Snow Day

Well I have arrived in Leamington Spa after an adventurous day in the snow. You can see from the photo that when I decided to set off from Sheffield thetre had been a bit of a snow fall. It took me 20 minutes to get out of the street and 2 hours to travel the 10 miles to the M1

I eventually arrived at the YfC conference 2 hours late at 12.30pm. At least I was not doing anything at it. It's been a good time and I am really grateful to Richard Bromley for giving me the opportunity. It seems like there is a real desire to collabarate with regard to strategy and share resources where possible. We are both very committed to building God's kingdom and need to work out how we do that most effectively

It's also been great to see people commenting about how much they benefitted from Breakthrough - the SU holiday that I am involved in helping to organise over the New Year. We now need to explore how we follow up effectively. I am exploring with a number of locations running a regular youth cafe as a way of providing a space for folk to get together. I need to add it to my to do list.

It will be a year on Friday since Jackie was taken ill and so this Saturday we are holding open house from midday until about 10.30pm. If you know us and you are in Newcastle - please call in.

New Year, New Resolve!

Well it's 2010 now and I have decided that it is time to blog more regularly. This is more of a personal blog but i will also post stuff on the SU Youth Blog, 'Gathering Crumbs' when the issue is directly related to youth & childrens work.

I have just returned from a fantastic few days on an SU holiday over New Year called Breakthrough. It was a real privilege to work with such a great team and have such a fun time seeing in the New Year with God. It was also great to see suchg a wide range of young people together. As i looked back on 2008 it was with considerable pain (check out my facebook notes if you want to know why) but also with a sense that I am not alone in this journey. God is with me and he has sent fantastic people to walk with me.

I have learnt to trust God more and my overriding lesson will be that God's plan never fails. As well as learning together we had a fab time with the hokey cokey on the beach at 1am on New Years Day and a paddle in the very cold North Sea. I had some great chats to people as well as lots of cake!

As well as sorting out equipment today I spent a great couple of hours sledging ( no thats not to do with cricket!)

The Sunday Times yesterday devoted its magazine to the question of happiness. You can read it here. I wonder if the key to happines is something to do with contentment? Paul says to Timothy that happiness with contentment is great gain and contrasts that with money. That will be my prayer for 2010 - to be content with whatever God sends to me.

Happy New Year

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