Are our attitudes to alcohol killing our kids?

The West Australian Newspaper published the results of a joint study between the paper and HBF (a health insurance organisation) in WA where more than 650 people between the ages of 15 and 30 were questioned on their attitudes toward alcohol, drugs and binge drinking.

76% of those polled admitted to regularly binge drinking*.

This afternoon (after reading the survey results in the paper) I was told a 16 year old boy died on the weekend after "sculling" (rapidly consuming) a bottle of whisky on Saturday night. This boy was a part of the extended network of young people we work with through Alternat[Or] and his death has hit hard. But not hard enough to change young peoples drinking habits.

Our attitude to alcohol is killing our kids.

This is something we need to take incredibly seriously.

Through my work professionally, and informally, in working with, mentoring and diverting young people involved in problem drug and alcohol use, I have found the number one most effective way of achieving positive change is via meaningful, genuine, ongoing relationship.

I have seen many young people completely change their attitudes and behaviour to drug and alcohol use through an ongoing process of engagement and mentoring/discipleship.

Unfortunately, there are not many of us willing to invite young people into our lives, and even fewer willing to critically assess their own liberty - their own social use of drugs - and they way it impinges on the development of the next generation of Australian adults.

What are you prepared to do? What are your answers and/or experiences in dealing with the cultural of heavy drinking that exists in our society?

*Just a quick disclaimer! I'm working from memory. If this isn't the exact figure, it's pretty bloody close. I can't find the results online and don't have a copy of the paper as I read it while having a cuppa in the cafe this morning.

New Moves in Mission

Yesterday arvo Alternate[Or] met for the first time in 2009. We are changing the way we are doing things a little this year.

Last year we met on Thursday afternoons in an office in Bunbury. This was ok, and meant that we were easily accessible to some of the younger crew we are involved with, but it also meant that, for those of us with families (which was just Lyss and I for most of the year) we couldn't all meet together regularly at the same time and with the kids.

This year we have a new family, with kids (yeah!) joining us and so we are moving things around a bit. We will now be meeting alternate Sunday afternoons in team members homes. The format is going to be similar to our Thursday arvo gatherings, but we are also going to share some tucker and incorporate communion into this.

Social Sunday's will continue every second Sunday as a purely endeavour and as a means of introducing people to our community and offering support and engagement in healthy aspects of community for those on we are invloved with, the youth and some of the families that are now starting to join us for our fortnightly BBQs.

"Action" continues to be an important part of our community and we will kick off the year in this regard on Australia Day. We have volunteered to help out Binningup Beach Christian Fellowship (where I am currently employed in a pastoral role) cook and dish out the Aussie Day breakfast for the town. Should be fun with anywhere between 150 and 250 people expected to attend!

The mentoring I've been doing for the past 18 months or so will also continue, although a number of the young blokes I have been involved with have found their feet and are working and doing ok at the moment. This will change the way this side of things operates, with less of the street work and probably more time spent socially. Although there are still a couple of guys needing ongoing support and advocacy with court cases coming up, and with alcohol and drug issues, trying to get straight and find work.

So that, I think, has most of our bases, as a Community Development/Urban Mission project covered. Here's to what should be an interesting and, hopefully, fruitful year!

Equity - Give Young People a Go!

It really, really pisses me off when I experience first hand or hear stories of young people being given a hard time simply because they are young people.

A 19 year old friend of mine told me today of an experience he had at a job placement agency yesterday. He was essentially called a liar and given the brush off by the customer "service" person responsible for "serving" him. When he told her that he knew someone who worked at the plant and gave the name of the same person, she proceeded to tell him that no such person worked there and then didn't follow any of the process, my young mate had been told was supposed to be followed, in assessing his suitability for a job. She simply took his name (not his phone number) and said they would "be in touch" on the off chance something came up!

Thankfully, the person he knows at the plant is my wife and she is going to follow this up with the manager responsible for work placement who will hopefully follow it up with the placement agency and he will get a fair go at the job.

The thing is this kind of thing happens everyday. People in positions of authority (whether real or imagined) choose to lord it over young people just because they can.

