Standing in the “inner circle” under the claw at the second Melbourne as Bono walked past (no, not bragging, just projecting an image heh heh) I looked around at the sea of iPhones and cameras around me, everyone had one, a couple of people never seemed to put it down, many pulled them out every time one of the band members came close. Adam Clayton stood over us almost playfully, shiny bass in hand, a wry grin over his face in a rock-star god pose and out came the phones, and it got me wondering. A little while later the same thing became almost annoying, and as I noticed a few people almost recording the entire event while watching it through the shiny lit up mini screens only to occasionally look beyond the screen to catch a glimpse of the event that was going on in front of their eyes.

(Tangent – many people took the time to turn their camera phones away from the event in front of them in order to turn away and take photos of their friends, or in most cases of themselves. As I watched this happen over and over again (and later was informed that the same thing was giving my fiance the willies) I wondered how much narcissism is needed in order to spend $100 on tickets to an event that you would turn away from in order to take photos of yourself… perhaps there’s another thing to talk about in a little while. Tangent over… )

Hundreds of people in front of me, behind me, around me, all with their retina displays and small cameras in hand watching the concert through a screen that presented only a small image of reality, for the stage, the people and the music was too big to capture in this way, to see in this kind of way. The image would only capture a small part of the reality as the stage was so large that I had to regularly look around in order to gaze at the “bigness” of it all, the music recording would only capture a pathetic representation of the concert that they were experiencing, the bass alone distorting any hope that you could listen to this on the way home in the car, the sight of the people blurred and over exposed due to movement and bright lights would never give you a realistic image of the person as they walked by.

Then I wondered, (and here is where my fiance tells me that I read too much into these things, or that I really should stop reading philosophy and theology books and get into some good old fiction).. I wondered if what was going on before me was what we speak of when we retell the stories of the call of Moses and other Prophets in the Old Testament.

In the story of Moses God appeared and spoke through a burning bush, his true image and voice inaudible to anyone God had to find new and different ways to meet with his creation. In this story the burning bush was a necessity, a way that God and Moses could connect, could commune with one another. It was a way that Moses was able to see God but not see God, to hear God but not hear God, without it the meeting would be impossible and the friendship would not have developed.

Perhaps the people around me were holding their phones up, watching the band as they walked by through their screens for a similar reason, all-be-it a distorted and ill-conceived reason, for, as you know Bono is not a God, Niether is Edge or Larry or Adam, they’re people who are great at their art and at sharing their music in new and interesting ways… but they’re only people. We don’t need to see them via a screen, no burning bush is needed, no alternative ways of connecting need to be developed. What’s more important is that Bono and the crew are not interested in a one on one relationship in the same way that we’re told God wanted from Moses, instead their relationship with us is a once off, never to be repeated again experiment in mass communication, occasionally interrupted and inspired by a mass response Bono would touch his heart, but that’s it people, nothing more.

Perhaps we’ve lost the understanding of what is holy and what is celebrity, what is beauty and what is orchestrated and marketed…

When the celebrity becomes holy perhaps we need magazines and televisions and iPhones in order to not be blinded by their holiness?

Maybe it’s just that people can’t simply be present anymore, perhaps we’ve lost the ability to put the connections down and to enjoy what’s in front of us, instead turning our heads and minds to our next thing, whether it be watching this in a cafe or pub with friends saying “this is where I was” or “this is me and my friend at the U2 gig, (sorry you can’t see the stage, our faces are more important)” or perhaps “this is where they sung my favourite song so instead of just being in the moment I recorded it to share it with you”

(Tangent – last tour I was front row when Bono sung “Miss Sarajevo.” The girl next to me picked up her phone to tell a friend that “he was singing her favourite song ever and how awesome is that, it’s so beautiful, yeah, I know, his voice is just so…. blah blah blah” and hung up from speaking when the song was over. What about the experience of hearing your favourite piece of music or viewing a stunningly holy piece of art have we lost when our response to something beautiful is to phone someone to tell them that you’re watching something beautiful happen without really paying attention to it’s beauty?)

Perhaps people are just weird like that…

Or maybe there’s something else going on, perhaps the iPhone has become a quasi burning bush, an artificial and self-imposed way to distance ourselves from those around us, whether they be Bono or other celebrities or the friend that we meet in the cafe. Perhaps these types of personal connections are just too holy for us to understand to connect with anymore, perhaps their voices are too much for us, their being too bright to stare at for any long period of time, their voice too beautiful to listen too with un-sheltered ears, their friendship too special for us to truly embrace…

Then again this could be one huge wank…

Sorry, I said wank, I know it demeaned everything that I just wrote.

And if you’re reading this on your iPhone is it because my words are too holy for you to read on other monitors?

And I know that I wasn’t going to brag, but check this out…

I was interviewed a month or so ago by Emma Halgren who was writing an article for the Insights Magazine on Technology and Worship, she was interested specifically in me sharing my thoughts on what technology is indispensable in worship and what some of the pro’s and cons of using technology in worship may be. There was a feeling that some people see technology in worship as a distraction, detracting from the primary focus of worship. Also on the table for discussion was wanting to explore the ways in which technology has changed and is changing the way that we relate to one another, especially when concerning young people.

I won’t go into the bits n pieces where I was quoted too much, if at all, but I did want to write down some thoughts that I shared in the conversation that didn’t necessarily make it into the article, primarily for my own benefit, but also because from my perspective the most interesting parts were not used in the article.

One of the things I spoke about was the way that the church has been obsessed with, if not addicted to the technology of “print.” I know that some people may not view print as a technology, but it was a technology that ultimately changed the way that we communicate with each other, it changed the way that we learn, the way we teach and it ultimately changed the world that we live in and it has never been the same.

The church has taken to print in such a way that it seems to think that it is indispensable and, for the most part it’s primary means of communicating, relating, teaching, learning and worshiping. When you think about it worship for most churches has been surrounded by 101 ways to transmit print, from our bibles to our hymn books, our overhead to our digital projectors, our preaching to sunday schools, our church newsletters to our websites are all ways that we transmit print. it’s all words, words, words… and we’re addicted to them. It may not be indispensable, but if our actions are anything to judge by we certainly believe that it is something that we simply cannot do without.

One of the things that I’ve come to realise is how much this has benefited adults and dis-empowered young people, a world surrounded and drenched in print, in words and letters those who can read have the power and all the information. It follows then that a church that relies on print has very little space where children and youth can be empowered and participate. Print, especially a lot of our theological and liturgical print favours the literate, and it REALLY favours the intellectual literate.

This is reversing with the rise of a culture that relies heavily on images, a change that the church is struggling with just as much as the adults who have become so reliant on being the primary source of all wisdom and the only ones to be able to read and “understand” the print culture around them. But this change has meant that it’s the children and young people who are able to understand a lot which has previously been hidden or out of their reach.  Tolstoy’s trilogy TLOTR for example, a story that had been too far out of the reach of your average 13 year old is now a movie trilogy that can be watched by anyone with the patience enough to sit through the 12 hours that it takes for the series to complete.  Radio, movies, television and now the internet, podcasts, iphones, laptops and mobile phones are opening up a world that has been dominated by adult reason and knowledge hidden in large books to a world of young people who seem to be reveling in having the ability to understand and interact with it in a way that most adults struggle.

