new team blog (1) Miss Becci Raine

On a gap year with YFC, I moved to Nottingham last month and I’m loving it here. I’m based in Chilwell and Beeston and the past few weeks have been a wonderful whirlwind of new clubs, new names and new challenges!
Two days a week I work in Chilwell school helping in humanities classes and an Asdan group. It’s fantastic to just get alongside young people and (try!) to help them with their work because I get to build relationships with young people who wouldn’t be seen dead in a Christian lunch club!
We also run drop in clubs which is an entirely new concept to me having always been involved in youth groups but it’s an amazing opportunity to get alongside young people, get to know them and let them know someone cares.
One of the things that has impacted me most though is our EQ:uip event which is an evening we run once a term to equip young people for mission. Numbers weren’t sky high but I met 16, 17 year olds who were excited about Jesus and were desperate to reach their schools and colleges with the gospel. These young people are an inspiration to me and it was an absolute privilege to be apart of something that builds them up to undertake mission.
Becci Raine, ETA

How do we treat others?

First of all a huge apology to anyone (or the someone) who reads our blogs, as it has been an age since we last posted. It has been an amazing time over the past few weeks, what with a great new team starting and myself starting an MA in mission and evangelism at cliff college. All massive loads but each rewarding in different ways. On top of this, just last week i was in a performance at a local theatre group. This in itself brought up loads of things, that having reflected on, really challenged me in my youth work.

There were young people and old (I was in the latter category), and it was just really interesting in seeing how the young people were spoken to by the leaders. There was a very patronising feel to the set up. There were a number of things that created this atmosphere from the way the young people were spoken to, to the positioning of them behind the band.

It all got me thinking about how we treat young people in the sessions we run, are we a team, am i a youth worker, who listens to young people, takes on board what they are saying and what they have to offer. Do i value them as human beings. I am happy to say that the majority of the time we do, but it doesn't stop myself checking what i am doing when i am slightly tired or if i have a lot of other work to do, and i am too focused on other stuff to invest in the young people we work with.

On top of this we were having a drink after the last night of the show and chatting to some of the young people, talking about how they audition people to come into the group. One conversation was really interesting. We were chatting to some of the older group and they mentioned that if someone doesn't fit in or behave they just ignore them and in the end they will leave. Once again it really challenges me in what i see going on in the groups we run. I know young people, and us older ones as well, like to belong to something, but when does that belonging start to become territorial and then negative in the way they act to others.

So i have been challenged, as a lot of times we all are, by being in a negative environment. Lets make people feel that they are worth something, and not just there to fulfill our whims and needs. I know i have got to change a few things already. What about you?

does anything really change?

'Taking good news relevantly to every young person in Nottingham' is an interesting statement, particularly the relevant bit. Working with young people this could mean that you develop different styles every moment.

So what does being relevant mean? For anyone who knows me they know that i can be the king of tenuous links. Sometimes this works, sometimes it is just ridiculous. I don't think writing pantomimes helps lol, as they are just ridiculous although they are supposed to be.

I still sometimes get a bit embarrassed by some Christians as they attempt to be ultra relevant. Whether that is the clothes they wear (mutton dressed as lamb is one relevant phrase), or the music they sing a long to or listen to (just cause it has swearing in doesn't mean you have to listen to it to be relevant). I think sometimes we try and over do the relevance as Christians. Being in the world, but not of the world is a tricky concept but really helpful to get your head round. YfC used to have the mission statement geared to the times, anchored to the rock. Awesome.

The encouraging thing is that this isn't a new thing. I am currently doing some preparatory reading for a course i am about to start and one of the books i am to read is Christian Theology: an introduction by Alistair McGrath. Here he talks about the relation between Christian theology and secular society. Mentioning how Christian poetry and song was often put to secular music even in those days. See it has always embarrassing lol, but the desire for the Christian faith to be relevant has always been there. Which shows that there has always been people who have wanted to connect people with Jesus. That is encouraging.

Balance that with the fact their has always been slight tension between those who want to do that and the established Church and then you really see nothing has changed over 2000 years.

As we strive to be relevant let us be secure in the knowledge that people have been there before us, and that the reason the Church has lasted this long is because there are people and fellowships that continue to strive to bring Jesus to their communities in a relevant way.

But let's try and get it right by providing the true Jesus and not cheesy Jesus.

5 Ways to Find God in the Everyday with Rob Bell

Hi guys, just found this video on Greenbelt's site. Not going to be able to go this year, but this video gives us all a rfresher that God is always there, even when we are not aware of it.
Enjoy the video and check out the full link below.



5 Ways to Find God in the Everyday with Rob Bell on Vimeo

Rhythm

I have always been told that i have no rhythm. I once tried to learn to play the guitar, i got about 4 chords (isn't that all you need to be a Christian guitar player?) The one thing i couldn't get hold of was the strumming. I really tried but just couldn't get it, so i thought you know what i will play the bass, you don't need to strum the strings, you pluck (very technical terms i know), not realising that actually you need a lot of rhythm to play the bass guitar also, so it sits in my loft.

People tell me that once you get the whole strumming thing, it becomes natural, it is so simple i am told.

How ironic then when i was at a retreat earlier this year and someone said they had been praying and the word rhythm came to them for me. Was this a prophetic word that i may become the next big worship leader, average worship leader? No...

... No, unfortunately not, although i do still harbor thoughts of becoming like Graham Kendrick. Yet i think it will be more about age than talent and musical gifting.

