All Real Life articles – Page 2

Issues

‘God called me to Russia to work with victims of trafficking’

2017-01-19T00:00:00Z

’Break my heart for what breaks yours, everything I am, for your kingdom’s cause…’ I remember looking around as 10,000 of us worshipped in Soul Survivor’s big top, suddenly aware of those words and how dangerous they were to sing. Had anyone actually considered what would ...

Issues

‘My church cut my hours’

2017-01-19T00:00:00Z

At the start of summer 2011, if you had asked me, ‘How’s life?’ my response would have been, ‘Life is good.’ I had been the fulltime youth worker in my home church for almost 18 months. I had married a wonderful and supportive woman just over a year earlier and we were newly-weds creating a shared life together.

Issues

Real life: ‘Two of my friends died’

2017-01-19T00:00:00Z

In 2015 I had just become a youth leader at a church in South East England, after moving there for university from the Midlands. I was six hours away from home, and the expense of getting back only made the distance feel further. This was one of the biggest steps of faith I have taken in my 22 years of life.

Issues

‘Why would you give up your Friday nights for me?’

2017-01-19T00:00:00Z

I was generally a good lad but a little cheeky - and still am. Mum and dad weren’t Christians, but the church had a real presence on our street and some of our close neighbours were regular attenders.

Issues

Real life: ‘I thought youth workers were supposed to be young...’

2017-01-19T00:00:00Z

…this was one of the first things that an older lady said to me in when I started my job 15 years ago; I wonder what she thinks about me still being here!

Issues

‘I was made redundant from my youth work post’

2017-01-19T00:00:00Z

So often the spotlight is given to stories of success. Stories of youth groups growing from eight to 80 in three weeks using nothing but a table tennis ball, a church hall and a copy of Mission Praise. Stories that are great but can also leave some of us out in the cold. Because,
sometimes, there’s a flip side: we all know that youth ministry can be the most amazing vocation in the world, but it can be tough, it can go wrong, and it can be a real struggle. And yet there’s as much truth and as many lessons in these stories as in the success stories, so we want to open it up and learn from some of them. Welcome to Real Life. This month: Nick Francis.