Last night I was at an open evening at my kid’s primary school.  Their work was on display and I was finding out what the ‘not much’ and ‘nothing’ they do all day is.

Two things struck me.  The first that there seems to be little room for initiative.  I mean real initiative beyond using a  different colour for something.  Castles, islands, knights, maps… all slightly different but essentially the same.

You get good marks for meeting the set criteria.

Seth Godin talks about this:

Compliance is simple to measure, simple to test for and simple to teach. Punish non-compliance, reward obedience and repeat.

Initiative is very difficult to teach to 28 students in a quiet classroom. It’s difficult to brag about in a school board meeting. And it’s a huge pain in the neck to do reliably.

Schools like teaching compliance. They’re pretty good at it.

On the wall in each class was a chart asking parents the elements they think should be present to make the school a successful learning environment.

It was an interesting list and I wish I had taken a quick photo of it.  Coherent curriculum, rewarding success, respect, justice….

and also creativity, transferring skills, initiative…

I put my stars there.  But I was almost the only one.  Most parents preferred compliance.

I wonder if church is the same?

‘That’s not how we do that’  ‘That’s so-and-so’s job’  ‘We tried that once and it didn’t work’  ‘This is what the parable means’

Are we teaching compliance?  It is easier after all.

Thanks to all the people who came along to my two seminars at Deep Impact in Aviemore at the weekend.  It was good to meet some new people and some old friends.  Welcome to my blog if you’re visiting as a result of the sessions at the weekend!

Both sessions were recorded but they both were more conversational so I’m not sure how much sense the audio will make.

You can download the presentations as PDF files from my web tools page.  Let me know what you think!

I’m back on the road again this week, in two ways.

The first is in a literal sense… running.  10 years ago I ran a half marathon.  It turns out that residual fitness doesn’t last ten years!

The second road hitting is to Aviemore to lead a couple of seminars based around the Internet, both on Sunday morning.

My first seminar is about life online. (I didn’t pick the name!)

The second is

Child Protection: Young People and the Web

The internet is a new and uncharted country which, like most new places, has benefits and drawbacks. Like any other place it provides risks and opportunities for young people and adults alike. Join us to explore some of the risks and opportunities presented by the internet in safe and sensible ways.

Any thoughts on what you would want to hear about in either session?

Substance

In his comment on part 1 of this little series of posts John grasps on of the key criticisms of both Emerging Church and of Youth Work… lack of substance.

I often hear that both are prone to style over content.  Both suffer from a tendancy towards the flash and attractive.  I’ve seen it and can hold my hand up and say that I’ve also done it.

But I’m not sure that lack of substance is a fair criticism of either Emerging Church or Youth Work done well.

At the heart of both seems to be a desire for relationship.

Youth work has struggled to get past the attractional model where we put on some big fancy event that lots of young people will come to and hope that for some strange reason that will be enough to get them to stay for the rather naff games and poor attempts at bible study where we tell them what the Bible should mean to them.

Emerging Church is informed by a similar process where big church for grown ups had a go at being all interesting and attractive.  It was called ‘Alternative Worship’.  Churches discovered that presentation mattered and that people wanted to be involved but many of the ‘Alternative Worship’ experiments were little more than a reformatted version of the standard church service.  People saw through it and discovered that, like attractional youth work, all that glitters is not gold.

Substance is the goal for both.  Depth of relationship, participation, learning, sharing and growing together seem to be the key factors in youth work… and in emerging church.

The cycle has been the same.  Attractional followed by a move to deeper more substantial communities.

I wonder if that is because those who now inhabit leadership positions in the church and experienced the attractional youth work model are now being joined by a younger generation of leaders who have grown up on incarnational youth work and who experienced youth groups where they were loved and valued and experienced opportunities to know God?

It seems to me that both areas are rediscovering something that has been lost.  Both youth work and emerging church are pursuing models where stillness, spiritual practices, relationship building and learning in a collaborative manner are all valued.

These seem to me to be the practices that grow from the values of community work I outlined in part 2.

It also grows from a sense of disconnection.  I heard Mark Lau Branson talk about how he has abandoned the lectionary because the people in his church don’t understand the context of these weekly fragments of scripture as they jump around the highlights of the Christian story.  That seems to bear out my own experience and those of many worship leaders I meet.

I think that’s partly the fault of the attractional youth work model which focused on highlights, particularly from the Gospel because that was the most important bit and the rest didn’t matter much.

Church has been the same.  Scotland has never been big on Bible Study for adults.  The 15 minute sermon on a Sunday morning has been the main teaching for the majority of adults.  In any other context 15 minutes a week would be laughable.  Can you imagine trying to learn a language, to play an instrument or to build a relationship by spending 15 minutes a week on it?

Youth work is about building community.  Church should be too.  Emerging Church seems to be up for going deeper… but still needs to guard against the ‘cool for the sake of it’ phenomena which happens when any group of creative people get together… apparently.emerging

I’m Bored!!!