Obviously these issues mean a lot for us as a community, and I won’t go on (I’ve already written enough for tonight) except to ask some of the questions that I think we are facing, or need to face if we take all of this seriously.

• What does worship look like for a community who no longer relies on print?
  
• How does a worshiping community change the way that they share their christian tradition and story if not but through print?
• What does this mean for Christian education?  In particular how do we move beyond a system that relies on the ways of print (Sunday school in particular and also SRE, bible studies etc) to a way that uses a number of different mediums, and that also includes young and old learning and sharing together?
• Are we being called to a way of worshiping and communing that is more aligned with the old oral traditions of communities than the written culture that we’re still moving from?

I think the way that we answer these questions will define the type of community we become, I’m excited about the changes and a bit frustrated that these questions still remain to be asked or recognised in many of our churches.

What other questions would you be asking?

Link to complete article: “Technochurch” on the Insights Magazine website
Link to complete article: “Technochurch” on the Transit Lounge website
Image Source: Collide Magazine

In a world where polarization seems to have become the normative means of community control and an important tool for political control it’s probably not surprising to see that racially inspired violence is gradually becoming more and more of an issue.

As I said, it’s not surprising, for if we polarize a community for long enough, whether it be liberal/conservative or white/not white or surfer/biker or Christian/Muslim we’re setting ourselves up for some form of violence, of bullying and oppression.

The latest round of violence in the Cronulla area may have inspired some emotions in those young people and children with whom you work, live, pray, play, worship or teach. The media has played a very important part in that, I’ll post more about the media’s role in the proliferation of the violence in the area later, but unless your young people have not seen a tv, read a paper, been on the Internet or listened to the radio in the last few days they would have heard something about what’s been going on in the area. As they’ve probably been immersed in the media reports over the last few days it may be a good thing for you to allow them to debrief the situation and their emotions…

This document aims to give you a few ideas as to how we can share our feelings and reflections from the last few days, it will include a couple of prayers, some news articles, reflections, songs, films, ideas and activities for people working with children, youth and young adults to help them reflect on the violence that we’ve seen, experienced, watched, heard or read of over the last few days.

Our first task, as always, will be to seek to be the peace we advocate -to be calm in the midst of the turmoil -so we can act constructively – with clarity and courage.

Our second task will be to deal with our own violence – to deal with our own actual or potential violence – in our own hearts, our own homes, our own communities and our own countries.

And our third task will be to do whatever we can to stop the violence elsewhere – addressing the root causes of exploitation and oppression, as well as the bitter fruit of terror and terrorism. We may not always be able to stop the violence, but we will always protest against it.

God is for life against death, for love against hate, for hope against despair. There is no neutral ground. So let us wage peace well this year.

- Dave Andrews in his 2002 Christmas Letter

Download the full discussion resource as a pdf file below…

Download: Discussion and worship resource for youth groups and churches wanting to reflect on the recent events in the Cronulla area (pdf)

This paper, presented at Seminar Week in July 2005, explored the theme “mobile theology” through a focus on the theological connotations of the question “Where are you?” which God addresses to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3: 8-10).I re-articulated the question for two different audiences. Firstly, what happens if we ask youth “Where r u?” Secondly, how might those interested in youth ministry respond to the question, “Where r u?”



Where R U?
In 2001 I noticed that young people were no longer using the normal social etiquette for greeting people. When answering a phone, they asked “Where r u?” instead of the traditional “How are you?” Of course one of the reasons for this change was the move from land lines and stationary phones to the use of mobile phones which allowed young people to be located anywhere. Youth in Australia have adopted mobile phones in extraordinary numbers with a McNair Ingenuity Research2 project in January 2003 reporting that:

1. Mobile phones are more commonly used by men (who are 30% heavier users of mobile phones that women) and, in particular, young affluent men.
2. Most people aged from 18 to 29 use a mobile phone daily and 95% of 18 – 29 year-olds have tried one.
3. Approximately 1/3 of Australians are regular users of SMS text messaging, and 1 in 6 sends SMS messages every day.
4. Text messaging is the domain of the young: on an average day in Australia, less than a quarter of Australians will send a text message, and only 3% of people aged over 60 will use SMS, but nearly 2/3 of people aged 18 to 29 will use SMS.

Children’s use of mobile phones is increasing dramatically as they are initiated into their use by parents who want to know “where they are” so they have easy access to them. A McNair Ingenuity Research on children’s use of mobile phones (April 2003) reported that:

1. One in four (25%) aged from 6 to 13 now have a mobile phone.
2. More than 90% of children aged from 6 to 9 have used a mobile phone, usually one belonging to their parents.
3. As children get older more of their friends have mobile phones which the children sometimes use, and over 1/3 of children aged from 10 to 13 have their own mobile phones.
4. Young girls are more likely to use a mobile phone than boys of the same age, and are significantly more likely to have their own mobile phones.

A Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council3 in 2002 reported that mobile phones rank as probably the most important product for young people. Mobile phones symbolised freedom, growing up, excitement and having fun and were ‘must haves’ for teenagers wanting to achieve social acceptance. In keeping with their clientele, and for their sake, Youth Workers were some of the first church professionals to adopt the use of mobile phones in their ministry. They must be mobile – connecting to the youth culture and flexible in their working arrangements.

Mobile phones have had a pervasive impact on Australian youth in terms of socializing, mobility and relationships. Since noticing the prevalence of this question of location, I have been eavesdropping on mobile conversations (especially while travelling in England).

“Sorry I’m on a train. The signal’s weak. Can you ring back in an hour?”

“We’re leaving Winchester.”

“We’re stuck at Clapham Junction. The train has some problems.”

“We’re on the train. Can Dad pick us up at Christchurch?”

“5 minutes outside of Parramatta.”

“Hi. …. I don’t know. …….. Yeah we’re at the roundabout ….. The big roundabout at Sopley. … ok bye!”

These quick, one sided train or bus mobile conversations are predicated on existing relationships and require context for the cryptic comments to be deciphered. Usually they are between parent and child, or partners with one waiting to collect the other, to begin the meal, to get ready to change shifts and exchange parental duties. Long conversations are not required on mobile phones that are used mainly for quick connections and emergency, geographic locaters, which according to an Ericsson survey on August 4, 2004, is the top service required by purchasers. Other services of interest were alerts, positioning (mapping), friend locator and video telephony.” Hopefully deeper and more meaningful conversations are held elsewhere to build and maintain these relationships.

“How are you?” is a different kind of question, which, if it is to be asked and answered honestly, requires adequate time. It is a much more personal interrogation. I remember a very difficult period in my life when I hated this routine enquiry of “How are you?” because it was so often used as a pretext for people to slide into their own agendas. When queried, I would have to do a double think. Did they know that my mother had died last week in a horrible accident? If so, they must be interested in my spiritual or psychological welfare. If not, then I would have to decide whether I had the energy to tell them the gruesome details.

Fortunately I rarely shared my personal story because the interval between questions was usually so short as to be embarrassing. One day I did respond to a casual request. As I walked down the corridor of the old Pitt St church office a woman I hardly knew asked “How are you?” Suddenly, I was annoyed by this paltry question and replied, “Not very well. My mother died last week.” She had reached the end of the long corridor before I finished speaking and had to walk back to offer some semblance of care. I felt a little guilty that I had selected her to carry my anger but as a stranger she seemed a safer person upon whom I could download some of my grief and pain.