A couple of years ago I stood and listened to a customer service officer at the South West College of TAFE lecture a young person I had taken in to enrol in a TAFE course, on his enrolment. The guy assumed the young bloke would be unsuitable for the course simply based on how he looked, and proceeded to tell him this. After a few minutes of listening to him berate the young bloke for no reason at all, I asked him if the enrolment form was filled in correctly and if he was the person who was responsible for receiving it. He replied that it was and that he was the man. I then asked him why he simply couldn't have just accepted it without giving the completely unnecessary 5 minute lecture. He took the form and didn't reply. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the application form or the way in which the kid was enrolling.

It had taken me 3 weeks to convince the same kid to front up and put his application in. He had very low self confidence and was sure his application wouldn't be accepted. Had he been on his own he would have probably lasted 10 seconds before telling the bloke "where to go" and walking out without putting his paperwork in. Ironically (two fingers to the bloke behind the counter), in the end he was accepted into a pre-apprenticeship course in carpentry.

Another friend recounted a story of walking into a church as a young person seeking information on God and being told by the pastor to leave and only come back when he was dressed appropriately for the "house of God". He was wearing a tee shirt featuring a heavy metal motif. Thankfully he was smart enough to realise the pastor didn't really have a handle on God and my mate encountered God elsewhere and now is a follower of Jesus.

My final example actually happened to my wife, who is quite small (and cute!) last year. We were both out doing a letter box drop around Binningup just on sunset when a dog started barking at her as she dropped a flyer in a letter box. Lyss had a beanie on and a jacket and it was getting dark. The home owner came out to see what was going on with his dog and saw Lyss and mistook her for a young boy. He called out aggressively "hey little bloke, what are you doing? Did you think you could stir up my dog hey!" He got a bit of a surprise when Lyss turned around and told him she wasn't a "little bloke" but a 30 something lady and that the problem was his dog!

These are by no means isolated incidents. It's real easy for all of us to bemoan the lack of respect young people seem to have for authority or for their elders. But at the end of the day what goes around comes around (Jesus referred to it as "reaping what you sew").

So here's my "pay it forward" challenge for the week. The next time you're faced with a young person, no matter how surly or grotty or standoffish they appear, why not take the time to consciously treat them with respect and dignity and see what happens? At the very least, I know that they will notice it, and they will be grateful for it, even if they don't show it outwardly.

Pic by Binababy12 -http://www.sxc.hu/photo/995276

Discipleship in a Post-Literate Culture - Synchroblog

One of the most critical challenges facing Western Christianity today, particularly within evangelical/pentecostal circles, is the growing irrelevance of modernist (primarily acedemic) approaches to discipleship.

In a lot of ways the Missional Church is at the coalface when it comes to these issues - its willingness to critique, experiment and adjust are important attributes in facing the problem of making and growing disciples in a world where the absolutes of the church's former modernist approaches to Bible study and discipleship are fast losing relevance. Particularly when it comes to taking the gospel beyond the safe streets of the middleclasses.

So the critical question is, "how do you see discipleship taking place in the increasingly visceral world of the 21st century?"

What approaches have you used? How successful have they been or are we still so much in a state of flux that it's really not possible to say? How can we help each other as pioneers (within or without established churches) in coming to terms with and moving beyond the confines of our modernist past in the area of discipleship?

If you would like to join in this synchroblog please drop me a line or a comment and I will make sure to link back to you.

Here's something from Michael Frost to whet your appetite (Preaching in a Post-Literate Age):

---

• The Bible is not a textbook (contrary to much evangelical dogma). It is an account of God's self-disclosure, the drama of a developing relationship between God and humankind;

• Biblical truth is often best discovered and applied in Christian community in a spirit of mutuality;

• Christ's truth cannot be fully grasped by mere cognitive processes. It must be discovered spiritually, experientially, emotionally, as well as cognitively;

• People cannot be compartmentalised. They must be viewed holistically in relationship with one another;

• God's starting point with us is our present need. In Scripture, we see God moving from life to truth, as his people discover more and more about him depending upon their life circumstances.

---

Discipleship without the Bible - Pt 1

One the biggest challanges and changes in MO I have experienced over the last few years has been the role of the Bible (or more specifically Bible reading) in the discipleship process.

Much of my life is taken up working with young people and, if you haven't worked it out yet, these guys have been born and bred on multi-media entertainment. From sharing movies, sounds and pictures on their mobiles to the latest video games consoles and the internet. They live and breath in a fast-paced, ever changing visceral world. But, unfortunately, books don't seem to have much of a place in this world and hence, the Bible isn't something that many of them are going to be interested in picking up.

