jonnybaker

shalom

shalom - conference for youth workers working with young people at risk

kore

kore is a new website, care of matt and juls hollidge. i remember sitting in the scooter cafe hearing their ideas about it a couple of years back. it's a very neat looking site. their passion is equipping the church creatively with resources and helping with training. the likes of proost's jon birch and andi mac have helped contribute resources/media. there's lots on there. go and explore....

sophia network new site

jenny launched the sophia network and has put a ton of hours into it over the last eighteen months. the network exists to connect women in youth work and ministry, to access training, develop skills and share wisdom. 

it had it's own web site running under a content management system but following the redesign of my blog at the start of the year jenny asked if i thought it would work to run the sophia site in a similar way. that conversation got me helping. jenny created the structure conceptually then i have designed the site. the animated walking woman took the most time - i shot a video of a julian opie installation in new york and grabbed and cropped some stills from that and turned it into an animated gif. 

i think the site is a pretty good example of how powerful a tool typepad can be for not just running a blog but creating a web site with it's ability to create pages and so on. it's the first time i've tried creating a bar of buttons along the top and i had to mess around a little with the style sheet but it was all easy enough and i really am not a web designer.

the TWO PIECES OF BIG NEWS are

• 1. that when sophia launched it cost you money to join but now thanks to fund raising efforts and wanting to be generous it's FREE to join. so if you are a woman involved in youth ministry go and join! the events are all in the uk but it's open to anyone. the membership section is still running under the old site but i think the plan is to shift that at some point to a social network like ning.
• 2. the articles used to be available to members only but are now available to anyone including us men :-) so add the feed or follow along however you do. it's worth taking a bit of time to scroll back through. i loved this article by jen bouncing back on some of the nonsense that's around in the church on gender in certain circles (nonsense in my view that is ;-) ) rediscovering heart . also by jen is a fantastic piece on women and men in ministry if you need to do a bit of thinking about some of the passages in the bible that trip people up. it's a long piece so get a coffee/wine and take your time. there is a lot of stuff there. one i hadn't come across is this piece by sally nash - reading the bible as a woman - wow! you've got to read it. it includes this piece by nicola slee

Speaking of silence:  a reproach
The sounds of women’s silence run deep
Let us attune our ears to the sounds of women’s silence,
to attend and listen to what is not said,
what has never been said,
what is only now beginning to be said.
Let this silence cry aloud in our ears,
let it resound and reverberate inside our heads,
let it deafen our whole being with a colossal roar.

This silence is eloquent, articulate of women’s pain and women’s lives.
It is compelling, hypnotic, fearful, overwhelming.
It speaks louder than words.
It utters volumes of speech.
It drowns out all other language.

Where are the women in our history, in our heritage?
Where are the stories of our women heroes, mystics, leaders and teachers?
Who will guide the footsteps of our daughters?
born today into a deafening silence about their ancestors, about themselves?

So many women’s voices have been lost in the pages of history,
erased and blotted out and passed over in silence
by the rulers of patriarchy, the makers of culture.
So few have survived in the pages,
and their stories have so often been ignored,
trivialized, marginalized, distorted.

We want to hear the sounds of our foremothers’ voices.
We want to listen to our grandmothers’ tales.
We want to speak the name of our sisters who came before us.
We need to hear their stories,
we need to hear their voices,
to hear and know who we are.

jen had done an amazing job with sophia - it's exciting to see it develop

church on the edge

richard passmore has posted notes and slides from a talk he gave at exeter diocese. he is one of our best missiologists in youth ministry in my view. he comes at thing totally through a mission lens. i realise i like that as it's what i try to do. but it's worth a read of his notes. they are long so get a coffee and sit down and take your time...

