Culture

Supporting a child who has been abused
2024-02-20T13:21:00+00:00By Jules Loveland
Are you clear about what you would do?
Famous online? Helping your child navigate the allure of social media
2024-01-16T08:03:00+00:00By Louise Irwin
Which social media do you find most attractive?
Imaginative ways of celebrating Jesus’ birth, without fearing the credit card bill in January
2023-12-20T14:53:00+00:00By Dawn Savidge
What do you spend on Christmas?
Why ‘the word’ of 2023 can be a conversation starter with Christian teens
2023-12-20T13:30:00+00:00By Claire Hailwood
Do you ‘have it’?
Why we should talk to our children about the New Age
2023-12-20T12:07:00+00:00By Kate Orson
How aware are you of New Age?
The enduring appeal of Dr Marten boots and walking with Jesus…
2023-12-20T11:45:00+00:00By Claire Hailwood
Have you ever owned a pair?
Your Christmas chocolate is probably tainted. Here’s a Christian response
2023-12-18T16:42:00+00:00By Nicole Watt
Have you looked into the background of your favourite chocolate bar?
Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store: how to be imaginative as you celebrate God's gift to us
2023-12-13T12:49:00+00:00By Lisa Skinner
Do you know your love language?
What does the new Online Safety Bill mean for our kids?
2023-12-12T14:01:00+00:00By Kevin Doran
Premier NexGen spoke with Kevin Doran, Premier’s director of Public Affairs about how this legislation has come about
‘Does our style of church services put young people off?’: Dan Blythe on the challenge of reaching Generation Z
2023-11-15T10:51:00+00:00By Dan Blythe
Did you enjoy listening to talks growing up?
‘When you dress up for Halloween, you give the devil the legal rights to change your identity!’
2023-10-23T10:07:00+01:00By Kate Orson
How was Halloween celebrated in your childhood?
How do you talk to your teen about their appearance?
2023-10-16T08:51:00+01:00By Kate Orson
Was your appearance a concern for you growing up?
What you need to know about vaping as a Christian parent
2023-10-11T09:03:00+01:00By Mary Deller
Do you know a young person who vapes?
Spotlight on… The Boys’ Brigade
2023-10-03T08:54:00+01:00
An insight into a Christian charity or ministry that you may like to know about.
7 reminders for youthworkers following the Mike Pilavachi investigation
2023-09-27T09:44:00+01:00By Andy Peck
Have you ever been alarmed by someone’s behaviour in youthwork context?
Spotlight on… Artless Theatre Company
2023-09-27T08:37:00+01:00
This is an occasional post where we give you an insight into a Christian charity or ministry that you may like to know about.
How Christian parents can keep their children safe from dangerous lyrics
2023-09-18T09:00:00+01:00By Kate Orson
Did you have any limits placed on your music listening?
3 ways to help your children stick to the faith in a culture that teaches them to rebel
2023-07-05T09:06:00+01:00By Sam Reimer
Did you go through a teenage rebellion?
The TikTok pranker and social media: beware of the race to the bottom
2023-06-02T07:45:00+01:00By Ellie Willcock
Have you ever followed someone you found to be ultimately unhelpful?
‘If you are asking, why are there no children in our church? Maybe you need to start solving their problems?'
2023-04-19T13:37:00+01:00By Ian Soars
What are the needs of the children in your community?
‘We’re not that strong and we can be deceived’: a Christian commentator cautions you to be careful what you allow your kids to watch
2023-04-12T09:00:00+01:00By Kate Orson
Have you ever stopped a film because of what it was portraying?
5 ways to help your teen when they are obsessed with a celebrity
2023-01-10T11:03:00+00:00By Claire Hailwood
Who was your ‘hero’ growing up?
Most teens have a positive perception of Jesus! This is not the good news we think it is
2022-10-19T11:03:00+01:00By Andy Peck
What do you think teens think about Jesus?
‘Helping your children change the atmosphere at school is possible ’: here’s how to go about it
2022-09-27T10:41:00+01:00By Jo Rowe
Jo Rowe learns how to help her children act as a thermostat and not a thermometer in challenging the atmosphere at school
The 12 days of Brex-mas
2019-11-19T00:00:00+00:00
December… The month of the most important birth in history is finally here. That’s right, the birth of a brand new government. Merry Brex-mas!
I confused middle-class culture for Christianity
2019-06-24T00:00:00+01:00
Natalie Williams on growing up poor - and finding the church.
