So, 24 hours until NYA2008 begins.  How am I feeling?  Well I’m just beginning to get excited after a day of not really caring much.  I guess that happens when you’ve been working on something for a while and it eventually comes around!

This event is a bit of an technology experiment.  We’re using multiple platforms to enable people to read, write, tweet, comment and generally say stuff about the topics up for discussion and it would be great if you wanted to get involved in that.

You can see the topics we’ll be talking about and when through the links in the blog.  The blog should be pretty interesting with a range of people sharing their thoughts.  Your comments would be very welcome!

Hopefully you will be able to see some of the comments and questions on the twitter feed.  Feel free to follow NYA2008 on twitter too and send us some messages!

Finally, there will be photos on the NYA2008 flickr group or search for nya2008 tags.

So, I’m off to pack soon.  My sessions are about as done as they are getting for now.  I’m hoping they will evolve with the conversation over the weekend too.

So what does one need to make all this happen?  Well, a laptop, a camera and a phone.  Seriously, that’s all.  You could even do without the camera if your phone has a decent camera.

I’m getting excited.  And nervous.  I’m still not done!

Today’s news is that NYA2008 will have its own blog with a team of bloggers posting their thoughts and impressions as we go through the weekend.  We hope to have some thoughts from our keynote speaker, Mark Yaconelli, some delegates new and old and maybe even some of the event team.

The blog is over at http://nya2088.wordpress.com

I’ll also be blogging here throughout the weekend.

DK at Media Snackers has been on a bit of a campaign to get Youth Workers in the statutory sector to blog.  It would seem that there are very few who do (he’s found one!), which perhaps is a consequence of Local Authorities attitudes to their staff having any kind of online profile (it’s BAD).

The same is true of the church.  Rumour has it that the powers that be added Facebook to the list of blocked websites in the Church of Scotland’s offices the day before Gordon Brown (yes the Prime Minister) gave social networking a big thumbs up at the General Assembly.  Facebook was unblocked shortly after.

This seems broadly representative of local churches and even denomination’s approach to the Internet.  ‘I don’t understand it so it must be bad.’  I’ve had youth workers tell me they are not allowed to have BEBO or Facebook sites, they can’t have forums on their websites and all kinds of stuff about not being online.  The reason most given is ‘Child Protection’.  What a load of nonsense.

The online world is just as safe (or unsafe) as real life.  What we should be doing is having sensible conversations about APPROPRATE online interaction with young people.  There are lost of ways to have open and transparent contact online with young people.

It’s probably a good idea for you not to IM your youth group.  But there’s no reason you can’t have a Twitter account telling them what’s coming up this week, or reminding them what to bring.

Having a group blog also let’s young people be creative in collecting content, writing and presenting what they have been up to.  A blog would give your group a higher profile in the community.  It would allow parents and supporters to see the value of your group.  You might even get new members or more funding.

So, here’s a plea.  Just because you don’t ‘get it’ don’t think it’s bad.  There are loads of tools and opportunities around to make your youth work better.  Don’t miss out because you don’t know where to start.

If you blog about your youth work, let me know.

If you would like to know more about getting online then in the next session I’ll be doing some training to get you started.  Keep an eye out on the blog and the dates pages or get in touch from the contact page.

In the meantime check YoMo’s guide to youth work blogging HERE.

Welcome to my new blog and website. I have been blogging for over a year at Scream Without Raising Your Voice and have recently moved here so welcome.  Thanks for visiting.  Make a coffee, pull up a chair and have a look around.  I’d love to hear your thoughts so please leave comments or email me using the contact page.

Who Am I?

I am a Youth and Children’s Work Trainer with over 15 years of experience working with volunteers, students and professionals in the Christian Church and in communities around Scotland.

I can help you to develop engaging worship; help your church and youth or children’s groups to forward plan; help you organise and run events of all sizes and facilitate training in youth work, children’s work and all kinds of other stuff to make your church better.

My background is in Community Education and I’m currently studying for a Masters in Social Research at Glasgow Caledonian University.

I have a range of professional interests including social media, communication technology and learning as well as emerging church, fresh expressions of worship and theology to go alongside playing golf, taking photographs and trying to kick my obsession with Mario Kart!

Visit the

BLOG for my thoughts and discussion since 2007

PROJECTS for news on stuff I’m working on

DOWNLOADS for articles, sermons and resources.

RESOURCES for links to useful stuff around the web

or CONTACT me.

Wordle now lets you paste in a url or a blog, feed of site and creates a word cloud.  It’s always interesting to see what you really write about.  I have to say these aren’t the words I expected!  Sorry the picture is not great quality… they don’t let you save your wordle!!!

I was thinking about my transition to a ‘website with a blog’ from ‘just a blog’.

