You can find some ideas for cooking activities on this website. We plan to make gingerbread men in this terms 'Come as you are' Rock Solid session. The idea is to make 'minimee's as part of the session.
I've just watched Deborah 13: servant of God on iPlayer...not sure what to make of it. Perhaps this could be used to explore ways of talking about your faith, ie, there is a bit about a third way in when Deborah goes to talk to some young people about God. She shows great courage, but is it the right approach? Discus.
I've been looking around for a video clip for this terms Rock Solid session on Leadership. I'm planning to use DVD chapter 6 from Chicken Run. This clip (13 mins 50 sec - 17 mins 55 sec) , Ginger talks about this idea she has - freedom, about escaping....the stuff of visionary leaders.
I just noticed this in my original blog, and it should have been moved here...I Watched Million Dollar Baby last night...what a film! It's great talk material:
There is a scene called 'in gratitude'. Maggie, the boxer, buys her mother a house but they don't want to know...they show no sense of gratitude.
At the start of the film Frank refuses to train Maggie...because she is a woman
The end of the film is the whole Euthanasia debate
Here are some ideas for Christmas play doe charades. Basically, make some play doe and break the group up into teams. Then, taking it in turns, each member of the team has to try and get the others to guess the word / phrase using only the play doe....
I just received a news letter from FYT. One of their initiatives is called Young peoples Sunday. There are resources you can download (drama / talks / games etc) here.
I came across this video the other day. It features music by Israel Kamakawiwo. I reckon it would make a good discusion starter / reflection / prompt for prayer...
Why not watch The Secret Millionare and then lead a discussion based on this talk? Note channel 4 on demand allows you to download episodes for viewing offline.
I watched The Bucket Listlast night...very good movie with lots of interesting topics for discussion. For example:
about 25 minutes - 33 minutes in the film, Edward and Carter find out they only have a few months to live...Edward finds a peice of paper on the floor that Carter wrote. It's a list of stuff he wanted to do before he died. A "bucket list", ie, a list of things you wanted to do before you "kick the bucket".
45 - 48 minutes into the film, Edward and Carter are flying over the polar ice cap. They discus faith...is there a supreme being or not etc.
57 - 60 minutes into the film, Edard and Carter are in Egypt. Carter talks about the requirements to enter "Egyptian heaven".
I watched Drillbit Taylor last night. The film is about two boys trying to cope with bullying. There are several scenes that you could use from the film to stimulate a discussion. Unfortunately I had to return the DVD so I didn't write down the chapters. However here are some I recall:
early in the movie we see Wade and Ryan's first day at high school. Right from the beginning it goes wrong, they wear the "wrong clothes" and they try and help out some kid who is getting a hard time from the class bully.
about half way though the movie Wade goes home with a back eye which was given to him by one of the bullies. His step-father asks about this. Rather than being sympathetic, his step dad tells him that the bullies were basically doing him a favour...toughening him up in preparation for the rest of life.
at the end of the movie Wade and Ryan decide to stand their ground even though they might get a pasting....the good part about this scene is that it shows that everybody was frightened of the bully, but everyone went along with him.
We did the This Ability session from Rock Solid last week. Here's my video clip suggestion...School of Rock chapter 5 – 6. In this clip Jack Black has just discovered that the students can play instruments. As a result he starts the new class project 'rock band'. The clip shows that we all have different abilities and we all have a role to play. I finished the clip just at the point where they go to lunch.
This idea is based on something I saw during a service at Christ Church and I thought it might work with our youth group...and I think it did.
You will need a Bible verse, some sweets, wrapping paper, sellotape and some music.
Print out the Bible verse on paper that's a different colour to the wrapping paper. When you have done that, cut out the individual words that make up the verse.
Now, wrap up the sweets, just like you would in pass the parcel. Remember to include some of the words from the Bible verse in each layer.
So....get your group together for a game of pass the parcel. Tell them to collect any words they find. At the end, ask them to try and put the words together into a sentence.
When they have done that, briefly discus the verse. We used Romans 12:10 "Love each other like brothers and sisters. Give each other more honour than you want for yourselves."
Sorry for the lack of post in recent months...basically my day job has been taking up most of my spare time...I guess that's how it is for those of us who are volunteers!
Spirituality in youth work training Guisborough July 2nd
Here's something that might interest us from the North East
Nigel Pimlott from FYT [www.fyt.org.uk] is coming to Guisborough to deliver 2 sessions on spirituality in youth work giving us a chance to share and also providing us with techniques and tools to use in our work.
Anyone with a passion for working with young people who would like to attend is very welcome.
Having attended some training sessions with Nigel we feel he delivers effective training with humour and enthusiasm encouragement and inspiration as youth workers is also great; hope lots of you can come.