No i have been challenged and provoked over the past few months on the rhythm of my life. Not just how we live it but the way we live it. I often visit a marist centre on retreat, just spending time with God and some great people. The nuns there and other communities esp. those that live a monastic life live their lives in rhythm, it keeps them focused, and although to some of us it may seem dull, it actually brings discipline (another word we don't like), and a way to live a life so close to God.

Not being a planner this whole idea fills me with dread, but what i do know is that to build a life with God in it's DNA, i need a rhythm that works for me to get the best out of life.

With summer season here (you may have noticed a lack of blogs this month), and the Christian festival scene in full flow, you realise it is to develop a rhythm while away on camp, but what does it look like when you get back?

Well for me i will start with what works... Lucas on life first thing, time with my kids, and praying with my wife in the evening. Not much but we all have to start somewhere.

30hr eq:mission July '10

Thought it might be quite nice for those of you that are interested to let you know in a bit more detail how our first 30hr eq:mission went. Photos will get posted later so look forward to that.

So it all started on Saturday morning when 20 of us met at the NYfC office at 8am. The group were made up of young people from across the city, and although no one came on their own (one group of 6, two of 3 and two of two - some with leaders some without) they knew no one apart from those they came with. None of the young people knew where they were going, and probably didn't even know when we got there. After an extended bus journey (no one knows why although the driver did look a bit spaced), we arrived at Hebron Evangelical Church on the Wirral at 11.30. The second half of the journey the young people split up and sat with someone they didn't know, so they could introduce each other when we got there.
Once all our things were off the bus we had an induction from Martin Dickson, Director of Wirral YfC, who was hosting us for the weekend.

After lunch we really got into it. We split into 3 groups initially: one group on sports activities, one group on gardening, tidying and one group on flier drop and prayer. Here is a Little about how each got on.
Sports group: These guys took a football out and some other sports equipment onto the local park, just to try and get some kind of game started. To start with they just started to kick a ball around themselves but within 15minutes around 20 lads turned up and so a big game of football went on, for about 3 hours.
Gardening group: This group went along to the same park as the sports group, but with the remit from the park manager that if they found anything they think they could tidy up then that would be a great help. After an initial scout round the park we found 2 places that were really untidy and where nettles and other weeds were restricting trees and plants but also making the place look untidy. So the group split into 2 and spent the next few hours really making a difference to the look of the park. While one group were working a group of lads on community service came past doing a litter pick, and one of our group managed to have a really good chat about why they were doing it and why we had come up to the Wirral to make a difference.
Street group: The final group were walking up and down the main shopping street of Wallasey, handing out fliers about the church but also about a drop in youth club we were running that night. Pretty soon they had ran out of leaflets and wondered what to do next. So they went and bought a mini white board and just wrote on it 'Free Prayer'. Initially there was some scepticism but within a few minutes they had people coming up to them. One woman asking for them to pray for her husband, another group of young people asking to be prayed for school and family issues, one group stayed and chatted for well over an hour. They then wiped the board and on it wrote 'ask me why i am a Christian'. Again, some really good conversations came and they were able to chat to some more people in the middle of the town centre.

After some cheeky pasta and pizza we set up for the drop in youth club in the church itself. Not knowing how many young people we would get, we decided to have a team go back onto the park and offer to pray for people and ask God for any word He might have for them.
Youth club: With not knowing what to expect it was really good to have around 15 young people aged 14 - 17 come along and just hang out with us playing table tennis, games consoles etc. We had also taken our vinyl decks so we had some good conversations over those about Church and what is important in their lives. Some of them really opened up. It was also really good cause the Church had a relationship with a few of them and in fact some of them were responsible for a previous youth club closing down because of vandalism, and they went up to Martin and apologised for the things they had done in the past. The young people were blown away when he told them that we had come from Nottingham just to do something for them. They all got given a 4points leaflet as they left and relationships have been restored and seeds have been sown.
Park team: a group went back onto the park and although there were some good conversations, this was really hard for some of the team, as there were drunken lads on the park and a real sense of oppression. Saying that they had a really good conversation with a couple of French girls who said they were atheists but let us pray for them, and a couple of girls who one of which really wanted to open up about something but was too scared in front of her friends, so we just prayed for them both.

After all this we split into 3 different groups and planned the next mornings service. One group led the adult Church for the first part of the service, one ran the children's session and the final group ran the youth session. .

After the preparation a late night trip to the beach was the order of the day (or should i say night).

The next morning we joined the prayer meeting before the service and then went into what we had prepared. All three groups did really well and the church were not only encouraged but challenged as well (their words) at how accepting their community is to prayer and Christian witness. One thing that got us all was the generosity and welcoming nature. Whether we were in the church or out in the community there was a real friendliness about the place.

Lunch was generously donated and then it was off back to Nottingham, to get some well earned sleep.

The team were amazing and i just want to mention : Jordan, Bethan, Luke, Abbi, Rachael, Rebekah, Josie, Owen, Angus, Georgi, Helena, Rosie, Leanne, Hannah, Luke, Sarah, Joshua, Kristy, Lukas as they all did Jesus proud.

Looking forward to the next eq:mission in November. Want to know more details contact us

Will put some pics out when we get them downloaded. Hope you are as inspired and proud as i was over the weekend.

Fort Rocky 2010 photos

Nottingham YfC took a group of young people to Fort Rocky @ the pioneer centre in July 2010. Here is a bit of what happened. More pics on our facebook page.