What’s the difference?  In my head this site gives more opportunities to make resources available, discuss issues and point people in the direction of other helpful and interesting people and sites.  The question is ‘What’s the best way to do all that?’

Is the front page that never changes good or bad?

Does it put you off that you have to go looking for the blog?

Would you prefer the blog posts on the front page?

What kind of things would you like to see on the resources, downloads and diary pages?

I guess I’m in the process of working out what this site will be and how both I and you will be able to use it and get the most out of it.

There is a poll in the sidebar.  Please take some time to vote and also to leave your comments about what you would value from this site.

Thanks.

Stewart

Hi!

Welcome to my new blog home.  Thanks for dropping by.  I’ll be blogging here from now on and also posting some stuff in the other sections of the site.  As you will notice if your a reader of my previous blog, Scream Without Raising Your Voice, most of the post from there have made it over to here so they are all in the archive.  I’m still using WordPress to power the site and have been very impressed with how easy it has been to get up and running so quickly (2 days from registration to now).

A big thanks to John for all his help with this latest online adventure.  He’s selling webspace now and is VERY helpful.

So, all I need to do is to think about some stuff to write about… any ideas/suggestions/requests?

iChurch is, in my humble opinion, the best idea I’ve seen in ages.

If you are a URC congregation who either wants a website but think it is too hard to set up and run

or

are paying for web hosting, trying to design and update your site and all that

then ichurch is the answer!  For a one off fee of £100 you get your own website with a yourchurch.urc.org.uk address, a site that is already set up and really simple for anyone to update.  It runs from the URC server so no web hosting costs or any of that website hassle.

It’s a brilliant idea and one I think every congregation should take up.

I’ve been looking for a blogging tool that lets me post without having to visit my blog and all that. I used to use windows Live Writter which is a fantastic application, but only for Windows!

ScribeFire is a Firefox add-in so I can now post from my browser, add youtube, stuff from other sites… Worth a look.

Ramble Alert! OK. I’m not sure where this post is going but stick with me and hopefully it will get somewhere…

I’m working on some aims and objectives for my job. I tell everyone I train to do it so it’s practice what you preach time.

The thing is… I can write down the stuff I do/will do/can do standing on my head OR I can do all that and try to do something that will make a difference. We have been talking a lot in our little Synod Team about ‘Culture Carrying’. That discussion has grown from a feeling that we have to do better than maintaining the church. To do that we need to embody something else. We need to be culture carriers.

So my quandary is twofold:

Does any of the stuff I do make a difference? And if it does, who or what does it make a difference to? And are those the right people?

What culture should I be carrying? I start where I always do. Asking for thoughts and ideas.

Headphonaught suggests I keep being me. I’m not sure I can be anything else, or that I can write that down on my forward plan!

1. Be me.

2. see 1

I think he’s right though. I need to be authentic. And so does the church. If it’s not about life and living it then what’s the point?

Avril asked me what difference the church can make to the lives of people in and out of it? I don’t really know the answer to that question. I’m sure it makes a bigger difference than we might at first think because the ‘organisation’ isn’t the be all and end all of being church thank God. The people live and move in the world, loving, caring, helping and supporting as they go. But then so do lots of others who have no involvement in church.

My thing is children and young people and the adults that work with them. At least that’s what my job is. My problem is that sometimes I have no idea what to do with that. (is that something I should be admitting?) I sometimes wonder if the church as it exists is anyplace for our children and young people? In some cases yes and in some no.

What I have noticed is that the churches that are willing to invest some time, money and most of all themselves are the ones that do well with children and young people. And yet few of our churches are growing significantly. That isn’t because they are not good places full of good people. I would recommend a number of them to anyone.

I wonder if it is because we don’t advertise our existence? Is that a confidence thing? Are we silent because we don’t know who we are or what we are for?

I wrote a chapter in a book called Inside Verdict which I began with the words “This isn’t working anymore.” Well, is it any better now? Of course some of it is. The Together@MCT project I’ve been working with people on perhaps sheds some light. Engaging worship. Discussion with no pressure. Hopefully some community building. But I’m not sure we have gotten our heads around who it is for and how we should move forward yet. We need to keep the bigger picture before us. That will come though.

The pervasive themes of personalisation and participation return to my thinking again and again. The world, my world, seems to value both of these. How does that fit with community? It seems to in the world of facebook and bebo. I can be me. I can have my personal page but I belong to the community and can participate and add and contribute. How does/could/should that work in church?

Media that targets you but doesn’t include you may not be worth sitting still for.

Clay Shirky

So just a few questions to answer. I’ll get back to my aims and objectives now and see if any or all of those thoughts make it onto the page.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated. Really. They would.