All Editorial articles – Page 65
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IssuesStories for the journey
As Premier Youth and Children’s Work launch our new resource, Together, Mark Griffiths explores stories, their power to shape and create, and why they’ll play a central part in our curriculum
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IssuesStaycations
Connecting with children and young people during school holidays has always been a great way to engage with local families. Holiday clubs are often a church’s first point of contact with new people and can be an important step on a journey of faith. While there are benefits in taking groups away, there are also huge advantages to hosting activities in your local area. We have gathered suggestions from across the UK to inspire you with ideas for your own ‘staycation’.
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IssuesThe Big Picture – Flame 2017
The Catholic Youth Ministry Federation’s (CYMfed) Flame Congress 2017 saw almost 10,000 young Catholics from across the country gather at Wembley’s SSE Arena in March. The theme for the day was ‘10,000 reasons’, inspiring each young attendee be a part of 10,000 reasons to believe, hope and pray.
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IssuesFrom the horse’s mouth: “Home is wherever I’m staying; it changes all the time”
Jill Duncan is youth worker at St Andrew’s Church in Abu Dhabi. She interviewed 14-year-old Kathryn about her multicultural and multi-faith upbringing. Kathryn’s favourite hobbies are reading and doing massive jigsaw puzzles.
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IssuesRise in self-harm among boys
Many of our boys aren’t finding healthy outlets for their anxieties and stresses, resulting in a variety of other coping strategies including self-harm, according to new research from The Mix, SelfharmUK, and Young Minds.
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IssuesYCW Investigates: Child Hunger
There are two things (among many) that the Bible is very clear about. First, we need to do all we can to meet the needs of children. Second, it’s not OK to let people go hungry. Recent news has shown that here in the UK we’re struggling with both of these things.
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BlogSchools’ work: Summer term and exam time
Dream: think strategically and with vision about our work in schools.
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Faith at homeMention porn to teens in church
Rachel Gardner spoke with Maria Rodrigues about a new resource for parents to equip them to talk about porn and sexting with their teens. www.youthscape.co.uk
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IssuesLearner Turner: The science of pioneering
I remember the first experiment I ever tried. I was 8 years old at a burger place with my dad, and there was a bank of fizzy drink dispensers on the counter where you could fill up your cup with your choice of beverage. As I headed to the counter the world slowed to a stop as a thought hit my brain. What if I didn’t just get one flavour? What if I got… ALL the flavours? My mind virtually exploded as I considered the possibilities. I calculated quickly. If I only got the drinks that I liked and combined them together, then I would be guaranteed to like the flavour of my new drink. It was logical. It was risky. I was on the edge! With a full body of glee, I filled my cup with no less than four different types of fizzy drink and headed back to my dad, barely able to contain my excitement. That first taste was magic. It was unlike anything else I had ever had before: root beer, Fanta, Dr Pepper and Coke. Exquisite. From then on, I tried everything in pursuit of the best drink in the world. There were a lot of terrible combinations, but 29 years later it is a thing of perfection.
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BlogParable: The bike project
Jack and Jamie were keen volunteers at the bike recycling project. They loved getting an old bike in and giving it a new lease of life. There was nothing better for them than giving a new bike to someone who needed it.
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IssuesIf God forgives everything, does it matter what I do?
Why do we need forgiveness? Christians talk about ‘sin’, which is a bit of a confusing, old-fashioned word. It makes more sense if we look at its original meaning: the Greek word for ‘sin’ came from an archery term meaning ‘to miss the mark’. Sin isn’t just the obvious stuff like murder or stealing, it’s anything that ‘misses the mark’, that falls short of God’s perfect standard. A standard none of us can meet.
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IssuesSamewise: Fun house
Every now and again children’s ministry throws you a curve ball. I’m not talking about the usual stuff that disrupts, like the family who always arrive once you’ve started a key activity or the unreliable nature of attendance which means you really have no way to know how many children will come and what age they are likely to be. Over time we become pretty adept at making last-minute tweaks to accommodate this stuff but still every now again something new happens. I had a new one recently when I arrived on a Sunday morning to set the rooms up, running late as ever, to discover that all the usual furniture was gone and had been replaced with a horseshoe shape of non-stackable chairs centred around a flip chart. Clearly there was a conference due in on Monday morning and the centre we hire for meetings had decided that they wanted to get everything ready on Friday and had forgotten we exist!
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IssuesGames: Residential games
Whether you are going away for a morning, a weekend or even longer, here are some great games to get everyone involved. The first few games take up more time but the ones at the end are some quick and easy games for use in any situation!
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BlogMentoring: Peace
Buy your mentee a cactus. Seriously. In fact, the cactus will arguably be a better mentor than you! It has the privilege of doing what you can’t do: spending vast amounts of time with your mentee, including many of the most intimate and crucial times of all. Granted you can talk and it can’t, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you are a better mentor than this humble desert plant; it definitely listens better than you do.
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IssuesMeeting guide 1: Bae-sics
Meeting aim: To explore a set of key values that help form healthy foundations for relationships, and to explore the values Jesus demonstrated in his own relationships.
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IssuesMeeting guide 2: Blurred lines
Meeting aim: To explore the age-old question, ‘where is the line?’ within sexual boundaries.
