The Grove Is On Fire

Top Eight Most Influential Events In Youth Ministry In The Last Decade

By now you'll have read plenty of top five, ten, and hundred lists of things from the last decades. You'll also have read plenty of articles which making subversive comments about how these lists exist just to spare editors and writers any effort in writing new stuff. You'll also have read the lists that followed those articles. And now you're reading subversive comments attempting to display how we've seen through the sham of the lists and the sham of the subversive comments. Look, here's a list of the top eight things that happened in the last decade that were massively influential on youth ministry.

• The introduction of the Criminal Records Bureau disclosure form in 2002. I can't remember what life was like before those green and purple forms turned up to prove you're not a caught paedophile, mostly because I've only been doing youth work since 2001. And yes, I know this makes the idea of me writing a list of things that have changed the face of youth work in the last ten years slightly moronic as I don't know what they've changed from but you're still reading this.

• The Message 2000. Right now a whole bunch of youth workers talk about rediscovering a Christian theology of social justice and caring for the poor, in a similar way to how people talk about the twenty or thirty years ago when some Canadians found the gifts of the Holy Spirit hanging around in the back of church waiting for someone to interpret them. A lot of that came from Soul Survivor teaming up with the Message Trust in Manchester to run Soul Survivor in the streets. Directly from that came the launch of the Noise initiative, Soul Action, Soul in the City, and indirectly a whole bunch of other youth social action initiatives.

• The Summer Festival. Yes, Glastonbury has been around for ever, and Soul Survivor stated back when you weren't born, but it was only from 2002 that the demand for summer festivals exploded. Part of that probably was the civilising of the Festival experience. (Remember when they burnt down all the toilets at Leeds? Or when Glastonbury closed due to fence jumpers in 2001? Happy things of the past.) Part of that was probably the increase in popularity of Rock and Roll, but whatever it was, they got big. The default summer camp option became, at least seemingly¹, the big 10,000 strong tent in a field as opposed to the hundred people at a Scripture Union booked boarding school.

• The Centre For Youth Ministry. Who again, have been around longer than this last decade, but it's really in this decade that their impact has been felt as hundred of youth workers across the country –and all the young people they work with– adopt a lot of their philosophy of ministry. The emphasis on Youth Ministry being professional and at least broadly similar to secular youth work is both where their strongest criticisms and their biggest praises come from.

• The Mobile Phone. All your young people got mobile phones this decade. Most of them got a new one every year (one of them got a new one every like four weeks and even though everyone said "hey, how come you've got a new phone" no-one could quite work out why he did have a new one). Also, you got a phone, and they got your number. And now they text and ring you whenever they want. And neither you nor they have to go through the parent's house phone. Imagine if you said fifteen years ago that one day you'd been able to get in touch with your young people immediately wherever they were and they'd be able to do likewise to you. And now they can. Also, they can play with it whenever you're speaking from the front.

• Facebook. For the reasons above but with more weirdness attached. I can now not just contact you at any time, but find out what you're doing at any time. I must resist the urge to spy on my youn... WHY HAVE THEY BECOME A FAN OF DRINKING SAMBUCA?²

• The Cementing Of The Paid Youth Worker. I heard someone from the Centre of Youth Ministry say in 2003 that based upon the adverts in the back of Youthwork Magazine, the number of jobs in youth ministry had doubled in the UK in the ten previous years. I'm not sure anyone would bother to say that sort of thing now, because it's assumed that most churches have at least some sort of paid youth worker type person. The youth worker is assumed now to be the second or third appointment churches make, with only senior minister and maybe administrator being more likely. Consider for a moment, just how odd it is that such amount of time and money is spent on someone working with such a specific group of people.

• The Rise Of The Worship Leader. Probably much deeper significance here, but it's nice to have to dissuade young people from something other than wanting to be a youth worker.

¹ I've tried to do the research on this, but the figures aren't that available, here's some vaguely scientific speculation though. CPAS co-ordinate Venture holidays who are probably the second biggest summer camp organisation after Scripture Union. They run two sorts of camps, the standard Venture camp of which there around 90 and seem to have an average space for 50 people, and the Falcon Camps which get around 500 people. That works out to 5000 people attending each year. Soul Survivor gets around 9000 a week for the two main Somerset weeks, and another 10,000 or so over the two other weeks they run. They aren't the only big summer youth festival either.

² We have a Facebook policy at work³, and while it doesn't contain the phrase "for the love of all that is good, when it says "young person was tagged in the album 'a night on the town'" you do not click that link." it's only because you're not meant to say stuff like that in official policy documents.

³ I say policy, it's more like five lines saying "don't panic" and then another line saying "oh and whatever they say in the relationship status field is a lie".

OBSESSIVES: Coffee

The best 8 and a half minute video you'll ever watch about coffee.

Bible Reading Plans

Useful for that time of year: Justin Taylor has a thorough list of different plans to read through the bible in a year.

