Slum Survivor at Aspley-Albany Creek: all welcome!

Frustrated Youth Leader

Have you ever been really frustrated as a youth leader? Of course your have. Have you ever said, "How many want to get together and pray before school at your campus?...No one?...Okay, then how many would be interested in hosting a free car wash next month for the senior citizens?...Anyone?...No?...Ok
ay, then how about..." In youth ministry cycles there come periods when no one acts like they want to do anything for the Lord. Casual Christianity seems to rule.

Tip: When no one wants to get involved, have the teens plan, and host the event. By giving them ownership, they just might put in the time and energy. Teens might not mind if your plans don't work, but they will if their plans don't work.

Does this work all the time? Probably not but it is sure worth giving it a shot.

Saturation Saturday

9 November: About 90 Anglican friends, families and followers converged on Wet'n'Wild Waterpark at Oxenford for a big day at group discount prices. For the 2012 price, we splashed around and socialised for hours on end.  It was great to see people from all of our camps during the year (Emmaus, Primary Ichthus, Junior Ichthus and Senior Ichthus) as well as from the Anglican Schools Students Network Conference in August. After 2.30pm, our tickets also gave access to Movieworld - bonus! We had visitors from as far as Highfields, Nambour and Oakey, so thanks for coming everyone, and we'll see you next year!

Junior Ichthus 2013 report from two campers!

Dear Jonathan & Nathan,

Thank you very much for the photos from the camp. 

They gave me VERY nice memories of the camp. Can't wait to go back. 

I just wanted to send you this article from my Parish, written by me about the camp.

I hope you enjoy the article 

Have a nice week

Cevrine Coralie from Camp Ichthus 2013. 

Junior Ichthus Report by Cevrine and Celine Coralie

Junior Ichthus is a five night camp during the September school holidays. It is an exciting holiday experience that challenges young people to step outside their comfort zones through participation in group and individual activities. Junior Ichthus also gives us opportunities to form and strengthen new and existing friendships and to spend time in group discussion. All of this takes place in a safe Christian community that encourages us to meet God, who challenges us to step out and live a life of faith in Jesus.

The camp started like this… When my sister and I arrived on Sunday morning, we were given name tags with a particular colour, symbolising our dorm group/colour. I was in Pink, and Celine was in Purple dorm. We first played GTKY (Getting to Know You Games) and introduced ourselves to our dorm group. We also thought of Negotiable (government laws) and Non-Negotiable rules that we should follow at camp that we would be comfortable following those rules. As the day went by, we settled in, and played an awesome but wild game at night, called the amazing race against all the other groups. This included variety of dares to complete the race. After a long race, we then did dorm wrap. Dorm wrap is a final activity that took place at night to wrap up the day before bed. All the girls/ boys come together to ask any questions to our leaders of the camp. We started by writing any questions on a piece of paper, leading the leaders to answer them. This was an opportunity to ask ANY questions, that we would feel uncomfortable to ask our parents, teachers’ etc. e.g. Like topics on boyfriends, troubles at home etc.

The next day, on Monday, we started the day by listening to the camp radio- two of the leaders would have a conversation giving a flashback on what we did yesterday. After breakfast, we would do worship - singing hymns, praying, and praising the Lord. We focused on the "Prayer of Preparation." After worshipping we were put together into our dorm groups, filling in our Junior Ichthus booklet. The idea of the booklet was to answer the questions provided about yourself and to get to know others in your group. This formed great friendships. After that we participated through Puzzle Fuzzle. This was an activity where we would gather together as a camp and ask any deep religious questions to religious experts. After lunch, we were split into two big groups, doing two different rotations. The first rotation was depending on team work with dorm groups. We did activities like building a tent blind folded, with only one person instructing. We also played different games that involved strong strategy.

