View From The Basement

IPod = insecure, Pressured, Overtaxed and Debt-ridden

Hat tip to Brad who highlights a Newweek article called, Europe's New Young Generation of Losers. The article outlines the growing rift and tension between those of the boomer generation and their kids. One paragraph in particular jumped out at me;

"Lacking well-paid jobs, the young have been thrown back on the generosity of their parents. That's fine for the middle class, but much worse for the poor. "Progress was once produced by the state; now it comes from family solidarity,"

The growing gap between the "haves" and "have not's" is something that greatly concerns me, but what to do? A while back I went to hear Tom Sine speak. He touched on many of the issues the Newsweek article does. His challenge to those of us there that day was to find Kingdom solutions to these problems. Yet so often the church undergirds the status quo rather than challenging it.

London Shootings

Kester has a very thoughtful post on the recent shootings of young black men boys in London. What Kester brings to this discussion that say New Night did not and perhaps cannot are questions about the spirituality of the black faith communities and the role they might play in the disenfranchisement of their adolescent boys.

Kester asks "where (in Fowlers stages of development) are the stage 4+ Pentecostals"? Where is the space and who are the guides that can help navigate the difficult and dangerous ground of this "demythologizing" stage? Both space and guides seem to be in short supply.

As with all these issues there are no simple or quick fix answers, but perhaps in this period of reflection these recent tragedy's will birth leaders of young men in these communities that will create safe spaces for questioning and be guides to lead them into manhood?

PURE

I got an email today from a UCCF fieldworker to say that the Pure course at Edinburgh University has been banned. I've used the Pure material with our older youth cell and think that it's good stuff to help young people think through a Christain position on relationships and sex.

The CU at Edinburgh have from the inforamtion I have handled things well, but the decision to ban the course was taken without fully consulting them.

I've written on behalf of our team to ask the principle and vice chancellor to allow the Pure Course to proceed. A copy of the letter is below;

If we're following then where is He going?

I "preached" at Church on Sunday which is quite a rare thing for me to do. Rather than type a summary of what I said I'll get the recording of my talk and see if I can load it up here as a podcast. This may be beyond my technical skills, but I know others have done it so if I come asking "how?" you've been forwarned.

My talk was titled, "Following Jesus", and was an attempt to answer the question, "if we are following Jesus then where is he going?"

Stupidest Quiz in the world?

I've make up the following quiz to use with the kids on Sunday morning;

(1) How do you overtake the car in front?

(2) In football how do players from the same team get the ball to each other?

(3) Cruachan Power Station is situated at the what O'Brander?

(4) In the quiz show Mastermind what do contestants say when they don't know the answer to a question?

(5) You are winning a race but then slow and someone else wins. What did they do to you?

(6) Complete the name of this popular children's party game, ???? the parcel?

(7) When traveling by plane you need a boarding what?

(8) You take driving lessons so you can what your test?

(9) The A57 between Manchester and Sheffield is known as Snake what?

(10) The cheapest way to go sightseeing in London is to by a London what?

The answer to all the questions above is PASS. If you think you can come up with a quiz of ten questions which all have the answer pass that would improve upon this meager effort then I'd be happy to know.

Also do you think this is the Stupidest Quiz in The World?

Leadership

Fernando has written some good thoughts on leadership that are worth reading. Following the discussion from the  other night leadership is something I've been thinking about.

As I walked home last night my thoughts took me back to when I was a teenager and did a lost of sea kayaking and the kind of leadership I saw and learned there.

The leader was normally the most experienced paddler, but rather than lead from the front of the group he/she would lead from the back. There were several reasons for this.

Trust was a big reason. The leader trusted the other paddlers both in terms of our ability and conduct. He/she knew our skill levels but would always try and stretch us, teach us something new. This could be done because you never paddled on your own; you were always part of a group who could rescue you if you got into trouble.

An other reason you lead from the back was that everyone was clear about where we were going and as it the sea we could within reason all take our own route while remaining part of the group heading in the same direction. The leadership was therefore in some senses egalitarian in that under the supervision and wisdom of the group leader we would all take turns in leading the group.

Because the leader was normally the strongest paddler the pace of the group was not dictated by his speed or strength, but normally by those of medium ability.

Perhaps most importantly the leader was at the back because from that position he could care for the group while watching where he was going. A paddler who leads from the front not only can't see those he's responsible for all the time, but every time he turns to see where they are he both slows down and looses direction.

Now I'm not saying this way of leading translates perfectly into "Christian ministry" but I do think it provides a critique and lessons to be learned. What the critique and lessons are I'll let you figure for yourself!

Soup & Pudding

In June I'm taking a small team of young people to New Orleans to get involved with some relief work that's still going on.

On Sunday 2nd April after the morning service at QP we'll be having a fund raising lunch. It's soup and pudding for £4 or £2 if your under 16.

So if you're about on the 2nd please come along and have soem soup and pudding and help us get to New Orleans!

Creative Bible Study

QWIGIBO is one of the youth cells that I'm involved with. The name means nothing so don't waste time looking up a dictionary. It was a name the kids made up themselves and has an onomatopoetic roll off the tongue.

We've been looking at the book of Colossians and I'd been thinking about how I could make this more engaging for the kids. Last night we looked at Chapter 3. I asked the kids to pick the four of five main points of this chapter. After they had done this I gave them some paper and asked them to draw or show pictorially these five points, them we could show our pictures to each other and guess what our pints were.

The kids had a blast and I'm sure they got a lot more out of the evening than if I'd just talked about the chapter. I wonder if this would work with adults as well?

Break the Traffic

At the Friday Night youth club we spent some time thinking about Human Trafficking and the modern day slave trade. We watched a short video on the UNICEF site fronted by Robbie Williams. It's a short film to a poem called "More precious than Gold" and is quite powerful in it's own way.

A bunch of the kids were really enthused about making a banner for our picture to post on Break The Traffic. You can see their fruit of their labour by clicking on the image above to enlarge it.

Team Game 1

I'm always on the look out for team games that actually work. At the Friday night youth club we tried one which actually worked! The kids seemed to really get into it especially when we started to get them to race each other.

So here's what you do. Get everyone to form a circle and then hold hands. Get a plastic hula hoop and place it over some ones arm. The group then has to pass the hoop around the circle with out letting go of each others hands. Once they have this basic idea then you can introduce variations. Split the group up into different groups, add a second smaller hoop that has to go the opposite direction.