YouTube 101
2019-04-29T00:00:00+01:00
The world of YouTube is vast and may feel overwhelming. Around 5 billion videos are watched each day and more than 400 hours of content is uploaded to the site every minute. Our children and young people are immersed in the world of online video, but how much do we understand about this site, its videos and the people creating them? And what impact does this have on those we work alongside?
County lines
2019-03-19T00:00:00+00:00
You may not have even heard of county lines, or if you have you may be inclined to think it isn’t relevant to your context. But as this London social worker (who wishes to remain anonymous) explains, no child or young person is exempt, and our youth and children’s groups may be vulnerable to this horrific exploitation.
Weekenders
2018-12-14T00:00:00+00:00
We know the many benefits of taking young people away, but how do we achieve the best results? We spoke to youth and children’s workers to hear their thoughts…
Culture: Hope
2017-10-20T00:00:00+01:00By Jamie Cutteridge is the director of With, a new Christian community and retreat centre dedicated to praying for and with young people bewith.community
Taylor Swift is returning! The new Marvel movie is, in fact, all about Jesus and young people. What’s Kanye been up to recently? Oh! The Star wars trailer, we should talk about that… The apprentice is still bad… So much culture to talk about, so little to say.
Fandom
2017-09-22T00:00:00+01:00By Jamie Cutteridge is the director of With, a new Christian community and retreat centre dedicated to praying for and with young people bewith.community
“I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it.”
Love Island and bad sex education
2017-08-24T00:00:00+01:00By Jamie Cutteridge is the director of With, a new Christian community and retreat centre dedicated to praying for and with young people bewith.community
As another school year starts, inevitably, at some point over the next 12 months, we’ll hear both sides of the ongoing debate about sex ed at schools. Does giving children and young people comprehensive sexual information open their eyes to a whole new world of ‘debauched’ activity, or is it vital equipping to navigate a world of sexting and online porn, as well as providing key skills surrounding consent and sexual health? There’s something else to consider though, because, as this summer has proved, the children and young people we work with are getting sex education, they’re being shaped and influenced by the media and advertisers, norms are being established… dangerous, exploitative norms.
Netflix's 13 reasons why
2017-05-23T00:00:00+01:00By Jamie Cutteridge
Imagine being able to tell everyone in your life exactly what you think of them, exactly how they’ve hurt you, without any consequences. The only catch is that you’re dead. This is the premise of 13 reasons why, Netflix’s latest binge-worthy show: a 13-episode suicide note to a teenage girl’s friends and classmates, outlining their role in her decision to end her life. Originally hyped as a smart, important look at mental health and the social issues affecting teenagers, upon release the show attracted criticism for its ‘triggering’ impact, its overly realistic depiction of sexual assault and suicide, and negative portrayals of counselling or other forms of support. So what do we do with it? Ignore it? Watch it with our young people? Something between?
Protests
2017-03-20T00:00:00+00:00By Jamie Cutteridge is the director of With, a new Christian community and retreat centre dedicated to praying for and with young people bewith.community
In an age of political angst, Jamie Cutteridge explores how we can channel the Trump-based concerns of our children and young people
The Axis of Good and Evil - Video games
2017-01-23T00:00:00+00:00
This month, we look at video games. So, those in the top right will be worth a play, those bottom left, less so.
Instagram star quits social media
2017-01-19T00:00:00+00:00
Have you ever fallen down a social media black hole? You know, one of those missing afternoons where you start off looking at an interesting video on YouTube and find yourself, three hours later, staring blankly at a meme of Donald Trump with absolutely no idea how you got there. What did we ever do when waiting for a bus or during a dreadfully boring sermon before we had Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to check in on?
Pokémon Go
2017-01-19T00:00:00+00:00By Jamie Cutteridge
Here are some genuine news stories you may have missed:
Black Mirror
2017-01-19T00:00:00+00:00By Jamie Cutteridge
How far would you go to stop people knowing your darkest secrets? What if virtual reality played on your deepest fears? Could you imagine a world where we’re rated the whole time? How would people react if they knew what you really thought? Who wants to live forever? What if your very worse moments got shared with the rest of the world? Black Mirror is back to answer all these questions, and more…
Avengers
2017-01-19T00:00:00+00:00By Jamie Cutteridge
You can barely walk down the street without tripping over a super hero these days. We all know the feeling of getting home and finding Spider-Man on the bottom of our shoe or one of the Fantastic Four in our bag – they’re everywhere.