As promised here Coal Miner’s Daughter movie full is the file from the session today. If you want to discuss any points or have any questions feel free to leave them as comments and I will respond. You may also like to check out the articles particularly the Tacking church which links with the session today. There are also a variety of other resources related to todays sessions including info the FaSt game, and redefinitions of church.
The Government has announced the first wave of 40 Respect Areas. The Department for Education and Skills is investing a further £6 million for parenting classes in the 40 areas in 2007/2008.
‘Raising inter-agency working to a higher level’
The National Association of Connexions Partnerships are being funded through the Children’s Workforce Development Council to run four one-day conferences for the different occupational groups who work with young people. It will be a chance for practitioners to reflect on the implications of the ‘integrated working’ agenda and have conversations with colleagues.
Futurebuilders England, the government-backed investment fund to help the third sector deliver better public services, is running a series of free regional roadshow events for regional infrastructure bodies to help build understanding of how Futurebuilders works and how to help others to apply for investment.
Votes at Sixteen
Jo Swinson (LD, East Dunbartonshire) has put down an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to allow a free vote on giving people over the age of 16 the right to vote.
Another thing I won’t be able to attend but a good conference for full time youth workers. The Matrix is here
and if you have not been before or were not sure sounds like a good line up and worth the time and effort. You know when you reach that point and are not sure if you have the energy to go and listen to someone else talk but feel it would be good and could do with a pick me up ….well Iain Hoskins who I work with at Bristol CYM is one of the key note speakers, and is a great communicator I find listening to him better than a crispy toasted cheese sandwhich after a freezing night on detached work. And I dont mean dull cheese on toast but when you take out the grill bit and grill the cheese in the pan till it goes brown and crispy and you have to prise it off then slap it between two bits of bread with mayo. Never tried it well try the Matrix as well!
freedom to flourish
200 years since the abolision of the transatlantic slave trade how do we express freedom in Christ today?
Take time out to think about how today’s youth worker can help to continue to make an impact on the lives of young people.the matrix 2007 will examine through four averarching themes the role of the youth worker
…. as theologian
…. as leader
…. as missionary
…. as prophet
This will enable you to develop as a youth worker, drawing on the theological and socialogical perspectives. There will be space for personal reflection, dialogue with other practitioners, relaxation, laughter and focussing on God.
Organised by:
Churches Together in England
Baptist Union of Great Britain
Centre for Youth Ministry
United Reformed Church
The Church of England
Frontier Youth Trust
Youth for Christ
Scripture Union
AMAZE
YWAM
YMCA
MAYC
CYFA
Bristol CYM is hosting Pete Rollins in March, unfortunatly it is smack in the middle of when the baby is due so it is unlikly I will be able to attend. I have heard Pete speak twice and read his book and blog, and am really impressed by what he has to say. There are a few people who are saying anything that new, but Pete does bring a challenging paradigm of thinking and I think he is one of the people we really need to listen to. Find the flyer here
and come and hear, engage and question.
Great post over on youthblog on Whose the Daddy? using the metaphor of fatherhood to look at churches approaches to young people.
Following on from my previous post on theology and control I have been thinking about the type of resources we need to ensure that our thinking is not restricted or controlled and yet linked with the wisdom of the past. A basic model many use is the triangle of Culture, Scripture, and Tradition. However my practice encounters recently have challenged this and I wonder if the pull of theological norms that come from the traditions are too powerful. As I further reflected I was drawn into thinking about personal change and if this change is to be real and lasting how this stems from self awareness.
Now I have a conundrum in that I am more aware of the issue and the pull of the theological norm, but also aware of my own desire for change and self tendencies to push for this. There is an issue for me in the static nature of theological norms verses the dynamic nature of scripture. Whilst I recognise that tradition does change and evolve it is more gradual, whist culture is far more dynamic. Can scripture be a way to hold the tension and what role does self awareness play? It is bit like all three (Scripture, Tradition, Culture) are moving at different pace and yet I am also moving, so in order to do justice to the model I need to aware of my own tendency for change and this desire, and make sure that this does not mean I make too many jumps in my thinking (which would be easy as I am emerged in the fast moving culture) but work harder on the tradition to slow me down and the surplus in scripture to hold the tension.
Another issue for me is a growing awareness of how modernist and logical this approach is, which in itself causes me issues around control as I firmly believe that by working with different disciplines and traditions and engaging in mission progress is made and God moves in paradigm changing ways rather than in a gradual process (see redefining church
) and that borrowing from different perspectives other than the christian tradition and reflecting this with scripture can help us see the changes needed. Yet this often leads to orthopraxis and the logic and knowledge base takes time to catch up.
New occupational and professional standards for youth work consultation – events NCVYS is holding two free events this month to discuss the New Occupational and Professional Standards for Youth Work, currently being developed by the Sector Skills Council Lifelong Learning UK. Events will be held in London and Birmingham; book online here.
I have been at the IASYM conference for the past few days and whilst hearing some good stuff and having some great conversations, it has raised issues for me around the academic paradigm and theology as a tool for control and reinforced some questions I had around Grenz and Franke model for re-imagining within a triangle of Tradition, Culture and Scripture. Andrew Root presented a paper looking at christopraxis, and how this takes place within a bracket – on one side Theological and Biblical Norms and on the other side a cultural perspective (that any action must not do harm to another person) so you seek to work out the will of God for a given situation swinging between the brackets. You can download the papers here. Whilst I agree in part with the brackets (the cultural perspective which I link with orthopraxis) the question for me is how these models can restrict change through a restriction of the heretical imperative or the surplus in the theological text, because this is outside the theological side of the bracket. Can we widen the bracket as there is no one theological norm or tradition. How can we protect the imaginative practice and creativity and give this space and do theology?
I know this may be a slightly confused post but I hope you get the idea
The advent reflections James posted helped me prepare for Christmas and now my thoughts move the the birth of our baby due in March. I am left thinking thinking how do I prepare myself for this event. The practicalities seem to dominate, not least because we are having an extension built on the house, loosing the kitchen for a while, so the house is in chaos. In many ways this disorder provides me with impetus to find peace and solace, yet this is a place of refuge for me rather than a place to explore my feelings, to think how to prepare myself for the birth of our baby, or to confront my inner life and break up my fallow ground. To find the inner reserves to move from the chaos through the place of refuge towards the fallow ground, is a challenge that I will need all three months till March to confront.
I have been working on a project with some skaters and bikers in chard around getting lights and a path put in at the skate park. Yesterday at short notice the local paper wanted pictures. Whilst I dont keep record of young peoples mobile numbers, the fact they did have them made life easier. As soon as I saw one young person on the street they sent the word around and we had a good crowd within 20 minutes. The idea of being front page helped but it also meant I wasn’t going around rounding people up, and if I had not seen anyone we would have missed a really good opportunity.
As a rule I have not kept yp mobile numbers as recommended by some recent good practice guidelines, but it would make life easier. I amwondering if we should change the policy and am considering asking for consent to have the details once the young people are at stage 6 in the detached process. I wonder if with the ad hoc nature of detached projects there is more of a case. If there are other detached workers out there it would be know your policy.