Where: GuisboroughMethodistChurch
When: Wednesday July 2ndeither1.30 to 4pmor7 to 9.30pm
There will be tea, coffee, and biscuits available for catering purposes rough number information would be welcome. For more details you can ring us on 01287 636825/07890 228851 or email staff@guisborough-bridge.org.uk
Last night we did the Rock Solid session Whats the story? This session is teamed on stories. In addition to the material we used a slip from Finding Nemo. The clip starts at DVD chapter 16 and ends in chapter 17 just after the film cuts to birds going 'Mine Mine Mine'. In these scene, Marlin (Nemo's father) tells his story to find his son, Nemo.
Check out the resource section on the Bristol Community Family Trust (BCFT) website. There are several power points etc. that include statistics on marriage and how it relates to children. For example, check out this one
Here is another idea I saw in the Baltic at Gateshead...Save this T-shirt. This is a book that comes complete with a T-shirt and book of design options. The idea is that the book outlines a number of different ways to cut up the T-shirt to produce a different design. I'm guessing that you need only buy one copy of the book and then source some cheep T-shirts at Tesco's or similar. The book cost £10.95 and is by Hannah Rogge.
I guess you could do this in conjunction with Tie die....
I saw this on the greenbelt forum...it could be useful for something...
Pause
For 10 seconds to take a deep breath For 1 minute to take in the view For a couple of minutes to brew a cuppa For 10 minutes to clear your head For 20 minutes to call your mum For half an hour to exercise your body For a couple of hours to read a good book For a day to find some fun For a weekend under the stars For a fortnight to recharge your batteries For a month to learn something new For a summer to be a kid again For a year to see the world For a lifetime to work out what it all means Or for just 5 minutes to do absolutely nothing.
I like the one "if God exists". It's basically a square piece of paper with about 7cm x 7cm folded 3 times with "if God exists; what then?" on different pages.
Checkout this post on how photo's are tweaked to make women look more attractive....this would make a good discussion starter on body image etc. Check out the online retoucher here.
Another idea from the Baltic at Gateshead....one of the exhibits was by an artist called Barthelemy Toguo. As part of this, he had covered all of the walls in the rooms with complete sheets from news papers (of the "broadsheet variety). These were not clippings, simply the pages of the news paper stuck on the wall. In addition to this he had marked out all of the text with a black marker pen, which gave the effect to the paper being censored. This meant that only the pictures remained. From my point of view, thing highlighted the pictures in a way that you would not normally notice and it caused you think about the subject matter behind the photo....I suspect this could be used as a way to stimulate prayer in a way that creating a collage of pictures does not. According to the blurb (if I remember this correctly), the artist was trying make the point that sometimes too many words get in the way....check out this page on his website.
This was a headline from The Times on the 30th March page 5. "A royal marine in southern Afghanistan threw himself onto an exploding grenade to save the lives of him patrol. Miraculously, Lance Corporal Matt Croucher, a marine reservist from Birmingham, survived the blast with little injury when his rutsack and body armour tool the force of the blast. He is expected to receive one of the highest awards for gallantry.". The article later says "You would expect nine out of 10 people to die in that situation". It seems to me that this would be a good discussion starter....life / death / sacrifice etc.
During a recent trip to the Baltic at Gateshead I came across these "peelable photo stickers". It looks like this would make a great idea for prayer....get a load of photo's or newspapers, write our your prayer on the label and stick away!
I've been away from home for about 10 days - hence the lack of posts. I've uploaded another of Hiede's essays that she has written for her Diploma in Community & Youth Work course. This one is entitled, Community and Youth Work in Context.
I'm just been looking for a video clip to use for an Easter talk. I've decided to use a clip from X-Men 2 when Jean saves the day by giving up her own life to save the rest of the mutants from being overwhelmed by a dam that has collapsed.
The clip is at DVD Chapter 36 and starts at 1 hour 47 minutes and finishes at 1 hour 53 minutes. You could use this clip with my Armegeddon talk or my About a boy talk.
"In 2006 the conception rate among 15 to 17 year-olds fell from 41.4 to 40.7 conceptions per 1000 girls. But the percentage of conceptions leading to a legal abortion rose by 4.9 per cent for the under 16s and by 4.5 per cent for all girls under 18"
Over the next few weeks I'm going to upload some of Hiede's essays that she has writen for her Diploma in Community & Youth Work course. You can find the first one, Compare and contrast the two green papers 'Every Child Matters' and 'Youth Matters',here.
I just watched The Simpson's Movie last night. In DVD chapter 3, Rev'd Lovejoy invites people to speak up if they have a "word". Shortly after this Grandpa has a revelation. This scene is about 2 minutes long. This could make a good discussion starter about How God speaks to us...does God speak to us?
