Others will hear our life-song, through our thoughts, words and deeds, and be moved towards God as we radiate him.

See you there – I can’t wait!

Vicky Beeching is leading worship at Youthwork the conference 2010. She is a worship leader, speaker and recording artist. Her latest album is Eternity Invades.

I am so looking forward to Youthwork the conference as gets closer and closer!

I’ve been thinking about “Surrender” as we’ll be exploring that theme together at the conference. What does it mean and look like to be surrendered to God and what difference does it make to our lives?

Maybe it’s because I’m a musician but one image that speaks to me of surrender, is a well tuned piano. When I was recording my latest album, Eternity Invades, we were unexpectedly given access to the most incredible Steinway grand piano, worth about £80,000! You can see it being played on the recording of the album, in the photo.

We went round to meet the owner and to see the piano a few weeks before we recorded. The thing is, on our first visit, the piano had been in storage and hadn’t been tuned. Even though it was worth 80 grand, it sounded terrible…

A professional piano tuner came and meticulously tuned every string and key, so by our second visit, it had become the most breath-taking piano I’ve ever heard!

Our lives are the same. It doesn’t matter how ‘good’ we are as people; how hard we work for Jesus, or how many youth we see saved and discipled. If we aren’t surrendered to the Holy Spirit controlling and ‘tuning’ our lives, we’ll just sound like a terrible noise to the ears of heaven. 1 Corinthians echoes this, when it says we will sound like a clashing cymbal, if we are without love. Without surrender, we will sound out of tune.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a piano being tuned, but it’s a pretty long process. It involves the strings being stretched and put under pressure until they are the perfect length and tension.

That sounds a lot like life doesn’t it? God’s methods of bringing us to surrender can involve a lot of tension and pressure. It can also take a long time, and leave us wondering if he’s forgotten us.

It also involves the piano tuner getting very close to the strings, right inside the piano, opening it up and removing the lid. That sounds a lot like surrendering to God too, as we must let him up close and personal, taking down our guard, in order for him to do the work of helping us get surrendered and ‘in tune’ with him.

When that piano was played, it took my breath away. I knew that all the work of the tuner had been worth it.

 

So let’s encourage one another at Youthwork the conference, that the most fulfilling, beautiful and exciting way to live, is to be fully surrendered. Then our lives will sing their song, and it will sound just the way God dreamed that it would. Others will hear our life-song, through our thoughts, words and deeds, and be moved towards God as we radiate him.

See you there – I can’t wait!
Vicky

 

Vicky Beeching is leading worship at Youthwork the conference 2010. She is a worship leader, speaker and recording artist. Her latest album is ‘Eternity Invades’.

You don’t inspire young people by staying safe…

Cris Rogers

After 10 years in youth ministry, I’m learning that you don’t inspire young people by staying safe. To reach the generation of young people around us, we need disciples willing to surrender it all to reach the lost.

Recently, I’ve been reading about the church fathers’ engagement with mission. There are plenty of stories of people moving to the abandoned places of empire, to the communities no other leaders wanted to go. The tales are so inspiring.

I recently heard a story of a priest who, surrendered the way of a middle class church to move to the East End of London and minister in a tough community. Not long into this ministry, he was stabbed by a young man. He survived, and a few months later was well enough to return to work.

Two years later, there was a knock at his door. On his doorstep stood the young man who had stabbed him. Moments later, this same man was sobbing on the priest’s shoulder for what he had done.

When asked why he’d decided to move to this tough place, the priest replied that Jesus moved from heaven to earth, surrendering his safety in heaven to experience the reality of life for us. And with Jesus’ strength, he too had surrendered his comfort and safety for the harsh reality of life for young people like the man who stabbed him.

It seems to me that Jesus was reckless in coming from safety to earth. Jesus calls us in Mark 8 to follow him, to surrender our ego, time, money, status and much more. We’re to follow him in giving up our own lives to serve him and his church.

In this story, God used this priest’s willingness, to break into a gang of young people who slowly began to trust the priest, simply because he allowed his attacker to come to him and repent.

There’s been a real danger in the last few years of making youth ministry more and more professional. Which sounds like a great plan, but sadly breeds people who see ministry more as work. In reality, being called to ministry exposes you other peoples’ lives and challenges and could lead you to places that are tough, grotty and hard.

This year, we’ll think about how we surrender ourselves to this Jesus movement, become living sacrifices and thereby building his church.

Cris Rogers is a speaker at Youthwork the conference 2010. He has recently moved to the Tower Hamlets area of London after Pastoring Soul Survivor, Harrow.