This presents a whole range of challenges for those of us whose faith originates in the traditional, evangelical church. After all, the Bible is the word of God, and if we aren't drinking from the source we really aren't drinking at all.

So how can we effectively disciple a generation (or at least a significant segment of a generation) who just isn't into reading?

Professionalism in the Missional Church - Part 2

I think there are a couple of reasons for the contrast between the professional approach, I talked about in my last post, and the more organic approach taken in the local church context.

The first is purpose - the kids in the drug program come to us for very specific purpose. Our first contact is an assessment, which consists of a 30 minute interview in which a whole series of very personal questions is asked. We get straight to the point and, I guess, that some level of trust has to be assumed simply because of the nature of the program and my role in it as a professional youth worker.

The second is the role of the professional in the community - Where do people turn for help and advice in the modern world? To the paid professional.

When we need help we don't run to our priest or pastor or even to our next door neighbour. Rather we pay a stranger to pretend to care about us for an hour a week while the community remains oblivious to what is really going on in our private life.

I heard a radio story the other day which illustrates this point well. The reporter was interviewing a doctor on the topic of infant mortality and the effects on families who have lost babies. He mentioned that the effects were usually long term and involved years of counseling and professional support. But he made the point that the long-term reliance upon professionals required by modern families upon losing a child was something new - unheard of, in fact, until the last 30 years or so.

In the past, he said, infant mortality rates were much higher. In fact they were so high that it was commonplace for many families to lose at least one child. This meant that when a family faced this tragedy there were plenty of other empathetic and supportive community members who knew exactly what they were experiencing and who were able to help them get through. They didn't need the professionals because they had the community. But things are very different now.

So, how do we deal with this seeming disparity in the missional approach at the level of the local church? Of course it seems to work well within the specific bounds of a (missional) drug and alcohol program, but not so well in the general running of the missionally focused church. How can we transfer some of the purpose found in the professional program into a less structured, more passive approach to life-ministry? Or do we even need to transfer it? Is the longer path to relational connectedness going to generate greater benefits over the longer term?

Professionalism in the Missional Church - Part 1

My views on church leadership have been heavily influenced by the likes of Oswald Sanders, John Stott, John Piper and more recently Alan Hirsch, Mike Frost and Doug Pagit. I am a fan of the flat model of church leadership and not real fond of the CEO model currently favoured by much of the evangelical/pentecostal church.

However I have started noticing something that I think should not be ignored and it is causing me to ask a few questions about the role of the "professional" in the missional church.

I'll try and explain by using an example from personal experience.

Around 2 and a half years ago Lyss and I were privileged to be asked by a couple of unchurched youth from our town to spend a night a week telling them about Jesus. These same guys ended up inviting some of their mates along and a little youth ministry grew from nothing. This little group has since more than doubled in size, again with unchurched kids. I really don't know why the keep coming back, but they do.

At times Lyss and I really struggle to know how to take things deeper (relationally) with them, as, apart from odd moments of deep engagement, things seem to just cost along at a platonic level. The only thing we have to go on in terms of how things are traveling is that these guys keep coming back, and that they sometimes bring their friends along, who also keep coming back.

The upshot is, in more than two years I feel like we are only now just starting to get to know some of these guys on a deeper level. It has taken such a long time to earn their trust.

On the other hand, when not working for the church in Binningup, I run a drug and alcohol program in Bunbury. For me and my co-worker this is also an experiment in incarnational ministry but ... and this is a big but ... relationships with the "clients" develop much, much quicker in the professional environment of the program than seems possible in the non-professional arena of the community mission field.

It takes two weeks in the program to surpass the level of relationship that has taken more than two years to grow in the field.

Like a Chameleon - Looking Like we Belong

What's with the chameleon?

I had an interesting chat today with a cop, who I later on found out was also a follower of Jesus and engaged in a bit of incarnational ministry himself (although he, like so many who are doing "it", had never heard the term before).

He was telling me about an experience he had about 20 years ago when he was given the job of being one of the first school based police officers in the state.

He was dropped off on the first morning of his job at one of the toughest schools in the metropolitan area, dressed in his uniform, without any relevant training, in a school that had never had anyone in a similar role previously (no schools at that time had). And he was expected to somehow engage with the student population in a meaningful way.

