London Life

Some Christian language can set us up for a fall I think and spiritual gifts are two that we can tie ourselves up in knots over. I have worked at and attended churches where if God isn't blessing you with the gift of tongues or healing your not a real Christian - and this is dangerous. There are the better known gifts and the ones that people aren't so sure about (such as administration - a gifting I really wish I possessed) but how do we go about communicating gifting in a healthy way?

As part of my portfolio I need to prove that I can "Aid individuals to identify and develop their spiritual gifts in relation to the wider church where appropriate" whatever that means. By individuals they mainly mean young people - as it is a degree in youth work after all - but I work in a church that is very focused o the practical element of faith, living out what it means to be a Christian. Could that in turn be a spiritual gift? How appropriate is it do this just in an age group session? Surely it's better to do this in a whole congregation setting where everyone can see their gifting and they that applies to the wider church.

I haven't done much exploration with the young people however I do know who the natural leaders of the group are and get them involved in leading parts of the session and contributing things, I know who the pastoral ones are and can appeal to their gift to get group harmony - not in a manipulative way but getting them to listen and reflect and then speak when appropriate. I know the musically gifted and one girl has sung in the band several times and one of the guys now has regular slots at the studio expanding his talent and gifting. This is a corporate act but I have had conversations with them, is that enough or do we really need to sit them all down and fill out an inventory and label them???

Church is a life programme not a Sunday morning ditty - my main aim is to get the young people applying God to their daily lives and letting Him guide, help and challenge them. Perhaps I've got it wrong?!

I think most church have values which their adhere to, here at Church.co.uk we have the 5 I's - these are: Inclusion, Intimacy, Involvement, Influence and Interdependence (I promise you they are from memory and I didn't look them up).

These are all good and look great on paper but it can be challenging to put them into practice. Such as how do you get a group of Muslim young people to have an intimate faith with God and be involved in their community when their understanding of who God is and the affect that has on them is different? Or how do you include a young person who repeatedly comes in stoned or drunk, break the rules and is abusive to staff and young people alike? How can you encourage young people to have influence when the media tells them they are worthless and it's all they believe about themselves? Finally how can you lead young people to become interdependent with their community when the world view on life is everyone for themselves?

These are all issues I have faced at the church and all things we as a team are trying to work with. Inclusion is our main church value and in most instances it is easy to put into practice but when you start thinking about gang work and particularly troubled young people it becomes a case of exclusion to include - laying down the law but helping them separately to overcome their difficulties.

Projects like Southside have hugely benefitted young people to have a voice in the community and be in a position of influence - meeting MPs and our own Mayor have helped to fill the young people with confidence and given them the opportunity to speak out about their issues and their ideas to resolve them. Honestly young people probably have the best answers to solving gun, gang and knife crime simply because they live it daily and know what they or their peers need to abolish the problem.

I don't have all the answers on how we can put the church values into practice but they are a great plum line for us all as a team to stick to and aim at getting the young people to be living out too.

Just some food for thought.
Happy Blogging

Rach

I've lead a enough services at church now that I feel like I've found a method that works for me and a style that people connect with. Dave asked me to lead as a progression of my involvement in the church and as part of the team and Pete was keen about me doing it because it was a chance to make the church more aware youth work happening on a regular basis. In effect it gives me a chance to advocate on behalf of the young people.

The dictionary defines advocating as:

–verb (used with object)
1. to speak or write in favor of; support or urge by argument; recommend publicly: He advocated higher salaries for teachers.
–noun
2. a person who speaks or writes in support or defense of a person, cause, etc. (usually fol. by of): an advocate of peace.
3. a person who pleads for or in behalf of another; intercessor.
4. a person who pleads the cause of another in a court of law.

I love my dictionary definitions to get behind the meanings of stuff. In all the services I've lead I have publicly recommended the work we do with the young people and the achievements they have made - such as Southside, the photography project and the residential to name but a few. I have also been able to present a different view of the young people in the area - communicating both the ups and downs of living in such a difficult place.

