All NexGen Pro articles – Page 102
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Issues
Editorial
Sat in a sweltering upper room in Manchester last month, there was a sense in the air that we were hearing something very important. As Kenda Creasy Dean unpacked her research findings and explored the key principles of lasting faith formation – some of it documented in her book Almost Christian, some of it so fresh that it hadn’t been published – we, the attendees of Youth Work Summit Intensive, hung on her every word.
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Issues
Editorial
There is a lot of talk about family ministry and faith at home in the world of children’s work at the moment. We have a seen a shift in emphasis away from church and towards home as a primary driver of the discipleship of children. This seems obvious, but it is proving remarkably difficult to think about how to support faith at home when the culture of family life is changing so fast and is so unrecognisable from a generation ago.
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Issues
Editorial
I remember the first time I was asked by my youth leader to speak at youth group. This was a big moment. I worked all week on a talk that was going to bring the group to its collective knees and spark revival in Worcester. It had everything: anecdotes, truth, a surprising twist and a finish straight into worship that Hillsong would be proud of.
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Issues
Editorial
I’m pretty terrible at caring about stuff. Well, that’s not strictly true. I’m brilliant at getting agitated and annoyed about things going on in the world. I’m pretty terrible at doing anything about it. At my worst, I’m that 21st century caricature of a keyboard warrior who spouts angry nonsense on Twitter, without being willing to do anything about. I am the slacktivist the media warned you about.
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Issues
Editorial
One side effect of editing this magazine is occasionally being asked about the current ‘trends’ in youth ministry. ‘Jamie,’ these inquisitive youth workers ask, ‘You’re well-connected, you chat to people… what’s going on in the world of youth ministry?’ For my first few months in the job I’d mumble something along the lines of: ‘There’s a definite need to change… Is youth ministry really working? There are some really interesting things happening… It’s exciting to see people trying new things… But more importantly what do you see as the next big thing?’
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Issues
Editorial
Let’s be real for a few minutes here: sometimes youth work sucks. Sometimes the feeling of being responsible for youth ministry in a church, where you also want to go for support and fellowship is a total nightmare. Sometimes congregations forget that you’re a human being in need of love and community and instead see you as some kind of youth ministry vending machine, ready to dispense sage wisdom at a touch of the right button.
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Issues
Editorial
I was recently walking through the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral and saw a poster which caught my attention. It was made up of lots of sentences about stories. And there, in the corner was a quote that has been running around my mind ever since. The phrase, a Neil Gaiman-warping of G. K. Chesterton, read, ‘Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.’
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IssuesMindset issue: editorial
It is a rare privilege when people working in emotional health get to guest edit a main stream magazine…
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Issues
Editorial
I’m a pretty argumentative person. Sometimes I’ll argue because I genuinely believe I’m right (often about politics, specific interpretations of scripture or the correct way to pronounce ‘gif’). Sometimes I’ll argue to play devil’s advocate (often about politics, specific interpretations of scripture or how to pronounce ‘gif’). And then there’s the other times: the times I just try to incite others into arguments.
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Issues
Editorial
A group of youth workers asked me recently what my biggest failure in youth ministry was. Sometimes you wait a while before answering a question because you’re struggling to find an answer; other times it’s a case of narrowing down all the possibilities and finding the right one. Unsurprisingly, in this instance it was the latter…
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Issues
Editorial
It was all going wrong… one child was trying to get out of the fire escape, another was about to douse themselves in some terribly weak, church orange squash™ and approximately 50 per cent of the group weren’t listening. My attempt at story-telling was not only going wrong, it was doing so in spectacular, room-ruining fashion.
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IssuesEditorial
I love to read something that surprises me. That’s why I enjoyed reading David Csinos’ debut Childrenswork article, ‘Spirituality with Style’. As he talks about his own youth, the children’s spirituality expert draws a picture that may be unfamiliar for many of us. You see, as a child, David loved nothing more than watching the ‘sights, sounds, smells, textures and tastes’ of the Catholic mass his family attended. In fact, he recalls, he ‘coerced my family to sit in the front pew… so that I could have the best view in the house.’ I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound a lot like my own childhood experiences of church, nor does it resonate with how my own children seem to engage with services.