The principal told him to take a seat on a concrete platform at the front of the schools assembly area and wait for students to approach him so he could start interacting with them. What he found out pretty soon was that the students didn't like cops. In fact, he reckoned that to say they hated cops wouldn't have been an understatement.

So on the first day, and for the first 3 months he was sworn at, verbally abused and "oinked" at (police officers are known as "pigs" by some in Australia). It didn't take him long to realise he wasn't getting anywhere, and after several months, he says, he was ready to chuck the whole thing in.

Then one of the sports teachers pulled him aside and suggested he start getting involved in some of the outdoor activities offered by the school. The teachers thinking was, that if he could get out of his uniform and get alongside the students as a mate, rather than as a cop, he might get somewhere.

You can guess the end result. With a bit of time, things changed drastically and he was able to make real inroads with the students and even to gain acceptance from them as a member of their school community.

Right or wrong, the church is often viewed by the world like this police officer was viewed by the students at his school. When all the misconceptions and stereotypes and memories of bad experiences take over, they simply don't want a bar of us.

It's worse when we hide in the safety of our church meetings and make pronouncements about how sinful the "world" is and how badly those outside the church need to get with the program. Not many want to hear that stuff, and most of all, they don't want to hear it from people who appear to be separated from them by an enormous, gaping cultural gulf.

And so they don't listen. They avoid church and its activities. Church and what it has to offer just don't seem relevant to them.

But, like the cop in the story, the barriers really start to come down when we step out of our church "uniforms" and start living alongside everyone else like real human beings. When we begin to get involved in their lives and their interests respect is earned, trust is gained and slowly relationships are built. The walls built on the stereotypes and bad experiences start to crumble.

This is the challenge for the church, particularly in Australia, but also I suspect, elsewhere in the world. To earn the right to influence culture the followers of Jesus must be prepared to step out and blend in - to become human among the humans. After all, isn't this just what Jesus did?

That's what's with the chameleon!

The bus run

One of things that we are pursuing with our fellowship is an emphasis on community service and development (really transformation).

This is a challenge in our neck of the woods as we don't have too many of the traditional areas of need (relating to poverty, disease etc.). Our neighbourhood is fairly affluent.

One of the things we have been doing for a while now is something called Coffee in the Arvo - we run a cafe once a month as a networking, get to know your neighbours, just hang out kinda thing. While it hasn't been a huge success it is working ok and we are going to persevere with it for a while longer.

Another area that our community is lacking in is access to public transport, particularly for young people. We are around 35km from the nearest city and there is no public transport out of town.

I chucked the idea of a bus run into the city (Bunbury) at our local community association over a year ago, but it didn't receive any support. Anyway, I bought it up with our youth group guys a few weeks back and they were incredibly enthusiastic about the idea.

I took it back to the leadership, who were also ok with it and so in a few weeks time we are going start our trial of a Saturday morning bus run into town. This will give the teens in town an opportunity to get into Bunbury, hang out at the skate park, go see a movie or do some shopping.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Census Data - What the Numbers are Saying

I was just browsing some of the recently released data from the 2006 Australian census. Some if it is interesting. Like, for example -

• The fastest growing religions in Western Australia are Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism- from Hindu: 3,640 , Islam: 12,571 and Buddhism: 18,509 in 1996, to Hindu: 8,156, Islam: 24,185 and Buddhism: 34,349 in 2006.
  
  
• While Pentecostals are often touted as Australia's (perhaps the worlds) fastest growing arm of the church their growth between the years of 1996 and 2006 (by 3746 people) pales into insignificance when compared to the growth exhibited in three non-Christian religions listed above.
  
  
• Less than 20% of people living in the Perth metropolitan area take part in volunteer work, while between 26 and 33% of people living on the south west and south coasts volunteer and and between 33 and 39% if people living on the mid west coast volunteer.
  
  
• Every Christian denomination listed in the 2006 census for the region in which I live (Leschenault) has more female than male affiliates, with the exception of the Catholics who have 40 more male adherents than female.
  
  
• As far as I could tell, every denomination listed shows a marked decrease in affiliation between the ages of 0-14 and 15-24 , with the most drastic decrease being seen in the Catholic church with the difference between the two age groups at the 2006 census being nearly 30,000 for the state of Western Australia.
  

I don't think there are too many surprises in these figures - but even so, the massive drop off in denominational association between the pre-teen and teen years and the gender imbalance across the board is something worth thinking about.

