04/13/09

I’m Keeping My N.I.V

I usually try to keep blog posts suitably vague when I’m being negative however I make no apologies for this one being explicit on it’s topic!

Tonight I went to the Tabanacle in Great Yarmouth/Cobolm for their youth group, I learnt a lot about God in this group throughout my late teens however since the leader changed and the older young people (i.e. 16 plus) have separated and meet at Park Baptist Church (led by a couple of good friends of mine) and the younger meet at this church led by one of their elders (or to use a Ben phrase the pastor’s ‘whipping boy’). Tonight however was a one-off joint ‘it’s not really an Easter event because the Tabanacle don’t celebrate Easter’ event (much to my amusement hot cross buns were bought by friends of mine!). This youth group has never been a conventional youth group, in fact it’s always been like a church service consisting of a chunk of worship, some form of response and a talk followed by tuck and although I’ve never figured out why it works it does.

However this evening the Tabanacle Pastor’s Whipping Boy stepped up to share (following a cracking talk from Eric who used to lead it and was back for one night) and proceeded to indoctrinate everyone. Using a leaflet put together by the Pastor of this church he proceeded to tell everyone that the king James Bible was the only bible that is actually the word of God, describing other translations such as the NIV as the works of Satan.

Jo being very clever and currently in the middle of a degree in this kinda stuff (alongside English Lit) proceeded to pull this apart his claim that ‘if you want the pure, unadulterated word of God it’s the King James Version’ (direct quote) with a variety of interesting geeky facts including actually looking at the reasons the KJV was originally translated, by who, their motives and the political stances built into it and by the time this man finished his 20 minute spiel of complete poo amost every adult in the room promtly asked him deep questions that totally disproved him.

Now I don’t have a problem with him airing a view that one particular translation is right and the others are wrong…that’s his choice but by backing it up with out-of-context bible verses is wrong but more importantly telling a group of young people this is insane. Young people struggle to read bibles as it is and telling them that their youth bible or NIV is the work of Satan won’t help them (surprising I know!) and more to the point telling them to throw that away and buy a king James is enough to put them off reading their bible for life.

So that this blog post is fair I have took photos of the leaflet and includes it below as a download, feel free to download it and be amazed and some of the complete poo that some people have the ability to talk and scarily believe that young people should be aware of.

The bottom line is that all translations of the bible have their faults, they were all written by people with certain view points, translated into a language that is no where near as varied as theirs (i.e. the Greeks have 7 words for love) and have probably lost some meanings in translation through changes in language and time however God speaks to people through the bible whatever translation, it’s powerful and has the power to change lives, mend broken hearts and bring people into a relationship with their creator so I’m sorry Tabanacle I’m keeping my NIV, burning your leaflet and getting on with my life safe in the knowledge that I serve a God who is bigger than bible translations and who I don’t believe gives two hoots which translation people read as long as they read it to grow in Him.

Download The Leaflet: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

If you are as outraged by the leaflet as everyone I know who was there this evening then feel free to write a comment on this blog or write to the church themselves: Les Potter, The Upper Room Trust, P.O.Box 130, Gt. Yarmouth, Norfolk, NR31 8TH

04/5/09

It’s a start…

I’ve just updated my Facebook status to say ‘Mark thinks church today was good…both services!’ and it’s true!

I’ve been thinking for months how disconnected young people end up from communion within the baptist church because of the style in which it is done – see my blog from a couple of months back. Today we had an all-age service with Communion with nowhere near as much opposition as I expected.

Right from the start of the idea we (myself & the minister) were trust by the Deacons to do it in a sensitive way and in the end we went for inviting everyone forwards to the front for bread and then taking the wine to them…with a catch! Those that came forward (and we invited all) could receive a blessing if they didn’t want communion (plus a grape for the children).

It was a great moment because everyone seemed to engage with it (young and old) and I even heard this afternoon that some of our regular moaners actually liked the service (these are people who I don’t think I’ve ever heard a good word about a service said from their lips!).

So perhaps we’re at the start of a journey into including everyone in communion…the start…

Secondly this evening myself and Graham (brilliant acoustic guitarist at church) led an unplugged style set of worship. We did this once before and it worked well so thought it was time to go again and it worked really well, it’s great sometimes to strip the music back and give people a chance to focus on God. We even introduced the Phatfish song ‘There is a day’ which went down really well too.

All in all a good Sunday, God was moving and including!!!