50 worship ideas - new book from jenny baker

congratulations to jenny (baker) on her new book that was launched at the youthwork conferences this weekend. it contains 50 worship ideas which are a mix of prayer, meditation, ritual, worship experiences, contemplative exercises and reading the bible. several have been tried and tested at grace. whilst pitched at youth it's actually a book that will work across ages if you like a creative approach to worship. as ever with jenny it's brilliant! it's available through proost.co.uk for £9. look in the books section of the site...

cms youth team in the phillipines

the cms youth team are currently in the phillipines visiting the lees who work with street children in the jigsaw project. the youth team are filming and gathering stories for the forthcoming world to rights tour. they are blogging about the visit here and there is a photo set here

breakout and summer soiree mix

off to breakout this weekend, the national weekend for methodist young people, where i'll be leading an evening worship experience on saturday and a sunday morning communion. cntrst, twotone and dubb are my team - should be fun...

cntrst (joel) has a new mix online if you want to hear his latest tune selection - a summer soiree covering 41 tracks in under an hour. click on the image to link to the listing...

youthwork international launches

youthwork international is a new magazine for youth ministry. the ever entrepreneurial steve griffiths is the content development editor. it has a good look and feel. to access the content you have to sign up but that is free. the smart move on the site is that it means they will develop a database of youthministers - but signing up is a small price to pay for good content especially if it's free. i assume demonstrating a number of subscribers will mean advertisers will buy in and other creative ways to make the site work economically can be explored such as getting people to link in to training options...

but see what you think. i haven't read any articles yet but like the simple idea of news from different countries and the flags on the home page picking out one feature. i hope the board quickly changes representation to become much more international and gender balanced. that page is embarrassing though glad to see the photo of pete ward i took in princeton has resurfaced as it is so flattering!

european youth ministry in the snow

i teach youth ministry for cym (one module) and as part of that am a member of the iasym. it's a professional body with an international conference every two years and publishes a journal of applied theology and youth ministry [if you teach youth ministry you should join...]

anyway that's all by way of saying that i am currently at the first european iasym conference in josefstal, germany. i really had no idea where i was coming to other than flying to munich - i hadn't got round to looking it up. so it has been a wonderful surprise to be in an amazing location in the alps in bavaria. the day before we arrived there was a big snowfall which has made it look magical.

the conference is a chance for people in the association to present research or thinking that they have been working on and then we talk about it. we had a sneak preview of pete ward's next book which looks like it will be really interesting (out in october) on 'a practical theology for the liquid church'. richard passmore and i presented some thoughts on church on the edge. there are people here from holland, norway, denmark, sweden, scotland, holland, belgium, slovenia, germany and probably a few other places i've forgotten.

anyway, that's why the blog is a bit quiet...

have added a few snowy pics to flickr

movie clips

wingclips.com is a company who have created a database of movie clips you can download to use to illustrate talks etc. and if you use the medium resolution version its free. i guess this could be handy if you are involved in youth work. if you like it you can subscribe and get high resolution clips

shooting jesus - easter resource

cms and the diocese of london have collaborated together to produce a new schoools resource for easter. this is partly inspired by the change of holidays meaning schools are still in action in holy week.

dennis morris, a photographer who toured with the sex pistols, was invited to give easter a visual makeover. the resulting images are pretty unusual and contemporary. they form part of a schools resource pack and the good news is you can download the images and pack free from cms! if you want a hard copy you can buy it from the cms shop.

congrats to ben bell, bob mayo, anita matthews, russell price and jenny baker who are the people i know who worked on it. i'm sure there were some others at the diocese end as well. the resource is aimed at 7-11 year olds. and as you'll work out if you download the resource, churches in the london diocese get sent a box of artefacts and so on to out on the workshops. you'll need to improvise if you are not in the london diocese...

if you use the images with young people (or anyone esle) i'd love to hear how they go down, how you use them and what connects or doesn't...

i'm making these images worship trick 25, series 3

norway

norway, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

i had my first visit to norway this week. as i hoped the ground was covered in snow. i was only there for a very short visit teaching youth ministry on the SALT course which is for danish and norweigen students and fortunately for me is taught in english. i managed a visit into oslo at night and took some photos and there was a frozen fjord at the seminary so this boat is on that. anyway i have added a slide set norway of 20 photos to flickr. i'd love to go back for a longer visit to what must be an amazingly beautiful country...