I also think that if someone bothered to check the figures relating to the growth of Pentecostalism they would find a hole, roughly the same shape and size, in the midst of the other, non-Pentecostal denominations, representing transferred growth rather than "real" growth from new converts. But that's just my hunch!

Sports Action

My boys, Luke and Samuel, had their first game of soccer (or football if your a purist), for 2007. Unfortunately I missed Luke's games but managed to sit in on Sam's.

I got my new Canon EOS 400D digital SLR a couple of weeks back (after about three years of saving and waiting) and so thought I would test it out on the sports field with some action snaps.

Here are a couple of the better results - my 9 and 3-quarter year old Sam in action in the goals for the Eaton Wanderers.

Sick of the Rhetoric

At times I feel torn between two worlds. I have touched a little on this in past posts (you can go digging if you want), but in reality this - the "thing" I will go on to write a little more about in a minute - really grabs me and throws me around at times. It leaves me feeling sick in my stomach, it makes me feel useless and helpless and makes me angry.

I hear the guys who say "all you fellas do is bitch about the church, you're all talk but never any action", and I agree - it's so easy to just bag while doing nothing, but hear me out - this isn't what I'm about. At the end of the day though, I am gutless. Instead of sitting here in the safety of my own home and punching words into a blog interface, I should be out there confronting the source of my feelings - but to be perfectly honest, I have tried and I don't know what more to do, other than to get ugly and aggressive.

A 15 year old client in the drug program I run was telling me a horrific story the other day. He told how he was left to cut the body of a friend down from the rafters of a backyard shed. The kid had hung himself while his mates partied just metres away.

As I heard this story and then heard how this brave young man was (or really wasn't) dealing with it, it was all I could do to stop myself from breaking down. And this young blokes story isn't an isolated case. I deal with similar stories, similar lives, on an almost daily basis.

But that isn't what gets me angry. What gets me angry is the crap I hear from the local super-pastors. Its the crap that makes it look and sound as though their models of attractional, "build it and they will come" Christian mediocrity (flashy yes, but like the proverbial "tits on a bull" pretty useless when it comes to the real kingdom work) are actually doing something to change their community.

To make it better.

To make all the non-Christians leave there grotty, stinking little lives behind and come and join the enlightened on a Sunday morning.

To raise their hands and rock out to Hillsong beats, and put on masks of perfections.

But it isn't really happening! You - the ones who propagate this rubbish - open your eyes, wake up and smell the coffee - you are doing very little other than entertaining Christians and building your empires.

The non-believers aren't coming.

They are too busy recovering from the party the night before.

Or coming down from a three day drug binge.

Or from having to cut down a dead, 17 year old mate from the rafters of the shed.

Or, on the other hand, they are just too comfortable in their own lives to give a shit about the local mega-church's Sunday morning service.

They are not, as one super-pastor said in my presence a couple of months back, going to see all that you have to offer and have no other choice but to take notice and come join you on Sunday, because, in reality, THEY REALLY JUST DON"T CARE ABOUT YOU!

In a town of around 50,000 there is so much the self-proclaimed Jesus followers could really be doing. They could seriously change the landscape of this town in a major way, if only they would pull their heads out of their own backsides, stop promoting themselves and their Sunday service first, and start putting Jesus Christ in the number one position in their lives.

Do you get that?

Your "church" doesn't matter.

Your music, the sound system you use, the lighting rig and stage set-up are meaningless, if you are not "being", "living", imitating Christ in your community. And, YOU'RE NOT!

I know without a doubt that many of the young people I work with would jump at the chance to have a place to belong, and many of them are already interested in Jesus. Then there's their families, and their friends.

But how do we do it? I am committed (and I believe called) to another community - the one in which I live, which has its own challenges and frustrations and so am not sure where to go with these "waifs and strays" in Bunbury, and I certainly can't do it on my own. But most of those I speak too or encourage to think about the opportunities, are unable to divorce it from the context of their own "church". It seems everything has to be "owned" in order to work! What a crock!

Seriously, if you are in the Bunbury region and read this and seriously do have a heart for those that Jesus loves who are not living the way the church says they should live, and you are not just about adding numbers to "your church", contact me! There is a whole, virtually untouched, mission field here in your own backyard.

If your not in Bunbury, please pray. Pray for these kids. Pray for their families. Pray for the church in this town.

Hopefully, this is a prayer that will be answered soon.

