Too Many Chiefs and Not Enough Indians

In the interests of reflexivity I have to start this blog by saying that I am a Christian Leader! I also don’t have a particular problem with churches and other organisations being well led. In fact, I think poor or absent leadership accounts for a lot of our problems.

Having said that, I feel moved to ask why the Christian world seems to have such an obsession with leadership, and in particular with encouraging people to be leaders? There are all sorts of Summits, Seminars and training courses available for leaders, and potential leaders, which are designed to “release” people into their leadership gifts. This is particularly the case with young people – there’s lots of talk about them as the leaders of the future, and the need to ‘raise them up,’ to ‘equip’ them etc. It is true that leaders need to be gifted, and training is a good thing, but I have a few questions about whether we’re getting the balance right.

My first question lies in thinking about what Jesus showed us in his life and teaching, and what is written in the rest of the New Testament. I don’t see a lot of teaching about leadership, but I do see a lot about followership. Even when specifically addressing people who were going to be leaders in the church, Jesus’ command was not “lead my sheep” but “feed my sheep.” Jesus was not concerned with structures and programmes, but with people loving each other and becoming more like him. Paul was more interested in leadership, but mostly focused on the character of leaders, not which leadership methods and styles they should adopt.

I wonder if our current obsession derives from a more recent mindset that the New Testament. Ian Stackhouse wrote a book that has changed my thinking about church in so many ways. In “The Gospel Driven Church” he argues that much of the way we view church life has been shaped by the Revivalist movement of a hundred years ago. Our emphasis on individual conversion leads to an obsession with numbers, growth, and size, and this in turn leads us to strategies, programmes, structures and hierarchy. Andrew Root makes a slightly different, but related point in “Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation.” He refers to the over-emphasis on the need in youth ministry for Christians to have influence in wider society. A word often used in youth ministry is ‘impact:’ we need to do work that will impact our young people so they will have impact on their friends. I find the discourse worrying: an impact is what occurs when a car hits a wall!

I was privileged this week to hear Mark Yaconelli speak about ministry and was reminded again that he suggests that often ministry is operating from a place of anxiety: it seeks control, conformity, results, operates by programmes delivered by experts using products, it gives answers. He offers an alternative: ministry rooted in love. This offers contemplation, processes and presence, relies on guides, in relationships, encourages creativity and questioning.

Maybe it’s because I’m a Baptist, or maybe this is why I’m a Baptist, but I can’t help but think that we’re in danger of having “too many chiefs and not enough indians.” The risk is that we create a culture in which leadership is valued above all other spiritual gifts, and those who don’t have it feel like second class Christians. By way of further confession I have to say that I led our church in prayers for leaders last Sunday, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that (Paul tells us to do it) but maybe we need to be a bit more balanced and pray for those who have gifts of giving, administration, tea making, cleaning and all those other “unsung hero” things that people do. Would it help to have a Global Followership Summit? Or to have Young Servant seminars?

Men, Women, Children and the new Bishop of Durham

It's a really big question: Why are there more women than men in the British church? I could, and have, write lots about this subject, but I was forcibly struck by one possible answer to it last Saturday. The occasion was the East Midlands Baptist Association Day and our main speaker was Bishop of Durham Elect, Rt Rev Paul Butler. This question was raised and he talked about reaching out to men, but stated very clearly that he didn't believe that the so called 'feminisation' of the church was the cause of the problem.

After the main session, I was leading a workshop on children's ministry and I think part of the answer might be found in that seminar. Of the twenty or so attenders only three were male. John Westerhoff talks about the 'hidden curriculum'; in other words our practice sometimes doesn't match our words, and it's our practice that teaches children what we are about. If little boys are taught that church is 'women's business' from their earliest days, they will struggle to see it as something for everyone regardless of gender when they are older.

It's a challenge to the men in our congregations: do you ever consider working in the Sunday School? Or is that women's work? Patterns of child care in the home are changing so where once men would actually be incompetent with children because they never looked after even their own children, they now regular care for, and spend time with small children. Is the problem to do with safeguarding? Perhaps men feel that they might be regarded with suspicion if they work with small children.

Whatever the problem is we need to address it, and we made a good start on Saturday. I'm pleased to say that one of the three men in my workshop was Bishop Paul. Given that he started his ministry in children's work with Scripture Union and has continued to prioritise this side of his ministry, I did feel pretty nervous about having him there - talk about teaching your grandmother to suck eggs! But most of all I think it sends a message that this workshop was as valuable and important as the others, because children are valuable and important, whether they are boys or girls.

