Wednesday, April 30, 2008
ASBO Jesus
Here are a couple of pictures that might come in handy for a talk....from ASBO Jesus...
- All that stands between you and perfection is a man with an airbrush...
- How I look on the outside...how I feel on the inside
Labels: Illustrations
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Finding Nemo - film clip idea for 'stories'
Last night we did the Rock Solid session Whats the story? This session is teamed on stories. In addition to the material we used a slip from Finding Nemo. The clip starts at DVD chapter 16 and ends in chapter 17 just after the film cuts to birds going 'Mine Mine Mine'. In these scene, Marlin (Nemo's father) tells his story to find his son, Nemo.
Labels: Rock Solid, Video clip ideas
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Marriage statistics
Check out the resource section on the Bristol Community Family Trust (BCFT) website. There are several power points etc. that include statistics on marriage and how it relates to children. For example, check out this one
Labels: Statistics
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Save this T-Shirt
Here is another idea I saw in the Baltic at Gateshead...Save this T-shirt. This is a book that comes complete with a T-shirt and book of design options. The idea is that the book outlines a number of different ways to cut up the T-shirt to produce a different design. I'm guessing that you need only buy one copy of the book and then source some cheep T-shirts at Tesco's or similar. The book cost £10.95 and is by Hannah Rogge.
I guess you could do this in conjunction with Tie die....
Labels: Activities
Friday, April 18, 2008
Dear God
Check out the www.dear-god.net prayer site - it's quite insightful. Thanks to Youth Ministry Blog for pointing this one out!
Labels: Prayer
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Pause - a reflection?
I saw this on the greenbelt forum...it could be useful for something...
Pause
Pause
For 10 seconds to take a deep breath
For 1 minute to take in the view
For a couple of minutes to brew a cuppa
For 10 minutes to clear your head
For 20 minutes to call your mum
For half an hour to exercise your body
For a couple of hours to read a good book
For a day to find some fun
For a weekend under the stars
For a fortnight to recharge your batteries
For a month to learn something new
For a summer to be a kid again
For a year to see the world
For a lifetime to work out what it all means
Or for just 5 minutes to do absolutely nothing.
From Howies
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Tract idea
Hiede's friend gave us some sample tracts they had made up. You can find some PDF's on the download page at www.exist.org.uk
I like the one "if God exists". It's basically a square piece of paper with about 7cm x 7cm folded 3 times with "if God exists; what then?" on different pages.
There are also some ideas for small cards here.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Under-age drinking
See this article on the BBC news website.
- "Police confiscated 44,000 pints of alcoholic drinks during a crackdown on under-age drinking in February"
- "Seventy per cent of the drink seized was beer, 15% cider, 5% alcopops, 5% wine and 5% spirits. "
Labels: Statistics
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Body Image
Checkout this post on how photo's are tweaked to make women look more attractive....this would make a good discussion starter on body image etc. Check out the online retoucher here.
Labels: Illustrations
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Newspaper prayer idea
Another idea from the Baltic at Gateshead....one of the exhibits was by an artist called Barthelemy Toguo. As part of this, he had covered all of the walls in the rooms with complete sheets from news papers (of the "broadsheet variety). These were not clippings, simply the pages of the news paper stuck on the wall. In addition to this he had marked out all of the text with a black marker pen, which gave the effect to the paper being censored. This meant that only the pictures remained. From my point of view, thing highlighted the pictures in a way that you would not normally notice and it caused you think about the subject matter behind the photo....I suspect this could be used as a way to stimulate prayer in a way that creating a collage of pictures does not. According to the blurb (if I remember this correctly), the artist was trying make the point that sometimes too many words get in the way....check out this page on his website.
Labels: Prayer
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Marine hurls himself onto Taliban grenade
This was a headline from The Times on the 30th March page 5. "A royal marine in southern Afghanistan threw himself onto an exploding grenade to save the lives of him patrol. Miraculously, Lance Corporal Matt Croucher, a marine reservist from Birmingham, survived the blast with little injury when his rutsack and body armour tool the force of the blast. He is expected to receive one of the highest awards for gallantry.". The article later says "You would expect nine out of 10 people to die in that situation". It seems to me that this would be a good discussion starter....life / death / sacrifice etc.
