PROJECT: The Vibe: Southall Youth Project
LAUNCHED : 2010
LOCATION : Southall, West London
AIM: To address the challenges facing young people growing up in Southall. We seek to provide positive role models for all the young people that we work with and offer the opportunity for young people of other faiths and cultures to build strong relationships with each other.
The project: Every Friday night in Southall we open the doors of St. John’s Church to local young people for The Vibe Café, a weekly drop-in that provides a safe place for young people to meet and socialise together. It’s very difficult to describe what the average evening is like, but it regularly consists of Space Raiders crushed into the floor, the combined toxic smell of nail polish and teenage sweat, football in the car park and conversations about faith.
Just for example, last week I had a conversation with a young Muslim called Ali who’s 14. He asked me whether I was a ‘man of the book’, to which I asked ‘Which book?’ ‘The Qur’an’ was his patronising reply – as if there could be an alternative option! I replied, ‘No, I’m a man of another book, which has a more accurate story of the Prophet Isa’ (the Islamic name for Jesus). We then had a lengthy conversation about Islamic and Christian theology while playing FIFA Street. Ali hasn’t become a Christian, and I suspect that he won’t next Friday either; but he’s one of a growing number of young people who say that St John’s is ‘their church’ even though they are still Sikh, Muslim or Hindu. They are very unlikely to come to a Sunday service, but they sense something different about our hospitality. This, and other similar conversations have stirred questions about the way we understand Church membership, conversion and discipleship. We are trying to create a safe place where young people can talk about faith and life in a non-confrontational way. We never have a ‘God-slot’ because we have found that conversation that arises naturally is more genuine, as everyone in Southall has a faith. The conversation is rarely about proving that there is a god, rather it is about discussing and sharing what God is like.
One of my favourite aspects of the Anglican Church is the ‘cure of souls’; the idea that as a local church we exist for the benefit of our whole community. I try to spend as much of my time as possible being visible in the community. This means I spend lots of my time in other people’s places of worship, often in one of our local gurdwaras (Sikh place of worship). For me it has been a massive challenge to learn how to be invited and how to be a good guest. In my experience of Church in other contexts, I spent lots of my time inviting people to church, but here we’re learning how to be Church in unusual and difficult places.
Earlier this year we launched our ‘Onside football project’ - a detached cage football provision. We’ve worked with a large number of young men through this project already. Riz (16) said: ‘I think it will really help kids who’ve got nothing better to do, because kids with nothing better to do end up going in gangs. They just get into groups and [create] madness because there’s nothing else better to do.’ One of the things that I have realised over the last year is that there are a huge number of young people who are not engaging with any institution; from education through to their own faith institutions. Because of this detachment and a new model of what community is and looks like, which is much more geographically rooted, they won’t come along to The Vibe Café or other established youth centres. In response to this, we’re creating innovative ways to take our work to them. In many ways, this is the crucial challenge of the Church everywhere: Jesus’ command to us in Matthew 28:19, to go.
Calum Burke is The Vibe’s project director.
FIVE TIPS FOR WORKING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE OF OTHER FAITHS:
1. Listen to what people believe. Don’t assume that all Muslims believe the same thing. Take the time to ask questions and listen. There’s nothing more irritating than being told what you believe by someone else!
2. Do your research. Make sure you know what things are likely to offend. For example, don’t invite a young Jew to a youth fry-up. However, as much as it’s important to do your research, don’t let fear stop you from working with young people. Most mistakes are forgivable as long as you’re genuine, humble and willing to learn from them.
3. Be a party person. Celebrate other people’s festivals and learn what they’re about so you can use them to build bridges. For example, you could use the Islamic celebration of Eid al-Adha, which is about Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac, as a starting point for talking about the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus and what that means to you
4. Pray. It sounds far too simplistic, but I’ve met lots of people who God has spoken to through dreams, and even through their own holy books. Pray for them to be open to hearing from God.
5. People from other faiths are not your enemy. We’ll never build stronger communities if we have a siege mentality. God doesn’t want us to be at war with our neighbours. He wants us to love, honour and respect them, even when it’s difficult. If there’s another place of worship in your town, why not pop in to say ‘Hello’? You never know what might happen…