A book review: 'To such as these' The child in Baptist thought by Andrew Goodliff

Here's a copy of a review I wrote of a colleague's recent book about children in baptist theology.  It's almost essential reading if you're a person working in a baptist context with children and young people, but pretty useful if you work with them in other denominations.  The review originally appeared in Regents Reviews here: http://www.rpc.ox.ac.uk/downloadlibrary/Regent's%20Reviews%204.2%20May.pdf 

Annie Dillard wrote 

On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. (Teaching a Stone to Talk, Harper & Row, 1982)

As a Youth and Children’s Pastor I often listen to the words we say in Baptist churches when we present an infant soon after its birth and experience a similar sensation to the one described by Annie Dillard.   Along with the family of the child, congregations make a series of promises to support both the family and the child in the task of reaching mature adulthood, and hopefully growing in Christian faith.  I think about the various approaches these same congregations then have to the child in later years when she or he throws up on the new carpet, runs about during services, asks awkward questions, smokes in the toilets, speaks prophetically about what Jesus is saying and all the other things children do as they grow.  I wonder whether they didn’t realise what they were promising, or whether they have forgotten that they did.

In this slim volume Andrew Goodliff has looked at the words Baptists have used over their history in services of Infant Dedication or Presentation and asked some key questions about what we mean theologically when we say them.  He has thoroughly summarised Baptist theological approaches to the child and his work contains a useful discussion of those approaches.  He notes that usually these approaches have been responses to the question “Where is the child?”  This question has been asked by Baptists since our earliest days, because of our belief that salvation can only be received by those professing personal faith, signified by believer’s baptism, and that the church is made up of these believers gathered together.  This raises questions for us about where the child is in relation to Kingdom, salvation and the church.  The book contains chapters discussing the theological issues raise by each of these questions.

The chapter on the child in relation to the Kingdom focusses mainly on Jesus’ response to children in Mark 10:13-16, arguing that this is the text Baptists use to support the rite of Infant Presentation, although there is a variety of interpretations of its meaning; are children simply signs of the kingdom, or are they included within it?  What is it about the child that makes them a sign of it?  Most of the writers quoted argue that it is the child’s deficit, its weakness and vulnerability that make it a sign of how the Kingdom is to be entered, but Goodliff argues that most readings have been defensive, whereas a creative approach might be more helpful.

In chapter 4, Goodliff explores the relationship between theologies of sin and salvation and approaches to the child, seeking a new language to discuss the development of faith that places more emphasis on salvation as a process rather than an event.  This leads on to a discussion in Chapter 5 of the child in relation to the church and here the problems inherent in a very binary in-or-out approach become even more obvious.  Goodliff notes Nigel Wright’s use of the term “gathering” rather than “gathered” in relation to the community of the church; again taking a process view and applying it not just to children but all those growing in faith.

In his conclusion Goodliff returns to the rite of infant presentation, examining it in more detail in light of the discussion so far.  He invites us to look at the rite afresh and to imbue it with deeper meaning and significance, with a focus on the child, rather than is often the case, the adults.  As a Youth and Children’s Pastor, the final Post Script section offered the most interesting and challenging thinking.  Goodliff draws on his experience as a Youth Pastor and now Pastor and looks at some examples of what it would mean for churches to take seriously the promises made at infant presentation and become more radically all-age congregations.

This is a helpful book for those wanting to take seriously the place of children and young people in Baptist churches.  It would make useful companion reading to the “Today Not Tomorrow” material recently produced by Arise Ministries in conjunction with the  BU Mission Dept (See: http://todaynottomorrow.org.uk/), offering a thorough theological background to it.  Goodliff has also helpfully added an amended version of the liturgy for infant presentation taking his thinking into account.  Although much has been written by Baptists on this subject over the years, this book may encourage not just youth and children’s workers but congregations more widely to think afresh about what they mean when they participate in an infant presentation.

If you want to buy a copy they are available here: //www.baptist.org.uk/store-children-youth/store-children.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=248&category_id=10

Spiritual Disciplines in a Digital Age No. 1

This short blog is the first in an occasional series that might only contain one entry!!!

Anyhoo...I twitter - I like twitter; I think it encourages people to be creative, it doesn't seem to take up too much time.  It's simple and very obvious that it's public, so you shouldn't do drama on it (although some do, a la Facebook!)

I like that my friends 'follow' me and I 'follow' them and a few other folks 'follow' me and I choose not to follow them.  By teenager standards I'm a bit of a 'billy no mates' because I only have 157 followers...or at least I did until about half an hour ago!  Now I've only got 156.  When I first started on twitter and had 10 'followers' it was easy to spot who had dropped out, but now it would mean I would have to obsess so much over my 'follower' list in order to know who it was.

My spiritual discipline is to decide not to.  I see the changing number and I have a tweak of fear that it's someone I really value that has left me, but it won't be, will it!  It will be one of a few spammish 'followers' and I shouldn't worry about them.

You might be saying "If you didn't do Twitter in the first place you wouldn't have the problem" but that's a bit like saying you shouldn't have friends because they'll hurt you.  The discipline comes in conquering the deep fear that I'm not loved, when I am loved by many people, and by God.

A VERY BIG BEE!!!