Labels: Illustrations
Monday, March 31, 2008
"Pray it" with peelable photo stickers
During a recent trip to the Baltic at Gateshead I came across these "peelable photo stickers". It looks like this would make a great idea for prayer....get a load of photo's or newspapers, write our your prayer on the label and stick away!
Labels: Prayer
Friday, March 28, 2008
Teenagers are drinking an average of 44 bottles of wine a year
From this article on the bbc website: "Teenagers are drinking an average of 44 bottles of wine or 177 pints of beer a year each, a study suggests."
Labels: Drugs, Statistics
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Bereavement
Check out this post about the BBC's go4it episode about bereavement. You can download the show here.
Labels: Death
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Freedom fighter graffiti writer
Monday, March 24, 2008
Community and Youth Work in Context
I've been away from home for about 10 days - hence the lack of posts. I've uploaded another of Hiede's essays that she has written for her Diploma in Community & Youth Work course. This one is entitled, Community and Youth Work in Context.
Labels: Training
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
X-Men 2 - Video clip for easter
I'm just been looking for a video clip to use for an Easter talk. I've decided to use a clip from X-Men 2 when Jean saves the day by giving up her own life to save the rest of the mutants from being overwhelmed by a dam that has collapsed.
The clip is at DVD Chapter 36 and starts at 1 hour 47 minutes and finishes at 1 hour 53 minutes. You could use this clip with my Armegeddon talk or my About a boy talk.
Labels: Video clip ideas
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Mr Men quiz
Friday, February 29, 2008
Teenage conceptions
From today's Times newspaper:
- "In 2006 the conception rate among 15 to 17 year-olds fell from 41.4 to 40.7 conceptions per 1000 girls. But the percentage of conceptions leading to a legal abortion rose by 4.9 per cent for the under 16s and by 4.5 per cent for all girls under 18"
Labels: Sex, Statistics
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
71% of pupils admit being a bully
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Every Child Matters and Youth Matters
Over the next few weeks I'm going to upload some of Hiede's essays that she has writen for her Diploma in Community & Youth Work course. You can find the first one, Compare and contrast the two green papers 'Every Child Matters' and 'Youth Matters', here.
Labels: Training
Sunday, February 17, 2008
The Simpsons Movie - does God speak to us?
I just watched The Simpson's Movie last night. In DVD chapter 3, Rev'd Lovejoy invites people to speak up if they have a "word". Shortly after this Grandpa has a revelation. This scene is about 2 minutes long. This could make a good discussion starter about How God speaks to us...does God speak to us?
Labels: Video clip ideas
Friday, February 15, 2008
Suicide rate drops in young men
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Boys, God and the Church
I've just read this booklet which outlines some of the basic issues that churches need to grapple with if they want to engage with boys. The main points I picked up were:
- boys are more likely to enjoy factual / evidence based ideas / teaching
- because of the way that boys brains are wired up, they are less likely to enjoy / relate to stories, fiction and poetry. They are also less likely to pick up subtle visual queues or "disapproving looks" from leaders
- boys are less likely to enjoy reading than girls.
- at certain ages, boys can physically struggle to hear what you are saying
- we need to include lots of activities and games - make things more hands on / practical
- avoid long periods of time on any one activity
- during times of teaching, try to show the 'tough' side of Jesus
- boys, perhaps more that girls, need clear boundaries
Labels: Training
Saturday, February 09, 2008
www.ecocongregation.org
Check out ecocongregation - there are some free resources to help get your church thinking about going green
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Prayer "beer mat" template
I've just put togeither a "beer mat" prayer card that I'm sending out to all the churches in our area. The idea is to keep people upto date with what we are doing. I've uploaded the "template" for this here. Note that I've printed this on thin A4 card using a colour laser printer.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Vision talk
I've just spotted this session on Jon Jolly's blog on the subject of Vision - I might use this something in the future.