In this busy world, there is so little time for or interest in asking how people are because their responses too often would interfere with what we want to achieve and use up our valuable time. “Where are you?” seems to be an easier question to ask and answer. Young people can make nippy connections and locate themselves quickly in time and space before moving on to their next party or activity.

Continue reading the essay “Mobile Theology” by Christine Gapes by downloading the pdf file below.

Download the lecture as a mp3 file (8MB) from here: Mobile Theology – Where R U?

Download:  Mobile Theology – Where R U by Dr Christine Gapes (pdf)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Christine Gapes has served on the faculties of United Theological College, Australian Catholic University, Charles Sturt University, NSW; and Trinity Theological College, Qld. She has presented papers at academic conferences around the world. She has been a major planner of and speaker at national youth conventions in Australia and other places. Her research interests over the last twenty years have focused on adolescent bereavement and the theology of youth ministry.

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Jenny – (spoken absently while watching Anchor of Hope on TV) I guess it’s since my parents split up. No maybe before that. Anyway, I’ve started to wonder. You know, to wonder about why and to really want it all to fit together, and to make sense. I sit at school and go along with the flow. I see my friends around me and sometimes, just sometimes, I feel like I’m looking at it all through a long telescope, like I’m a thousand kilometres away from my friends sitting right next to me. They talk about this boy and that, stuff I normally want to talk about and it seems so small, so trivial, like, isn’t there more than this? Shouldn’t my life be about more than this? I sit and their voices fade away and they seem to move in slow motion, while all I can feel is this big black hole inside of me that needs to be filled with…what?

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A: (Young male, enthusiastically, while clicking past pop up ad for Soul Eaters of Hades 3 Playstation2 game at www.gamespot.com) No, I go to church every week. I love it. My friends go too.

1: (Adult Interviewer) So why did you first decide to go?

A: Cos of my friends. (thinking) Someone asked me…ummm…I can’t remember who, but they said it’d be fun and anyway, Angie was going to be there so…I kinda wanted to go.

1: And what do you like about it?

A: Well I get to be with my friends. The music is great; I play with the band when they need me. There is just a really good feeling there. And the priest is sort of cool, in an old-person kind of way. Like, she lives in another world to me, but you can tell she cares about you. She’s real friendly. And she’s knows all about God and Buddha and Jesus and stuff. I’ve got a lot to learn. I’m just getting the hang of when to stand up and when you can sit down. Anyway..

——-

Daniela – Well here’s the thing. My mum is a good person. She’s looked after me for sixteen years now and for twelve of those she’s been on her own, you know without my dad. She works very hard. Last week her car got broken into. They stole the stereo and even her sad, sad Bob Dylan tapes. Anyway, she loved those. And yesterday she lost her job. She’s worked there for 12 years! That’s nearly as old as me! So here’s my question. If your God is really a god who loves us all, loves me, loves my mum, then why did he let these things happen to her? Especially when my dad, who is a real loser, gets all those promotions? Things always go right for him. So why is that, if this God is in control, the whole world in his hands, like you say?

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Rebecca – (while flicking past Wonder Spirituality ad in Pavement magazine) Did you see Anchor of Hope last night? On Channel 4? Omigod it was so beautiful; when Jodie died but you knew it was just so right; she would have wanted it that way. All those flowers at her funeral. Wasn’t Brad soooooo sad? He so loved her. When he was crying and Jodie’s ghost or spirit or whatever touched his shoulder and it was just like he totally saw her! Or felt her, or something. He really shivered! But I reckon that is so true. When my Nana died I knew it happened even though she was in Sydney. I just felt it! When I die I want to come back and touch the people I love, just to, you know, let them know I really cared for them. No, I’m really going to!

——-

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Marty – (listening to Eminem CD) Of course wearing these shoes with this particular logo doesn’t make me a good person. I know that. I know it’s all a marketing scam. But have you seen the ad? Where the Indian guru guy levitates? And then he dies and comes back as Tiger Woods? And declares a Jihad on the other brand name shoes? Coooool!

——

Top Five Reasons Young People Don’t Want To Go To Church

5. “It is totally out of touch with my life right here today. It’s sooo my grandparents”

4. “Why would you go? Hasn’t science disproved all that stuff anyway?”

3. “The music is totally, like, wrong!”

2. “I can work it out for myself. Why do I need a bunch of old people telling me how to live my life?”

1. “I went once for a wedding and it was just so dull.”

——

Young girl 1- Hey look, there’s Tony…oooooh he’s so cute.

Young girl 2- Yeah, he’s soooo nice. What’s he got? Oh no, Bob Dylan tapes!!?? This is the 21st Century! Take your seat please!!

Young girl 1- Oh he’s with Aden. That guy is so strange. He’s weird.

Young girl 2- No, he’s nice too. He’s really…spiritual!

Young girl 1- Spiritual? What do you mean?

Young girl 2- Well he’s seen all the Star Wars movies. And The Matrix. And he’s always saying wise things like “The path of violence leads only to sorrow” when he sees my Eminem Cd’s, and stuff like that in our Modern History class.

Young girl 1- Yeah I guess you’re right. He’s always talking about deep stuff like death and suffering.

Young girl 2- I think he’s Buddhist.

Young girl 1- Yeah, this week!

Young girl 2- Well whatever works for you.

Young girl 1- Yeah right!

——-

Keith – (playing Soul Eaters of Hades 3 Playstation2 game) My friends are so up and down. One week they’re into the environment and its all green, green, green. Next week, Toby’s scored some good dope and its all green again, but not quite in the same way. Then the dope runs out and they all want to become vegans. I know what I believe and it doesn’t change from week to week. It gives me, like, a compass. I always wanted to know why I’m even on this planet and what I believe gives me an idea of that. Well, I guess it does change a bit…

I’m always learning new stuff. Jenny reckons I’m totally mad; she says all this God stuff is just an ignorant hope I’ve created to help me through bad stuff, bad times. I don’t think I’m ignorant. It just feels right, and not just in bad times. Not just on the surface, either, it feels right inside. In my, ahh, centre of gravity. It makes sense to me too; it’s not just about feelings.

And it’s not like that Faith- in-a-Bag crap you see advertised on TV either. I mean, just imagine the world if it did things like Jesus said. People looking after each other. People speaking out when the system is wrong. People not scared to stand up for what is right. People living their lives like…umm…people really matter, not just things. Well, that’s what I believe. And at least it means I have a reason to get out of bed in the morning. I just think we can make things better.

——-

Tranh – (watching the clouds) I think we just have to wait for the old church to die. Maybe something new will spring up. I mean, the old church won’t change for me, so why should I change for it?

Desiring Gravity: Fuzzy Polaroids of Adolescent Spirituality written by Jonathan Sargeant

Jonathan Sargeant is the Religious Education and Chaplaincy in State Schools Officer for the Ministry Education Commission

Download the Entire article: Desiring Gravity: Fuzzy Polaroids of Adolescent Spirituality (pdf)

A number of people have asked for a copy of the final service at the National Youth Worker’s Inservice this year (2005) that I decided that I’d have to spend some time writing up the “liturgy” for the service. I was even surprised to see that the service was mentioned on the front page of the Victorian Synod’s “newspaper” including space for a brief review of the training event.