going with the flow - church on the edge

one of the projects i am involved with supporting is church on the edge. the basic idea is to explore some of the ideas around emerging church but amongst young people and in rural areas (a lot of the emerging church stuff seems to happen in and around cities). richard passmore is the creative drive behind the project. he is one of the uk's radical youth workers and missiologists, always willing to push the edge and very passionate about keeping mission at the heart of what we do.

this wiki site has been set up to track the project so do follow along if you are interested.  the about section explains the process. richard has blogged about various stages in it on his blog. one of the really interesting things he observed with the group of skaters he is working with was that they talked about 'flow' as a concept of feeling alive/wonder. so richard has explored this notion of flow with them. these two pieces: in the beginning was the flow and abs and flow are really good and we had some great discussion around them on monday on the cym course i teach on in oxford on monday this term. gospel and culture is an exciting creatuve area always in mission...

revisiting relational youth ministry

i have just read andrew root's revisiting relational youth ministry. it really is an excellent book. if you teach youth ministry or are doing it or both i suggest you get a copy. his main argument/point/passion is that relationships are not a means to achieve an end goal. they are valuable in and of themselves. to make them about influence (i.e. a means to influence people) cheapens them. this may sound obvious when you say it but as he argues relational youth ministry is often guilty of being a means to an end.

now i must diverge slightly at this point to clarify terms. relational youthwork in the uk has been a term that has been around for quite a while. there were some relational youthwork gatherings maybe 15 or 20 years ago that explored an approach to working with young people that were outside the reaches of the church - the terminology probably shifted to incarnational at a later stage. but this was all about being there alongside and with young people. this book would have been welcomed in those circles i am sure. but andrew picks out some examples from california of what he sees as being called relational youth ministry that is this influence driven approach and it is something completely different. this is going to make this book complicated to cross the atlantic which is a shame. the relational youthwork he describes has a very negative stance towards culture and it's just worlds apart form what has been called relational here. in fact i couldn't understand as a piece of research how he has got away with talking to just 5 youthworkers in one location to build his argument but i guess it was originally a phd or something. in the introduction he says he will show how incarnational ministry has been built from the pillars of cultural engagement.... etc but it badly needs some much more substantial research to carry more weight. it's also a shame he doesn't dialogue with the material written at that earlier time  (e.g. the book called relational youthwork). all of that sounds a bit negative but it is important from a uk perspective.

but having said that the argument goes something like this...
(after two opening chapters tracing the historical development of relational youth ministry in the US that you might want to skim read if you are not in the US)
the evangelical world that youth ministry grew up in has a negative view of culture broadly speaking and part of the role of youth ministry in that world is to influence young people positively by modeilling something different for them and persuading them to join an 'in' group by converting and finding their identity in that sub culture. relationships influence them in that direction. (pete ward's insights about evangelical youth ministry running under the logic of safety - youth minister's are employed to keep kids safe - has some parallels here)  this has very little in fact to do with the incarnation even though the word incarnation gets used.

root then uses bonhoeffer (bonhoeffer is really his only theological source) to suggest that the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of christ could give a theological framework for understanding relational youth ministry as 'place sharing'. god is already active and present in the world - we don't need to relocate somewhere else to find god. relationships are the presence of god in the world - transcendent - rather than an end to a third thing. the goal is simply to be faithful to the humanity of the young person who is of course made in the image of god. the crucifixion means that we should follow christ by being prepared to both suffer and share in the suffering of the young person. the resurrection means that in that encounter there is always the possibility for newness though it is not forced.

it reminded me of a quote that cathy ross used at grace last week on hospitality from henri nouwen:

Hospitality… means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.  Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. 

so transformation is longed for, hoped for, prayed for - that we all become more human. but it is not forced on anyone...

there are some case studies/stories at the end that are helpful to show how this works and then a suggestion for how a church might develop a ministry that encourages adults and young people to develop these kind of relationships. andrew himself has done one to one relational work with tough young people and the book seems to be born out of that experience. the skill to develop relationships of depth and trust and vulnerability is not an easy one and takes a maturity on the part of youth ministers.

