All Issues articles – Page 73
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IssuesWhat if the church and the youth worker have opposing visions?
There’s a fault line running directly underneath a lot of church-based youth work, especially when there’s a paid worker involved. It’s often buried deep when the church is recruiting, with the impressive but flimsy architecture of a ‘mission to transform the lives of local young people’ built on top (probably in the job advert). Under the surface however, the truth is still shuddering quietly: most churches aren’t looking for someone to simply reach and connect with local young people; they want someone who’ll keep the teenagers of the existing congregation engaged, and perhaps bring a few more young faces into the pews on a Sunday morning. Even if they talk of some grander vision to see the kingdom come among local teens, most churches actually employ youth workers because they want to improve their congregation’s age demographic… and their shot at having a future.
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IssuesYouth unemployment: How the church is responding
The last decade has seen youth unemployment slip to upsettingly low levels, fuelled by a toxic mixture of tuition fees and the education crisis. But, as Kemi Bamgbose reports, the Church has been on the forefront of the response
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CHURCH OF ENGLAND LAUNCHES SCHEME FOR WOULD-BE VICARS
The ministry division of the Church of England is offering young people a taste of life in the clergy by launching the Church of England Ministry Experience Scheme (CEMES). After being run as a pilot programme in four dioceses, CEMES is launching in 2014 with up to 20 dioceses.
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IssuesBe the Church
As part of my employment with the national office of a large progressive denomination in the United States, I do a lot of speaking at conferences and in churches about the faith formation of children and young people. Almost everywhere I go I run into people talking about the ageing of our congregations and the lack of younger people going through our church doors.
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Issues“From megachurch to village church”
I never set out to work in a megachurch. As cliché as it might sound, it just happened. I was teaching at a private Christian school but also volunteered in the youth ministry, so when the youth pastor resigned, I already ‘had my foot in the door’. Lo and behold, this country boy who grew up in rural Oklahoma, attending a youth group of about 20 in a church of just over 100, was now youth pastor in the largest church in my Pentecostal denomination — a church of 9,000 members and a youth group of around 200.
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IssuesToddle into Church
Parent and toddler group expert Fiona Burt shows you how turn your toddler group into a missional opportunity.
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Issues
Christy Wimber
In a rare and privileged interview, Youthwork met Christy Wimber – daughter-inlaw of John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement. Continuing his ministry today, Christy speaks all over the world on the gifts of the Spirit, and popped in to share a few pearls of wisdom with us.
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Christmas Games
Christmas is often perceived as simply being a time of fun, frivolity and food. As youth workers who are interested in the holistic development of the young people we work with, why not battle this inadequate view of what the season is all about by playing these games, which neatly encapsulate fun, frivolity and food. I have included a handy ‘reason-for-the-season’ link for each game too incase you wish to take your group ‘deeper’ into the Christmas story.
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Ready-To-Use Craft Ideas: Christmas Crafts
It’s that time of year again when we will inevitably find ourselves trying to cram lots more activities into lives that are already very full. The children we work with will be doing loads of Christmas stuff at school and may well be ‘Christmassed out’, especially when it comes to craft. Is there a way we can help youngsters (and ourselves) to focus a bit differently on Christmas – perhaps more on what the Christmas gift of Jesus asks of them this Christmas? Here are three activities, none of which require much preparation.
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IssuesChristmas at Ho-Ho Home
Church services, nativities, Christmas cards…It’s easy to get carried away IN the whirlwind of festive activities on offer. Despite this, most of our early memories of Christmas revolve around family traditions. Jane Butcher gives us her top tips for a creative Christmas at ho-ho-home (sorry, it had to be done).
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Christmas (and Easter) presentations
Christmas and Easter are fabulous times of celebration, and mark major points in the story of God and his people. Most RE syllabuses require schools to explore major religious festivals and it’s hardly rocket science to see that Christians are well placed to link these two facts together! Across the country, that’s exactly what churches have been doing.
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Ready-to-use Schools Work: The Christmas Truces
An assembly for use in a secondary school based on the December 1914 Christmas truces, to teach that being a Christian is more important than belonging to a nation.
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Christmas Songs
As Christian knowledge in the UK slowly dwindles, it’s less and less likely that people will know the words to Christmas carols. This makes it hard to use them as illustrations when communicating with people who don’t regularly go to church. There is good news, though. Lots of contemporary Christmas songs are really Christian allegory waiting to be unlocked and used as handy illustrations for your all-age, evangelistic carol service. Here are four secretly Christian Christmas songs, ready to use for your next Christmas assembly.
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IssuesChristmas is for life, not just for Christmas
Christmas is the busiest time of the Church calendar, but how do we take all that energy and enthusiasm and dissipate it throughout the year? Alex Taylor has some ideas…
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IssuesChristmas Games
As I sit here staring out of the window, watching the leaves on the trees turn brown, looking at the conkers spread across the pavement and seeing my Facebook feed fill with back-to-school photos, it can mean only one thing: it’s time to write my column for the Christmas issue. Yes, such are print deadlines that even Tesco would blanch at mentioning the C-word this early in the year, but that is the sacrifice I’m making for you, dear readers.
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IssuesSlaughter at Christmas
We’ve all heard the Christmas story, but in our overfamiliarity, have we missed the dark side of the story? Krish Kandiah explains how the unexamined side of the nativity can influence your children’s work
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IssuesChristmas Journeys
Christmas comes but once a year… yet seems to last for longer and longer each time it comes. It’s easy to get tired of the festival before the day has actually arrived. However, the story is central to our faith so, this Christmas, we’ve decided to provide something a little bit different, to help you and your church community engage with this amazing story in a new way.
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IssuesHow to Make Christians
In 1975, John Westerhoff changed the landscape of children’s ministry with his book Will our children have faith?. Thirty eight years on, his theory of faith development has changed. Here he writes exclusively for Childrenswork, outlining his new pilgrimage model.
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Report claims Christians ‘exploit’ schools
Christian groups and leaders have responded to a National Secular Society report claiming that evangelistic groups are ‘exploiting’ schools. The report, published in October, mentions a ‘marked increase in the number of parents contacting the National Secular Society with concerns about external visitors to schools exposing their children to unwelcome and wholly inappropriate religious evangelism and proselytization.’ However, nowhere in the report does it specify what is meant by a ‘marked increase’.