I've just read this booklet which outlines some of the basic issues that churches need to grapple with if they want to engage with boys. The main points I picked up were:
boys are more likely to enjoy factual / evidence based ideas / teaching
because of the way that boys brains are wired up, they are less likely to enjoy / relate to stories, fiction and poetry. They are also less likely to pick up subtle visual queues or "disapproving looks" from leaders
boys are less likely to enjoy reading than girls.
at certain ages, boys can physically struggle to hear what you are saying
we need to include lots of activities and games - make things more hands on / practical
avoid long periods of time on any one activity
during times of teaching, try to show the 'tough' side of Jesus
boys, perhaps more that girls, need clear boundaries
I've just put togeither a "beer mat" prayer card that I'm sending out to all the churches in our area. The idea is to keep people upto date with what we are doing. I've uploaded the "template" for this here. Note that I've printed this on thin A4 card using a colour laser printer.
Yesterday Taking a stand tells a story about a teenager who committed suicide with the assistance of a "suicide website"....most disturbing. You can listen to the show here.
The theme for last Friday nights Rock Solid session was shopping. For a video clip, we showed part of Pretty Woman:
59 Mins 38 second - 1 hour 4 mins 14 seconds (DVD chapter 11). This is the scene in which Vivian discovers the joys of shopping...with lots of "sucking up". Although this video is a 15 certificate, their is nothing rude or offensive in this scene.
This clip includes quotes such as "You know what we're gonna need here? We're going to need a few more people helping us out. I'll tell you why. We are going to be spending an obscene amount of money in here. So we're going to need a lot more help sucking up to us, 'cause that's what we really like". You could clearly go on to comment / discus how we should best spend our money....
In addition to my earlier post, I've just received an email pointing out that there are some resources here. This also includes the followings articles that are well worth the read:
Happy New Year! I don't know how you spent it, but we were at the Hope08 lauch event at York Minster. If you don't know what Hope08 is, checkout the website here, and download the guide here. The guide is well worth a read as it's full of interesting ideas. Note that Hope08 also have a group on facebook
In recent times I've had to produce alot of publicity type material for what we are doing. This means I'm constantly on the look out for ideas of how to lay stuff out / present information. This article lists several sources / ideas that might help...let me know if you know of any others....
Here is a power point for the Christmas Shopping activity in this months Rock Solid. The idea is that the young people get into teams and each team has to guess the price of the Christmas gift...the one that gets the nearest wins a point....
I few weeks ago I attended the annual CVM conference. The main speaker was Graham Tomlin. At one point he talked about role models in society...I thought this quote was quite pertinent...
"Students have powerful images of what a perfect body is and pursue it incessantly...but they no longer have any image of a perfect soul, and hence do not long to have one"
I wonder where those role models are on the TV....what we are doing about this ourselves? He then went on to talk on Ephesians 4:22-32
I watched Echo Park last night. Not the greatest of movies, but one that demonstrates the judgementalism that so often alive in our churches. The film is basically about a 14 year old girl who gets pregnant while still being technically a virgin. She conceives as a result of "fooling around". For this reason, you might want to use this film to highlight that you don't have to have sex proper to get pregnant. There's are a few scenes that you could use to demonstrate this point. All of this results in her father disowning her. He is the local priest and it brings shame on the family etc. She is taken in by an Uncle who, unlike her father, accepts her for who she is. The Uncle has also taken in another disgraced member of the family who is gay....makes you wonder who was the most "Christ like"...the priest or the uncle?
Here are some stats from this article published on the BBC website yesterday:
"Young adults are disproportionately affected by STIs, accounting for 65% of all chlamydia, 55% of all genital warts and 48% of gonorrhoea diagnoses in genitourinary medicine clinics across the UK in 2006, the HPA found"
I've just got around to uploading the rest of the risk assessment we did for the Activate YFC concert we did back in July. Here are the main documents:
They "launched" http://www.schoolswork.co.uk/ while we were there - something to key an eye on. I think the idea is to provide / share resources and ideas for those working in schools.
Our last Rock Solid session was themed on Listening...here is a game that we put together to try enhance the theme. You will need a copy of the Mr Men book, Little Miss Sunshine.
What to do:
a) Split the group into two teams with even numbers.
b) Get each team to sit in two lines of chairs facing each other. There should be a gap between the chairs as follows:
A
Gap
B
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
9
9
c) Give each pair (facing each other) the following words:
Player
Word
Times used
1
Been
3
2
Asked
5
3
Down
3
4
Entering
3
5
Gigantic
3
6
Giggling
3
7
Happy
4
8
Never
3
9
Drove
3
d) Explain that you are going to tell them a story. When the player hears their word, they have to run up the gap between the chairs and run around the outside back to their chair, ie, the team on the left run anti clockwise, the team on the right run clockwise. The first one back gets a point for their team. This is a bit like another game called "ladders".