It probably needs to be said that this was a contextual service, ie it was set up as the closing service for a conference of youth workers that had been discussing the theme of “Mobile Theology,” we used a bible reading that had become a central piece to the conference and as such it wouldn’t really work elsewhere, however I think we created a new way of closing conferences in worship that was rather powerful.

I’d only really been asked to pick the service up in the week leading up to the conference, so prior to the gig hadn’t really thought about it much before we gathered, it’s my belief that we close in worship to reflect, praise, thank god and be sent out into the world, so if reflection’s a primary role writing the service prior to the gig would be an almost useless exercise. During the week Adrian Greenwood and I had had a number of conversations of liturgies including texting people directions around the campsite, conducting blessings at the swimming pool, prayers down by the creek and communion on the road outside the conference centre. Most of these ideas were disregarded after 4 days of torrential rainfall looked like it would become 5 days and we decided that we’d been wet enough already during the gig.

In hindsight this was a good thing, because it made me sit down and think about how we could say goodbye to one another and thank God for the space and the words that God had shared with us over the week together.

I decided to continue reflecting on the reading that Kenda Creasy Dean used in a few of her lectures with us, 1 King 19 and to type it onto our phones and sms it to people to read out during the service. In hindsight typing the entire chapter into my mobile phone was probably not the most time-conservative way of doing a reading, but it managed to fill in a good hour or so on the final night. I’d chatted to some people and made sure that they’d be ok with 2 lines each, I’d type the lines in and then sms it to them the night before, and during the service I’d sms them with “you’re up” to let them know when to continue the reading. This is probably a saner, (yet more expensive) way to do this as the owner of the phone would have time to read the text first, while giving the illusion of the bible verse being texted live. The abbreviations and txt language I used reading could have become a problem without practice.

One of the more amusing things was that a number of mates of mine had decided that throughout the service they would continue the beeping by continually smsing each other, and myself and anyone else they had the numbers of in the room. This created a continual “liturgical sound/rhythm” that sounded God’s presence in the space, for in each beep people had become used to expecting something, a reading, a prayer… something, a space for God to speak to us.

The mobile phone had become a sacred item, could the act of sending an sms be sacramental?

Liturgy for closing a conference on “mobile theology”:

Call to Worship: The service started with a proclamation, an invitation for people to re-claim their mobile phones as sacred items, to turn them on rather than turn them off. In an act of sacramental solidarity everyone turned on their phones and were greeted by an amusing musical arrangement of beeps and ring tones. I’d like to think that the musical arrangement of beeps was God-given, this was our call to worship, a mix of beeps and vibrations echoing through the worship space.

Visual Reflection: We hit play on the dvd of “One Perfect Day” where the main characters share a phone conversation. The male phones his girlfriend and as she answers he plays the piano for her, their tune, their melody that he’d written for her a while ago and she would one day write the lyrics to sit alongside the music. A conversation happens over the phone, from the UK to Australia he asks to hear her simple melody, she hesitates and then holds the phone to her heart, we hear the heart beating, he sighs and after a while she hangs the phone up. This is probably one of my favorite films of all time, little known but some scenes that just add years to your life.

Bible Reading 1: I texted someone with “you’re up” the phones beeped, everyone looked about, they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Bible Reading 2: About half the way through the reading I smsed someone else with “you’re up” and when the verse had finished they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Reflection – Remembering each other: We invited people to pack up the chairs that we were sitting on, and in the process to think of those people that they have sat next to, in meal or in lecture or in play. People were to remember their new friends and brothers in Christ. We then proceeded to stand and stack all of our chairs away, like one would when we were cleaning.

We were now sitting on the floor.

Bible Reading 3: I texted someone with “you’re up” the phones beeped, everyone looked about, they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Bible Reading 4: About half the way through the reading I smsed someone else with “you’re up” and when the verse had finished they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Reflection – Remebering Images: We now invited people to remember, to reflect on the things that they had seen, the powerpoints, the movies, the presentations, the rain… And as we reflected we packed up the data projectors, the screens, the cables and put them each away in their space.

Bible Reading 5: I texted someone with “you’re up” the phones beeped, everyone looked about, they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Bible Reading 6: About half the way through the reading I smsed someone else with “you’re up” and when the verse had finished they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Reflection – Remembering the Words: We then invited people to pack up the sound system, the speakers, the cables, the microphones and stands, the pulpit. As they were being packed away we reflected in silence of those things that we’d heard over the space of the week together, the lectures, the words of kindness and encouragement, the readings…

Bible Reading 7: I texted someone with “you’re up” the phones beeped, everyone looked about, they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Reflection – What Do We Take With Us? By now we were sitting in a fairly baron space, fairly empty, no chairs to sit on, no data projector to play with, no music streaming from the speakers. We were leaving the space soon, we can’t take a data projector with us, they need power cables, we could only take what’s in our pockets. We invited people to empty their pockets and to reflect on what they were taking with them into the mission field, back home and to work.

Bible Reading 8: I texted someone with “you’re up” the phones beeped, everyone looked about, they stood up and read the final verses of the chapter.

Reflection – Sustenance: So, what sustains us now that we’re leaving? Now that we’ve packed everything away, now that our pockets are emptied and chairs are packed what do we take to sustain us on the journey? In the middle of the space the only item that was left was a table with the elements of bread and wine on it.

Communion: We entered into communion by passing the peace with each other, by getting people’s mobile numbers that we hadn’t got yet and promising to contact them after the gig to see how they were going.

Rev Niall McKay from Bathurst presided over the communion liturgy.

After communion we were sent out and blessed (from memory I think Niall sent us out and then someone else decided to bless us again… I think I’ll refrain from saying more about that)

So yeah, that’s the service from the Inservice, in hindsight I’d have liked to include Duncan’s idea of using our mobile phones as an act of intercessory prayer, but it was still a good way for us to reflect on the journey, pray, be sustained and encouraged and be sent out into the world from the conference.

And to this day when I hear a mobile phone beep I wonder what God has to say, I still expect something to happen. For me, the mobile phone has become a sacred item, it’s beeps a liturgical rhythm, it’s ring tones hymns, it’s pxt’s icons.

Marcus has also written his own liturgy over at His Blog

I’ve recently (re)created a church website, as I created it asked myself a number of questions about the purpose, layout, reason, hosting, software and articles that I’d post on it. These questions could be explained in these ways…

Why?

• Why does the church want a website?
• Why would anyone use this website?
• Why am I doing this?

Where?

• Where will I host the website?

What?

• What is the purpose of the website?
• What will it be used for?
• What is the target audience?

How?

• How will the website look?
• How often will we update the website?
• How will we choose the content?
• How/Will will we advertise the website?
• How do we evaluate the website?
• How will we create the website?
• Will we use a content management system?
• If so, which one?
• Will we use flash?
• Will we use Frontpage?
• Will we use Dreamweaver?
• Will we code it the old fashioned way?

Who?

• Who’s job is it to maintain the site?
• Who will be able to add content?
• Who will be looking at the site now it’s finished?

I’m no expert, however, since I’ve been thinking a lot about churches and websites recently I decided to write a series of posts for churches looking at creating their own websites based around these questions, you can find the list of helpful questions below in one space.