Well, I feel like the anger (hopefully righteous anger) is now starting to subside. I'm going to go and pray. Looking forward to hearing from you. Catch you 'round. Not sure when, but sometime soon I hope.

Growing Christ Centred Youth - The Final List

Back in October I asked a few questions around the topic of growing Christ centred youth. The last few years have been a particularly challenging time for me in this area and the questions I asked reflect my experiences and local context. While I didn't actually get too many responses to the questions (probably a reflection of my complete lack of experience in this area and 'lameness' of my questions) I did find the process of writing them down and thinking about them worthwhile.

With that in mind - here are the questions and their (tentative) answers. Thanks to those who did participate and feel free to come up with suggestions, fixes or complete makeovers!

Question 1:

How do we grow/disciple youth in a way that is biblically grounded and "deep" in a culture that seems to think it needs entertainment?

Answer:

Keep working with the ones that are making the moves in the right direction and encourage them to become "salt and light". A committed few is better than a non-committed, entertained multitude.

Question 2:

How do we get youth that are churched or do profess a commitment to Christ to look beyond their own (perception of their own) needs?

Answer:

By loving them, modeling a Christ-centred life of service to others, by teaching them about Jesus Christ and his way of living and by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in them as they mature, as humans, and as followers of Jesus.

Question 3:

How do we effectively reach unchurched kids in a way that is going to lead them into relationship with Jesus Christ? I certainly don't find it hard to get involved in non-Christian kids lives - I do it everyday and have great relationships with many of them - but I have no idea how to get them to think seriously about eternity.

Answer:

By living missionally and entering into their world and building genuine relationships with them. By loving them, accepting them, modeling a Christ-centred life of service to them, teaching them about Jesus Christ and his way of living and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in them and draw them closer to God's kingdom.

Question 4:

Is it too much to expect a committed relationship with Christ (see question 2) in the teenage years?

Answer:

No! A committed relationship is not too much to expect, but it is too much to expect them to do it own their own. The road to, and with Christ is not a road travelled in isolation (Romans 15:1). We also need to remember commitment isn't neccessarily going to look the same in a young person as it does in a mature adult - there will be times when the spiritual thermostat will be high and many other times when it'll be low. The main thing is that there are other, mature, committed Christians around to set standards, to carry the load and to care when needed.

I'm a Stoner and they Know it.

How do we get youth ministry to get real? In my neck of the woods, particularly in the town where I work, youth ministry seems mostly to be about conformity.

In this light, I think the church has been working on cloning for a lot longer than the scientists who last week received government permission to create human embryo's for experimentation.

In my lunch room at work I have a copy of a contemporary version of the NT which stays on the table. It's aimed at young blokes and the cover looks like a magazine. A couple of weeks ago one of them made the comment - "It looks really cool on the outside but when you read the inside it's really weird."

I thought he was talking about the Bible itself - but it turns out he was talking about all the "helpful" advice scattered around every page for the Chrisitian kids who are reading it. Stuff like "10 ways to impress your parents", and "how to let a girl know you like her". The later included the advice: "read your favourite Bible passage to her" - which even I think is lame!

Now the last thing most of these young rebels want to do is impress their parents or gushingly quote scripture at their love interest. But it's these bits of the "Bible" the guys are fixated with - not the actual Scriptures themselves. They are great for a laugh, to take the piss out of Christians, and reinforce what they are already thinking about following Jesus Christ, i.e. to follow Jesus means to become a lamo wimp who gets off on the kind of stuff they are reading in this version of the Bible. In otherwords, conformity to a foreign culture that has no baring or relevence to their daily lives.

"I'm a stoner, I look like a stoner and they know it. I don't fit in and they don't know what to do with me", this is how one of the guys I was working with last year described his past attendence at a church youth group. He went a couple of times but ended up giving up on it. He was definitely interested in Jesus Christ (and thankfully still is) but couldn't find acceptance among His followers.

I am going to keep the "cool on the outside - wierd on the inside" Bible on the lunch room table. Even though the "helpful" bits make me want to cringe, it at least provides an opening to talking about the real stuff - the important stuff, including the fact these guys really do matter to God and that they don't need to be come mamby, pamby wimps in order to follow Jesus. I only wish I had more time with them or at least had somewhere to send them where they would feel accepted and not feel the pressure to conform.