Labels: Talks
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Snow game
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Statistics
Labels: Statistics
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Taking a stand
Yesterday Taking a stand tells a story about a teenager who committed suicide with the assistance of a "suicide website"....most disturbing. You can listen to the show here.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Human Tetris
Someone posted this on the greenbelt forum, suggesting it might be useful...I guess you could use it as some kind of icebreaker....
Labels: Video clip ideas
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Shopping video clip idea - Pretty Woman
The theme for last Friday nights Rock Solid session was shopping. For a video clip, we showed part of Pretty Woman:
- 59 Mins 38 second - 1 hour 4 mins 14 seconds (DVD chapter 11). This is the scene in which Vivian discovers the joys of shopping...with lots of "sucking up". Although this video is a 15 certificate, their is nothing rude or offensive in this scene.
Labels: Rock Solid, Video clip ideas
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Shopping quiz for Rock Solid session
I've just uploaded this quiz for tomorow night's Rock Solid session "Match up" game.
Labels: Quiz, Rock Solid
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Hope08 resources
In addition to my earlier post, I've just received an email pointing out that there are some resources here. This also includes the followings articles that are well worth the read:
- How to do schoolswork - a no-nonsense guide to christians visiting schools
- Starting a Christian group in school factsheet
Hope08 launch
Happy New Year! I don't know how you spent it, but we were at the Hope08 lauch event at York Minster. If you don't know what Hope08 is, checkout the website here, and download the guide here. The guide is well worth a read as it's full of interesting ideas. Note that Hope08 also have a group on facebook
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Design inspiration
In recent times I've had to produce alot of publicity type material for what we are doing. This means I'm constantly on the look out for ideas of how to lay stuff out / present information. This article lists several sources / ideas that might help...let me know if you know of any others....
Sunday, December 23, 2007
vineresources.com
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
How much...quiz
Here is a power point for the Christmas Shopping activity in this months Rock Solid. The idea is that the young people get into teams and each team has to guess the price of the Christmas gift...the one that gets the nearest wins a point....
Labels: Quiz, Rock Solid
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Role models for the perfect soul?
I few weeks ago I attended the annual CVM conference. The main speaker was Graham Tomlin. At one point he talked about role models in society...I thought this quote was quite pertinent...
"Students have powerful images of what a perfect body is and pursue it incessantly...but they no longer have any image of a perfect soul, and hence do not long to have one"
I wonder where those role models are on the TV....what we are doing about this ourselves? He then went on to talk on Ephesians 4:22-32
Labels: Talks
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Newsround survey
If you're interested in statistics / surveys, take a look at the survey commisioned by Newsround
Labels: Statistics
Monday, December 03, 2007
Church attendance statistics
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Juno - film on the teenage pregnancy
This looks interesting - another film on the teenage pregnancy front. You can find the IMDB page here.
Labels: Sex, Video clip ideas
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Echo Park
I watched Echo Park last night. Not the greatest of movies, but one that demonstrates the judgementalism that so often alive in our churches. The film is basically about a 14 year old girl who gets pregnant while still being technically a virgin. She conceives as a result of "fooling around". For this reason, you might want to use this film to highlight that you don't have to have sex proper to get pregnant. There's are a few scenes that you could use to demonstrate this point. All of this results in her father disowning her. He is the local priest and it brings shame on the family etc. She is taken in by an Uncle who, unlike her father, accepts her for who she is. The Uncle has also taken in another disgraced member of the family who is gay....makes you wonder who was the most "Christ like"...the priest or the uncle?
Perhaps this could be used with my teenage pregnancy talk.
Perhaps this could be used with my teenage pregnancy talk.