Over past few weeks I have felt a surge of pride in being a Baptist, what with the JPIT paper on poverty (http://www.jointpublicissues.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Truth-And-Lies-Report-smaller.pdf ) and the St. Georges Day declaration of unity (http://www.baptisttimes.co.uk/index.php/news-national-news/885-reclaiming-st-george-as-a-national-symbol-of-inclusivity-rather-than-a-symbol-of-hatred ).  

I felt proud to be part of a movement that was prepared to speak out prophetically to our culture to call us to see things in new ways.  I felt that we might be reclaiming some of our radical heritage, being prepared to build church and community in a different way that allowed all voices to be heard and freed people to be who they are in Christ without recourse to stereotypes and out dated oppressions.

So when I read an article in the Baptist Times with a picture of a speaker standing in front of a poster that says the group want to be a “catalyst for change in a hurting world” and whose keynote speaker apparently says: “We tend to put God and people in to packages”   I think it can only be a good thing, yes? 

Apparently not.  The Baptist Men’s Movement, whose conference this article is reporting, then goes on to suggest that the reason men don’t come to church any more is because the church is “too feminine”  and go on to suggest a range of stereotypically “manly” activities to attract more men in.  

I’ve blogged on this “Feminisation of the church” this before (see here: http://sarahfegredo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/feminisation-of-church.html ) and I can’t help but feel that if the report in the BT reflects the mentality of the BMM then it’s a pretty sad state of affairs.  The report finishes with what I assume are the closing remarks, or summing up of the conference are as follows:  

“We need to lay down the old ways, to start to dream a bigger dream and to challenge the impossible. Don't be afraid to ask for a bigger vision.” 

Exactly BMM…we need to lay down the old sexist stereotypes that demean men and women, challenge the packing of people into little boxes, and dream a bigger dream…how about this for your bigger vision:  

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free,nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”  


You know where it’s from and it’s the vision I’m asking for.

A Confession

Those of you who know me well already know this, but it might come as a surprise to some of you to learn that I have a guilty pleasure.  And I’m going to confess it now!  I love vampire stories.  There, I said it…and the world keeps turning, although you may already have suspected as much from the way I went to see the marathon five-film premier of Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2.  I tried to pretend it was something I was doing for my daughter’s sake but really she came along as my carer!

Needless to say, this on-going fascination with the supernatural/fantasy genre has caused me much reflection: Is this right?  Can it be appropriate for someone like me to like such a thing?  Isn’t that what fourteen year old girls do?  Maybe…but I think there is something about these stories that conveys some profound ideas that interest me, and they interest me because I’m a Christian…or I’m a Christian because these ideas interest me.

My latest musing about the genre (fuelled at the moment by The Vampire Diaries!*) is on the scene that occurs in most of these stories.  It’s the scene where somebody ordinary, a ‘muggle’ to use a term from another incarnation of the genre, is suddenly faced with the reality and truth of the existence of the supernatural.  They get a letter to Hogwarts, fall in love with a vampire, discover they are actually a Shadowhunter, and suddenly they have to look at themselves and their world with new eyes.  I had an experience similar to this when I first realised that Jesus was real, and that he did love me, and that he would give up his own life to save mine.  This realisation then sent me on an epic quest, to be part of a Fellowship, to face up to the reality of the existence of the Volturi.  

Having seen the new reality I couldn’t go back and pretend it wasn’t there anymore.  When I watch Bella Swan, or Elena Gilbert, or even Bilbo Baggins as they negotiate this paradigm shift, I’m reflecting on my own journey into a new story, and that’s why it’s fascinating.

*OK for the genre-not high art but entertaining. 

What if…

I was talking with a group of youth work students the other day and we were discussing the different roles youth workers adopt when working with young people.  One of the roles we were discussing was the advocate; the youth worker speaking to others on behalf of the young people they work with.  As we were talking I started to think about the role and what it implies. 

Firstly it is a role that’s needed because the structures are such that the young people in question can’t speak for themselves.  Why is this?  What is wrong with a structure that renders a member of it voiceless?  Can that be a just and fair structure?

Secondly it suggests that power imbalances are at work.  The young people are voiceless because someone else has more power than they, and uses that power to silence them in some way.  What kind of a structure creates and then sustains this kind of power imbalance?

Thirdly it implies that the young people have some kind of deficit that disqualifies them from speaking.  What could that be?  Could it be that they don’t have enough understanding?   Is their language insufficient?  Who makes that judgement?   Why does a deficit mean that some are excluded?

I should perhaps contextualise the conversation: we were talking about the way youth workers advocate for young people in church life.  The discussion caused me to think again about how the church includes (or excludes) children and young people.  The need for an advocate says some very disturbing things about how we view the role of the child in church, but I think it also says some very disturbing things about our churches.

This led me to ask myself the question: What would our churches have to look like for there to be no need for an advocate to speak for children and young people? 