I've also been able to lead the service with Shay* one of the girls who regularly attends the Hub, which was a great way to connect her with the church and them with all that is going on. Whilst she was nervous she already shows great leadership and communication skills and it really did bridge the gap between her and the congregation she probably wouldn't choose to spend time with. I've also got young people from youth church to help me with certain aspects of leading - even if it is just to read a bible passage or praying (saying that on of the guys prays like it's going out of fashion - he's incredible). All of this however does feel a little removed from what the dictionary defines advocacy as though - but it is giving the young people a chance to be included and have all their hard work heard about.

The important thing is that the young people are loved by God and he hears about them all the time - however it is good to rave about them to others when all the media seems to do is condemn them!

* Name changed

It is a question of faith, not a war against terrorism, as Bush and Blair try to depict it.

There have been many speculations on the reasons behind the war in Iraq. Bush and Blair themselves claim they acted on information of Weapons of Mass Destruction, most skeptics claim Bush just wanted the oil but how many people jumped to the conclusion that this was a war of faith?

War on terror is what this came under, yet as "Christian" should we even be entering into war. The two greatest commandments are to LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, MIND, SOUL AND STRENGTH and LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF how do they factor into war? Most of the atrocities committed by the older Christian world - such as slavery and the crusades - have tried to be reconciled and most people now can see they were wrong and just don't match up with God's plan for us. Yet we have since entered into two more public wars with Muslim nations with it has to be said rather shaky reasoning. Bush and Blair claim to Christians so could their reasoning go beyond the "War on Terror" (whatever that means) and the power kick of having the most oil in the country? Could this be about the conflict between the big world religions? If it is then how is this showing the awesome LOVE of God?

A great man once said, "An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind". Can you really fight fire with fire? Can you fight terrorism with war? In my opinion no, and I don't think it's what God wants for his community. I think God would rather we were on our knees in prayer to him than picking up our weapons and firing at will. How can you love your neighbour if you are holding a gun to their head and the heads of their community. It fails to conjure up the image of a lion laying with a lamb doesn't it. Yet this is where we are at and could it be that Osama Bin Laden (author of the quote at the top) is right and this is more than terror and more than oil ... this is a war that has been happening for the past 1000 years, is this war just another crusade?

Intentional seems to be the new buzz word in Christian circles these days, but how do we become intentional? How do we live intentionally?

If you ask people what most Christians believe they can tell you, "Christians believe that Jesus is God's son and that Jesus rose from the dead." But if you ask the average person how Christians live, they are struck silent. We have not shown the world another way of doing life. Christians pretty much live like everybody else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way.

Shane Claiborne couldn't be more right (I highly recommend his book The Irresistible Revolution). Matthew 5 talks about a third way of living but in reality most Christians don't live distinctively from anybody else. To live intentionally we need to be active in the decisions we make. Society should be looking to the church on how to live, be it from being green to having the answers to gang and gun culture.

So if this is how we are supposed to be living why aren't we?

I'm less than two months off getting my JNC but before I can get that I need to put together a portfolio proving I am a competent youth worker and have my final assessment to check I am again competent.

It keeps coming up that I need to be more confident which is frustrating (especially as it normally comes with a criticism that knocks the last remaining bit of confidence out of me) because it's not just something that can happen overnight. Where can you get that confidence from?

There is the obvious and highly relevant point that God is where we should seek our confidence from in fact the only "person" to get it from. Nehemiah (well technically Ezra) writes,

So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.

The enemies lost confidence because GOD had helped - does this mean confidence doesn't exist without God's presence?

Taking it further it's easy to get "confidence" or encouragement/affirmation from others, but Micah writes,

Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words.

It's hard to hear when it's a basic human need to be affirmed and to get it from those close to us. I look to Mark or Chris or Dom or Heather to affirm me and my work but don't take the time to listen to what God has to say about it. Is this the reason why my confidence is lacking?

Back to the portfolio and assessment it becomes ironic that a Christian course is so instant on the student proving their worth through the affirmation of others...

Anyway just some food for thought as they say. Happy days,

Rach xxx

P.S. The above photo is of a group of my young people during our summer project Southside.

I haven't blogged in a while and I have nothing to say other than I'm having a rough time (not like Job - just like teenager the world hates me rough). I really missing the Brierley's so I logged into their blog and found this gem. Enjoy...

Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy !

You can read more about the amazing Brierley's here.