All NexGen Pro articles – Page 119
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IssuesThe Last Word: How I changed my mind
I had convinced myself that I was speaking the truth; whether it was spoken ‘in love’ or not, speaking the truth was the thing leaders were supposed to do. But the young woman in my office started crying, and something tipped sideways in my self-analysis.
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BlogHow a mission week changed my life
Is short-term mission really worth the effort? Do mission weeks accomplish what they set out to do? XLP’s CEO Patrick Regan shares his thoughts
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IssuesThe training course that changed my life
Anyone who has been through children’s ministry training knows that it provides a solid grounding for full-time children’s work. Courses provide students with new ideas, practical skills and helpful guidance, as well as a strong theological foundation. But training in this area offers much, much more than this. As well as acquiring knowledge, there is often a learning of habits, a changing of perspectives and even a transformation of character. The courses’ application to both head and heart helps to set children’s workers up, not only for their work, but for life. Even those who decide not to go into full-time children’s ministry find the training incredibly helpful. Former and current children’s workers across the country got in touch to share their experiences.
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IssuesHow a Residential Changed My Life
Taking your youth group away can feel harder than an expedition to Mars. But it’s worth it. We hear from five young people whose lives were changed dramatically on a trip with their youth group.
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Faith at homePeriods of change
Change is a constant part of our lives - new school, new church, new baby, new step-parent, new church group, even new shoes! This autumn, we moved house from the country farm house where my children were born to a house on a street in a villagey-suburb. I knew it would be a big change for us all, and especially for the children who hadn’t really chosen the change, which makes things harder. I wanted to find ways to help make it as smooth as possible, but when I searched for things to help our family transition well, I found surprisingly few resources. I’m not a transition expert, but I thought it might be helpful to share some of the things I found and some I used to help us make this big move. I hope they inspire you that change can be done well and can be faith enhancing.
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IssuesKnife Crime: A change in culture
On the 14th September, more than 100 young people marched from the Aylesbury estate in Southwark to Steedman Street, where their friend, Mohammed ‘Moe’ Dura-Ray, was murdered. Flowers were laid, candles lit and prayers said close to the murder scene. Moe is not the first young person I know who has been stabbed and killed on the Aylesbury estate, nor was this the first time Moe had been stabbed
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Issues
Negative Stereotypes Hurt Teenagers' Job Chances
Over three quarters of teenagers believe that negative portrayals in the media are hurting their job prospects.
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BlogChampioning Schools Workers
Schools work has become a central part of youth work. Schoolswork UK's Jenni Osborn shares we she thinks it is becoming more and more important.
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Issues
Games Master: Party Challenges
This issue I’m going to do something different. Rather than games, I’m going to cover challenges. I’ve found that these can work very well
when you have a lot of kids but not a lot of space. Split your hall into various stations and at each station have a challenge. Then split the kids into teams with about five children in each team. Ideally you’d have the same number of teams as stations but it doesn’t matter if you have fewer teams. (If you have one more team than stations set up an extra drinks break station.) Give each team a minute to understand
and practise each challenge, and then three minutes to do as well as they can at each one. Rotate the team around the stations after each period. To find out the overall winner, give each team a point for the position they finish in at each station (best at that challenge = one point, second best = two points, etc), and the team with the fewest overall points wins. Emphasise in all the challenges that they should be working as a team. The challenges may seem easy but when you see the panic every time you call ‘ten seconds left!’ you’ll know it’s working well! -
Issues
Opportunities and challenges
During my era there were masses of volunteer youth workers and most of them were passionate about one thing and that was the gospel. They had a view that the only reason we did this was because we were gospel people. Then we put some qualifications into youth work, which was the right thing to do and really positive, but what happened was that a number of churches would employ a youth worker and they would come from a far broader perspective of holistic youth ministry and sometimes lost the intentionality of gospel.
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BlogReady-to-use Mentoring: Invitation and Challenge
A couple of years ago I was drafted in to help a rural youth work trust with a couple of youth groups and drop-ins – the leader had stepped down from the groups because it was clearly not working for him or the young people…
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Issues
A new challenge
The schools’ work page has taken on a new format. We will be featuring three sections: ‘dream’, ‘develop’ and ‘do’, all themed under one theme. Each box has its own purpose.
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IssuesQ & A : Steve Chalke
Last month, Steve Chalke, founder and leader of Oasis Trust, surprised many youth workers by saying that churches shouldn’t employ youth workers straightaway and that young people ‘don’t have any money to tithe, and smash the toilets up, contribute nothing and use all the resources’. He spoke to editor Jamie Cutteridge about these comments and how to build sustainable youth work
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IssuesMatthew Reed : CEO, The Children's Society
In 19th century Dickensian Britain, poor children had two choices: begging on the streets or going to the workhouse. Edward Rudolph, a Sunday School teacher, felt there had to be a better way. 133 years ago he founded The Church of England Central Home for Waifs and Strays, which ran children’s homes all over the UK. Today, The Children’s Society has a different name and its work looks different, but its core value – that every child is unique and should be given the opportunity to become the adult they were meant to be – remains unchanged. While today’s children living in poverty might not be in the workhouse, many thousands are going to school cold and hungry. Sam Donoghue meets Matthew Reed, the current CEO, to find out what is being done.
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BlogA day in the life of : Tim Gough, Youth Centre Director
In this week's 'a day in the life of' blog, Tim Gough, centre director of Youth For Christ Llandudno in North Wales, shares some short anecdotes and gives us an insight into his typical Thursday
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IssuesCelebrity couples
Sometimes events in the news are so cataclysmic that the very fabric of the space-time continuum feels punctured. Other times, the news builds up stories to suggest that the space-time continuum has been irreparably ripped - last month, Brad Pitt’s and Angelina Jolie’s divorce got the space-time treatment, becoming seemingly the only story capable of knocking The Great British Bake Off off the front pages. In an age where divorce seems more common than ever, why is this still a big story? (Not to underestimate how damaging any given separation is to the family and those surrounding them). Despite decades of evidence warning us against it, we continue to put our faith in celebrity couples, and have our collective hearts broken when it all goes wrong.
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IssuesChildren view parents, not celebrities, as role models
A study has found that seven out of ten children see their parents as role models, with only 8% of children citing celebrities such as Justin Bieber and One Direction as their heroes.
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BlogNew Christians at Soul Survivor – Stop doubting and celebrate!
It’s easy for numbers of new Christians to wash over us, but fortunately Will Jackson is on hand to remind us of the lives changed this summer…