Grey sky thinking

At a group I was part of today we were led in some acts of worship by one of the members.  She played this video clip:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBCCP5Lf5DY and invited us to reflect on the verse from Psalm 19 that says “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” 

I love dramatic skies and they do cause my soul to respond to the mighty works of god’s hand so I was able to respond to this.  I then moved to another room with a big window and I noticed that the sky was a flat uniform grey.  It’s cold here, below freezing and we’re waiting for more snow, so the sky is covered with thick cloud, there’s no wind and it’s just a solid mass of grey, with no differentiation.

As I sat reflecting on the Psalm 19 verse, I suddenly realised that even this sky declares the glory of the Lord.  Somehow in this flat, monochrome greyness the Lord is present.  And that’s just as well, because glorious sunsets are few and far between…most of the time the skies above where I live are some shade of grey.  Spiritual life is like that too; there are moments of richness and glory, but most days we’re just getting on with getting on.  Things are a bit grey, a bit uniform, a bit static; not very inspiring at all – but God’s glory is still being declared by this sky, if I only have eyes to see it.

A blog about Headship

Yesterday I read this article on a blog:

http://krwordgazer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/men-must-be-spiritual-leaders-real-life.html

I found it really sad - here are people feeling unhappy because the expectations they have about marriage and relationships are based on ideas that don't seem to connect with their real lives.  I particularly feel sad for these decent, Godly, caring men who are not able to live comfortably with  a set of expectations laid on them by their churches, their pastors and those around them.

The reason I feel a degree of sadness and empathy for these men, and others like them is because I know what it is like to live with the tension of having a set of gifts and abilities, inadequacies and lacks, that seem to be god-given but which some people want me to think are a result of my sin, are not right for me to act on, that I shouldn't develop, that I shouldn't use in ministry in the church.  I know that because I am a woman pastor.  So with kindness and grace I want to say to these men "Welcome to my world" *





*Can we try and change this world, so that we can be who we are, who we have been made by God, rather than be defined by our gender?

A book review

I've just finished reading this:



Is God still an Englishman?

And I found it very instructive.  As someone who is interested in faith in England (and the rest of the UK) this book brought home some very interesting developments in the faith of English people.  It's written by someone who has been a christian of many and varied hues over the years and now seems to find himself as one who still believes in something but doesn't find organised Christianity very helpful in exploring that belief. I think if we want to talk to younger generations about belief we need to listen very hard to books like this.

A contribution to a debate about Empowerment and Theology

My friends and colleagues Becca Dean and Jo Dolby have been having some blog discussion about these topics here:

http://beccaislearning.com/post/34759763689/empowerment-and-theology-in-youth-work

and here:

http://beccaislearning.com/post/34772684733/jo-dolby-a-response-to-empowerment-and-theology

There were a lot of connections with some of the reading I've been doing so I thought I would put in my two penn'orth.

I’ve been thinking and reading about the end of Christian discipleship.  To clarify, when I say end, I don’t mean the finish of it, but rather the eventual aim of it, what is sometimes referred to as the telos.  I noticed that a lot of writers on Christian education were talking about different sorts of ethics and how at different times Christian discipleship had been shaped by different ethical styles.  Ethics is often divided into three styles: deontological or rules-based ethics, where behaviour is governed by a set of externally derived rules or laws; consequential ethics, where behaviour is governed by the outcome of a course of action, as in utilitarianism where the greatest good of the greatest number is sought; and virtue ethics where the character of the person is so imbued with virtues that in any given situation that person will behave in accordance with those virtues.  

In the Christian education context, the different styles have prevailed at different times, so at times Christians were taught that in order to be good they need to follow God’s rules, at other times they were taught that they needed to seek the good of others.  At the moment the underlying ethic seems to be moving towards virtue ethics and there seems to be some biblical warrant for the importance of shaping the character of a person so that they will then do what is right.  Educationalists such as Westerhoff and James K A Smith base their arguments on the originator of this approach, Aristotle, and it could be argued that the call to be transformed inwardly described in Romans 12:2 and Romans 5:1-5 is in line with it.

I think this is significant to the discussion Becca and Jo are having for two reasons.  The first is that it connects with the idea of absolute truth.  I think I agree that there is absolute truth; I’m just not sure that I (or anyone else) can be absolutely confident that I know what the meaning of that is.  I’ve noted elsewhere in my blog that Jesus says that he is the truth, and so I think my calling as a disciple is to know him rather than to seek for truth.  Absolute truth tends to fit more with a rules-based ethic and way of teaching; it suggests that if we could just know what the rule is, we could get it right, and we could then tell our children that rule and then they will be good.  It even tends towards a form of Gnosticism, which is not helpful (it’s actually heretical!) 