03/16/09

The End Is Near

For those seeing the picture and reading the title and thinking ‘Ooh a Five Iron Frenzy post’ then I’m sorry because this is nothing to do with FIF…although I have recently purchased Brave Saint Saturn’s latest album and Roper’s one album and they’re awesome (both bands with the lead singer of FIF).

If you’re thinking ‘Who are Five Iron Frenzy?’ then get onto itunes and buy some… you’ll love them!

Anyway back to topic!

The end is near for me! In less than 4 months time I shall have finished my time in Peterborough at Park Road Baptist Church, in less than 3 months time all uni work will be done which means I’m currently in mad rush mode!

I have less than 12,000 words left to write for essays/dissertations however that’s still 12,000 words and I’m experiencing the ‘light at the end of the tunnel just need to make it’ effect. Sitting down to write stuff and not feel like I’m writing poo is difficult although I’m hoping to finish an essay tomorrow!

Park Road stuff is great however worries of the future loom, we need more volunteers but I don’t know if people will get off their bums and get involved… City Centre joint church youth work is great however I don’t want to be the one organising it…I love it and it really excites me but I’d like someone else to do it to make it sustainable.

In the middle of all of that I’m busy applying for jobs and church/Christian youth work jobs are such a pain to apply for, the forms seem to want to know all kinds of things…it’s like doing a portfolio all over again! I’ve also written a C.V for one job too, I’ve applied for 2 so far… 1 more to apply for tomorrow and just waiting to see what else comes up.

So it’s all exciting, crazy, stressful and fun in Mark-land at the moment!

In dull news I’m pondering buying marktiddy.co.uk and linking it to the blog…possibly getting rid of himynameismark around Christmas (when it expires)… thoughts? good idea? don’t care less? Write to me!

03/2/09

Has the church worn me down or am I more understanding?

For some reason the title makes me think that it should be a Panic at the Disco song title but the question is something I was pondering this afternoon and at church this evening.

When I first came to Peterborough the 18 year old Mark visited a ‘healing service’ at Peterborough Cathedral and was outraged that their prayer for healing merely consisted of praying for the doctors looking after these people… in fact a quick search of my blog reveals that I blogged on that back in 2006 (link).

Now thinking of that situation now I still have issues that they didn’t call on God’s healing power but merely prayed for doctors but I feel like I’m a bit more understanding of it, I can see why perhaps it’s important to pray for the docs too…but perhaps alongside praying for healing direct from the big G (although is that covering all bases?) and I know the Mark of a few years ago wouldn’t have really got that but I was asking myself this afternoon and evening if that means the church has worn me down or if I’m more understanding?

I can even see how I’ve become more understanding or worn down (you decide!) the last few years in the ways which perhaps I’d lead a service…becoming more aware of something for everyone (although that in itself is a paradox because ultimately it becomes nothing for anyone if you take it too far).

I think even my beliefs of Christianity have gone from ‘I’m right and you’re wrong’ to being more accepting…not of heresy but perhaps the baptism vs confirmation arguement is a good example…although I have an opinion of them I don’t turn around and immediately dismiss the other!

However none of these mean the church has worn me down but more that I’ve become more understanding…so perhaps I’ve now answered my blog title!

Ultimately though this answer represents growth (I hope), to me it represents the result of looking at God and all that Christian-jazz at uni, it’s a result of reading Christian books and thinking whether I agree with the author (or not) and why, it represents a journey of finding God in unusual places (a whole new blog which’ll come soon) and working out what working for a Church means for my faith because in doing that you have to find God in places outside work and find your own feeding!

It’s a question I’m sure I shall ponder again and again, it’s a never ending spiritual journey of becoming as approachable as Christ but without compromising views, it’s about believing what the bible says God can do not just the bits church admits that he may occasionally do.

It’s been a bit of a rambling blog but I hope it’s been interesting…

02/21/09

The Letton Hall Post

I finally feel coherant enough to do a post on Letton Hall and in many ways doing this post I feel a bit like Paul (the bible guy) writing one of his letters because there’s lots of great stuff to share!

For those that don’t know Letton Hall is a Christian Conferance centre just outside of Dereham, previously it was a stately home and it can be rented by all sorts of groups…The CROPS Trust from Peterborough is just one of them and every February and October half term CROPS take a group of young people from churches all over Peterborough to Letton.

This half term CROPS also hired dophin court at Letton Hall so we took around 12 leaders (of which I was one) and 80ish young people aged between 11 and 18.