I've thrown together this listening quiz based on the Peter Panda dance scene from the film The Pacifier. Note you can find the lyrics here. We're going to use this with the Rock solid session What did you say?
I've just finished listening to John Kotters book Our Iceberg is melting- a must for anyone wanting to know about the process of change. Checkout the promotional video here.
Here are some more notes from the Spring Harvest seminar by James Lawrence....
Making a decision can be a tricky business. The outcome depends upon what we do (the action) and when we do it (the time). If we don't get the right combination, things might not work out as we expect. This diagram attempts to show what can happen:
I've just uploaded a template for a postcard I've put together. I've printed it double sided, in colour, on 200gm white card. We are using this to keep folks up to date on various projects that we are working on. You can download the template here. If anyone knows of any other templates that are freely available, please let me know!
Here are some notes from another Spring Harvest session on Wholeness. I think the speaker was Kriss Kandiah. The idea is that there are 3 types of people, and they are driven by different things and if we are to attain "wholeness" as a church we need to embrace all three. Here is a brief summary of the 3 types:
1) The Heart is what matters
They people are prone to emotionalism, Orthopathy and are Vulnerable to manipulation.
2) The head is what matters
These people are prone to intellectualism, orthodoxy and are in danger of "cold formalism"
3) Doing is what matters
These people are activists...orthopraxy and are prone to burn out.
From my notes, I understand that Orthopathy means that having your heart in the right place is what matters, where as orthodoxy is about having the correct theology / beliefs. Orthopraxy is about doing the right thing.
As I write up these notes I wonder how this connects with my previous post on Change. Perhaps this connects with the idea that everyone has fundamental needs....
How does this effect our youthwork...perhaps we need to ask, what are we doing for those driven by the heart / head or the activist...personally am more prone to the head. I guess this is at the expense of the other two...perhaps we need to step back and ask ourselves, what does our group look like? Is it dominted by "the heart"? Are we forever "doing" but not thinking (the head)? I guess we need a balance....
A few months ago I typed up some of the key points from the Spring Harvest leadership seminars I attended this year. I thought I'd type up some more on the subject of change...
Principles of change
1) different people react differently to change...at one end of the spectrum we have people who like stability and at the other we have people who like change. For those of us who are trying to undertake change, we have to ask ourselves: what if someone likes stability? After all some people like Church because it is a source of stability in a changing world. Change can lead to:
strong dissatisfaction
stress
negative attitude (distrust / dislike) towards those with other preference
resistance
intense emotions
loss of rational judgment
2) Everyone has fundamental needs to be meet. Those initiating the change need to consider what these individual needs are and how change will effect / meet those needs.
3) Change involves loss...people go through a "loss curve" like grieving:
Shock
Anger
Rejection
Acceptance
Healing
4) Fears need to be dealt with in a rational way
Note that change usually requires a considerable length of time...skipping steps can't be done.
Kotters eight phases of leadership through change
1) Establish a sense of urgency
2) Form a powerful guiding coalition
3) Create a vision...a clear a concise description of what you are doing. This should be written in terms of outcomes, not specific activities
4) Communicate your vision, use every opportunity and every tool you have available. Do this time and time again.
5) Empower others to act....coaching
6) Plan and create short term wins (milestones). This enables people to see progress.
I'm in Singapore and I've just got back from a late night viewing of Adam Sandlers latest offering....I prodounce you Chuck and Larry. While the film was much like any other Sandler film (which I like!) it does have plenty of material for exploring issues such as acceptance / rejection / homosexuality / friendship. The film is about 2 best friends who are fire fighters (Charles and Lawrence) who decide to go for a marriage of convenience so that Lawrence can pass on his pension if he dies. They initially think it will be something that they can keep quiet, but it turns out quite differently. This them results in a series of events where they have to keep up this charade. As that plot is rolled out, they are exposed to prejudice as their once colleagues turn against them - there is a good scene where the Charles and Lawrence are pulled into the office my their boss because the rest of the team have raised a petition to get them moved on. After this meeting, Lawrence confronts the rest of the crew and reminds them of the times where they saved them....injustice...prejudice. There is also a time where the team walk away from Charles when he turns up to play basket ball, this scene turns into something good when one of the guys finds acceptance through what Charles and Lawrence are experiencing.
There are also some examples of clichéd evangelical right types who wielding banners tell them that they are going to burn for what they are....a good discussion in it's own right especially when read in the context of "love your neighbour", "Do not judge, and you will not be judged" ect etc.
Anyway...at the end of the film the rest of the fire department change their view and stand with them in the court, in the full knowledge that they may end up in jail...an example of what it means to be a friend...in fact you could say this film is an example of what it means to be a friend...to stand by your word...even when it costs you something