The Grove Is On Fire

Dealing With Forced Marriage

This is news to me at least, the government has an initiative set up to combat forced marriages and protect those who might be force into them. Last year 1,600 suspected cases were reported (with presumably many more unreported) and a large amount of them involved young people. They've just released a massive guidance document (pdf) that if you're really geeky you can read, but the advice for youth workers is essentially be aware of it and then treat it as you would any other child protection incident where there is risk of immediate harm.

Job: Hilton Church Youth Worker - Inverness

There's a job going in Inverness to be a youth worker for somewhere called Hilton Parish Church, the details are on the advert.

(Aside: I went to Inverness about three weeks before I launched this website, and as I wandered around the area I had a great vision of God coming down to Noah and commanding him to build a skate park for the local youths, and it was then I decided to name this website buildaskatepark.com. Alas, that domain name was being squatted on which was a fair sign it was less a vision and more an over-active imagination caused by too much miserable weather so I went for the Byker Grove reference instead.)

CYM and University Place Cuts

Ian has news that CYM (Centre for Youth Ministry, the largest full-time youth ministry course) is cutting places next year due to funding arrangements.

CYM will not be able to offer places to those who last year would have sailed in, also churches that have advertised and only now found a potential worker/student no longer have a course for them to go to.

The story I'm hearing is that classes sizes will halve next year, down from 20 till about 10.

The Rights To Street Evangelism

If you're considering street evangelism, or are doing it, and would like to know about the legal side of things the Christian Institute (of whom I had never heard of before today) has published some advice entitled The law relating to street evangelism which covers a lot of the basics. If you are going to do it, it's always worth letting the local police know as it might save you hassle later on it and also just seems like the decent thing to do.

Losing the Millennial Generation

Not sure how much news this article about how we're losing a generation of kids is, but it made me think about some of the work we're doing here. So I'm linking to it.

Really, should it surprise us that we are losing our teens when we've spent so many hours away from them through the week? Has church robbed us, many times, from family meal-times, family devotion-times, family game nights, or family camping trips? Is this what the church should be doing?

Christian Youth Work Training That To Some Extent Can Be Done At The Same Time As Working In London as a Youth Minister

St Paul's Theological Centre

Set up by and run in conjunction with Holy Trinity Brompton, offers a Monday morning theology course for people involved in church work. If you pay the university fees can lead to a certificate, diploma, or degree. Costs £500 up front if you just want the training, not the accreditation though. It also offers ordination training, which I didn't know was even possible and makes me slightly happy as I generally do when the Anglican church pulls off something right every now and again.

How reformed is this course? More so than you'd think.

Oakhill

Offers a Certificate of Higher Education in Youth and Children's Ministry, a Diploma of Higher Education in Youth and Children's Ministry and a BA in Youth and Children's Ministry over 2, 4 and 6 years respectively, which'll take about 2 or 3 days of your time a week of which at least one will be commuting up to Oakhill (Southgate tube). Can be done full-time in which case half the time you'll need to complete it. I can't find the costs anywhere, but they're probably just hidden on the website.

How reformed is this course? If you're not at least 4 points then you get shot. If you don't understand what that reference is to then you'll get shot twice.

CYM

6 days at various centres over the course of a year (generally on a Saturday)
Very secular youth work based, but that's what it qualifies you into. It is coming from a Christian background though. £570 for the year and the qualification.

How reformed is this course? Probably not the question to ask.

Kings College

MA in youth work and ministry (Kings College). Quite academic, led by Pete Ward. Requires about 2 days a week for a year, though in reality you can get away with less. It's £4050 for full time.

How reformed is this course? They'd pick Martin Luther King Jr over Martin Luther but they'd still probably quite like Martin Luther.

Cornhill

Two days a week over two years. Doesn't give you any formal qualification. There is a youth stream that Trevor Pearce runs. It costs £615 a term, 3 terms a year. The pinnacle of reformed conservative training.

How reformed is this course? Makes John Calvin look like John Shelby Spong

The Open Bible Institute

Offers two relevant courses, both correspondence. One is the infamous Moore Course, that trains you in general theology. One or two modules a term, each module has an exam at the end, leads to some qualifications from Moore College (which is in Australia). The other is a certificate in biblical studies and ministry which contains some youth work stuff, and some biblical studies stuff. It leads to a recognised qualification (a Certificate of Higher Education). You can also do the youth work module of that course as a short one-off course. Costs about £1000 for the Certificate of HE and £30 a module for the Moore Course.