The other rotation was servicing - A botanist who took us to a field and we as a team cleared out weeds in the ground. After the servicing, we got ready for the camp out. Each dorm group had to build a tent out of tarps. We had dinner at the bon fire, sang songs, talked and had a really relaxing nice time together as a community. After that we had dorm wrap in one of the tents, and slept in the tent of your dorm group that we built. The next day, on Tuesday we had the same morning routine as Monday => camp radio, breakfast, worship – (topic: "Confession and Absolution,") small groups and then lunch. After lunch and dinner we had small group challenges and competitive individual indoor games. => E.g. rob the nest. And then dorm wrap.

On Wednesday, after our normal routine, we went to, Dream World! After a day at dream world, we had challenge night. Challenge night is a time to reflect on your emotions to your dorm group. Everyone had a story, depending on their struggles of life. And it was VERY emotional, which did bring tears. On Thursday, we had our normal routine, but for worship we focused on the "Lord’s Prayer." After lunch we had mega free time. Where we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. => Swim in the pool, play fun games, a walk to the creek and waterfall Etc.

But the main idea of the mega free time was to get ready for THEME NIGHT. The theme was ONE, so we had to wear a costume that symbolises ONE. For example a lot of people wore onesies or One Direction costumes. At theme night, we had a nice dinner prepared by our leaders. After dinner we had a disco night. And then our last dorm wrap.

On Friday, the last day of camp, we had breakfast, and then packed up ready to go home. We did our final worship/mass. Reflecting on everything we did on the camp. We thanked everyone, and said our goodbyes. Leaving in sorrow… Thank you Father Graheme for putting your hard dedication and love into us. Participating through this camp, made us learn the high spirit of the Christian faith; and being around a community to share our feelings through God’s presence, and to always do the right thing. This exciting opportunity will now remain part of our memories forever.

God Bless you and our Parish.

Cevrine and Celine Coralie (Redcliffe)

[Thanks Girls! - JK]

Useful websites

Grow Ministries www.lcacyfm.org.au

·         For information about Taking Faith Home, Milestones Ministry and GIFT

·         Training information

·         Newsletter On Your Hearts download link

 

Faith Inkubators Australia: www.faithink.com.au

·         For information about BibleSong, Head to Heart, Faith Stepping Stones & Seasonals

·         Order FaithInk resources

 

The First Third: http://www.firstthird.org/eym/default.aspx?m=3926

·         For information on the Exemplary Youth Ministry Study

 

Vibrant Faith www.vibrantfaith.org

·         Great resources

·         Faith Formation Learning exchange

·         Vibrant Faith at Home

 

Sticky Faith http://stickyfaith.org/

 

Parenting Resources

·         Parent Further (US) http://www.parentfurther.com/

·         Parenting Ideas Michael Grose (AUS) http://www.parentingideas.com.au/Home

·         The Search Institute http://www.search-institute.org/

·         The Parenting Place NZ http://www.theparentingplace.com/

 

Australian Church Resources: http://www.acresources.com.au/products/list-all-products.html

·         To order the book: The Spirit and Culture of Youth Ministry

 

These books are available at Koorong:

·         Sticky Faith (Powell/Clark)

·         The Family Bible Adventure kit (children’s ministry DVD & CD ROM The Good News)

·         Parenting Beyond Your Capacity (Reggie Jonier)

·         Think Orange (Reggie Joiner)

Back on track...

It's been quite a while between posts here, but that's not because nothing's happened!

My thinking is to use Mailchimp to distribute a summary of the news and resources that are gathered here and see how that works - whether the various systems can talk to each other etc.

Anyway, in the meantime, here is a nice set of dot points on "Creative Connections to Schools", thanks to the Ven Helen Phillips from Howrah, Tasmania, who I met at Y-NET / C-NET earlier this year.