WWJU – Step 1. Check to see if your church already has a website…

There are some churches that already have up to 5 websites already in existence. (If you’re unsure just try and google your church)

Each of these websites have a number of these things in common:
- a photo of the church
- the postal address of the church
- animated .gif files
- an ex-minister’s name
- an old phone number
- the street address of the church
- an old email address

As a church we don’t tend to look after our environment too well, we often discuss being good stewards and still litter, we talk about de-forestation and live on paperwork, we complain about mass-farming and then hold a sausage sizzle.

Think of the internet as the environment, it’s prone to litter, it suffers congestion and quite often we don’t do our part to recycle or dispose of our unwanted waste properly. Old websites, old blogs, old photo archives and old forums are litter, they are a waste of space and might, over time give your church a bad (or worse) name.

If your church does already have a website, it’s quite likely that it’s not been useful, or that people have forgotten that back in the days of their ex minister someone volunteered to put one up…

Step 1 in developing a church website is to check that they haven’t already made one, and if they have delete the thing, decide to modify it as it is or leave the site as is and claim the credit for completing the task in record time..

Once that step has been completed, it’s time to move on to step 2…

WWJU – Step 2. Do Your Research…

A while ago I started a series of posts titled “What Would Jesus Upload?” that were going to address issues that church communities may face while they are deciding to create a website. As per normal I was inundated with a tonne of “real work” and I failed to get past 2 posts in the series, typical behavior for a scatterbrain like myself.

So, as I’m home ill today I thought that it might be a good idea to pick the series up again and see if I can get through it in the next month or so…

My previous post suggested that step one was to look after the web environment and check to see if your church already has a website, people may be surprised to see that they’ve actually had a website and bulletin board since 1992 and that it hasn’t resulted in the church’s attendance rising at all.

My second step is to do some research into other church’s websites, and to perhaps go beyond that to explore other community based websites to see how they have used their website, what it looks like, what information is on it, what role it seems to serve, who the site is aimed at, if there are some features that you found particularly helpful and if there are some features that you have found that are not helpful.

Also ask questions like how long does it take to download, what do you think of the colour scheme, do you like the fonts used, is it easy to navigate through, do you think you know more about the community now that you’ve seen the website?

You might also be able to write an email to a church and ask them what they were thinking when they created the website, who was their target audience, what purpose their website serves, what the site’s statistics are like, why they chose to do something, how did they create the site, if they used a content management system, if they have any wisdom to share…

Some interesting church websites include:

• http://jacobswellchurch.org
• http://www.baysidechurch.com.au
• http://nruc.org.au
• http://www.paddingtonuca.org.au
• http://www.rosefield.org.au/earth/
• http://canberraregion.unitingchurch.org.au
• http://www2.hillsong.com
• http://www.solomonsporch.com
• http://www.apostleschurch.org
• http://www.cafechurch.org.au
• http://b1.mychurchwebsite.co.uk
• http://www.saintlukeschurch.org.uk
• http://www.thirsty.me.uk
• http://www.thewellpa.com
• http://www.pathwayschurch.org
• http://www.connexiontampa.com
• http://www.mceachernumc.org/home/

If you’re still wanting to check out more websites try this website: “Great Church Websites“…

So, after you’ve checked out a number of websites, here is a list of questions for you to answer…

• What did you like about the site’s design?
• Was the site easy for you to navigate?
• What features did you like?
• What did you learn about the churches that you’ve explored?
• What did you think about the site’s content?
• What content did the site lack?
• Was the content easy to find?
• Was the content easy to read?

Doing the research should feed into the next step of your website design…

WWJU – Step 3. Ask Why?

Now you’ve done some research, you’ve been able to gather some kind of idea about some church websites out there, what purpose they serve, what you found helpful and what you didn’t, what features you liked and didn’t, and hopefully you’ve been inspired…

But before you start going “I want a site that looks like that one” there’s still a number of things to consider.

This step is about asking the question “why.” For some the question seems to be insignificant, the answer has been “because they have one” and, to tell you the truth, when you look at the quality of websites out there it shows…

Here are three questions that you will need to ask:

• Why does the church want a website?
• Why would anyone use this website?
• Why are we doing this?

Question 1. “Why does the church want a website?”

I’m going to be harsh here, most church websites that I’ve visited have convinced me to never attend their services. If these churches believed that a website would be a good promotional concept, that it might actually be an evangelistic activity then they’ve actually got it all wrong.

A good website might attract people, but a bad website will definitely push people away.

I would say that if the church cannot come up with 5 GOOD reasons for creating a website then they shouldn’t do it. That being said, Google has become one of the primary search engines for local churches and, sites like the White Pages have become less utilized, so if you are to be found via the internet then you will need a website.

So, why does your church want a website? Do they know yet?

Question 2. “Why would anyone use this website?”

This question is probably one of the most important questions to be asked in the entire project, as it asks who the target audience is, it asks a question as to the purpose of the website and of it’s target audience. One of the great assumptions is that people are already looking for you on the internet, that you’re so important that people actually care, which unfortunately they don’t.

Church websites could have four different types of users:

1. Those who are already a part of the congregation.
2. Those who are not Christian but are searching for a faith community.
3. Those who are Christian but not a part of the congregation yet are searching.
4. Those who are looking for like-minded communities or resources

So, why would people use the website? Here are some possible answers…

• Because they have recently moved into the area and are looking for a faith community
• Because they have recently met a Christian and are thinking of attending a community
• Because they are looking for an article or an essay
• Because a friend gave them the url to look at
• Because they are a part of the church community and use it to stay in touch with people and the community life
• Because they are a part of the community and the site offers them some resources
• Because they find the site interesting and it’s regularly updated

When you were doing your research you looked at a number of websites, who were they aimed at, who are their target audience and why do you think people use them?

Question 3. “Why are we doing this?”

This question flows from the previous two, but this question will solidify the purpose for the website, this is the final reason for the website being created.

• If it’s simply advertising then it needs to be designed well and answer some specific questions.
• If it’s being created to become a community space then you’ll need to look into systems that will enable the community to be involved…
• If it’s to evangelize to those who are not Christians yet, then you really need to think about how you’ll attract and keep people there…

WWJU – Step 4. Ask Who?

I was going to go straight to asking “what”, but it came to mind that one can’t really answer that question unless they have a solid answer to “who?” “Who are you creating the website for?” is a question that I’m afraid many churches simply don’t ask seriously.

We’ve already asked some of these questions previously while we were asking “why” but now it’s time to narrow the target audience down.

Questions to ask:

• Who will the site be aimed at?
• What is the age of the target audience?
• Is the target audience already a part of the church community?
• Does the target audience live in the vicinity of your church?
• Is the target audience new to the area?
• Is the target audience christian or not christian?
• Is the target audience linked to government organisations or other work places?
• Is the target audience looking for a church?
• Does the target audience speak english?
• Is the target audience still at school?
• Is the target audience employed?
• What is the marital status of the target audience?
• Does the target audience have children?
• What is the theological stance of the target audience?

Make a list of the characteristics of the target audience, this will help you discern site design and content in the next step…

While you’re asking “who” you might as well ask a few other “who” questions that will feed into the process…

• Who’s job is it to maintain the site?
• Who will be able to add content?
• Who will develop website code of conduct?
• Who will edit and proof read articles/information before they are uploaded?
• Who audits site information?
• Who do you want to link to your site?

These questions are important as they will help you discern what you’d like to create the website with, how much training will be required, what protocols will need to be in place for the website…

Perhaps we’ve got enough information now in order to go ahead and ask “What?”

