In Oslo with Salt doing two days on Post Modern approaches to Youth Minstry. I will upload the notes when I get back on Thursday.
Oslo
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Author Archives: Richard Passmore
Christmas at Greenbelt
Greenbelt did not disappoint. As we had the children with us the festival had a very different spin for me. It was great to see the children get so much out of it, and thanks go out to those who made the festival work so well for families. Stuff like the drumming, statues, artwork, etc around the site was great for us, the shed camera obscurer was fantastic, and Jo as ever loved the sacred space on the top floor of the grandstand. Also the programmed family stuff was great fun, the twist and children’s festival, don’t let the pigeon drive the bus etc.
The one seminar I really wanted to go to I made – Pete Rollins who spoke about faithful betrayal, which was excellent. I recently read his book How not to speak of God which I think is a very important contribution to the current dialogue, I recommend it as the best book I have read for ten years. His talk begins to pilot a theology of redemption as a rupture and gives a great background to some of the issues I raised in the series of post about redefining church, for example see point 4 in this post.
Greenbelt for me is better than a family Christmas, I see so many people I have good relationships with, who I know are on a similar journey. People I now only reconnect with at Greenbelt, but who get me, and as ever the whole festival was a thin place where heaven and earth were a lot closer.
Greenbelt
Getting ready for Greenbelt and really looking forward to the weekend as the line up looks great. When start looking at the programme I usually find it is either year when the speakers are the main attraction or the music but this year I cant decide as both look great. BUT as ever the best thing about Greenbelt is catching up with people.
If you are coming to Greenbelt and would like to camp in roughly the same area as us, we have a map and grid reference, we cant save you space but it may mean we have more chance of bumping into you over the weekend (probably queuing for the loo rather than the beer tent as we have the children with us). If you are interested then drop me an email and I will send out the details.
Vote for Pedro
Just watched Napoleon Dynamite. What a great film. I know sometimes I catch on late and it is already a bit of a cult classic, but worth finding and watching if you haven’t seen it. Loads of resources for the youth worker as well. Would make my top ten films of all time.
Friends, holiday, and work
Back to work today after two weeks off. We started our holiday in Morcambe as I was doing a Detached training session two weeks ago in Lancaster. The day went well and it reminded me how great committed volunteers can be. I am sure they will establish a strong project.
Three days in Morcombe then across to Doncaster (we know how to holiday!) to see my brother and down to leicestershire for more family. Where we went to Wickstead park and the children went on their first roller coaster. We also bumped into old friends from Brum.
Then a week at home finishing with Lori’s 30ith birthday bash. We had friends come from Birmingham, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Epsom and Nottingham as well as good turn out from locals. It was great so many made the journey and although at times we feel quite isolated here in Somerset I am grateful to have such good friends THANKS to those who made it and those who couldn’t (many of whom I hope to catch up with at the usual trip to Greenbelt). The planned extension to the house is progressing so hopefully by Christmas we will have enough room for people to stay.
Back to work with a bang, but I still have some TOIL (time off in leiu) to take so plan to try and catch up on work but take some more time off around Greenbelt.
Outside the city
Reflections on two conversations; one started at the beginning in Marks gospel(hat tip to Steve new principle of BBC) and one started at the end with the crucifixion (hat tip to Debbie a co worker at CYM).
Marks gospel starts in a different place to the other gospels, in the wilderness. Mark 1 4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region . This wilderness is a spacious and wild place, that no-one owned, things didn’t grow, a place beyond and outside the city. It was this place that God came down. Mark 1 v10 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Then Jesus was then sent further out into the desert. Mark 1 v 12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert
With Debbie we were talking about change and mission, linking to questions about the nature church and what facilitates change; is it about understanding or practice. Do people change in response to seeing something different or through the understanding that can be gained from dialogue.? Obviously there is an element of both but in a church context I think we seek to get people to rethink church through engaging at an understanding level and because we have the sub cultural weakness of evolutionary approach to change (see series of posts starting here) any change will be limited. Debbie’s comment was “remember Jesus was crucified outside the city walls” and change came from; or was motivated from outside.
Now I may be putting two and two together and coming up with six but surely there is a link between the beginning of Mark and Jesus outside the city and the end and Jesus outside the city. What is the significance for ministry and change of Jesus’ approach to remaining outside the city? Maybe it relates to looking for the third way of doing things, maybe (excuse me whilst I go into metaphor mode) it it is about being outside the city with people to discover what God wants you to do (Mark 1) and then getting on with doing it regardless of who in city takes notice or gives permission, going into the city from time to time but knowing that the real action happens outside the city walls.
Insomnia
Sleep seems to be evading me once again. The last few weeks insomnia has been particularly bad. My usual problem is going to bed and sleeping for 2-6 minutes then waking for a couple hours but this has changed to sleeping for maybe 2 hours to then waking for several. Back to the sleep re-conditioning where if I am not asleep within ten minutes I have to get up so I condition my mind into associating the bedroom with sleep only. Sometimes this takes a few weeks of disciplined work but usually works in the end.
Extended Schools
There has been a lot of questions around extended schools, and the opportunities for the volunatry sector. It is one of those discussions that will have whole lot of issues either way. Mark sent me the following quote which raises some of the questions well.
“Not all of this is bad, it says, but the underlying ‘deal’ is
unhealthy. It solves the churches’ loss of identity and role by making
them surrogates for the government (with resulting clashes over human
rights and fairness) and it allows the government to ‘contract out’
welfare provision without addressing underlying questions of injustice
and the rich-poor divide.”
However my general feeling is that extended schools is the first part of a shifting culture towards more voluntary involvement and ownership. The pro’s and con’s of this are debatable but in all probabilty the shift will continue and extended schools is happening already. Therefore we need to consider the challange and recognise the responsibility. If the voluntary sector does not engage I could easily see private enterprise moving in. In the past the christian voluntary sector has been slow to respond and missed opportunities. There is a question about how we engage and promoting good youth work and christian values as part of engagement?
If you want more information on extended schools try a couple of these links:
Schools Training and Development website A good outline that takes you through all the key areas.
NYA Briefing Part of their series looking at various policies with helpful guidance for youth work organisations that what to position themselves for extended provision
Third Sector is short hand for a lot of the direction the government are heading, and their desire to see the voluntarty sector get on board. Check out here for a Speech by Phil Woolas MP to the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) on 22 June 2006 titled FRAMEWORK FOR STRENGTHENING THE THIRD SECTOR’S ROLE IN LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY.
One response is here for a critque from the guardian
More on Love
Maggie posted some great thoughts linked to our earlier strand around love. Check her thoughts out find her blog on the list
Visitors from Planet SWYM
Good to be with you yesterday and I hope you found the training sessions helpful. If you are looking for some of the links, you will find most of the links to the FaSt game and detached notes down the right hand side. There are other links to youth work stuff as well. I haven’t uploaded the emerging church stuff yet but will do so in the next few weeks. However there is already an article on Tacking you may find helpful. If you want more definition or background around the redefinition of what is church there is a series of posts starting here Do feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions or get in touch via email.