Some of our smaller [church] communities connect with their school communities in creative ways:
1. Work with children to plant and maintain a section of garden at the school.
2. Provide a special morning / afternoon tea for the staff once a term.
3. Be willing to be interviewed in class time about special interests or talents you may have.
4. Provide a breaakfast club for your school one day a week.
5. Support the school chaplain in your local school.
6. Allocate a month a year to vist the school as Parent or Grandparent help for the month.
7. Form a prayer group to pray for your school.
8. Ensure your school is included in your prayers at church on Sunday.
9. Support special programs for children at risk in your local community.
10. If needed, provide cut lunches to the school office for children without lunch.
11. Organise a working group to plan special school assemblies at Easter and Christmas.
12. Include examples of children's work in your church bulletin.
13. Invite the school principal to contribute an article for the church bulletin once a year.
14. Run a stall or activity at the school fair and contruibute the funds to the school. Help bake cakes.
15. Assist on the roster of the school canteen or reading program.
16. Help keep outdoor equipment in good order for the children.
17. Run a holiday fun day or day-camp.
18. Invite the school choir to a special children's or Christmas service.
19. Sponsor an award for Grade 7 students who have made a special effort.
10. Talk to your school principal about how you could be of assistance in your school community.

Telling Youth the Gospel: For our Sake or Theirs?

Very recently, my parish priest, the Rev Dr Cathy Thomson, preached a sermon that really made me sit up and take notice.  Themes: what should our parish be on about? What is the Gospel? How should we present it to young people? What are we trying to achieve through presenting the Gospel to youth?

From time to time, I find myself wondering whether "liberal-catholic" youth ministry is capable of achieving growth in the same way as "evangelical" youth ministry seems to be.  Perhaps this sermon points us towards an answer to that.

I wasn't the only one who found it instructive and thought-provoking; so many of us did, that it was 'published' through the pew bulletin the next week.  And here it is: 

 

Dear Friends,

So many of you have commented on my sermon of last week, and have asked for a note of the five dot points which I suggested "summed up the gospel." Thank you for your feedback.  I have replicated the whole sermon below, and hope that reading it is something you will find helpful.

 

Today I have decided not to preach on the day’s Scriptures, because I would like to pursue one of the issues that came up at last week’s planning day.  It was suggested that if we want to attract young people to our Church, we have a prior responsibility to be clear in our own minds about the positive message that we think we can offer them: one that that they would understand and be attracted by.  I think our challenge is to be clear about what we understand by “the Gospel” before we attempt to offer it to anyone else.  So what do we mean by saying that we have the Gospel or “Good news”? Please take a moment to think about that...

One way to find out what “the Gospel” is is to go onto the internet where we find a whole range of ways of teaching the gospel through Youtube. Last night on YouTube I watched a young American man with long “dreadlocks” who sure enough “rapped” the gospel in four minutes.  Then there was the Pentecostal pastor wearing a tee-shirt with Jesus as the risen and ascended lamb upon the throne of God complete with halo, who provided an animated spoken rendition of the gospel in five minutes.  I have to say I liked their clarity about what they believed;  I liked their conviction and energy.  I didn’t like their particular slant on the gospel which emphasised human sinfulness to an excessive and guilt-inducing extent.  But to be fair, they did also emphasise albeit in a rather unorthodox way the immeasurable grace of God that overcomes the aforesaid all-pervasive sinfulness and guilt.  I decided that although Youtube is a medium very accessible to the young people to whom we wish to communicate the gospel, it is probably not the best starting point for developing our own clear stance about what we believe the Christian gospel to be.  I turned as you might expect to the Scriptures, if not today’s selection.   I discovered that there are exactly one hundred references to the word “Gospel”, otherwise known as the “Good News” in the New Testament.

[Interjection: I laughed during the paragraph above, because I knew exactly which clips the Rev Cathy was describing.]

Leaving out the fact that the four evangelists wrote their “gospels” which are essentially biographies of Jesus, the other ways of speaking about the Gospel are to call it:

·         the gospel (good news) of God,

·         the gospel (good news) of Christ

·         the gospel (good news) of the kingdom

·         the gospel (good news) of salvation. 