Our guest speaker for the week was none other than director of Norwich Youth For Christ Mark Tuma who will always be remembered by myself for playing ‘Rage Against the Machine’ at a Fridays event a few years back!

During the theme ‘Heroes’ Mark explored the characters of Gideon, Rahab, Hannah and John the Baptist in 4 brilliant talks which were insightful, interesting, funny (in places) and challenging.

I was also privilaged to lead worship on the first night with some very talented musicians and 80 young people with hearts ready to worship God which was amazing, I only wish people in churches would have the passion for worship that young people have…in fact I wish they had the passion for Jesus young people have!

On the second night around 10 (possibly more) made committments to Christ for the first time which was so exciting to just be there and witness the joy in the room as those young people made their way to the front to a cheer of celebration from everyone in that room.

So that’s my Letton post, I have returned from Letton feeling physically drained but spiritually refreshed, I feel challenged by Mark’s talks and feel like I’ve returned having really met with God! I feel lucky to have been part of the event hanging around with a great bunch of young people and leaders who are completely committed to young people.

02/16/09

Letton Hall…

When you read this I shall have just arrived at Letton Hall near Dereham to help set up for a 4 day residential with 90 or so young people arriving shortly after.

Once again I seem to have done my usual lack of blogging followed by a major blog-binge however I wanted to post on this!

In June I leave Peterborough and that is very likely to mean that this week’s Letton Hall residential will be the last for a while and for me it’s the end of an era.

I must have been 12/13 when I first went to Letton with St Andrew’s Church, I did some of my first Youth Work at Letton and it’s a place full of memories and indeed a place where a lot of my faith was formed & chewed over.

To look back from a 13 year old me attending a Letton weekend to a 22 year old me leading worship and seminars at a Letton almost 10 years on is quite strange.

Anyway that’s all I have to say…I shall be back blogging at the weekend!

02/14/09

Dad At 13!

The Sun revealed to the world yesterday that 13 year old that Alfie was a Dad at 13 (link). This story which the Sun continues today on the paper’s front page is interesting for many reasons.

When you look at the photos of the baby, the 13 year old Dad and his 15 year old partner (the baby’s Mum) you can’t help but wonder ‘How did this happen?’…nope not the birds and the bees story but a more general question. How have we ended up in a place where people that young are able to become Fathers?

Yes physically their bodies are able to, and I don’t even deny that in many societies both today and in years gone by being a Mum young wasn’t something unusual, but in Britain today where adolescence goes on a lot longer than it used to I think it’s sad that people are desparate to lose their childhood.

David Cameron (our next Prime Minister) commented on the story, stating;

But seeing those pictures — looking into that boy’s bewildered eyes — I was both heartbroken and deeply concerned.

Heartbroken because while they have gained a beautiful girl, these kids have lost the innocence, the fun, the spontaneity that childhood is all about.

If Alfie does the right thing, he’ll be taking his daughter to playgroup when he should be in the playground. He’ll be saving up for nappies instead of the latest Man United kit. It’s a huge responsibility to bear on such small shoulders. (The Sun – Link)

In the same interview Cameron comments that ‘We’ve got to restore the value of responsibility, so that instead of just teaching sex education, we teach children about relationships too’ expressing a concern that I made back in 2007 in my post titled ‘The Just Do It Effect‘.

Cameron seems to hit the nail on the head, somehow we’ve detached sex from relationships, we’ve made it aceessible and acceptable and although it’s great that talking about sex isn’t taboo (in some circles) it’s a shame that we don’t teach about the importance of relationships with sex but then again we’re part of a system that’s not so good with practicalities (school children learn maths but not how to manage finances for example).

I don’t see why this 13 year old Dad couldn’t manage to be a good father at the same time I can see how easily it could go pair-shaped however whichever way it goes he’s losing his childhood & growing old before he has to, it’s not a waiting until he’s ready, it’s a situation sprung upon him.

In tomorrow’s blog… ‘Sheffield SPCK/SSG 1 Year On’

02/6/09

Communion

The topic of Holy Communion/ The Lord’s Supper has been playing on my mind for a while now for several reasons and not entirely positively.

One young person remarked to me a while ago ‘Why do we have to go up (into church) for communion, it’s just for the adults’, this remark prompted agreement from the others in the group who didn’t see the point of communion.