Shoplift Stuff Says Priest

"When we, as a society, let our most vulnerable people down so terribly badly, I would rather that people take an 80p can of ravioli rather than turn to some of the most appalling things."

The Reverend Tim Jones does not believe the Gospel. More specifically he does not believe that when Jesus promises what He does in Matthew 6:31-33 those promises are true and are bought for us and guaranteed for us through His death on the cross for us. That is a much more appalling thing than shoplifting.

The New Best Christmas Album

For years I've recommended Sufjan Steven's 5 EP Christmas Box Set (Spotify) as the best Christmas music going. This year, something else has taken over: Bifrost Art's Salvation is Created (iTunes). It's epic, dark, and all in the minor key, as all true Christmas records should be. It's also wonderfully Christian and Jesus honouring. It Also in some complicated way involves Sufjan Stevens anyway. Out of Heaven (Spotify) is probably the winnowing track –if you like this one you'll like the rest– but the album deserves playing from start to finish.

Free Acoustic Worship Central Album

Worship Central has a free worship music led praise album¹ available to download on their website. It has a solid "On Christ The Solid Rock I Stand" on it, which effectively excuses it for anything else it can do wrong, even if they have added a chorus.

¹ I feel we should be able to avoid this sort of thing, when someone says in conversation "the worship at the church was..." and someone feels compelled to interrupt and say "you mean the music at the church, because after all, worship isn't just a yadda yadda yadda..." and the conversation falls into a five minute antagonistic blackhole where people feel compelled to disagree with each other, even though they don't. Instead we should have a shorthand to get around it, so someone could say "the worship at the church was..." and the other could interrupt "you mean the music at the church..." but then he stops because he's been interrupted by someone pointing out how deliberately perverse he's being by the shorthand of putting him in headlock.

Christian Headship

I think to prove agreeable the Christian idea of male headship in marriage all one must do is watch Pride and Prejudice and observe how Mr Bennet acts towards his wife, and how dreadfully she correspondingly responds to everyone else.

Q&A: Vetting and Barring Scheme

The BBC have already updated their vetting and barring scheme Q&A document. Someone needs to tell them that all the cool kids are saying FAQ these days.

Yet More Vetting And Barring News

So today Ed Balls stood up in parliament and announced that revisions where going to be made to the way the vetting and barring scheme would work. This is not a surprise, this is how government policy works, and this is one of the reasons why things roll-out slowly. You can read his statement here or if you're really geeky the full report into the vetting and barring scheme (pdf) which makes the recommendations that today have been brought in. If you can't be bothered with that (and who could blame you) here is the summary of the summary.

Remember the phrase "frequent or intense"? That was the government's shorthand for what sort of contact with children crosses the threshold and requires you to be vetted. They've slackened off on the definition of it now, so you need to be in working with young people more on a very frequent and really intense basis now. Here's how the government word it now:

Changing the definition of "frequency" within the scheme from once a month or more to once a week or more.

Making a parallel change to the "intensive" definition, from three or more days in a 30 day period, or overnight, to four or more days in a 30 day period, or overnight.

The intensive definition makes little difference for most youth workers I imagine. The change to the frequency definition could make some significant difference though. Say if you rota volunteer leaders on a fortnightly basis, under this new definition they wouldn't be engaging in a regulated activity and you wouldn't need to vet them. However, if you're seeing the same young people every week in church, even if you're only leading them once a month, you're still seeing them in the capacity of a leader. If they ask for advice, or you chat to them once a week, should you be vetted? I don't know. Probably as a good guideline, if you expect your leaders (and it's in the task description you've given them when they signed up¹) to engage with them on a regular basis outside of the rota'd sunday school, they need to be vetted.

Other things of note that have changed, again from the statement.

Removing the requirement to register with the scheme if regulated activity is carried out frequently in different settings (such as schools) rather than taking place frequently in a single setting;

Raising the minimum age at which young people should be required to register from 16 to 18, where the regulated activity in which they are engaged is organised as part of their studies - for example a community service programme involving volunteering work with children or vulnerable adults

Allowing workers from overseas who bring their own groups of children or vulnerable adults into this country to be exempt from registering for up to 3 months for the work they do with the children or vulnerable adults they have brought to the UK; and
Regarding school exchange visits lasting less than 28 days, where the overseas family accepts the responsibility for the selection of the host family, as private arrangements which are exempt from the scheme.

I can only imagine the first of those will make a difference to most people, and then only those who go into a variety of different schools.

And those are the changes made now. There is though, tantalisingly, the promise that the government will investigate the awkward middle ground that is the controlled activity and may ditch it. They'll also try and clarify when people need to get a CRB once they've registered with the ISA.

¹ You have right?