WWJU – Step 5. Ask What? (pt1)

What will you use to create and manage the website?

There are a couple of ways that you may wish to create your website, but before you decide on what to use I’d like to encourage you to think about getting the website created professionally by someone who knows what they are doing, and who does this kind of thing professionally. Your previous questions should be very helpful to a professional and will allow you to be very specific in what you want out of a website.

If you’re in Australia I’d recommend Redfish Bluefish as a good web design and creation company. The people behind Redfish Bluefish have had a number of years creating and designing websites for community use, using the CMS “Site Wrangler” and “WordPress”. They’ve also had a number of years working with church communities, creating websites like the MRN Website, More Praxis, Hold This Place, among many others.

If you don’t decide to employ a professional to create your website then I’d implore you to make sure that whoever you choose to create your website knows what they are doing, both in design and in coding, a poorly designed and created website can do more damage than good.

What will you create the website with?

HTML

• HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is possibly better suited for static web pages, ie sites that don’t have a habit of changing regularly, if you’re setting up a basic one page website that has your details, a map, contact details, worship times that you’re not planning on altering much this may be a good way to go.HTML can be rather difficult to manage if you’re wanting to constantly make changes, adding articles, sermons, news, items… So this is why I’d suggest sticking to html for static pages, and moving to something more powerful if you’re wanting a dynamic website.Programs like *cough* Frontpage and Dreamweaver will help you create and update html webpages, Mozilla Firefox and notepad can also be used to update html pages.

FLASH

• I’d suggest not creating church websites in flash, if only because it’s hard to update and time consuming, but there are a few other reasons. Google doesn’t traditionally handle flash websites well, as the sites are mostly image vectors rather than text. And navigation on flash websites can also be an issue with time being an issue it can take a while to download and access.If you’re using flash then choose to use it for features on the website, websites like the ooze uses flash for pats of the website, not all of it.If you are choosing to use flash for the website then it is really important that you’re asking someone who knows what they’re doing to create it.
• There is another reason which is a bit controversial.  Apple is not currently putting any efforts into working with Flash, which means the iPad’s, iPhones and other devices will not be supporting flash in the near future.

CMS

• CMS, (Content Management Systems) is a computer software system for organizing and facilitating collaborative creation of documents and other content. A content management system is frequently a web application used for managing websites and web content, though in many cases, content managementI’m a big supporter of the CMS for churches that are wanting to create a dynamic website that is easy to manage and update regularly. CMS’ allow people to log in to the website with a variety of security levels to update, add items, redesign and keep the site changing. There are a variety of CMS’ around including Mambo, WordPress, postnuke and drupal most of which have a community of users attached to the software that are able to support and assist people who are choosing to use the CMS. These communities are around to help with tech support, answering questions, updates, modifications…I’d suggest that WordPress would handle most of the needs of most churches, allowing people to update information, use static pages, keep news up to date, upload images and documents, etc… I’ve used Mambo before and have found that it’s probably too sophisticated for most Church communities to use while phpnuke is used a lot I’ve found that I’ve had to do too much work on it in order to make it usable. This particular blog uses wordpress, but you will need to do your research on what CMS to use, once again this is where a professional company like Redfish Bluefish would come in handy to help you choose what CMS to use and to help you design it to a professional standard. I’d suggest that it’s churches unwillingness to to their research properly and take the creation of the website seriously that has lead many of them being useless and/or badly designed.

Here are a few websites that you can check out if you’re considering using a CMS.

Papers:

• How to evaluate a content management system – Jan2002

Websites:

• OpenSourceCMS
  • This site was created with one goal in mind. To give you the opportunity to “try out” some of the best php/mysql based free and open source software systems in the world. You are welcome to be the administrator of any site here, allowing you to decide which system best suits your needs.
• The CMS Matrix
  • This site is provided as a community service to everyone interested in looking for a means to manage web site content. Here you can discuss, rate, and compare the various systems available on the market today.This site works because of community involvement. Please rate any systems you’ve used and discuss them in the forums. If you notice any errors, please report them via the feedback form located on each CMS’s listing page.
• Comparison of content management systems
  • This is a list of content management systems that are used to organize and facilitate collaborative content creation. Many of them are built on top of separate content management frameworks.
• How to evaluate a content management system
  • This article outlines some of the lessons that we have learned when assisting clients to chose a CMS. It offers ideas and tips, and provides an approach for identifying your business’ actual requirements for a CMS.

WWJU – Step 6. Ask How?

I have recently wondered if I should have written “How” prior to “What”, there are a few reasons for the debate, I guess it would be hard to choose a content management system over a static website if you’d decided that you wouldn’t update the website regularly, or if you had a person who would update your website monthly who was a great flash web designer with too much time on their hands…

But in the end I’m not sure if it matters too much, although it does need to be said that if the people updating your site are luddites then the simpler the system you use the better for them…

So, what “How” questions come to mind?

How will the website look?

• You’ve discussed who you’re aiming at, so start dreaming about the site’s look, thinking if you’re wanting the site to be colourful, business like, plain, minimal… It’d be best to get a designer to do this job and put together a few ideas for you as far as design goes, if you do go ahead with a designer, then I’d suggest waiting until the next step as it might be handy for the designer to know what content you’re thinking of including…

How often will we update the website?

• Big question, if you’re thinking of being able to update the site on the fly then you’ll really need to start thinking about content management systems that allow you to do that, and to start thinking about the role of the people looking after the website, do we pay them, is there anyone that can do this with ease, how do we train people to do this?

How will we choose the content?

• Content is a massive issue for churches, what if a person wanted to publicise a pro-slavery function on the website, or links to websites that then link to dubious content? What defines content worthy of being on the website? What about privacy issues, do we include people’s contact details or do we choose to use the church’s email and contact details as the front for all articles and activities? And what about photographs of people, how do we seek permission? Do you want to set up a team to oversee the website (which might slow down the ability to update on the fly) or do you wish to set up some guidelines and follow them?

How/Will will we advertise the website?

• Simple question, hard answer. One such way would be to let your local council to link to your site under community services, many of whom probably already have your address and phone number on the database. Askig members who blog/have websites to link to your website might also encourage google to pay the site more attention. Some denominations have a list of churches with websites on their Synod/Assembly websites, ask your denominations to co-link your site, are you using WordPress or Drupal? have you considered TEchnorati or other such sites?…

How do we evaluate the website?

• Evaluation… Who uses the site, do people use the site, do people find the site attractive, how high is it’s google ranking? Most Content Management systems allow for plugins or scripts that will assist you in finding stats on your website including how many visits per week the site receives, how people find the site (ie what are they searching for on Google), how many times documents are downloaded. You can also use other ways to find out what people think about the site, include polls on the front page, ask people for their opinion, include spaces for people to tell you if they found you via the website in your visitors sheets… Just how will you evaluate the website, is it by membership increases, google ranking, visitors to the site…?

How will we create the website?

• Continue the discussion about if you want to hire a professional designer or not, many people will say “let’s get a young person to do it, which may or may not be a good idea to start with, especially if design isn’t their strong point.

Will we use a content management system?

If so, which one (WordPress, Drupal, Mambo, Phpnuke, another system)?
Will we use flash?
Will we use Frontpage?
Will we use Dreamweaver?
Will we code it the old fashioned way (by using notepad)?

