From BeyondRelevance.com

The second part of my chat with Thomas about Seth Godin’s new book ‘Tribes’ on the Something Beautiful podcast HERE.

We talk about change, cycles, leadership and faith in a Starbucks… complete with coffeehouse sound effects!

I’m almost done with my Masters in Research.  I have two modules to complete then a dissertation.  The dissertation takes the form of a small research project.  I want to get started soon and have it completed so I can graduate next November at the latest.  If I’m super organised I could graduate in July.

Being super organised would include actually choosing a topic to research.  That’s when things get complicated.

I have three potential topics:

1: Youth work and social media - models of good practice using web2.0 tools to work with young people

2: Does youth work work? - Does employing a youth worker make a difference? Probably a case study

3: Towards an evaluation framework - how could churches/projects evaluate what they do? Working towards an evaluation framework.

This is where you come in.  Any thoughts, comments, ideas, avenues to pursue and general advice and suggestions would be very welcome.

There are lots of people I know who read this blog who never or rarely comment.  It would be great to hear from some of you about this as I’d really value as much input as possible.

Stewart

I know there are some of you out there… You youth workers doing your thing and blogging about it.

Chris is new to the blogosphere and in his enthusiasm has suggested that we should try to network Youth Ministry Bloggers in Scotland.  I know there is a Scottish Christian page with lots of links to Christian bloggers somewhere that I can’t find now but I haven’t come across anything for Youth Work.

I’m happy to link to people from my site but if we find more than a few of you would anyone be interested in a collective blog where we could share ideas, resources and thoughts?  I’d be willing to set something up if people are interested.

Leave a comment with your blog url if you’re interested and pass the word if you know anyone else who might be.

Where has the time gone!?!?!  I’ve known about NYA2008 for ages and been working on it for months and I’m still not done!  How come?

I got the programme information today and it looks amazing!  Some really good stuff happening about mental health and the human library sounds fascinating.

My sessions?  Well, Authenticity, Information, Privacy and Participation are our headings for an adventure in Social Media.  Sound interesting?  I hope so.

I’ll be blogging as we go along and posting on the wiki.  If you’re not coming you can follow the back-channel chat (or just backchat) on twitter.  Follow us over the weekend, or say hi!, using NYA2008 in your tweet.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about last night’s thoughts and I think my obsession with this event is about making a difference and seeing the value it has.  If not then it really is an obsession and I need help!

Now, no more of this procrastination.  Back to work!!!

Together@MCT starts again for a new year tonight at 5.30pm at Saughtonhall Church with pizza and plans.  Together will happen every second month on the last Sunday but those are all the plans we have so far.  Tonight we hope people will help with ideas and get a little more involved in how Together happens and what it looks like.

A long time ago I started to write a book.  By started I mean that I wrote down a couple of chapter titles and a few thoughts.  The title of one of the chapters was “Paralysed By Choice - the paradox of post-modern youth”.  Now I wish I’d written it.  But because I didn’t I can recommend Barry Schwartz brilliant TED talk on the same topic.

Choice fascinates me.  In lots of ways I like choice.  At least I think I do.  I have the choice to spend my evenings doing lots of different things, so why do I spend them watching House or working or nothing much.

I think the church suffers badly from choice overload.  It seems that in places where there is one flavour of church that the church does ok.  People go.  They don’t question if it could be better.  They commit to making the most of it.  Is that our problem?  Too much choice?  And does that choice raise our expectation?  I think it does.  And I’m not sure that’s always a good thing.

Maybe Calvin has it right.  Lower expectations lead to less disappointment.  But it also stops us wondering what might have been.  I loved the cartoon in Schwartz’s talk showing the guy at work thinking about golf, when he’s playing golf thinking about his wife and when he’s making love to his wife he’s thinking about work.

There is something very important about being present.  Being in the moment.  Not thinking about what you could have won (in a Bullseye fashion!).  That doesn’t mean settling.  It means committing.

Is that the price we pay?  More choice = less committment?  I think it might be, and I’m not sure the choice is worth it.

A two part station, one with a bowl of water and a towel and the other with a communion cup full of water, used at Together @ MCT in June.

Clean

Water
It gives us life
We are made of it
We need it
To drink
To clean us

We wash to clean our skin, our outsides
We clean off the dirt and grime of our lives
Jesus washed his disciples feet as a sign of service
To wash them clean of the world outside
Wash your hands in the bowl
Clean off the dirt of the world and remember Jesus

But how do we clean our insides?
We are baptised with water
Water that cleans our hearts and our souls

Jesus is the water of life
He came to give us life
Life to live, to enjoy and to share
So take the cup
Drink the water of life
Let it refresh you and clean you and give you life

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.

I’ve been invited to head up a team delivering a debate stream (I’ll explain in a minute) at the Church of Scotland’s National Youth Assembly in September.

The debates have in the past followed a fairly traditional model where people would be given written information prior to the event, someone would present more information on the topic at the event and then participants would ask questions, discuss and decide what they think.

This year there will be four debate themes; The Media, Healthy Relationships, Sustainable Living and Future Church.  I’m involved with The Media one.  Each theme will have four sessions lasting 2 hours each to explore one aspect of their topic with around 60 young adults.

So, we’ve decided to take an adversarial approach setting our sessions up as discussions around the opposites like control v democracy.  We’re also going to concentrate mostly on ‘new media’.  Should be fun.

We’ve decided to use a wiki to both provide information beforehand and to post what we come up with during the event.  More on that nearer the time.