All Editorial articles – Page 112
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Issues
Christy Wimber
In a rare and privileged interview, Youthwork met Christy Wimber – daughter-inlaw of John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement. Continuing his ministry today, Christy speaks all over the world on the gifts of the Spirit, and popped in to share a few pearls of wisdom with us.
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Issues
Christmas Games
Christmas is often perceived as simply being a time of fun, frivolity and food. As youth workers who are interested in the holistic development of the young people we work with, why not battle this inadequate view of what the season is all about by playing these games, which neatly encapsulate fun, frivolity and food. I have included a handy ‘reason-for-the-season’ link for each game too incase you wish to take your group ‘deeper’ into the Christmas story.
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Issues
Ready-To-Use Craft Ideas: Christmas Crafts
It’s that time of year again when we will inevitably find ourselves trying to cram lots more activities into lives that are already very full. The children we work with will be doing loads of Christmas stuff at school and may well be ‘Christmassed out’, especially when it comes to craft. Is there a way we can help youngsters (and ourselves) to focus a bit differently on Christmas – perhaps more on what the Christmas gift of Jesus asks of them this Christmas? Here are three activities, none of which require much preparation.
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IssuesChristmas at Ho-Ho Home
Church services, nativities, Christmas cards…It’s easy to get carried away IN the whirlwind of festive activities on offer. Despite this, most of our early memories of Christmas revolve around family traditions. Jane Butcher gives us her top tips for a creative Christmas at ho-ho-home (sorry, it had to be done).
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Christmas (and Easter) presentations
Christmas and Easter are fabulous times of celebration, and mark major points in the story of God and his people. Most RE syllabuses require schools to explore major religious festivals and it’s hardly rocket science to see that Christians are well placed to link these two facts together! Across the country, that’s exactly what churches have been doing.
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Issues
Ready-to-use Schools Work: The Christmas Truces
An assembly for use in a secondary school based on the December 1914 Christmas truces, to teach that being a Christian is more important than belonging to a nation.
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Issues
Christmas Songs
As Christian knowledge in the UK slowly dwindles, it’s less and less likely that people will know the words to Christmas carols. This makes it hard to use them as illustrations when communicating with people who don’t regularly go to church. There is good news, though. Lots of contemporary Christmas songs are really Christian allegory waiting to be unlocked and used as handy illustrations for your all-age, evangelistic carol service. Here are four secretly Christian Christmas songs, ready to use for your next Christmas assembly.
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IssuesChristmas is for life, not just for Christmas
Christmas is the busiest time of the Church calendar, but how do we take all that energy and enthusiasm and dissipate it throughout the year? Alex Taylor has some ideas…
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IssuesChristmas Games
As I sit here staring out of the window, watching the leaves on the trees turn brown, looking at the conkers spread across the pavement and seeing my Facebook feed fill with back-to-school photos, it can mean only one thing: it’s time to write my column for the Christmas issue. Yes, such are print deadlines that even Tesco would blanch at mentioning the C-word this early in the year, but that is the sacrifice I’m making for you, dear readers.
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IssuesSlaughter at Christmas
We’ve all heard the Christmas story, but in our overfamiliarity, have we missed the dark side of the story? Krish Kandiah explains how the unexamined side of the nativity can influence your children’s work
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IssuesChristmas Journeys
Christmas comes but once a year… yet seems to last for longer and longer each time it comes. It’s easy to get tired of the festival before the day has actually arrived. However, the story is central to our faith so, this Christmas, we’ve decided to provide something a little bit different, to help you and your church community engage with this amazing story in a new way.
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BlogReady-to-use Games and Icebreakers: Christmas Games
Christmas games are always a mixed bag. On the one hand, everyone is so excited by the birth of our saviour / imminent school holiday that you could pretty much put an empty Santa hat in front of them, label it a game, and that would be enough. On the other hand, the need to connect to *cliché klaxon* ‘the reason for the season’ means that more effort is actually required at Christmas than at any other time.
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IssuesHow to Make Christians
In 1975, John Westerhoff changed the landscape of children’s ministry with his book Will our children have faith?. Thirty eight years on, his theory of faith development has changed. Here he writes exclusively for Childrenswork, outlining his new pilgrimage model.
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Report claims Christians ‘exploit’ schools
Christian groups and leaders have responded to a National Secular Society report claiming that evangelistic groups are ‘exploiting’ schools. The report, published in October, mentions a ‘marked increase in the number of parents contacting the National Secular Society with concerns about external visitors to schools exposing their children to unwelcome and wholly inappropriate religious evangelism and proselytization.’ However, nowhere in the report does it specify what is meant by a ‘marked increase’.
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Issues
Scottish school of Christian mission
The ICC (International Christian College) has become the Scottish School of Christian Mission (SCCM).
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IssuesHow should the Christian community support trans kids?
In the same week as Louis Theroux’s documentary Transgender Kids hit our screens, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, the UK’s only centre specialising in gender identity issues among under-18s, revealed that referrals to its services have quadrupled in the past five years. The number of under-11s referred to the unit has risen from 19 in 2009-10 to 77 in 2014-15.
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BlogChristian festivals - a kid’s perspective
Many of us have visited Christian festivals across the country over the last few months but what are these events like for children? Do they encounter God? Are they excited about returning or do they just begrudgingly tag along because we’re already there? Hannah Cooper spoke to her little sister about experiencing a Christian festival as a young girl…
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BlogThe Christian man of the future - a response
Carl Beech's article on the Christian man of the future (which you can read here) has provoked responses from across the theological and sociological spectrum. Premier Childrenswork's co-editor Sam Donoghue responds to some of the criticism, and shares his thoughts.