The second connection with Becca and Jo’s discussion is more methodological.  If the telos is to develop Christian virtues and character then we need to be equipping and empowering young people to develop those Christian virtues in themselves.  Aristotle develops his virtues based on Plato’s virtues of courage, temperance, justice, and prudence and suggests that these virtues and other minor virtues are developed in children by doing virtuous acts and thereby developing good habits leading in turn to human flourishing.  Wikipedia summarises it:  “people become virtuous by performing virtuous actions, which they might not have chosen themselves when young. They must develop proper habits during childhood and this usually requires help from teachers, parents, and law-makers.  A good community is normally required for the development of good people.”   This seems to me to connect with Jo’s scaffolding idea; young people need to be surrounded by a scaffold that supports them as they develop the inner habits of virtue.  These habits then become the ultimate empowering because young people are able to act in ways that make for the good life, for human flourishing not because of rules imposed on them, but because of their own internal virtue.

I’m still pondering the practical outworking of this, and my reading continues but I think it’s the beginnings of a paradigm shift for me in terms of my understanding of the task of discipleship which fits with the youth work value of empowerment.

p.s. In the interests of academic probity I should say that my thoughts and ideas at this stage are being shaped and refined by reading James K A Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom, Samuel Wells’ Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics, John H. Westerhoff’s Will Our Children Have Faith, Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, as well as Wikipedia.  I also own a copy of MacIntyre's After Virtue...but I haven't read it yet!

p.p.s I am aware of the irony of using a pre-christian philosopher in my thinking but arguably both Plato and Aristotle have always been influential  on Christian education.

Reflections from Missing Generation Conference 13th October 2012

I recently spent a day with my favourite sort of people – young people.  True they were a little older than the young people and children I usually work with but they were mostly under thirty, so younger than me.  I love young people for their energy, their passion and their desire and commitment to changing the world and making a difference.

Today’s group were no exception; I was very challenged by their ability, their passionate love for God and their giftedness.  They are from the generation that is often missing from our churches, the 18-30s and I have to tell you that if you don’t have people like these in your church you are the losers.  (This is their website in case you're interested)

I was also personally challenged; we were invited to ask God what we were being called to and what our dreams were and today was a step towards me gaining clarity about my next steps in ministry.  About six years ago I felt called into ordained youth ministry in the Baptist church.  I was, and remain, committed to the church, with all its failings, and particularly to the Baptist corner of it.  I’m also committed to the place of young people in it; all my work and study for the last ten years has deepened that sense of commitment. 

The call was founded on several things, but today I was reminded of one of them.  It was this passage from the Old Testament Prophet Zechariah, Chapter 8:

Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. Thus says the Lord: I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts shall be called the holy mountain. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Even though it seems impossible to the remnant of this people in these days, should it also seem impossible to me, says the Lord of hosts? Thus says the Lord of hosts: I will save my people from the east country and from the west country; and I will bring them to live in Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Let your hands be strong--you that have recently been hearing these words from the mouths of the prophets who were present when the foundation was laid for the rebuilding of the temple, the house of the Lord of hosts.

For me it’s a vision of what God’s plan for his people is.  It’s a place where all can be themselves, where all can be safe, can play a part, where young and old (slave and free, greek and jew, men and women) live together and where God makes his dwelling place.  It seems like an impossible dream, but in verse 6 God acknowledges this and remind us that it will not be impossible for him. 

The vision reminds me that I need to “Let my hand be strong”.  For me this means to keep on speaking to whoever will listen, about the need to be including young people as the church today and not losing out on what ALL God’s people have to offer.

Does Theology Matter?

I’ve just been thinking about a situation where I had reservations about what the underlying theology of a course of action was, and indeed, whether there even was an underlying theology.  I was in conversation with some other Christian people about an aspect of social action and I was reflecting to myself about whether it matters what the underlying theology is if there are good results.  I was thinking about social transformation and a desire to transform the world from the way it is to the way it should be. 

It’s a bit like motherhood and apple pie isn’t it?  Who in their right mind would speak against transforming the world from its current state into something better?  But as I started to think about that idea I realised that theology does matter.  Theology tells me what is actually wrong with the way things are and tells me how it should be, and that will be different to someone with a different world view.  That doesn't mean that we can’t work together to tackle social issues, but if we do, then I think we need to understand where we’re coming from otherwise we might find ourselves at odds somewhere down the line.

For me theology does matter because it underpins everything I do.  It shapes who I think I am, who each young person I work with is, and what it is I am trying to do with them.  It also tells me what the transformation I’m wanting to bring about and the hope that I’m holding out are.  Without that foundation I’m not sure what my work would be.

Young People take another beating!

I’ve just seen the new advert encouraging participation in the elections for the new Police Commissioners.  See here for a news report including some of the ad:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19854155

It makes me so mad; it’s mostly images of young people being yobs!  Is this all that the new Commissioners will be responsible for?  Where are the images of white collar crime?  The credit card fraudsters?  The MPs claiming expenses? The bankers doing dodgy deals?  The newshounds bugging people’s phones?  In other words where are the images of adults committing crime?

 

Basically, the government want people to vote for another layer of elected officialdom, and because they can’t encourage us any other way they try to make us so scared of unruly yobs we’ll rush out to vote thinking we might make a difference.  To do that they turn yet again to the usual scapegoats – young people!  Young people do commit crime, but so do older people and actually David Cameron I’m more concerned about the level of criminality and corruption in government and financial services which goes unchallenged and unchanged than I am about anti-social behaviour by a minority of young people.  Show me an ad about a Police Commissioner that arrests those types of criminals and you might get me excited.

