I’ve been rather busy this week, I’m not quite sure where the time goes. You’d think that with Steve away I would have time spare, but it would appear that that is not the case! I am still hoping to post some more about the matrix, when time allows! It’s the thinking before the posts that needs to take place which I don’t have the time for! I have a quiet day on Wednesday so maybe I’ll set some time aside then.
Its two weeks into Steve’s month away and I’m REALLY missing him now. The past couple of days have been quite hard and so I’ve been considering flying to Scotland to visit him next week. I don’t really have the time and it will make my week even more hectic, but it would be so nice to see him! I shall probably do the sensible thing and stay here, write my assignment and get lots of other jobs done, and just eat lots of chocolate to try and cheer myself up!
People at church have been lovely, I’m at one of the curate’s for lunch tomorrow, and my social life does seem busier! This is probably where the time is going!
I’m off to play in a band for the church barn dance tonight. It’ll be the second one we’ve done, and we’re hoping to improve on last time’s slightly rough around the edges performance!
to fly or not to fly March 17, 2007
Keynote 4 – Youthworker as Prophet March 7, 2007
This was again a good talk, and I must remember to look through the presentation online. I think it took me quite a while to understand what Iain Hoskins was getting at, but here’s my summary. A prophet stands up for God, and is often loney and moaned at! The Christian culture is conforming, unchallenging and unquestioning. As prophets we need to stand apart and do what God has called us to do. This is the message I came away with. As a prophet, I need to listen and RESPOND to the Holy Spirit. This may mean losing my job, getting enemies, whatever, but surely I must follow my calling.
I’m sure that has to be balanced by the fact that God is supposed to have called me to work in the church I work for, but then perhaps he’s calling me to stir it up! Again, I need to do some more work identifying my calling.
Workshop – recruiting and developing volunteers March 7, 2007
I left this workshop feeling encouraged. I actually don’t do a too bad job working with volunteers and I’m not missing a crucial piece of information. There’s still the managing versus leading but we’ll get back to that later!
The one thing that did stand out to me at this point in time is that I am so keen on getting the business done that I’m pushing out the catching the vision, encouragement, team building part of it all. I need to rethink how I treat my volunteers, with team meetings and with training (though I still think my idea is a good one). Could I use the INSET method? What about the volunteer agreements? job descriptions? supervising and mentoring volunteers?
Good stuff, that I think I’m moving in the right direction on.
Keynote 3 – Youthworker as Missionary March 7, 2007
I wasn’t too impressed by this talk, but that shouldn’t stop me reflecting. I think this is one of the elements of youth ministry that I have the biggest problem with at the moment. I don’t want to go out to convert people. I’m a lot more comfortable going out to love and serve. There’s just something I’m not comfortable with, with the word missionary. This seems crazy as I’m definitely more about reaching out than I am about discipleship. I guess when we talk about mission we are talking about going out with the message, our mission is to make disciples. That’s what I don’t feel called to anymore.
I feel called to love, to listen, to be God to these young people.
Youthworker as a missionary? I should be if I’m a youth minister.
But hang on, James Gardner was talking about how we are missionaries because we take God into a foreign culture, youth culture. To that extent I’m kinda a missionary. I’m slowly becoming more comfortable with it. And if I bring in Steve Chalke’s christology -> missiology -> ecclesiology then I feel even more comfortable. Perhaps I am a bit of a missionary, though not in the traditional sense of the word.
keynote 2 – youthworker as a leader March 6, 2007
Ok, another issue that’s been on my mind. Still haven’t answered the question – what’s the difference between a manager and a leader? But that’s for another day.
James Lawrence (author of Growing Leaders) spoke about Leadership and there were some good insights. Most importantly for me, I need to begin to see myself as a leader again. I am a leader as I am in a position of leadership, whether I like it or not. Do I want to be a christ like leader or a secular manager? I don’t know.
Do I have the following in reference to leadership ? These sum up my ability as a leader.
knowledge – um, some, but I think it’s pretty useless.
skill – a little, probably more than I think
talent – maybe a little
gift – i don’t think so.
I really don’t see myself as a leader. I’ve been told too many times that I’m not a good leader so that’s how I see myself. I need to reflect on this with someone else who knows me.
MORE REFLECTION NEEDED
So I am a leader, and I’ve identified my ability as a leader. Now I need to discern what God wants me to do, this is really another post all together, around my calling and the tension of youthwork and youth ministry, a background to my thinking at this conference.
So the question I need to answer as I think about myself as a leader, is how do I now grow as a leader?