The Lost Evangelist

Last year I befriended a 17 year old who was heading off the rails. We'll call him JT (not his real name or initials). On the outside JT was a tough guy who liked the fact that people were scared of him. He was the kid that the other kid's mums said they couldn't hang around.

He was getting into drugs and booze and crime. But underneath the tough image was a guy with a heart of gold.

One day I asked JT if he wanted to find out more about Jesus, he said he did and so we arranged to meet over pizza on a Friday evening. At 7.30 on the dot JT arrived and brought two mates with him. We talked about Jesus and watched a video. JT said he would be back again the next week. And he was, this time with 4 others.

This was the start of our youth ministry. 5 unchurched kids meeting in a community hall over a slap-up dinner and juice to learn about Jesus.

That was nearly 2 years ago. 4 of those kids have since decided they want to follow Jesus. 3 new kids have since joined in and 2 of them have made the same decision. It's up and down and plain hard going at times. They don't have the support of Christian families and, to the chargrin of some, don't come to church on Sundays, but we meet and do our own "church" on a Wednesday night and they keep coming back.

JT moved away but we stay in touch. He hasn't admitted to following Jesus yet but he still rings me to ask me to pray for stuff that's going on in his life. He no longer does drugs or crime, but he's still a tough guy and he will always be the guy who started our youth meetings and our "lost" evangelist.

Growing Christ Centred Youth - 5

I want to deal with questions 3 and 4 today.

I spent the day with a young bloke I've known for a couple of years now. I first met him when I was filling in as a Sunday School teacher, he was 11 or 12 at the time. I didn't see him again until he was 15, by which time he had developed a pretty serious drug dependency.

Now, at 16, he has reached the end of the road. He appears to be suffering from psychosis and experiencing some heavy demonic activity and - this is the best part - he wants Jesus Christ in his life. We prayed, we cleared out the demons, he committed to following Jesus and then we hung out. He had a day without drugs for the first time in a long time. Now he needs love, care and to belong. I hope we can meet these needs, as God's people and as his Christian family, and I hope he can continue to be motivated to get the ongoing help he needs to deal with the layers of spiritual, emotional, psychological and physiological scar tissue that has built up over the years.

When I started looking at these "Growing Christ Centred Youth" questions again I began to think about my day, and it became clear the answer to question 3 is very much the same as the answer to question 2.

Question 3 is:

How do we effectively reach unchurched kids in a way that is going to lead them into relationship with Jesus Christ? I certainly don't find it hard to get involved in non-Christian kids lives - I do it everyday and have great relationships with many of them - but I have no idea how to get them to think seriously about eternity.

In question 2 I was wondering about self-centredness, and getting youth to look beyond themselves. But after thinking about it further, self-centredness is the very thing that keeps us all from Christ anyway - it's what Dominic Steele in Introducing God calls the "declaration of independence", it's when I tell God to "bugger off" and I decide to do my own thing because, after all, "I know best"!

So, after a day with my young mate, I think the way to effectively reach the yet-to-be-reached youth, leading them into a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ is:

by entering into their world and building genuine relationships with them. By loving them, modeling a Christ-centred life of service to them, teaching them about Jesus Christ and his way of living and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in them and draw them closer to God's kingdom.

In light of this, question 4 is pretty easy to answer:

Is it too much to expect this (see question 3) in the teenage years?

No! A committed relationship is not too much to expect, but it is too much to expect them to do it own their own. And this is something we all need to remember - the road to, and with Christ is not a road travelled in isolation (Romans 15:1). We also need to remember commitment isn't going to look the same in a young person as it does in a mature adult - there will be times when the spiritual thermostat will be high and other times when it'll be low. The main thing is that there are other, mature, committed Christians around to set standards, to carry the load and to care when needed.

Please remember my young friend in your prayers - he has just started on what is likely to be a difficult journey and he has a long road ahead of him.

Discussion Starters and Ice Breakers

I was looking for some discussion starters to put on tables at our community coffee afternoon and came across this list - it's designed for youth ministry but I don't see why most of them couldn't be used with adults or modified to suit adult conversation.

You might be able to pick up a few other ideas over at Off-the-Map or from Jim Henderson's book - AKA Lost.

Growing Christ Centred Youth - 4

The search for answers to "Growing Christ Centred Youth", question 2 has proven a bit of a stumbling block.

