Dear Loyal reader(s),
I am taking some annual leave and also having a (longer) rest from blogging! 'Normal' service will be resumed in September!! Every blessing for a GREAT summer.
CYM supporting package of training/support for Internship roles, have a look:
2013 youth work internship flyer.pdf
Loving this article from Rachel Held Evans, well well worth a read
"What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance.
We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against.
We want to ask questions that don't have predetermined answers.
We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation.
We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities.
We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers.
You can't hand us a latte and then go about business as usual and expect us to stick around. We're not leaving the church because we don't find the cool factor there; we're leaving the church because we don't find Jesus there"
Roots, Rhythm and Flow Retreat
I am going on retreat in September in Ilam (pronounced 'i lam' but capital i looks like an L) at Dovedale house. Looks like a great chance to get some soul space in beautiful surroundings .... details below in case you would like to benefit from this too.
Roots rhythms and flow flyer.pdf
Roots Rhythms and Flow BOOKING FORM 2013.pdf
If you are a youth leader in Buckinghamshire then please note that the lovely folk at Action4Youth are putting on a training day on November 16th. Information here
Have just ordered "The Soul of Adolescence" by Patricia Lyons having being sent this link, looks useful:
"I ask students to define the word "soul" because of all the terms associated with faith or spirituality, it is the one with which they are the most comfortable. It never fails to open a window into their deepest spiritual ideas and experiences. The word is so ubiquitous in our culture - used to describe anything from food and music to perfume and cars - that kids feel free to employ it themselves. Teenagers have an infinite number of definitions for this word, but these beautifully varied definitions point in most cases to something meaningful that enhances life, establishes human dignity, and transcends the physical world"
"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."
Adams
Spoke to a couple in Church for whom it was the first visit in decades and asked,
"How was it?"
"Very long!" they replied
I am not doing any camps this summer, and the Taize trip had to be cancelled due to there being such a small number of bookings.* Definitely need to get involved in a couple of youth weekends in the Autumn I think so I get to be a youth worker other than to the fab but small 'DNA' Youth group** in Newbury
On the plus side though I have a great chunk of time off which I'm really looking forward to and then of course at the end of the summer is the Greenbelt 40 year special, so all good. (Taking one of the teens from our road with us as well as all of DNA)
I am also popping into Soul Survivor (week C) for the day and look forward to catching up with teens and leaders there (let me know which camping area you will be in).
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* none!!
** My three teenagers
Just been looking through the photos from Yellow Braces Camp and spotted these two pics which amused me. Sam appears to be doing the well known "levitate using a plastic duck illusion" before a convincing 'walking on water' routine. Magic?
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