All NexGen Pro articles – Page 116
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IssuesStarting new children's ministry
Our experts answer your questions on children’s and families’ ministry.
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IssuesNew paradigm: Are we training the children's workers the Church needs?
You graduate from a hugely enjoyable children’s work course, head for the dream job and… it’s nothing like you expected it to be. Your remit is swiftly expanded and you feel ill-equipped to respond to the ever-changing and ever-challenging job description. Sound familiar? This begs the question: are we training children’s workers for the roles they will be doing? Further still: are we actually training the children’s workers the Church needs? Cliff College’s Ian White offers some thoughts
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IssuesWhat youth workers want to say to children’s workers
Often, the fragmented nature of our churches means that as we wave goodbye to children from our kids’ groups and send them off to the wild world of youth work, we never see them again. OK, this is a slight overexaggeration, but it reflects an unhelpful dichotomy that we’ve managed to create. In fact, the two disciplines need to listen and learn from each other. Youth work specialist and Premier Childrenswork’s founding editor Martin Saunders returns to these pages with some lessons from the world of youth ministry…
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IssuesMale children’s workers
After a recent church service, I was walking to get a cup of coffee and came across a little boy in tears. He couldn’t find his mum. Now, my church is big and it’s easy for someone under three feet to lose track of his family, so I took my new friend up onto the stage, so that he could have a better chance of seeing his mum. Boy and mother were reunited and that was that. Yet it’s a sad fact that some might view my actions with suspicion.
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IssuesChildrenswork investigates... Extremism legislation and education in out-of-school settings
Childrenswork investigates some new legislation.
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IssuesYouth Work Problems: My child's youth leader ... ?
Welcome to our brand new youth work problems page! A place where your questions and problems are answered by seasoned youth workers and practitioners.
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Issues
Scottish school of Christian mission
The ICC (International Christian College) has become the Scottish School of Christian Mission (SCCM).
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BlogChristian festivals - a kid’s perspective
Many of us have visited Christian festivals across the country over the last few months but what are these events like for children? Do they encounter God? Are they excited about returning or do they just begrudgingly tag along because we’re already there? Hannah Cooper spoke to her little sister about experiencing a Christian festival as a young girl…
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BlogThe Christian man of the future - a response
Carl Beech's article on the Christian man of the future (which you can read here) has provoked responses from across the theological and sociological spectrum. Premier Childrenswork's co-editor Sam Donoghue responds to some of the criticism, and shares his thoughts.
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IssuesThe Christian man of the future
What kind of man does the Church of the future need? And what does our children’s work need to look like in order to keep these men? Christian Vision for Men’s Carl Beech thinks it’s time to man up and face the reality of a feminised Church.
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IssuesIs the Christian message getting lost?
In a tradition that is becoming as festive as mistletoe, carols and mulled wine, a survey released at Christmas time revealed that many schoolchildren do not know who Jesus is.
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IssuesCan I be cool and be a Christian?
Dear Prof, my young people are really struggling at school. They aren’t sure if they should be hanging around with the ‘cool’ people, and trying to be ‘cool’ themselves. Is it alright to try to be cool, and want to be, as a Christian?
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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’.
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Issues
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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Issues
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.