Jesus himself spoke of the gospel of the kingdom, by which he meant that his own existence heralded the fulfilment of God’s reign on earth, and that this would bring liberation from the power of sin and death, and that all people could be united with God into eternity. 

The other three: the gospel of God, of Christ or of salvation,  seem to have the same basic content.  Paul sums it up in I Corinthians 15:1-4 where he writes about what the Gospel is:

3For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, ⁴and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

 I think churches like ours that are of a liberal –catholic persuasion are frightened to own that gospel because we have heard many reductionist versions of it over the years.  Yet surely we can affirm that Christ died for our sins.  We don’t have to say Christ paid the penalty or took the punishment for our sins, because we know that punishment notion of Jesus’ crucifixion says that we have a God who requires punishment (a punitive God).   And that is problematic when we hear this God referred to as in I John where it says that “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”  We also don’t have to say that we are saved by the (precious) blood of the lamb, because we don’t necessarily find that bloody sacrificial imagery very helpful.  But we can still say Christ died for our sins.  The rest of the Gospel, according to Paul, namely that Christ was buried and that he was raised on the third day, is something that we affirm weekly when we say the creed aloud.

This leads to some rather uncomfortable questions:

·         The first is: have we fully appropriated the gospel of liberation for ourselves?  Do we live out of the joy and gratitude of knowing that Jesus died to bear away all our sin and suffering, and have we allowed that to transform us into people with God-focussed lives?  I ask this question because if we haven’t done that, we will have nothing to offer to the young people, or anyone, who might come among us.

·         The second question is why do we want to encourage young people?  Is it because we truly want to offer them the liberating power of the gospel which we know and can demonstrate in our own lives, or is it that we are afraid that if we don’t, our church will die?  In other words, do we want to have more young people among us for their sake or for our sake?  Because if it’s the latter, we’re never going to be able to convince them, and quite rightly, that there’s anything worthwhile in it for them.

 
Let me offer a summary of the gospel that is something of an expansion of Paul’s but which contains the same basic elements, and is consistent with the way parishes like ours think theologically:

·         The gospel tells us that God gave creation life, and human beings as part of it;

·         In working out its destiny, the world is sometimes marked with sin and suffering and human beings contribute to that;

·         God sent his Son Jesus to live and work among human beings on this earth, to teach them God’s way of love and to live a life of integrity and courage;

·         Jesus offered himself as bearer of all the sin and suffering of the created world so that these could be done to death on the cross;

·         God raised Jesus up on the third day as the hope of the salvation of all.  This resurrection is the mark of our transformation as well as Christ’s, leading to our having a life full of meaning now, and ultimately, life with God into eternity.

Is this an attractive gospel to us?  Can it be an attractive gospel to the young people?   Well it seems to me that this apparently amorphous generation of “young people” are really not too different from the rest of us.  They live fairly pressured lives through work and study and competing for success in their careers; they often are beleaguered by financial pressures, a big mortgage, they’re concerned about finding a partner, and when they do about when to get married, whether they can afford to have children, and when is the best time to start trying.  And once they have children they struggle to provide for them all the opportunities they need to grow and thrive and make their own contributions to the world of which they are global citizens.  Statistics suggest also that they are a generation more prone to marital failure, homelessness, depression, mental illness and suicide than any before them.

The gospel is a dynamic meeting point for joy and sorrow, sin and righteousness, violence and peace, and it is the overcoming of life’s vagaries and challenges as well as the fulfilment of its promise.  Let us pray God that we as a congregation may have the privilege of sharing this wonderful gospel with all who are drawn to Christ both young and old, and that we may know how to articulate God’s saving power in our lives whenever such a testimony is required of us.  Amen

I am encouraged and quite excited at the very positive response I have had from the parish as we continue to plan our life of ministry and mission into the future.

With my love and with God's blessing,

Rev'd Cathy.

How about that?  What do you think?