2) How do we get youth that are churched or do profess a commitment to Christ to look beyond their own (perception of their own) needs?

I'm going to throw out some possibilities of my own but I have to be honest - I really don't have an easy answer to this question.

One of the biggest problems we face as a culture is the predominance of high impact, highly stimulating entertainment. Our modern youth have grown up with Play Stations, big screen TV and rampant consumerism. They may be "Gen Y" but they are also "Gen I" - they are used to getting what they want, when they want it.

The teenage years are a time of self-centredness as young people struggle to form a sense of self identity and of their place in the wide-world, however culture seems to be amplifying this normal developmental stage and creating monsters along the way.

Outside the church I face the end results of this undirected amplification process on a daily basis. Kids destroying their lives with drugs and alcohol. These kids have a completely unrealistic perception of life - they think they can leave school at 14, smoke pot daily, and still end up with a $60,000-a-year job. They seem genuinely surprised when employers or work-experience providers don't want them back because they have only attended 2 days of work out of a whole week.

As is so often the case - the problems facing culture are often replicated within the church. We really don't do a great job of being "in the world but not of it". I think parenting has a part to play in the solution in general - but I won't go down that line now.

It is my opinion that the only possible solution to the difficulty of engaging young people in a way of life that puts the needs of others first is, again, relationship. It is through regular interaction with adults who genuinely care about them and can model a Christ centred, servant-life, that young people will, eventually, begin to reflect the same attitudes in their lives.

So the answer to question 2, looks something like this:

We can encourage young people to look beyond their own needs by loving them, modeling a Christ-centred life of service to others, by teaching them about Jesus Christ and his way of living and by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in them as they mature, as humans, and as followers of Jesus.

Now I don't think this is going to be easy, and it may be that the fruit will take a while to become evident, but I can't think of a better way of doing it!

Growing Christ Centred Youth - 3

Well we have settled on a general answer for Question 1. So now it's time to take a crack at question 2. I haven't had any suggestions yet so please feel free to dive in and get some discussion happening/suggestions flowing. These are important issues!

2) How do we get youth that are churched or do profess a commitment to Christ to look beyond their own (perception of their own)needs?

In the original post I mentioned something I was sensing within EC theology - particularly in publications such as The Exodus Papers. It is consumerism - and I am generalising here and happy to be corrected - In reading the Exodus Papers I saw an attitude that I see every day in many of the young people (and even into the 30-something age group) I work with.

Let me sum it up this way - "if it isn't doing it for me then I will just take my bat and ball and go somewhere else that will". I.e. they will ditch their current church/organisation/job/family etc. to look for a church/organisation/job/family etc. that will give them what they want rather than sticking around and at least trying to make a difference.

In thinking a little harder about this I guess this may not be an EC problem so much as it is a cultural problem - Western culture is a consumer driven culture, but maybe the EC is encouraging it or helping justify it in some ways?

Anyway - start posting answers so we can keep growing the "Growing Christ Centred Youth" list!

Growing Christ Centred Youth - Part 2

Some ponderances on some of the questions I raised in my earlier post on "Growing Christ Centred Youth". I really would love to hear more comments/suggestions on these questions - I will post some of the responses in the future.

I am also looking for info on using "active learning" in a ministry setting - for both youth and adults.

Question 1: How do we grow/disciple youth in a way that is biblically grounded and "deep" in a culture that seems to think it needs entertainment?

Viktor posted this comment:

Tough questions you have raised. While the issues you have highlighted may have to do more with a developed country, I find similar challenges in emerging youth ministry. I have been a producer for youth programmes and I agree it is not easy to "deepen" the faith of youths. But one thing I have tried to do is to invest my time, resources and prayers into a few that I know God has led me to. Work with those few and pray that God uses them to impact others. It can be frustrating yes but who said God's Word goes back to Him without achieving anything?

I think Viktor is right - and that seems to be what is happening in my experience. I have a core of only 2 or 3 young guys who seem to be genuinely committed - of course they have their struggles, but overall they are growing and they keep coming back. But ... my heart goes out to those others, the ones on the fringe, the ones living on the edge. I feel like I need new ideas for challenging them (not pandering to them or entertaining them - I have plenty of options in that area) and inspiring them and leading them.

So I guess a partial answer to Q 1 is:

"work with the ones that are making the moves in the right direction and encourage them to become "salt and light". A committed few is better than a non-committed, entertained multitude."