All Editorial articles – Page 72
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BlogYOUTH SURVEY RESULTS
Last summer, in our one-off youth focused edition, we included a survey to be completed by young people - about faith, youth group and church. The survey covers predominantly Christian young people, as to hear about the survey they would have needed to be in contact with a Christian youth worker in some form. Here are the headline findings from the 293 young people surveyed.
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BlogYOUTH WORK SURVEY RESULTS
The following statistics are an amalgamation of two separate surveys of youth workers. The first was carried out among youth workers at Soul Survivor, and the second by Cafe Leadership's Andy Burns. Here are the significant findings.
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BlogResident-Hell: More Stories
Over the years, we’ve seen some amazing examples of how God has redeemed even the worst youth trips away – we documented some of these stories in March’s Resident-Hell article and here’s another example of a positive outcome that a youth worker recently sent in:
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Issues
Time for a renaissance
When I reflect on the last quarter-century of youth work, there are lessons that I keep learning, lessons that I should have learned and lessons that if I don’t learn soon then I’m really in trouble! I’ve learnt that you can’t give away what you don’t have. Your own spiritual life and the investment you put in are more important than anything else you say or do. If you haven’t got anything real, then what’s the whole thing about? Young people smell that inauthenticity in a second. I’m constantly reminded by that. I’ve also learnt to be prepared to take risks to innovate. Culture is changing so fast. It’s so easy to become settled in your assumptions about young people, settled in your methods and settled in your theology. I don’t think we live in an era when we can afford to be settled in any one of those.
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IssuesRecruiting Volunteers
Finding and keeping your volunteers is one of the most important tasks of a youth worker. Chris Curtis sheds some light on the process and suggests ways of building a healthy and lasting volunteer team.
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IssuesXLP receives royal visit
Urban youth charity XLP welcomed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to meet with and hear from some of the young people they work with.
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BlogDo we realise who we are?
Martin Saunders started this year on the blog calling for a radical shift in youth work, and this was followed by Ali Campbell who called from a radical shift in how we view discipleship, challenging us to adopt a discipleship of imitation, giving our young people something to imitate. But, Andy Wilson asks, what is it we are giving young people to imitate?
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Issues
The real ‘youth service’
When I first worked for a church, people used to talk about the ‘youth service’. By this they meant a church service led by the young people. I think we have made huge ground over the years in beginning to understand that the rest of the world uses the term ‘youth service’ to mean something completely different. It’s not a religious service that takes place in our church building on a Sunday night once a month: it’s how we get involved with local services and become part of the service that’s offered to young people across a town. One of the huge changes for me over the years is becoming so much more involved in delivering youth services to young people in the communities where we work. I don’t see that as separate to, or unconnected to, the work we do in building a youth group within a church.
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IssuesReady-to-use: Water Works!
The law of averages is sadly no guarantee that we will have a hot and sunny summer (even though we may feel we’re well over-due!) However on the optimistic basis that we’ve been predicted a ‘BBQ summer’ so many times that we may as well assume one is on its way, here are a collection of water based games, perhaps ideally suited for a themed evening in collaboration with some other local groups. And heck, even if its not sunny or warm, let’s face it, a water fight night is guaranteed to be a load of fun...