Believe your act of surrender will accomplish something greater

Danielle Strickland

I’ve just read a Magazine dedicated to celebrating 100 years of Mother Teresa’s life and legacy. It’s incredible. She’s incredible. Some people suggest that ‘saints’ or people who live these incredible lives of faith and devotion are too hard to emulate. “We need to be a little more ‘earthly good’ for today’s post-modern, post-Christian crowds”. But that doesn’t explain why the movement she founded ‘Sisters of Charity’ is growing strong around the world.

Marked by vows of poverty and selflessness, the women (and men) who flock to these orders testify to a Divine calling that flies in the face of the fickle realities of today’s generation. You could chat to Shane Claiborne about the popularity of a radical counter-cultural calling and message and hear the same thing.

Mother Teresa and Shane are not alone. All over the globe are Christians who are compelled by love, not only to add more commitment to their cluttered lives… but to lay down their whole life. All of it.

What they do, where they live, how they give, what they make, what they keep and what they choose… And in each daily act of surrender, something spectacular happens. Jesus shows up. In the midst of what is simply flesh and bones, our broken and used lives become sacred. Become holy. And that holiness impacts the world, like lightening lights up the sky. Like the city on a hill.

Surrender is about laying down our lives. In the article I was reading, a priest assigned by the Vatican tries to explain how it is that Mother Teresa stopped hearing from God the moment she began her ministry to the poorest of the poor in Calcutta. He suggests it makes Mother Teresa’s sacrifice – her surrender – even more sincere and spectacular. I think it makes it much more ordinary.

Surrendering is not about lights and flash and jazz and fame. It’s about the day-to-day reality of trusting, hoping and believing that in laying down your life, in death to yourself – you will live to something far greater. Jesus explained this idea:

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24

Let’s give full surrender a try – who knows, maybe we’ll produce a whole generation of believers who don’t just know God’s word, they live it. Now, that has power.

Danielle Strickland is a speaker at Youthwork the conference 2010. She is a Salvation Army Officer with a passion for social justice and currently leads a church in Canada.

Surrendering the tendency to make youth ministry revolve around us…

Nick Shepherd

I came down the stairs the other day, bleary eyed and in need of a coffee. When I got to the bottom of the stairs a masked bandit (only about three foot high) jumped out at me shouting, “hands-up – surrender!” I duly put my hands up and offered no protest – he shot me with his “nerf gun” anyway!

Surrendering is often thought of in negative term – surrendering being giving in, backing down or not speaking out. This isn’t the pattern for surrender that Youthwork the Conference is exploring this year. This isn’t the type of surrender we are looking to enact in our lives and ministry. The type of surrender we are looking to God to inspire us towards during our conference is better described as giving up, backing up and listening in.

In my session I will be reporting on research into young people’s participation in Youth Ministry and challenging us to think about what it means to do Collaborative Youth Ministry. This requires us, as workers and leaders, to surrender the tendency (intentional or unintentional) to make youth ministry revolve around us – our personality, hopes and skills and in this learn to better serve God and young people as leaders.

Surrender here is first ‘giving up’ our centrality and identifying how youth ministry requires youth leaders and young people to work together. It requires us as leaders to be focussed on discerning how God is active and make our responsibility to shape our group’s programme and culture to ‘back this up’.

It is about ‘listening in’ to hear how our young people are exploring or engaged in trying to be Christian and seeking how we can support and serve this activity.

Nick Shepherd is a speaker at Youthwork the conference 2010. He is CEO and Team Leader for the Centre for Youth Ministry, with a particular interest is in young people’s identity formation and the practical theology of youth ministry.

10 Reasons Why You Should Attend Youthwork the conference

If you’re a Christian youth worker, whether it’s once a week as a volunteer, or every day as a paid staffer, Youthwork the conference is guaranteed to have a great many things on offer for you. Here’s just a few…

1. Time out
   Take some valuable time and space to reassess your priorities and ‘do business’ with God.
2. Better understanding of the context you operate in
   Get a 360° perspective on youth work through main sessions, seminars and workshops.
3. Practical tips you can put to use right away
   Choose from a broad range of issue-based seminars from best practice to sexuality.
4. Peer support
   Get encouragement from other youth workers and a chance to share their ideas.
5. Learn something new
   Gain more insight into what makes young people tick and how to reach them.
6. Encouragement
   Get renewed courage and energy to persevere however high the obstacles may seem.
7. New ways of doing something
   Take home a raft of ideas that are tried, tested and proven to work.
8. Make valuable contacts
   Meet people through the exhibition who have creative ideas about how to inspire young people.
9. Networking
   Something special happens when a group of people gather to discuss their challenges.
10. Other people say it’s beneficial!
    Don’t take it from us – watch the movie at YouTube.com/youthworkconf

If we’ve persuaded you and you need to persuade someone else – download our quick summary sheet, ’10 Reasons Why Your Youth Worker Needs To Go To Youthwork the conference’.