How reformed is this course? It's probably just overtaken Oak Hill, but still not quite as reformed a Cornhill

Addendum

I've skipped out the Oasis Training course although you could theoretically do it while placed at your church or community centre (See also CYM's degree course based at Ridley Hall, Cambridge or Oxford Youth Works).

Goggles for Handling Blu-Tack

Is not the name of a new female-fronted 80's throwback band, but rather what teachers are telling children they have to wear in a list of ridiculous health and safety laws at schools. When organisations become more concerned about saving their own asses than other people's this is the sort of thing that happens.

The Ministry of Parents

So Mark you ask, why is it that so often kids from wonderful, brilliant, godly homes with wonderful, brilliant, godly parents come along to youth group and think that the most wonderful, brilliant, godly person in the world is the new youth worker? Especially as the most wonderful, brilliant, godly person in the new youth worker's eyes is the youth's parents?

Well, let me tell you something, this is because all young people are sinners in some measure and so all of them find ways to dishonour their father and mother. But if I was to push it further than that and offer a way parents let them get away with that, I'd say it can be because frequently Christians disconnect their ministry from the rest of their lives and when parents do that, their kids miss how godly and brilliant their parents are. We're often told "keep ministry and family separate" —which is an epic miss-statement due for more attention at some point— and because of that children our hidden from the ministry. "They shouldn't have to worry about such things" or other such logic is often put forward. But this means kids don't see their parents minister to others, and don't experience their parents joy at others conversions, and don't see their sorrow over others suffering, and don't see their parents suffering for the gospel.

But then a youth minister comes along, and they see them lead bible studies, and hear them talk about their week, and learn of the things and ministry of a youth minister and they think "wow, what a wonderful, godly person this person is" which is unfortunate not least because they've got much better examples of Godliness in their parents, but also because it teaches them a false model of ministering to others. The model they see is that the extra stuff a Christian is called to do as a youth worker is charged with on top of their personal ministry is the only stuff that is true ministry. This isn't great for anything other than the ego of the youth minister which is a shame, because the only thing that a youth minister's ego really needs is shooting.

Here are some thoughts on this situation. We as youth workers would do better to present ourselves more holistically, as people who minister to their peers too, but more than that we'd do better if we promoted the parents, and told the children how godly we think their parents are. Parents, it'd also be great if you took your child and prayerfully brought them into your ministry, so that they saw your godliness. It could be something as simple as just having them sit at the table when you have people over for dinner and sharing in the ministry of hospitality.

Hudson Taylor tells the story of his mother's prayers for his conversion.

I little knew what was going on in the heart of my dear mother. She arose from the dinner-table with an intense yearning for the conversion of her boy, and feeling that, being from home, and having more leisure than she otherwise would, there was a special opportunity afforded her of pleading with God for me. She went to her bedroom, and turned the key in the door, and resolved not to leave the room until her prayers were answered. Hour after hour did that dear mother plead for me, until she could only praise God for the conversion of her son. In the meantime, as I was reading the tract, 'The Finished Work of Christ,' a light was flashed into my soul by the Holy Spirit, that there was nothing to be done, but to fall 'on my knees and accept this Savior and his salvation, and praise God forevermore. While my mother was praising God in her closet, I was praising Him in the old warehouse where I had retired to read my book. When I met mother the door on her return with the glad news, she said: "I know, my boy; I have been rejoicing for a fortnight in the glad tidings you have to tell me!"

The story is immense in itself, but notice how he knows of his mother's prayers for him, presumably his mother told him of her prayers and sufferings for him. I assume he knew something of how godly his parents were.

A Lexicon of Teen Speak

The BBC has a list of teenage slang. A lot of these articles exist, a lot of them seemingly with made up words that no-one who works with teenagers has heard of, but this one is uncannily accurate. Worryingly, I use a whole bunch of these in day-to-day speak; dash as a verb is particularly satisfying.

Is Evangelism Child Abuse?

I don't agree in whole with everything Tim Abbott says (write in with your guesses as to what and I'll give you an exclusive thegroveisonfire.com e-mail) but it's a good few thoughts on how to avoid manipulation in youth evangelism.

As someone who has been involved in mission to young people for many (many!) years I believe that any kind of youth event has to have the following features. Advance information should be available to parents and make clear that the event is organised by Christians. Invitations to young people should make them aware that there will be more information about the Christian faith to help them decide if this is for them. I don't think it's appropriate to ask young people to make a decision to become a Christian at an event that is highly likely to be their first exposure to the Christian message and, crucially, is outside of any meaningful connection with a community of faith.

That's pretty much damn straight.