Labels: Sex, Video clip ideas
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Hope08 video
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Sex infections continue to rise
Here are some stats from this article published on the BBC website yesterday:
"Young adults are disproportionately affected by STIs, accounting for 65% of all chlamydia, 55% of all genital warts and 48% of gonorrhoea diagnoses in genitourinary medicine clinics across the UK in 2006, the HPA found"
Labels: Sex, Statistics
Risk assessment for concert
I've just got around to uploading the rest of the risk assessment we did for the Activate YFC concert we did back in July. Here are the main documents:
- Main risk assessment for the whole event
- Job description / risk assessment for those doing the registation of people entering / exiting the premises
- Job description / risk assessment for those supervising the event
- Job description / risk assessment for those who are available to chat with young people after the event
- Job description / risk assessment for the supervisors who are on the bus
- Risk assessment / procedure for sending somebody home
Labels: Risk assessment
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
ASBO Jesus
Monday, November 19, 2007
How to Improve Your Social Skills
www.youthresourced.co.uk
I've just stumbled across Youth resourced. It has some "ready to use" discussions which are worth looking at - see here
Labels: Talks, Video clip ideas
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Hope08 event at York Minster
Sunday, November 11, 2007
youthwork.co.uk conference
Just got back from the youthwork conference at Southport. Here are some websites I came across while I was there:
- http://www.stoptheguns.org/download/badman.mp4 - maybe could be used for some kind of discussion starter for gun crime / violence. See http://www.stoptheguns.org/advertising/index.php for more info.
- They "launched" http://www.schoolswork.co.uk/ while we were there - something to key an eye on. I think the idea is to provide / share resources and ideas for those working in schools.
- http://www.sophianetwork.org.uk/ - a support network for "women in youthwork"
Labels: Activities, Illustrations, Training, Video clip ideas
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Little Miss Sunshine game
Our last Rock Solid session was themed on Listening...here is a game that we put together to try enhance the theme. You will need a copy of the Mr Men book, Little Miss Sunshine.
What to do:
a) Split the group into two teams with even numbers.
b) Get each team to sit in two lines of chairs facing each other. There should be a gap between the chairs as follows:
| A | Gap | B |
| 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | 2 | |
| 3 | 3 | |
| 4 | 4 | |
| 5 | 5 | |
| 6 | 6 | |
| 7 | 7 | |
| 8 | 8 | |
| 9 | 9 |
c) Give each pair (facing each other) the following words:
Player Word Times used 1 Been 3 2 Asked 5 3 Down 3 4 Entering 3 5 Gigantic 3 6 Giggling 3 7 Happy 4 8 Never 3 9 Drove 3
d) Explain that you are going to tell them a story. When the player hears their word, they have to run up the gap between the chairs and run around the outside back to their chair, ie, the team on the left run anti clockwise, the team on the right run clockwise. The first one back gets a point for their team. This is a bit like another game called "ladders".
e) Start reading the story!
Labels: Activities, Rock Solid
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Listening quiz
I've thrown together this listening quiz based on the Peter Panda dance scene from the film The Pacifier. Note you can find the lyrics here. We're going to use this with the Rock solid session What did you say?
Labels: Quiz, Rock Solid
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Personal saftey - book
Checkout this book on Personal Safety by Anita Naik. You could use this with my talk on Clubbing
Friday, October 26, 2007
Lost in Wonder - online Labyrinth
Check out www.lostinwonder.org.uk. It's an online labyrinth a bit like www.labyrinth.org.uk
Labels: Reflective
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Our Iceberg Is Melting
I've just finished listening to John Kotters book Our Iceberg is melting - a must for anyone wanting to know about the process of change. Checkout the promotional video here.
Labels: Training
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Making the right decision
Here are some more notes from the Spring Harvest seminar by James Lawrence....
Making a decision can be a tricky business. The outcome depends upon what we do (the action) and when we do it (the time). If we don't get the right combination, things might not work out as we expect. This diagram attempts to show what can happen:
Making a decision can be a tricky business. The outcome depends upon what we do (the action) and when we do it (the time). If we don't get the right combination, things might not work out as we expect. This diagram attempts to show what can happen:
| Wrong action | Right action |
| Wrong time | Wrong time |
| | |
| Disaster! | Resistance |
| | |
| | |
| Mistake | Success |
| | |
| Wrong action | Right action |
| Right time | Right time |
Labels: Spring Harvest, Training
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Pray pray pray postcard template
I've just uploaded a template for a postcard I've put together. I've printed it double sided, in colour, on 200gm white card. We are using this to keep folks up to date on various projects that we are working on. You can download the template here. If anyone knows of any other templates that are freely available, please let me know!