Perhaps if the budgets for youth work, family services, education and health weren’t being slashed all over the place, something could actually be done to remove the reasons why young people end up in some of the situations they do without trashing them as human beings.  Instead our taxes are being spent on elections for a totally unnecessary layer of government while ignoring the real problems that divide us.

I despair!  But not of young people…of the adults who govern us.

What is Youth Work?

I just read this blog:

http://www.gemmadunning.com/2012/08/christian-youth-work-40-glimpse-into.html

And felt I couldn’t not respond to it. I came to Christian Youth Ministry late in life, post children, and so had a choice in seeking a qualification that enabled me to work with young people. I did consider teaching, but in the end did the Youth and Community Work with Applied Theology degree with CYM (Midlands centre – the best IMHO). This means I looked at both ways of working and made some conscious choices, so I’ll respond to the point Gemma makes by saying why I chose Youth Work

“1) Lots of meaningful connection opportunities with actual young people”

Lots of face time, but at a ratio of 30 to 1 with a very prescriptive curriculum which restricts teachers to delivering certain things. Time constraints mean that there isn’t much space for creativity or spontaneity.

Power imbalance – young people have no choice about whether they are present, and this often means that their bodies are there but their hearts aren’t in it. For this, by definition, removes any meaning I want to find in my work.

“2) Measures of success that can be seen - you can measure your impact on young people"

But success in what – achievement of certain grades in exams isn’t the kind of “success” I’m looking for in my work. I also have very strong opinions that it isn’t the purpose of education; for me education is more to do with each young person becoming the best human being they can be. Our current educational system is about equipping young people to be units of economic production and consumption in a market place that doesn’t have jobs for all of them.

“3) Semi regulated hours - I know teachers don't work school hours but there is a rhythm to the hours they work”

Whether or not I have a rhythm to my life and work is up to me – many people in Christian ministry seem to operate on the basis that only chronic busy-ness and a state of near exhaustion are measures of the quality of their work. As a community of workers we rarely challenge this idea by actually trying to adopt biblical patterns of work and Sabbath that enrich us and our ministry. I see this a lot, not only in youth workers but in pastors and church leaders all over the place. I heartily recommend Ian Stackhouse’s marvellous book “The Gospel Driven Church” for an entirely different perspective.

“4) School holidays - I appreciate many teachers work during the holidays but they definitely get more than 4 weeks annual leave
5) WEEKENDS”

My sister is a secondary teacher* and I know how much work she does at home in evenings and at weekend, how many times she goes in to school to do preparation or for holiday revision sessions, parents evenings, etc. Things have improved a bit recently, but it’s not a doss.

“6) Not having to live every six months wondering if funding for your post will happen”

I think the world of Christian Youth ministry needs to take a good hard look at how we resource the work we do. If we really believe that the work we do amongst young people who are NEET, young single parents, young offenders or whoever else, is part of the ministry of the church then we should fund it properly and control and manage it in the ways we think are right. If we take the government’s pound to deliver outcomes on their behalf, then we have to do it on their terms. Personally I think it’s appalling that really valuable projects with young people can operate on a knife edge all the time; it just confirms what young people already think: that they aren’t worth it, but that’s one that I need to have a go at the government for.

 “7) Regulatory provision for sickness, maternity & employee rights”

Everyone who is employed should get this – it’s the law.

“8) You can get a job as a teacher with or without a VAGINA”

I have a vagina, and, shock horror, it’s quite an old one! Plus I work within a denomination that isn’t doing terribly well about employing women ministers (the Baptists) and I take a lot of issue with that…all the time. But I’m still working and being paid for it. Yes the pay is poor, but it’s poor for secular youth workers too, because it’s such a poorly understood profession, and many of the pressures we face are the same for them too.

I think Gemma is right to ask whether the current model of youth ministry is sustainable, and I’m not convinced that it is, but I think that’s more to do with our current models of church and ministry rather than our employment provisions.

The questions I want to be asking start like this:

• Why is “bigger” always better? We’re obsessed with numbers; numbers in our youth groups, numbers coming to Christ, numbers being baptised. 
• Why are we entertaining young people instead of discipling them? When did we last tell our young people that the Christian life is hard and painful and will cost them everything? Then when they walk away from that, why don’t we let them go?
• Why aren’t we challenging the model of church that keeps children and young people separate from adults, instead of working out how we can be together in a meaningful way?

So my youth worker friends – if the model isn’t working, what should it look like?

*And I respect and admire what she and her colleagues do enormously.

