Unseen Footprints

Among the books I've re-read this year has been 'Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life' by Sheridan Voysey kindly sent to me by SU Australia. It's a fantastic read and is very much an evangelistic book for contemporary western society. Instead of starting with proving God, it looks for evidence of him in our world - his footprints.

In many ways it offers a similar approach to Tom Wright's 'Simply Christian'. But whereas Tom's book is like CS Lewis' 'Mere Christianity', Sheridan's book is at a more popular and engaging level. There is a fantastic chapter in it all about our vision of the future and how it shapes life in the present.

'God dreams that we become all he designed us to be, with all our individual flair and talent realised, But he wants even more for us. He dreams of us embodying the luminous character of Jesus Christ, "our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him." God dreams of that flame of faith within us growing until we become people of light.' (p135)

and then he goes on to say that we are called to transform this world by doing 4 things

Imitating the genorosity of God
Expressing the life of God
Cultivating the heart of God
Celebrating the love of God

This so much echoes the challenge and call to missional community that I feel.

A New Kind of Youth Ministry

I want to use this space to post about youth ministry books and issues. The first of these was published in 2007. A New Kind of Youth Ministry by Chris Folmsbee. It is an easy read and has lots of good stuff in there - stuff worth looking at and taking on board. Worth looking at his blog too. But so far this year I've began to wonder about the American Youth Minstry model. It seems to be programmatic and professional as opposed to relational and voluntary. Many of the shifts described in the book are excellent but are hard anyone other than highly trained workforce to do. I was staggered to hear that in parts of the States church attendance by teenagers runs at 40%. No wonder the issues they face are different to us.

On a positive note, I love the idea of 'reculturing' youth ministry. So much of what we do is passed down without much thought. We too often stick with methods and ideas that worked ten years ago without realising that we live in a different world. I was personally challenged by the contrast between 'spiritual formation' and 'biblical information'. We need so much to be allowing God to transform our lives and helping others to do the same.

The Jesuits haves ome great resources to help with that. Their 'Sacred Space' website and 'Pray as you go' are great - so different to the tradition I am used to and yet so helpful. These have been helpful in reminding me of our own Scripture Union bible engagement site 'WordLive.'
I'm sure I will return to this book a lot as there are some gems - but mainly because as I continue on this journey of challenge with God, I sense that he is going to 'reculture' my faith. That will certainly be an adventure.

The Four Generations

Recently read an interesting Grove booklet by John Finney. 'The Four Generations: Finding the Right Model for Mission'

In this the proposal is made that we need to explore different approaches for each generation

Generation 1: adults and children go to church so have a good background knowledge of faith
Generation 2: adults don't go but send their children so all still have some knowledge of faith
Generation 3: neither go to church nor send their children so adults some knowledge of faith but children have none
Generation 4: nobody goes to church or has a background knowlegde of faith

He then suggests that our approach to evangelism depends on which generation we are reaching

Generation 1: evangelism centred on preaching in church
Generation 2: evangelism by mass evangelism and/or nurture group
Generation 3: evangelism by nurture group
Generation 4: evangelism by long period of instruction and fellowship

There is also a critique of the place of groups

My own reflection on this is that its a useful analysis but I would like to go one step further and think about evangelism beginning with community engagement. Perhaps the weakness of the booklet is that it doesn't offer a model of evangelism founded on an an incarnational approach. There may be some clues to the way ahead by looking at the renewed emphasis on spiritual formation but if people are not in contact with the church how will they meet Christians in the first place?

That will require us to think about how we engage with communities that no longer want to engage with church or faith.

Thinking aloud

For some time I have been wondering about writing a blog. There have been a number of questions buzzing around in my head about the value of blogs for sharing ideas, connecting with others etc, etc and I find myself amazed that people find the time.

But as I approach the end of my 20th year on the Scripture Union staff I wonder if there might be some value in dialoguing with others about the issues of life and faith and the way that they interact and intersect.

So here I am - thinking aloud about what comes my way.

But there are some parameters too

1. Mission

I am passionately concerned about how we connect the good news of the Christian gospel with those who would never even consider entering a church. In recent years I have been challenged about whether or not my comfortable midle class existence has led me to accomodate and even compromise the gospel so it fits me. Last summer I began under the prompting of God to explore what that really means in practice by getting involved in mission activity on a local estate. This involved leaving my evangelical anglican church which I had attended for over 25 years and getting to know Christians who have a concern for the same estate. The challenge finally came to a head through listening to Rob Bell speak on Acts 19 at Youthwork the conference in 2006.

2. Young people

For most of the last 30 years I have been involved in relating to teenagers - as a secondary school teacher, schools worker, volunteer youth leader. Investing in the next generation is key to the future and I love seeing young people grow and become the people God made them to be. That is why I continue to be involved in youth work even now.

3. The Bible

I believe that God's story of redemption contained in the Bible is the adventure of life that we have all been called to be part of. We need to join in with what God is doing in the world and help people to engage with the Bible. The decline in Biblical Literacy is not just that people don't know Bible stories, it is that the story of the Bible is no longer the or even one of the framing stories for their lives.

It is with those three areas in mind that I have begun a D Min in theology this week
Exploring the practical implications of the decline in Biblical Literacy for the practice of Christian Youth Work

Watch this space for developments in all three areas