Youth leaders blog
May 21, 2010, 4:27 pm
Lord Sugar shows us how to invest in young people
Question: What do you do when you have devised a successful TV format, delivered seven popular series of the show and are now looking to take it to a new level?
Answer: replace the adults with young people.
When I heard that this was what the BBC was planning to do with the BAFTA award-winning show, The Apprentice, I wondered how it was going to come across, and whether it would be' dumbed down' for young people.
Having watched the first two episodes, it is with some relief that I can report that the twist to the format is working. There are a few elements which are obviously for the purpose of TV entertainment, such as making them all wear business suits (some of which seem to be on the large size, making the young people look even younger!) but the challenges seem to be typical of the programme and they haven't been made easier for teenagers.
As I watched this week I couldn't help thinking that Lord Sugar was showing us how to work with young people effectively. He gave each one respect, didn't talk down to them (any more than he usually does to the candidates anyway!) and he expected them to be able to do the task he asked them to do.
In some ways, the young people come across better than the usual candidates as they don't have so much ego or arrogance, and even show much more openness to working as a team and listening to each other's contributions than the adult candidates sometimes do.
What would happen if church leaders took on a group of teenagers for a season and asked them to help with their leadership tasks? By this I mean giving them genuine leadership responsibility, not simply asking them to take the collection in the service or to give the reading. I think we would discover that the young people we have, no matter how few, would surprise us by their natural abilities, their willingness to learn and the speed at which they develop and grow in confidence.
It must be time for us to invest in young people as leaders while they have these teenage traits rather than waiting for them to be ten or twenty years older, where, let's face it, everything takes a little longer to process.
Andy
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April 14, 2010, 2:47 pm
starting a Growing Leaders – Youth edition course
I'm just starting to run a
Growing Leaders – Youth Edition course in Leamington, where I now live. I'm running it with a youth pastor at another church in the town. Last weekend we had our first session, away at a great venue,
Barnes Close in Bromsgrove.
We've got seven young people taking part, coming from five different churches in the area, and I am so excited! Excited because these young people are all really looking forward to growing as leaders. There was a real buzz amongst the group, who didn't all know each other before the weekend, and a sense of commitment and desire to dive into the course and not miss out on anything that God might want to teach them.
As leaders we came away buzzing too. Enthusiasm seems to be infectious and none of us can wait until we meet again next month for session two.
What impressed me was how each person was willing to get involved with whatever they were asked to do and how quickly the group bonded and started to support each other.
One of the sessions of the day looks at Jesus' model of leadership being that of a servant and it was great to see how this teaching was immediately worked out through the young people offering to serve each other at the lunch table and offering to pour each other drinks throughout the rest of the day.
For many churches the thought of running the course may seem too much or that there are not enough young people in the church to make up a group. This is why we offered the course to churches across the area and actually it makes the potential for kingdom growth in our town even more exciting. Now there will be five churches seeing the benefit of investing in our young people, not just one church. Hopefully this will be contagious and more young people from these churches will want to take part in future courses, but maybe that's just me getting carried away a little, we've only had session one!
Andy
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March 19, 2010, 2:09 pm
How do you get to the next level?
One of the opportunities that arises from being at CPAS is being able to encourage and support churches as they seek to develop their youth ministry, whether this is well established or fledgling. For sure, most of the time youth groups start because the church sees an unmet need in their community, whether it is young people hanging around in the graveyard or whether it's suddenly finding a dozen young people attending the Alpha course (which happened in the church I am a member of here in Leamington).
The challenge, however, is so what do we do now? A group may have formed, people may be coming, but is this all there is to it? How do we develop the work and take it to the next level of community, of unity, of spirituality?
There are many useful areas we can look at, including seeking God for vision and direction for the ministry, developing our leaders who work with the young people and providing guidelines for how youth groups can operate safely. These are all essential if we are to develop what we do, but I wonder if these all miss out a vital component.