Let’s set the scene though…the church these young people are part of is a Baptist church and in the baptist church communion is given out, so the minister will read the appropriate bible bits, break the bread and the deacons will serve the church members with the bread. After this the minister talks about the wine and the deacons distribute small cups (like shot glasses) to the congregation who keep them until a given moment when the whole church drinks as a sign of unity.

Now in theory there’s nothing wrong with this however if you don’t take communion turning down the bread/wine can seem tricky and not partaking can leave you feeling left out and so a young person taking communion for the first time may feel watched but equally by not taking it they may feel the same.

Over Christmas I attended midnight mass at St Andrew’s Church in Gorleston and I was reminded of the way the Anglicans do communion. In the Anglican church people go up, kneel down at the alter and the minister or a member of the lay team will serve the bread and wine, everyone drinks the wine from the same cup too!

If you don’t want to take communion you don’t hold your hands open and the minister will pray for you, children are often encouraged to kneel next to the adults taking communion and be prayed for, there’s no pressure about taking communion but at the same time the concept isn’t alien to them.

The way the Baptist church does communion (although some may do it very differently) risks alienating a generation of young people from communion. We risk bringing up children who don’t understand the meaning of communion and just see it as ‘something the adults do’, this saddens me because communion can be and should be a spiritual experience whether you take the bread and wine whether you receive a blessing.

So if anyone has any suggestions for how we can make it more relevant let me know! How does your church do communion?

01/27/09

Facebook & Youth Work

One of the big topics in Youth Work at the moment (other than porn which is Youth Work magazines focus point this month – blog to follow) is that of Social Networking and levels of appropriateness.

One person I know suggests that Facebook for Youth Workers is a no, no with his argument largely based on the use of the word ‘friend’ but also based on the boundary issues.

To an extent this friend of mine (and I can call him that as he isn’t a young person!) is right, perhaps having young people on a list titled friends does change the boundaries…for some workers. In my experience though Facebook has become a useful tool in Youth Work allowing me to remind young people of events, create events and groups to help them socialise outside of our regular church youth group and it also provides a place where, if they need to they can contact me hassle free.

Another friend disagrees with friend 1 and sides more towards my view, during a discussion yesterday we chewed over Facebook and the positives it has in Youth Work, particularly with those young people who you don’t see that often.

However although Facebook can become an essential tool for youth work there are also risks involved. For starters some functions on Facebook are private which leaves potential for inappropriate behaviour on the part of a worker, time and time again we read in the newspapers of young people being groomed through Social Networking sites.

Another risk is where you draw the boundary with a young person (some would draw it at the line whereby they don’t add young people to their Facebook).

The final risk that I see is the risk of your friends, many people I know have friends who love to post inappropriate things on their wall, risqué comments and embarrassing photos.

So to help any youth workers who read this I would like to suggest some good practice guidelines for the use of Facebook (and other social networking) in Youth Work.

Don’t Message!

The biggest risk of Facebook is the private functions, messages cannot be seen by anyone but yourself and the recipient, so if you can avoid sending messages I would recommend it.

If sending a message is essential then you can send messages to multiple people on Facebook so include one of your other leaders in the message, if something is too private or personal for that then I’d suggest abandoning Facebook for the conversation and suggesting you meet the young person for a chat over coffee.

Privacy Exists

If you’re concerned about your friends writing things on your wall or that photo of you when you were 16, drunk and naked with nothing but a pot-plant to hide your modesty then I suggest that you check out the privacy settings under account.

Facebook allows you to put your friends in ‘lists’ and from that in privacy settings you can choose certain settings for lists, so you can, for instance ban a list from viewing your photos.

Wall Is The Way Forward

The best way to communicate with a young person individually is through the wall system, it’s a public thing and it’s perhaps the safest way to communicate with them. Avoid using abbreviations such as ‘LOL’ which can be open to misinterpretation too, just keep it plain and simple…I always sign off with ‘Mark’.

Bare in mind though that what you write on the wall of your non-youth friends is also public so be a good role model!

Your Private Details

Facebook has a habit of posting anything you change on your profile to the feed you see when you login, once again if you go to privacy you can change these settings so that the whole world won’t know when you change relationship status.

You can also tell facebook not to display certain parts of your profile to lists so if you don’t want your young people to know your address, relationship status or that your favourite music includes ‘Take That’ then change your settings to hide them.

Finally Use Groups & Events!