Standing tall

I really should stop looking at Pinterest...it just makes me mad...although it's also starting to make me bored too so it won't be long.   But while I'm here, here's what's making me mad today:



Well, it's an example of it.   Can you see what I mean?  Let me tell you:  look at the way she's standing!  Have you noticed that not only do lots of women in fashion shots look so thin a good breeze would blow them away, they also stand as if they haven't quite learnt how to do it yet?   What is that strange stance for?  Toes turned in, legs slightly awkward looking; it's like those nature films of baby giraffes struggling to stand for the first time.  Since when did looking like you could barely walk upright become a standard of beauty for young women?  It has a weird kind of apologetic look about it, like we shouldn't really be out in public.

This is how a woman should stand; upright, feet firmly on the ground, ready for what she needs to do and making no apology for who she is or what she's doing.

Jessica Ennis not apologising for what she's doing

I've just been reading Tina Fey's great book Bossypants (thanks for the recommendation Becca) and she talks (a lot!) about what it is to be a woman in a male dominated industry.  She expresses her admiration for her female colleague whose response when a male colleague says he doesn't like a gag she has written says "I don't ****ing care if you like it"  In other words, no apology for failing to please, or for existing, or participating in the world.  I bet she stands like Jessica Ennis.

A Writer's Life

I occasionally fancy myself as a writing type of woman; I read Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” and I admire and appreciate good writing.  I read critically and wonder if I could do better.  I’m supposed to be writing part of my dissertation right now, in fact, so I could argue that I am already writing as part of my career…but clearly not because I’m avoiding it by writing this piece instead.

You can imagine, therefore, how encouraged I feel to read the convoluted machinations that a highly respected and established writer and academic such as Mary Beard goes through in thinking about her writing.  You’ll also notice that my other avoidance tactic is finding interesting writing on the internet!

I’m also extremely jealous of her library bed and tidy study.

Thoughts of a Grumpy Old Pinterester

When I’m at a bit of a loose end I quite like flicking through a magazine.  I haven’t got time to get involved in a good book, I just want to be a bit distracted by looking at some pretty clothes, something funny, a nice kitchen, or a new recipe.  I don’t take it too seriously and it is just something to fill a moment of quiet between one thing and the next.  Trouble is, I don’t often buy magazines so I don’t usually have any to hand.  That’s why I like Pinterest; it’s an easily accessible, ever updating magazine.

I’ve started to notice a few problems with it though.  Firstly, it works like pornography.  Those who talk about the effects of pornography say that although it isn’t technically infidelity, by thinking about someone other than your significant other you think about having someone else, you compare what you have with what you could have, you see other people having better things than what you have and you start to feel dissatisfied with what you have and then you feel unhappy.  Pinterest does the same thing; you go from “That’s a pretty bedroom” to “It’s prettier than my bedroom” to “Why does she get to have that pretty bedroom?” to “I hate my bedroom”.  Now, I love my home; we’ve lived there for nearly twenty years; it’s the home my husband and I have made for and with our two children and it contains more than just the stuff we own.  Of course I would change things if I could, but it works well enough and actually I can't be bothered with constant home improvement.  But I’m noticing a little worm gnawing at my contentment with it.  Pinterest!  I’m watching you!  I do not need a villa on a Spanish Island, or a free standing bath with spa jets.

The second thing I’ve noticed is the cute sentiments that get propagated around it in no time!  Things like this:

Really people?  Is that true or is it just a way to make someone feel better about not having the courage to sort out something in an honourable way that doesn’t destroy other people in the process?

Or this one:

Are you sure???  What sort of sick, masochistic God do you follow???  Please explain the theology of this?

And don't get me started on what people do with scripture!!!  Look at this:

Totally ignoring what the verse is actually about, justifying bad behaviour and worshiping the God of pulling yourself up by your own efforts!

Maybe we should actually analyse what the outworkings of these sentiments are before we scatter them around…the more they spread around the more people tend to view them as truth.  As I finally reach the stage of Grumpy Old Woman-ness I’m getting a bit outspoken about it.  If you follow me on Pinterest I’ve started a board called Things to Question.  Even if nobody else reads it, it makes me feel like I’m asking myself some important questions about what I’m seeing.

And finally, a big bee in my bonnet: so many images of women looking either like skeletons or like freaky body builders, with lots of exhortations to perform 3000 jumping jacks so I can look the same.  Occasionally images appear of curvier women, but sadly they are usually connected to dodgy sites!  Why are we doing this to ourselves?  Isn’t it enough that men do it to us, and increasing to themselves as well!  Let's have more of this:

I’m not even going to start on American understandings of cooking* but suffice it to say that I’m looking at Pinterest in a more thoughtful way these days.  

*No!  Opening 3 jars and adding them to a can of ready made “Biscuit Dough” does not constitute cooking from scratch.  And NO!  reducing the number of ingredients by using packets and jars does not make it a good recipe!

Handing on the flame Part Deux

On Saturday I blogged my reflections on the Olympic Opening Ceremony and had a few positive responses.  Since writing I’ve continued to think about what I mean and so I’m writing “Handing on the Flame, Part Deux” to carry on my internal conversation.  Feel free to join in.