This component is how the rest of the church and young people relate. We have tended to find adults who are willing, if not keen, to work with young people and let them get on with it, but what is needed is a greater awareness and understanding. For young people to feel like they belong to the church they don't only need a group where they can grow and feel safe (belong), they also need opportunities to contribute to the life of the church and to use the talents and gifts that God gives them, just as we all do.
So the challenge for me is how do we help the local church fully welcome young people into the community of faith, where we all grow together, recognise we all have something to contribute (regardless of our age) and we can inspire one another.
Andy
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March 3, 2010, 9:09 am
'Awkward'.
'Awkward', is what I heard a radio presenter say after playing Cheryl Cole's latest single, 'Parachutes'. He was basically implying that Cheryl must feel embarrassed by the words to her latest song due to the break-up of her marriage to footballer, Ashley Cole.
Now my eight year old daughter loves Cheryl Cole and is really keen to buy her album when she's saved up enough pocket money so I've been thinking about what kind of role model is she and is she someone who I would want my kids listening to.
I've only heard a few songs from the album as they've been on the radio or on TV and it's a fascinating insight into the life and soul of Cheryl. The album was recorded and released following Ashley Cole's previous infidelity and it seems that Cheryl put this out as a public way of saying that she's committed to the marriage, despite her husband's wanderings. In today's society I find that impressive and a wonderful breath of fresh air.
If we are talking to young people about relationships then the song lyrics to some of these songs could be really useful: 'Fight for This Love' looks at commitment through adversity, 'Parachutes' is about support and trust, and '3 Words' is about how powerful the words 'I love you' are.
Unfortunately for Cheryl Cole, she is discovering that in a relationship it takes two people to share in this kind of commitment to make it work and she is now under immense pressure to separate from Ashley. I heard on the news last week how she was being advised that 'staying with him could have an adverse effect on her career'; how can that be a reason for splitting up?! But then I guess that's the world of celebrity. And there have been countless vox pops shown of people in the street encouraging her to ditch him.
I find myself being impressed by Cheryl. Life must be incredibly difficult at the moment and you could see this on her face as she performed at The Brits the other week. But if her songs are any sign of her feelings and commitment, then I think that she could be a great role model for young people today. And, yes, sometimes life is 'awkward'.
Andy
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February 18, 2010, 4:37 pm
Reflection on The Brits
I make watching The Brits award show an essential part of my annual viewing schedule as I find it useful in watching popular culture trends, keeping up to date with music culture and seeing who are some of the key influencers of the young people I work with. I also have a passion for music!
This year did not disappoint. There was the usual array of bizarre clothing and hairstyles, typical rock'n'roll antics and language (carefully muted by ITV1) and, of course, the range of "thank yous" from the different award winners. Musicians play music for a reason - they're good at it, we really shouldn't expect them to be able to make speeches!
I am intrigued by Lily Allen's song, The Fear, which she opened up the show with. I have thought for a while how the lyrics are an accurate portrayal of popular culture, how there is a desire to be rich and famous regardless of what the cost is, and yet how this cost leads to losing a sense of personal identity or self esteem, of being 'taken over by The Fear'.
It seemed to me that this was a theme running throughout the ceremony. Lady Gaga was almost overwhelmed with her 3 awards, by the third she seemed to not understand why anyone would have voted for her. Yet her performance was flamboyant and unusual. I felt that she was living out Lily's song as we watched her journey through the evening.
The whole thing was hosted by Peter Kay, who tried to keep all the celebrities in their place, with plenty of quick quips and refusing to double kiss! An anti-celebrity celebrity.
With young people wanting to be famous more than anything else in life, it seems the only way forward is further loss of personal identity and self esteem. So how can we tackle this with the young people we know? The challenge is not easy or simple but it must start by helping them discover who they were meant to be. This means taking them back to the Creator, realising how he made them and the plans he has for them. Helping them discover what grace really looks like, how awesome it is and how releasing & empowering it is. The other thing we need to do is to give them opportunities to use the talents and gifts that God has given them. That way they learn to see how unique they are and learn what their part in God's kingdom is.
Hopefully by doing these kinds of things they will discover what their personal identity looks like and they will love who that person is. Easy to say.
Andy
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