• If you decide on getting a website designed professionally for you, then lots of this you can discuss with the people involved, redfishbluefish for example could show you sites using SiteWrangler or WordPress and find out what you think of the system and what they offer. Having experts talk you through this is rather important, and sometimes their support can be much faster than you creating your own, they can give you benefits and cons for each aspect of the site, they can also allow you options of using flash for parts of the site etc etc etc…

Time to think about the content…

WWJU – Step 7. Ask What? (pt2)

Now it’s time to talk about content, be aware though that the more content you want to include the harder it will be to continually update when things change. Also keep in mind that some stuff you might want to include may just mean that the designer may have to do more work than you’d like to pay them for, like if you wish for a decent looking photo gallery, or galleries, are there financial issues to consider, will it mean that you’ll need to pay for a larger space to host the website, what if you use a secondary site like flickr to host your images, can the designer allow for images to be taken from there?

Do you want to include a forum for the people in your community to discuss issues, bible studies, books, sermons, music? If so, how much will this feature cost you to run/design?

So remember there may be cost ramifications to some of your dreams, but I find it easier to dream away then ask, then decide… who knows you might be surprised by the cost…

So, continuing the dreaming…

• Do you want to include information about the history of the church?
• Do you want to include information about the programs of the church?
• Do you wish to include information about public transport around your community (especially how to get there)
• Do you wish to include maps (and if so do you draw them yourselves, use a secondary website or pay to use them from elsewhere?
• Do you wish to include photo galleries of members of the congregation?
• Do you wish to publicise special events and/or training activities regularly?
• Do you wish to provide information on staff and team leaders?
• Do you want a dynamic calendar for events?
• Do you wish to link to other local sites and/or events?
• Do you wish to upload Sermon papers and/or Audi, is podcasting in your vision?
• Do you want a special section that only registered members can access for discussion/information/downloading minutes and agendas?

Is there anything else that you’ve been thinking about including on the website?

Write them all down, every single bit of it…

Then I highly suggest you chat with someone who knows what they’re doing to find out what they think about the content, your previous thoughts on content management systems, evaluations, people you’re trying to serve…

These people will then allow you the space to think about what is truly possible with the time and money you currently have, you can always add to the site later if you’d like…

Send them off to create a couple of designs and possibilities for you to check out…

WWJU – Step 8. Ask Where?

Once again, having a designer would help you find an ISP that would have all the abilities you’d need to run your website. Don’t assume that because you have an iprimus or testra internet service that has a 20MB webspace that you can use that to host the website.

Why not?

Quite simply, many of these deals don’t allow for mysql databases, php, css, all they really allow for is hosting of images and html based websites that don’t use content management systems.

Look into site hosting plans that will, in the end serve what you’ll need to run your website, many of these will also look after your domain hosting (including email redirection) as well as your site hosting. Companies like webarama and enetica come to mind.

Once again, the message is “do your research.”

WWJU – Step 9. Ask How Much?

In reality you should probably be thinking this at the beginning of your dream scaping, but in practice by discussing your needs and dreams for your website your church or community may become aware that having a website is actually an important decision and may actually cost more than they had originally thought…

I’m gonna suggest that many church websites either remain static, close down, go out of date, become badly designed, get forgotten, become useless quite simply because there was no continued budget line for their website.

• No continued budget line means that money is not there when the hosting plan needs to be updated/paid.
• No budget line means that money is not there to continue the payments for the website’s domain, domain redirection and email direction.
• No budget line means that there’s no money there when the website is in need of a redesign to meet the new needs of the community.
• No budget line means that as you continue to upload podcasts and images you might find your site reaching the maximum space and not being able to increase it’s hosting space.

There needs to be an understanding that the original website design and setup will cost money, but that there will also need to be an ongoing budget line for the continuing management, growth and updating of the website.

How important is the website, how much are you willing to spend on it’s creation and management?

WWJU – 4 Questions About Church Web Sites

I was browsing the internet this afternoon, catching up on a number of blog’s ive not had the time to read for a while and saw a post on the church marketing sucks blog on questions for churches that are wanting to create their own websites. I thought the questions were good enough to add to the WWJU series, so here they are…

With all the technology available to us today, it is often easy to lose sight of what we are trying to accomplish with a church web site. In order to regain perspective, I believe that we all need to sit down from time to time and ask ourselves the following four questions:

1. What is the purpose of your church web site?
2. Does the church web site fit in with the mission of the church?
3. Who’s going to be using your church web site?
4. Why are you working on your church’s web site?

Read the entire post over at church marketing sucks

WWJU – Websites and Articles

Before I end the WWJU series (well, I think I’ve finished it) here are a number of websites that might be of interest as you and your community are considering the development of a website for your church/community.

• “How to build a good church website” by Theoslogic
• “Usability of Websites for Teenagers” a summary from the Nielsen Norman Group Report on “Teenagers on the Web: 60 Usability Guidelines for Creating Compelling Websites for Teens”
• The “Improving Your Church Website Series” by Uneeknet
• “The best of church website design” a review of 516 great church website designs by David Gillaspey.
• “10 Easy Ways to Keep Me from Visiting Your Church Because I Visited Your Website” by Tony Morgan
• “Knock Knock” a free ebook by Seth Godin
• “Who’s There?” a free ebook by Seth Godin
• “Top 10 church website design tips” by David Gillaspey.

Of course, I’m already considering adding a chapter on social networking sites and churches to the WWJU series, but that’ll wait for another day…

“Adult anxiety about teens may be the primary reason youth ministry exists”

Writes Mark Yaconelli in his recently published book titled “Contemplative Youth Ministry” a book that has quickly risen into my “Top Ten” books on youth ministry.

Mark writes that youth ministry has often lacked a sense of presence, that instead we’ve concentrated most of our ministries on either the anxieties of young people or the anxieties of the adults within our churches. When our youth ministries have concentrated on the anxieties of adults congregations seem to create ministries and programs that are about conformity and control, they create discipleship processes that are about teaching young people how to belong, how to act, how to be Christians in our community. Our ministry is shaped as a way to create moral, biblical literate and faith filled believers, that at the same time won’t leave university to join an overseas mission trip as we can’t handle our kids becoming like Jesus, we don’t want them killed anywhere like Africa or working on the streets with the homeless…

When the anxieties that drive us are those of the young people, (Church is boring, God is about conformity, Christians are boring) then we create programs and events that are all about fun and recreation, the programs attempt to be culture friendly involving frozen chickens, data projectors, play stations and mystery trips but lack the deeper, prayerful and mission action of the Christian faith.

It makes me wonder what would happen if our churches adopted a Presence Based approach to their ministry with young people, if they seriously consider just being present to the young people in their community, working instead from the position of our anxieties but instead from the position of love.

Could this be why mentoring programs work so well? That mentoring projects force adults into the position of being present in the lives of young people, force them to really get to know them rather than pushing the young person through an anxiety based discipleship program? What would happen if our communities would be present without the need for some forced mentoring project, what would the community look like if we all knew everyone’s names, including those under the age of 20, under the age of 10? What would the community look like if we were all truly present to share our lives with one another, especially with those under the age of 18?

To finish this line of thought I’ve pinched the following paragraph from Mark Yaconelli’s book, I seriously wonder what would happen if it becomes the creed of our ministry with youth and children in all the churches in this Presbytery …

Anxiety seeks control. (How do I make kids into Christians?)

