too funny, and a bit scary

mid years

did everyone get theyre mid-years in on time??? hope it went alright

Need your help urgently!

I need a video clip of a person talking about an experience of meeting God, something not cheesy, not using Christianese but describing a spiritual encounter with God. And I need it for tomorrow! Anyone have one - or an idea of where I could get one from?!

Thanking you all kindly

Pancakes

pancakes reflect our group in the way that you put in the ingredients and the outcome is a tasty treat for a pfg group in this way we come together and put in our ideas and everything makes sense!!

Kill Hill

In our Youth Hall we have a Graffiti wall, where the Churched young people have drawn and written messages and pictures about their faith.

I oversee a group of unchuched young people from a local estate who come on sunday evenings to use our facilities in an open youth club.

A few weeks ago one of the young men in the group created his own image on a space in the wall using his finger and some paint from a picture that was still wet. It reads, 'Flatz Kill Hill NW7', referring to the area and building they live in, based in Mill Hill.

What interests me about this picture is the raw reality that it communicates in contrast to the other messages and pictures. The other pictures communicate a message of happiness, faith and hope. This picture/tag communicates the reality they live in. To me it says, 'We want to be a part of this, as long as you don't try to change us.'

A cry for acceptance, you could say.

Not long ago, a message of 'non-violence' was preached in the church, where the preacher stated that, as Christians, we should be passive and non-violent.

I agreed with him on some of his points, and thought he made a moderately good case - for himself.

In a middle class community, this thinking may be fine and dandy. Non violence suited his lifestyle quite well.

But what about young people who grow up in communities where they feel a need to fight their corner?

What about these young people, living in 'Kill Hill Flatz' who face violence on a daily basis and feel the need to carry weapons to help them feel safe?

What do we do about this as Youth & Community workers?

What do we do about this as the Body of Christ?

Can these young people fit into the Body of Christ as the church depicts it?

'...this faith can have nothing to do with fleeing the world, with resignation and with escapism. In this hope the soul does not soar above our vale of tears to some imagined heavenly bliss, nor does it sever itself from the earth.' (Moltmann, 1967)

Let's not accept the idealism of easy answers.

The answer to all this may be 'Jesus', but I do not believe it is enough to just speak his name and wish for the best.

More for the weekend

Just two things I've come across this weekend, in the Guardian weekend magazine on Saturady there was a good article about a guy who tried to live his life for year abiding by every rule in the bible. Was a good extract from the book that is coming out this week 'The year of living Biblically' by A J Jacobs. Not sure exactly how it could be used but might be fun. You can read the article here

Along with that, you've probably noticed, but for the next few weeks the Independent is giving away free mini philosophy books looking at people such as Kant, Hume and Plato. May also be worth having a look every Saturday.

Peace out - see you Tuesday. I'll bring some pancake mix.

Links

Here are a few links that are worth checking out when we're not busy writing journals - or saving Islington: Ok for some reason the links aren't working, click on them and then remove the www.blogger.com bit beforehand in the address bar.

Ok now fixed!

Free video downloads ranging from short films to adverts

Hollywood Jesus - Pop culture from a spiritual point of view

Christian Film reviews - good for a laugh

We feel fine - the looks at feelings from peoples blogs. Careful as some of the links from site may be dodgey...

Dolphins playing with bubbles - what more could you want?

Human for sale - how much are you worth?

Welcome to the corporate machine...

visualizing the bible

Chris Harrison has done a very cool thing. Beautiful visualizations of the Bible. This image shows cross references.

Conspiracy of kindness

a book i recently finished enjoyed it and is worth a read, heres the synopsis - The "conspiracy of kindness" operates on a simple premise:loving deeds done by unassuming christians convince more people of the love of god than all the words in the world.

from the creators of the big book of blobs comes this great new resource ...
blob flash cards
i use the blob book in loads of different contexts so am excited about getting myself these cards to resource the group work we do here are Urban Hope, st stephen's youth work project

youth crime

In a survey conducted for a recent channel 4 documentary ...
most adults believe that between 70 and 90% of crime in the UK is committed by Teenagers.

what percentage would you say?

see Mark's comments on the programme to find our what the actual figure is.

listen again - The Moral Maze

You can catch this radio 4 programme on listen again here (not sure how long they keep it up for)
mac users can add a listen again widget to their dashboards - i use it loads.

Have we become scared of young people and are we right to be? This week airport-style scanners are announced for Britain’s toughest schools in a clampdown on knives and even the Home Secretary says she’d be scared to walk the streets of East London at night. Add that to the recent cases of attacks by teenage thugs which have affected law-abiding citizens and the fear of violence is palpable. But is it warranted and if it is can society rediscover the moral atmosphere that relies on trust and respect?

Have adults lost the confidence and ability to give any discipline or authority? Has the child protection agenda gone too far and left children knowing their rights and trusting no adults? Or is the coverage of the worst, tragic cases concentrating on violence which is unrepresentative of a whole generation?

this programme sparked off loads of reactions, thoughts and ideas in me especially around the need for youth workers to be catalysts for building intergenerational local community. i agreed with many of the commentators regarding the problems but not necessarily with their solutions - not massively impressed by the person from children's society. The head teacher featured used to be the head of Islington Green which is our local school - i used to do some work there with him.

Binocular Football...

A resource on the schoolswork site - I think it would be fun to do at some point!

Church Evangelism!

How we've always done it...........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM5UlXXRuT8

This is the video i used on Sunday night.
The feedback was not great at all.