anyway it's a good book even if the semantics are confusing for uk readers. i did find it a helpful challenge on what we mean when we describe ministry as incarnational - that patterning it on jesus isn't enough.

this is a typical blog post for me in that i have to write something quickly having read the book or i know i'll never get round to it. but it could be a whole lot better (my review that is) if i took more time that i don't have! i have just looked andrew up to add a hyperlink above and realise we have met a few years back at an iasym conference - great book andrew if you read this...

i'd be interested to hear what anyone else thinks if you have read it...

anorexic mirror

this is a hard hitting ad on anorexia - might be a good discussion starter if you are in youth ministry

so the year gets into action

so after a gentle ease back into catching up on e-mails and so on last week, this week feels like there won't be much room to breathe as everything gets going...

i start teaching a module on mission for the centre for youth ministry degree course in oxford monday and am then back for a grace planning meeting in the evening
into the office tuesday to catch up and play my first game of sqaush for years (exercise to get fit after christmas!) followed by the first meeting of the year in the evening of the ealing LIP group
down to bath on the wednesday to plot the year ahead for proost
meet 20 students from calvin college on thursday followed by coffee/lunch with pete rollins who is in town and then preparation for fri and sat
then friday i am speaking at jane foster smith's funeral, a friend who died over christmas. i have never spoken at a funeral so this is both a privilege and highly scary. and advice or prayer welcome.
and saturday i teach on the mission shaped ministry course at chelmsford and get back in time for the first grace of the year visits .

so there may not be a lot of blogging or photos this week!

speaking of the first grace of the year come and join us if you are around. cathy ross, a friend from cms who runs the mission education centre will be out guest speaker as we draw our thoughts on hospitality to a close and explore the visit of the magi and their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. here's the  flyer

nywc video loops free - worship trick 20

i noticed via marko that youth specialties have made available the videos they used at the nywc for free download. it includes a family tree from adam to jesus that may come in handy for advent, a 360 panoramic loop of london in the day shot from the top of st pauls cathedral i assume, and some amusing church signs... i am adding them as a worship trick as i am sure they'll be useful in worship at some point!...

cms youth team in freetown

the cms youth team are currently in freetown as the finale of their year long tour of free for all. they have a couple of blog posts of the trip so far...

how will you find god in the music? - worship trick 17

tim sent me an e-mail about an evening he created for the young people he works with in ohio. it's a really simple idea (that actually also must have taken hours to put together!)...

come up with a playlist of songs that connect with both the music your young people are into and that connect with spiritual themes in some way or open up questions. send them the playlist so they can burn it onto their mp3 players (you may need a few spare). then create a booklet/postcards or something to accompany the songs and invite the young people to seek god in the music using the booklet to jot down their thoughts/reflections. the worship experience is simply that - they sit down or walk around and listen. tim created a graphic page with comments and questions for each song. they are listed in a series of 14 posts on his blog. this is the first so just click through from there. an example of the image with a track i know is UNKLE burn my shadow away

sounds like it went really well. i can imagine harry (my 15 year old) loving this kind of thing. we could try it at grace some time though there is a range of tastes in music so it might be a challenge. this may be a really obvious thing to say but it strikes me as really important to use music that young people listen to and not a load of christian music tracks - the whole point is helping them find god in the everyday and not in the christian subculture (not to mention which music is better ;-) ). anyway nice one tim...

sophia network

congratulations to jenny who has been working hard over the last few months with 5 friends to realise a dream of starting the sophia network, a network for women youth ministers. the network was launched at the youthwork conferences in eastbourne and southport. the aims are...

to celebrate women in youth work and ministry, what we have achieved and what we are contributing to the kingdom of God. We want to increase the visibility of women in youth work, making the wider church aware of the fantastic work that women are doing. The Sophia Network will enable women in youth work to connect with each other, share skills and experiences and offer encouragement and support.

it costs £20 to join but there is an offer of buy one get one free until the end of december so sign up (if you are a woman) and invite a friend. i think this is a brilliant idea and hope it goes really well. there are some photos of the launch here.