The Matrix rocks! March 6, 2007
At the third Matrix conference and there’s some good stuff going on as usual! I’ve taken a leaf out of Ian’s book and only attended one workshop so far, which actually might be less than Ian as he’s leading two. It all depends on whether I need yet more space tomorrow to process what’s been said so far.
What I have processed has been the first keynote message ‘the youthworker as a theologian’ and the only workshop I’ve been to which I’ve re-titled ‘training volunteers’.
Thinking of myself as a theologian is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, so I was glad to have the time to think about how I reflect theologically on my YMCA study especially. I’ve decided this won’t happen unless I intentionally ask the questions periodically as I go through the course. Results may end up on here, may not, we’ll see. As for being concious of my own theology, thats a bit uncertain at the moment. I gave up reading cafe theology as I had too many questions and no time to think about them! I need to find time to pick this book up again, and figure out where I stand on it. As I become more (or maybe less) certain of my beliefs and as I reflect theologically on my study and practice (yes I need to do more of that too) then perhaps I will become more concious of how my theology affects my practice. This only touches on half of what was said, but it’s where I’m at with it all.
As for training volunteers (don’t be scared any of my volunteers reading this), I think I’ve now put together an attractive, useful and engaging training day. The workshop basically asked three questions when putting together a training for volunteers.
1) What questions are the volunteers asking? (i.e. what do they want training for?)
2) What will the outcomes be? (these can be learning outcomes, but also things like feeling encouraged and team building)
3) What will attract the volunteers to the training? (use a carrot instead of a stick!, though sticks can be useful)
There were lots of other helpful ideas too, but most importantly I now feel able to offer my volunteers a training day that I hope they won’t turn down!
matrix keynote 1 – theology March 6, 2007
Keynote 1 – The Youthworker as Theologian
Three questions came out of this for me, but I don’t think it’s as simple as just answering them. I need to recognise and develop myself as a theologian, including reflection theologically on my YMCA course.
How conscious am I of the theological view that informs my practice?
Where are we going to bring theology into young people’s lives and how? (hymnology)
What are we saying and how are we saying it?
A lot of this talk was about how we make stuff relevant to young people (the last question especially.) I don’t feel challenged by this. What I am challenged by is whether I know where I’m coming from theologically or not. So lets start at the beginning, with me. It’s answering the first question really. I have a rough idea of what I believe, but the more I read and think, the less sure I am. But whatever I teach, I am clear about, or I am clear about my unclearness! I don’t think I am conscious of my theological view informing my practice. I just do what I do. Only through the course am I thinking about why I do what I do. I guess I don’t know a lot. It’s not something I’ve thought about lots, but am trying to. But what about young people? How do I impart theology to them? I guess it is mainly through my teaching, though there may be other methods (and I don’t wish to explore them now.) I am happy with what I teach young people. I wish I knew more so I could be more certain and clear, but in my confusion, I allow them to be confused. I seek to study as much as I can what I teach the young people. This is the bare minimum I should be doing.
So I need to think about what I am going to do. A theology course would be ideal, but that is not possible for at least 2.5 years! So for now I have to stick with self directed study. Reading books, questioning my beliefs, seeking more knowledge, AND reflecting on my YMCA stuff. Reading I can do, but it’s the reflecting theologically on my YMCA stuff that I don’t know where to start. I guess it’s simply asking the questions- what does the bible say about this? What does God think of this? I could add a box asking these questions on my recording sheet (which I think needs to be bigger anyway to allow for more detailed reflection.) But I also need to ask it of the stuff I am reading. Perhaps I could ask the questions at the end of each unit and of each assignment I write. What does God say about human development? It wouldn’t be to agree or disagree necessarily with what I’ve read in my notes so far, but it would say each one of us is created individually by God. What does this have to say about human development?
Action Plan!
- continue to read and challenge myself. (complete reading and reflecting on café theololgy!)
- change my recording form to allow for theological reflection on practice
- reflect theologically on each unit of YMCA course. (and catch up on all units done so far!)
he’s gone! March 1, 2007
At 6.30am this morning, I said goodbye to my husband for a whole month! He’s doing 28 shows in 29 days across Ireland, Northen Ireland and Scotland! We’ve spent the past two days discovering parts of Kent, and when he returns we’ll be spending a week together on the Isle of Wight. It was lovely to spend time with him before he went, especially as life for both of us has been a little frantic recently!
I’m sure at some point it will hit me that a month is a long time to be without your husband, but for now it just seems normal. I’m used to him going away for a week or so, though the longest was just over two weeks last year when he toured Scotland. With the Matrix conference, an assignment to be written, friends to see and the holiday to plan for when he return’s I’m sure I’ll be busy enough!!