Groups and Events on Facebook can be a brilliant way to remind young people of things going on, build up some excitement for an event and get young people interacting with each other between events, those with less friends can make new virtual friends before attending an event, I remember the Norwich Youth For Christ forum meant that I knew more people at their youth services before I attended…it also meant there’s a lot of people who I only know as their forum usernames!

At the end of the day Facebook is a tool which can be used and abused but perhaps more dangerously open to misinterpretation so just like good practice guidelines for face to face youth work it’s important we have some for Facebook, I hope this post provides just that and will help you to safely use Facebook for youth work.

More on social networking and youth work can be found on YouthBlog – click here

01/25/09

Churches Together

Tonight’s church service was a slightly different church service, for starters we had a bishop present, several methodists, some Anglicans, some Catholics (including nuns!), some baptists and probably some like me who prefer to avoid this denomination nonsense and call themselves Christian!

All these representatives were gathered together from all the city centre churches in Peterborough to sign a declaration of intent all related to working together…basically churches in the city centre already work together fairly well (or at least have lots of meetings) but this was a further step in the direction of committing to work together more seriously.

The timing of churches working together seems to be pretty good. Back in June I e-mailed a load of city centre church leaders trying to carry out a audit (for want of a better word) of youth work within the city centre churches hoping to find ways we could work together more.

From the few replies I received we had a meeting, arranged a one-off youth service and ‘Deeper’ was born and is now a bi-monthly event (we’re coming up to number 3!), we’ve just had funding approved for a P.A syetem and churches seem to be getting onboard with it, so it seems that all this churches together stuff ties in nicely…it’s almost like God’s doing something somewhere along the line!

In completely off-topic news I renewed my Orange contact the other day and will now pay £5 less a month and get a shiny new phone with a whopping 8 megapixel camera (review to follow when it arrives!).

I also have more serious blog post in the pipeline which will hopefully appear in the next few days.

Finally the new version of Stand For Christ is online (link) with new session plans, new games and a sexy new look!

01/22/09

Web Design

Apologies for the blog being on a go slow the last few weeks, I’m not entirely sure why…there’s been exams at uni and youth work to do but I don’t think any of them are real reasons.

However the time I usually spend blogging I’ve spent putting together a new website for Park Road Baptist Church, which started off as a side-project from the youth work website which I already run for the church and in the last week I’ve finally finished the design and content.

Whilst playing with that alongside a new ‘Stand For Christ’ design which may be online in a few days if I finish it I figured I might as well see if churches want websites…so for now I’ve set up a page on here and Stand for Christ offering church/Christian organisation website design and this post is pretty much shameless advertising!

I promise I’ll blog something worth reading in the next couple of days!

01/5/09

Are we going wrong?

Some of the conversations I had over Christmas with people surprised me, I heard things about young people I used to work with in a church youth group that surprised me and it’s got me thinking.

Just before Christmas I read a book called ‘Practicing Passion’ by Kenda Creasy Dean and she suggests that the church has watered down the message of Jesus we no longer have anything to offer young people. She suggests that young people are looking for something to be passionate about, something worth dying for and that Jesus should fit that criteria but more often than not in churches He doesn’t.

This has led me to thinking about my own youth work and youth work in general. Is church youth work watered down to the point where we tread carefully so we don’t scare off young people rather than it being something immensly challenging?

Is the reason for the church being so apathetic and inactive because for generations we’ve presented a simple, risk-free Christianity rather than the demmanding, challenging Christianity that we are presented with by the bible?

I wonder if all too often we under estimate young people, perhaps we forget how passionate they can become about things, perhaps the actions of young people I heard about over Christmas were because they wanted a way to express passion and the church just didn’t provide that.

If gun, knife and gang crime can teach us anything perhaps it teaches us that young people have passion, a passion for something worth dying for. For them this passion is their friends or other gang members or even family members and is channelled in a fairly negative way through crime but what if the church actually presented a gospel that required that passion rather than a hymn book?

Maybe we’d see young people turning to Jesus rather than gangs, maybe we’d see young people being passionate about Jesus rather than drink, drugs or sex.

So where does this all start?

I think in order for us to present a gospel like this we need a church and its leaders/deacons & youth workers to have that passion and the confidence to preach a challenging gospel over a nice fluffy ‘Jesus can be your girlfriend’ style gospel.

The challenge for Christian youth workers and church volunteers is to think again about the way we explain things to young people and the Jesus we present them with.

Comments and thoughts would be apreciated