hello!
just wanted to say hello as i join the blogging community here!
heres a quote which i came across at the weekend....it comes from CYM about the nature of our work as christian youth workers...
"that the worker will be living in relationship to God in such a way that he/she seeks to be truely godly and to bring God's nature into reality for young people through their own life and lifestyle"
10 Comments:
If only churches grew as quickly as the Reluctant Souls blog group!
Anyway good quote - but what strikes me about this and so much of what I tell youth leaders in training sessions is that if you leave out the word "youth" or "young" it applies to all ministry. In fact you could apply that quote to all Christians!
Well if only churches had members who invited people personally to join! So often I think it couls be as simple as that!
Welcome Katie! It's great to have another female in the mix, especially one with great quotations like that!
pete...yep indeed...its a lifestyle...as christians we've all got a ministry...
maybe church growth should be as simple as that! now theres a challenge!
thank-you for the invite sarah...its good to add to the female mix and affirm the female presence here!
wow...a whole can of worms there miz!
i guess it comes down to a personal thing? Is the youthworker seeking/desiring to undertake what the quote decribes?
i know that 90% of the people in my year work for a church...but where they'll head afterwards i've no idea! You're quite right..some do talk about work with the youth service simply because churches are not fully honouring these roles...pay can be low and what value do some churches place in employing a full-time youth worker?? If CYM is seeking to resource the church, then the church have gotta respond to this move?
Yet i believe passionately in training workers effectively...and for me CYM is great in resourcing this... Both as a youth worker and as a christian, CYM has challenged my theology, my values, my work, why i do what i do... And theres a mighty difference between studying with CYM and what a secular youth work degree would provide.
yep i think we are...thanks for your perspective on this though...
its the youthwork v youth ministry debate! yet, if the jnc was soemthing set up by the youth service ie: a secualar body how can we expect the church to recognise it? we are indeed putting a secular structure into a christian context... If they don't see the value of this whats the difference to them between a christian youth worker with a jnc and a christian youth worker without a jnc?
i guess what are churches looking for in a youth worker? And where does CYM fit into this? Going back to basics and seeing what are the aims of our youth ministry as opposed to youth work undertaken in a secular context??
i may well look into what the youth service say of spirituality and how they define this...
Woah I'm away for one mornign and it kicks off!!!
Well... quickly...
JNC scales are all well and good but as you say it emphasises the youth WORK over the youth MINISTRY in some ways.
Personally I think the church needs to do the moving in this and establish a proper systerm for its youth ministers. I think youth ministers need to be on an equal footing with clergy and even if we don't get to join the "clergy club" of chapter meetings and things like that I think pay should be on the same scales as clergy (as is already true in some places). I am also beginning to think that parishes have just messed up too many times with youth workers and we need to make some seroius moves towards diocesan employment (and maybe even deployment) of youth ministers.
yep for sure...we need a greater committment from churches.. CYM have done a good part and so have the youth service...
Churches need their own JNC equivalent rather thn trying to run youth work in a youth ministry context??
I know from CYM churches are messing up with youth workers...a lot don't know where they stand in terms of responsibility..and some have huge responsibility with a salary that doesn;t match
But hey this debate could run and run!
" our expereince of appointing JNC theology students has been less than satisfactory."
hope you don't mind me asking this, but why has this been? could u elaborate a little bit....
thanks
oh my word! I really didn't expect such a huge debate! Opened a whole can of worms!
if i can back to the orginal quote...CYM express their desire that "the worker will be living in relationship to God in such a way that he/she seeks to be truely godly and to bring God's nature into reality for young people through their own life and lifetsyle." Personally i know my desire to be be in relationship with God and express this in the lives of the young people i seek to serve! Isn't this was the quote is about?!
What are people's expectation of CYM? To churn out youth workers for churches? Can God not be at work when for example i'm running a discipleship group in a local church/ leading lucntime group in a high school or when i'm working for the youth service on a young womens project?
what is the aim of my work/ministry? I want to enage with young people, help them understand their identity and realise their potential, i want them to see something different in me, i want to be a positive role model, i want them to know they're loved by God more than they could imagine! Can i only do this in a church...?
Have we not got to be where the young people are? Richard Passmore's phrase of "meet them where they're at" Being at YFC i'm in local high schools, local church, in a huge variety of roles...but i want to be where the young people are! Jesus ministered to people where they were at!
As christians we all have a ministry in one place or another... Yes i agree, i hear through CYM some moving to work for the youth service rather than a local church..but we need effective Christian youthworkers across the board!
Mark...you're right the the quote doesn't speak of church specifically merely that the worker will be in relationship to God and make Him a reality to the young people we serve! Are we about equipping churches with CYM youth workers or training people to be effective for Christ in their ministry?!!
Phil...in response to your question what are your expectations of a "jnc theology student"?? Please don't tie us all with the same brush! What do you want to see from somebody who's trained with CYM?
Katie - I should probably say at this point that I completed the CYM degree course a couple of years ago. I was intrigued to know why Tim's experience of appointing "JNC theology" students had been less than satisfactory.
Was it do with the quality of theological understanding? youth work professionalism? the fact that many students (in my experience) are not always 'in a place' where they want to work for a church?.....
I just wondered which aspect hadn't been so good.
Katie I agree with you that we must not make generalisations about gradutates of CYM (and I guess Oasis as well), but yes, there probably are some general things which 'the field' might expect from CYM and Oasis graduates (and probably whatever other "JNC theology" courses are available).
Actually having just typed this, I'm not sure if its true. My expereince of 'the field' of youth work/youth ministry, seems to be kinda messy - this is not autmatically bad. Different people have different understandings of terminology, there are different youth work/youth ministry courses out there, not all of which lead to JNC Level 2 qualification. The more I think about it, the more I wonder whether 'the field' knows what it wants/expects.
But then who's job is it to define this? Who speaks for 'the field'? Who constitutes 'the field'? I dunno.
Help...Anybody....I'm rambling now, save me from my thinking......
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