Somewhere in the “Money” Chapter in Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster says (my summary) that Money has spiritual power because we want it and hold on to it.  By giving it away we break that spiritual power and free ourselves to have the relationship with money that God intended.  He suggests that we give away money not for the good it will do the people we give it to, but for our own sake, for our own spiritual health.  I think it’s the same principle that’s at work in the idea of the year of Jubilee.  If, every fifty years you have to give land back to the original owner you can’t become dependent on it for your sense of who you are;  you always have to know that everything we have belongs to God.  It forces a radical, paradigm shift in your understanding of wealth, power and privilege; it stops you from creating an identity based on what you can hold on to and instead forces you into a radical reliance on who you are in God.

I think that the model suggested by the Opening Ceremony has the same effect.  The Olympic heroes were in effect saying “This doesn’t belong to us; it’s bigger than what we have been and what we want” and the same would be true in the church.  We think that we can’t let young people be involved in the running of the church because they aren’t mature and wise; they don’t know enough to run it as well as we do.  What we’re really doing, though, is hanging on to our power and privilege.  Maybe this is why so many found the ceremony so moving, and why some others found it so offensive.  It was moving because it offered an opposite vision of what could be, and it was offensive because it challenged people’s ideas about a world based on prestige and success.

Cyd Zeigler on SB.com said this, which rather epitomises this attitude:

“The grand finale, the moment I was waiting for most, was the revealing of the lighter of the flame. So many great options were floated out there...and they chose one more boring and more forced than any other I'd heard: Seven no-name young athletes. I'm sorry, you've got to earn that honor. You've got to achieve greatness before you get to light the Olympic flame. You've got to inspire a nation. Instead, the event producers decided to hand the honor to a bunch of kids.”

I rather think he missed the point; that by giving away the honour to “a bunch of kids” Danny Boyle did indeed inspire a whole nation and maybe even further afield.

The Opening Ceremony programme says this:

“But we hope, too, that through all the noise and excitement you’ll glimpse a single golden thread of purpose – the idea of Jerusalem – of the better world, the world of real freedom and true equality, a world that can be built through the prosperity of industry, through the caring notion that built the welfare state, through the joyous energy of popular culture, through the dream of universal communication. A belief that we can build Jerusalem. And that it will be for everyone.”*

Maybe the same applies to the church: if we give the future of the church to our children, as terrifying as that sounds, the shift in our souls will be so profound that the church will be transformed into something we never dreamed possible. 

*Isn't it interesting that the image Boyle used is of Jerusalem, the city where God meets his people.

Handing on the flame

I watched the Olympic Opening Ceremony last night and was moved in many ways, but the part I found most moving and resonant was the lighting of the cauldron.  There has been a tradition of the person lighting the cauldron receiving the highest honour, and it is given to an individual whose achievement is above and beyond any other.  The British media and blogosphere has been speculating about who will receive this honour, with some cynicism.  The underlying feeling has been that it will go to someone who doesn’t quite deserve it but who has managed to somehow wangle it because of privilege and position, and I must admit to sharing some of that cynicism.

How wrong I was!  The flame was brought into the stadium by someone who is indisputably our great Olympian, Sir Steve Redgrave.  But then a miracle occurred.  He handed it to a group of young, unknown athletes.  The commentator Huw Edwards described it as “the transfer of the privilege and honour of lighting the flame.”  It was handed to seven unknowns, young people who are just starting out, as yet untried and unproven, but full of potential.  It was handed on by an older generation who recognised their potential and saluted and supported them in that.  The rest of us watched and cheered them on.  Huw went on to observe “Seven Great British Olympic heroes offering that honour to these young athletes”.  In other words it was freely given in recognition of hope in the future, offering, but not imposing on them, a vision of all that’s best in our life together.

It’s notable that it was given not to one, but to a team, as part of a ceremony that valued the contribution of not just the great and the physically able, but included the deaf, the old, the builders and plumbers, the Queen, children, nurses.  It was a ceremony that showed our pride in who we are and our hope for the future, served up with a dose of affection and humour.

It struck me forcibly that this is what the church could, and should be, in particular, and most importantly, the way in which we hand on the flame of faith to the next generation.  Let’s not wait until they have to tear it out of our cold, dead hands, by which time they have grown bitter and tired of waiting.  Let’s put our faith in them and the future and hand it on while they are still full of vision and energy, passion and life.  Let’s not keep the power and privilege to ourselves but lay it down in the hope that something new and vibrant will grow.  

I could go on about the changes that have occurred between how the Olympics was in 1948 and how it is now; training methods, the style of the opening ceremony, the nations taking part, the addition of technology.  Of course the 2012 Games don’t look like the 1948 games, but it’s still the Olympic Games and no amount of politicking or abuse of its values seems to damage what it is.

Paul said, in his letter to the Philippians: “…one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” And maybe this should offer a vision for us not just as individuals but as a whole people of God.