Every Teenager… ever…

Malcontent and restlessness used to be the domain of adolescence and political radicals.  But it seems that discontent has seeped into the very heart of the establishment and into the very soul of the ultimate expression of conformity, the church.

All over the place people are ‘emerging’.  New kinds of worship are developing daily.  New ‘missional’ projects sprout up in the least likely places.  Many have tried to explain this phenomena in sociological terms and with theories.  That’s all great.  It’s helpful and has given rise to a whole ‘new’ stream of theological thought but I’ve had a niggling thought that has scratched away at my consciousness for years now…

Is all of this emerging church stuff  just good youth work?

Well, i’m going to try to follow that thought in a series of posts over the next few days and weeks and see where it goes.  Let’s begin with root causes:

Bored Adults

It started in the 50s.  The invention of the ‘teenager’ and the steady decline of the established church seem to me to be inextricably linked but not because teenagers are disinterested in church.  Far from it.  They are linked because teenagers have grown up into ‘bored adults’.

I suspect that ‘bored adults’ have always existed.  Boredom can be a powerful force for good and bad.  Some bored people are driven to find ways to entertain and amuse themselves.  They discover things, take risks others would never dream of and push boundaries.

The other side to boredom is the one parents of teenagers know all to well.  The stereotypical can’t be bothered, stay in bed all day, never leave their room, hate everything, never want to do anything teenager that we have all come to recognise, mostly because we were once that person.  Apathy and inactivity seem to define a generation.

And yet we know that generalisation is really a myth.  Young people are active and motivated and engaged.

But we’re not talking about teenagers.  We’re talking about the ‘bored adults’.

In evolutionary terms ‘Bored Adults’ are the descendants of the ‘teenager’.  Many sociologists have observed that adolescence has extended well into people’s 30s.  More people are living at home with their parents for longer.  People are settling with a partner later.  People are having children later.

This elongation of adolescence has led to some interesting things.  There is a whole new industry built on the 30 something with disposable income and few responsibilities.  The average age of the ‘gamer’ is the early 30s.

Bored adults display many of the characteristics of teenagers.  They find it hard to commit, they are wary of authority, they complain about how things are but show few signs of willingness to engage to make things better.  Bored adults have disengaged.  They don’t vote, except on the X-factor.  They don’t participate, except with their close friends.  They don’t sustain relationships, except with their 300 facebook friends.

We have strategies and tools to work with teenagers.  We call it youth work.  Youth work seeks to engage with young people who don’t engage in society.  We have clubs and activities where they can engage with their peers, learn to take responsibility, develop new skills and even challenge authority.

I would suggest that the Emerging Church is youth work for ‘bored adults’.

Yesterday I spent the day with the nice people at Blue Horizon youth project in Aberdeen exploring the possibilities offered by the interweb.  I hope they had some fun along the way.

Most of the stuff we looked at is over on the web tools page.

Almost too real…

Horne & Corden’s YPC Part 1

Horne & Corden’s YPC Part 1

Today my youth work class at ICC unveiled their ‘mystery boxes’. The idea came from JJ Abrams’ amazing TED talk:

The task was to bring something which would intrigue the rest of the class but also enable them to learn something.

Mystery Box 1 contained 2 djembe drums and some ‘instructions’.

Beatless

Mystery Box 2 was a geek paradise… Warhammer 40,000.  Ross got far too into the game!!!

Ultramarines

The final mystery box contained some reflections helping people to think about ‘Where is God?’

Hmmm

The three ‘boxes’ were all very different and challenging in their own ways.  We all had a laugh and hopefully learned something new… even if it was that Sam never wants to play Warhammer again!

“Young People are Useless!”
“Adults Now Afraid to Challenge Young People!”
“Unless you have an official role, children are now ‘off limits’.”

These are just some of the headlines from reports and articles in recent years that point to a growing gap in the relationships between the world of adults and the world of young people. How did it come about that most adults feel estranged from most young people?  Kenny Wilson’s, book looks at this growing estrangement and the effect that it has had on young people. He identifies some of the key causes, poses some questions for society and invites those involved with young people, agencies, faith organisations and government, to begin to the process of repairing the damage and moving in better ways for future generations.

After all, who wants their son or daughter to be labelled as ‘useless’?

Buy the book from Youth Theology Culture

Being a youth worker can be a lonely job.  I know that sounds odd, especially given that the job is to spend time with young people and develop good working relationships with all kinds of people.  But the fact is that much of a youth worker’s time is spent on their own, preparing, reading, thinking…

Networks are crucial to help spark ideas, nurture new workers and sustain those of us who have been at this for some time.

The Internet provides lots of ways to keep in touch with colleagues and I’m glad to say that our new Scottish Youth Ministry online network has been a great success.  Almost 40 people have joined in a week!

It was also good to see Youthworks, a real life, in person, network launched last Friday with 50 or so people gathering in Edinburgh.

So, if you are out there and you’re a youth worker then get involved.  There is no excuse for being lonely anymore!