Love seeks contemplation. (How can I be present to kids and to God?)
.


Anxiety seeks professionals. (Who is the expert that can solve the youth problem?)

Love seeks processes. (What can we do together to uncover Jesus’ way of life?)
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Anxiety wants products. (What book, video, or curriculum will teach kids about faith?)

Love desires presence. (Who will bear the life of God among teenagers?)
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Anxiety lifts up gurus. (Who has the charisma to draw kids?)

Love relies on guides. (Who has the gifts for living alongside kids?)
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Anxiety rests in results. (How many kids have committed to the faith?)

Love rests in relationships. (Who are the kids we’ve befriended?)
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Anxiety seeks conformity. (Are the youth meeting our expectations?)

Love brings out creativity. (In what fresh way is God challenging us through our kids?)
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Anxiety wants activity. (What will keep the kids busy?)

Love brings awareness. (What are the real needs of the youth?)
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Anxiety seeks answers. (Here’s what we think. Here’s who God is.)

Love seeks questions. (What do you think? Or as Jesus said, “Who do you say that I am?)

Contemplative Youth Ministry – Mark Yaconelli pp.79-80

May your ministry be based in love rather than anxiety…

Darren Wright

Contemplation isn’t just being still. As Parker Palmer once wrote,

“At root, contemplation and action are the same.” As our youth ministry becomes infused with contemplative prayer and awareness, the effect is not more prayer and silence; instead, what begins to emerge is authentic action.
  pp119

I’ve been thinking about some of the books that have encouraged me to explore contemplative practices, some I guess are a little more formal while others use a variety of contemplative ideas and others still are theological readers to youth ministry and contemplative practices.

The first book I think that people should read after or before, or alongside Contemplative Youth Ministry is Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster’s book “God-Bearing Life” it’s an older text now days and probably not as well known (probably due to being printed by Upper Room Books). God-Bearing Life is one of the first youth ministry texts that caused me to drool, to realise that my gut was right, that there was indeed much more to this ministry thing than egg races and water fights.

The next book is a must read, Way to Live by Dorothy Bass is a book written by a number of young people working with adult mentors, what’s exciting about this text is that it also comes with a large leaders guide that gives instructions to practices like Lectio Divinia. I’ve used the book as a personal guide, and also as a great resource to introduce young people to more contemplative experiences of worship and conversation. You can download the leaders guide without buying the book from the website: http://waytolive.org I cannot encourage you enough to check this out.

The next book I’m going to recommend is not a christian one, it’s The Grief Book: Strategies for Young People by Elizabeth Vercoe/Kerry Abramowski. this book is one of the most important books in my shelf at the moment, and it’s written by Aussies. The Grief Book is full of practices and rituals for young people to practice in times of grief, and while it’s not religious many of the practices are very much contemplative resources for young people.

Moving on I’ll recommend Tony Jones’ book “The Sacred Way” because it’s basically a guide book to a number of spiritual disciplines including the Ignatian Exam, The Labyrinth, Fasting, Centering Prayer and the Daily Office. This is a handbook for people wanting to explore any number of disciplines that can feed into their exploration of contemplative practices if they want to move on from the examples in the Contemplative Youth Ministry book.

If you want some hard core reading on spiritual disciplines then the series of books spawned by Dorothy Bass’ book “Practicing Our Faith” a book that invited a number of authors to write chapters on a variety of ways for us to practice our faith from honouring the Sabbath to Tithing. I’d encourage everyone to give “Practicing Our Faith” a read, and, if they’re inspired by the read to pick up the books in the Practices of Faith Series.

of course the YMSP website also has a long list of books that people might also want to read

There is no greater gift we can give our youth than our full and loving attention.
pp99

Written by Darren Wright

In response to the anxiety of adults (they’re the ones with the power after all), most congregations create youth ministries that are about control and conformity… Congregations want discipleship formulas that will guarantee their kids will become moral and faith filled believers.


Contemplative Youth Ministry – pp44

I entered into a youth ministry in an area not too far from where I’d grown up, it was primarily a working/lower class area with a lot of social issues, many kids were at risk and the young people who attended the church were not necessarily those who would find themselves at risk, of much at all actually. I developed a number of great links with youth service providers in the area, helped out and worked on a number of projects ran in the community and became the secretary of the local youth service providers network, although it took them a while to trust a church youth worker I’d done the hard yards with a number of them, I’d learned respect and, besides, they had heard be swear before which makes me “safe.”

The church youth group however didn’t change much, a few people came in, a few people left, youth group activities were more like drop in centres for those who wanted to come along, and it was becoming quite obvious to me that the number of people who were coming along because they were expected to was increasing rapidly. I’m not the most admin centred person, yet people were looking towards me to create programs, more programs, exciting programs, something that by this time I’d grown out of, I’d run drop in centres and events that kids could go to but the reality was that my heart wasn’t in that kind of ministry anymore. Parents and some of the more conservative young adults were worried that we weren’t providing the kids with something to do, somewhere to go, and a faith that could be taught to them.

I felt the pressure to keep creating programs for kids to attend, but to be honest with you I’d grown up somewhat in my ministry since the first couple of churches I’d worked in, I was less concerned about the program and more concerned about the relationships, and I’d grown up enough to be able to put my feelings to words. While this meant that the church kind of knew where my direction was going many of the adults didn’t and kept on being worried about providing programs to keep the kids busy while they accidentally learn about god.

My brother lived round the corner from the church that I worked at, he’d just married and also worked only 1km up the road from the church, and we realised that on most days we could find the time to sneak out and have a game of golf, we played a lot for a few weeks, and were so into it that we’d purchased our own clubs (note i said into it rather than good at it). The games improved our relationship as brothers, we’d walk and hit a ball, walk and hit a ball, walk and talk about the death of a friend and hit a ball…

After a while of keeping my clubs in the back of the car a couple of the young guys from the church queried if I actually played, I said I did, and they said they’d love to go out and play with me sometime, so we did a week later. After that the rest was history, there I was in the middle of a lower/working class community with a golfing ministry of about 17 young men and women who’d want to play regularly, I’d spend a number of hours on the course a week, just hitting a ball and listening.

There’s nothing quite like a 10km walk to bring out conversation, over the game we’d talk about everything and anything, sometimes we’d play with 9 people on the course, while other times it was just a couple of us hitting the ball around and talking about the meaning of life. Of course, people started to talk about how the youth worker spends lots of his time playing golf, but the fruits were there, suddenly many of the young adults would go out golfing without me, bringing friends, dragging along parents… just hitting and talking and walking.

I know it sounds corny but golfing in my ministry in that church became our unofficial contemplative practice, it was probably the last thing I’d expected from this group, from this community but it came out of them deciding that it was a good idea, it probably wasn’t contextual, but it did come out of God’s time, and after I’d spent a lot of time in dialogue with the young people there, somehow they found something in which they could feel free in exploring and talking about their faith…

On the golf course there’s no room for anxiety, except to ask “where did the ball go?”

Other youth ministries are created in response to adolescent anxieties… It’s a Nickelodeon approach to youth ministry that seeks to appeal to kids’ propensity for fun and recreation. This is how churches respond to youth who cry “Church is boring!” It’s the ministry of excitement; discipleship through fun, culture-friendly.
Contemplative Youth Ministry – pp45

Written by Darren Wright