Updates To The Vetting And Barring Scheme

THE RULES HAVE CHANGED! But seeing as the point of phasing things in over the next year is that you can change things, that's surely fair enough. I'll read the actual documentation tomorrow, but it seems most youth work posts are unchanged apart from guest trainers and speakers. The BBC has all the blurb.

Relationship Of Command

I realised today that At The Drive-In's Relationship of Command came out in 2000. That breaks my top ten list of the last decade quite considerably, so go listen to the album on Spotify and consider the list now a top eleven.

Don't Trust The Supralapsarian Youth Leader

Or, if you don't like big theological words, what to do with the child you banned last week when they turn up this week.

Top Ten Albums Of This Last Decade

Have we had ten years of not being able to think up a better name than the Noughties already? I look forward to the Tens and the joy of not having to worry as to whether I should add an apostrophe to the front on 09 any more¹. That said, it wouldn't be a decade without a review of it, and this wouldn't be a website without an arbitary list of stuff you don't care about. And while I'll run down the top ten moments in youth work later, it's worth pointing out how good music has been this last decade. Here then, in order, are the top ten albums of the zeroties.

1. The Remote Part - Idlewild
2. Kid A - Radiohead
3. The Vertigo Of Bliss - Biffy Clyro
4. The Fall Of Math - 65daysofstatic
5. Waited Up 'Til It Was Light - Johnny Foreigner
6. The Midnight Organ Fight - Frightened Rabbit
7. It's All Crazy, It's All False, It's All Dream, It's Alright - Mewithoutyou
8. The Lost Riots - Hope Of The States
9. Origin Of Symmetry - Muse
10. Busted - Busted

¹ General rule; stick with 2009. 09 looks like you've made a mistake and '09 looks like you're running for president and afraid of losing the grammar-nazi vote.

Build A Skate Park

And so this is how this website was named. Here I am walking through the drab grey streets of Inverness trying to find a church on a Sunday night (why this is the case and it should pose such difficulty is a longer story) and I walk past a skate park. It is, without a doubt, the world's worst skate park. As try as I might I cannot find a single word that'd be truthful and imply this skate park has some sort of merit to it. The best thing I can tell you in the hope of stirring up at least some sympathy for it is that it is a very lonely skate park. It looks brand new, I imagine because no-one has ever used it. And so I wonder why does this brand new, ugly, lonely skate park exists. What is it's purpose? And then I realise this skate park is youth work. (Not, we shall be clear, youth work in a metaphorical sense; let's not get caught up working out if the skateboarders are young people and the tarmac is God's love or such nonsense. I mean to say the skate park is actual youth work.) I can see, in my mind's eye, a youth worker standing on a footpath talking to some young people on a park bench ill illuminated by an orange street light, discussing passionately the need for somewhere to go, for things to do. And lo, the idea of a skate park forms in the youth worker's head, the youth worker mentions this, and after some persuasion the young people acquiesce; yes, this, this skate park, is what they've been looking for. And in a series of vignettes to brief to recount, amid much fighting and string pulling, the council agrees and a skate park is built. Results are achieved, targets are hit, and a positive contribution has been made! But then the young people realise —once the launch party is over‐ that they never really wanted a skate park. Time moves on, and life continues. And then, as I walk along the streets of Inverness, I vision comes to me of Moses standing before God and God declaring to him: "Go build a skate park and they will come". And Moses trembles and looks up at the Lord and says "Lord, it has not rained for years". And then I realise Moses didn't build that ark, that one was Noah.

And then I think, "why the heck should I start up a website about young people and youth work and theology and the such when I can't even get characters of the Pentateuch right?" Which may sound like a bit of a jump, but underneath all the minds-eye and the visions I'm thinking that maybe some play on the word skate park would be great for the name of the new website that I haven't got around to launching yet because I haven't found the killer name. And now that I have found at least the blade for that killer name, I only have my complete ignorance and ill-experience as an excuse. But I know that that is no excuse at all, as if that stopped me from doing things then I'd only ever get out of bed to make toast, and that only on good days.

And so I settled on starting a website and calling it buildaskatepark.com and dedicating it to youth work and theology and Jesus and occasional recipes for stew. And then I found a glorious baptist church just about to start on a Sunday night in Inverness and it was quite jolly and had a wonderful early seventies decor.

And then I got home and found someone was squatting on buildaskatepark.com, so I registered thegroveisonfire.com instead, which was fortunate, because it's the much better name.

Expressed Christianity

The emminently quotable Kierkegaard:

The moment I take Christianity as a doctrine and so indulge my cleverness or profundity or eloquence or my imaginative powers in depicting it: people are very pleased; I am looked upon as a serious Christian.

The moment I begin to express existentially what I say, and consequentially to bring Christianity into reality: it is just as though I had exploded existence--the scandal is there at once.

p.Kierkegard's journals, 1834-1854

When Jesus Was A Child Did Jesus Go To...

A quick cheat reference sheet for all those who need it: