You Fish Shoes

Jenny Baker, ed., You Fish Shoes: connecting 30 key issues with Christian faith for 14-18 year olds (Christian Education Publications, 2005)

The title of this book has divided opinion amongst those I’ve shared it with. You Fish Shoes is either a really clever title or really cheesy. Yet however the title is viewed it is one of the things that make this book one which is not easily forgotten. In this compilation of the work of seven experienced youth workers, Jenny Baker has edited together thirty sessions for older teenagers. In my experience it is often difficult to find good resources for work with this age group but this volume offers an excellent resource for school groups and youth groups. The book is clearly not intended as a course to be followed through but as a resource to be used as appropriate. It covers topics such as prejudice, drugs, commercialism, the occult, bereavement and self harming. I think it would be a particularly useful volume to turn to in the event of one of these issues arising for the group either through personal experience or after events in the local community.

The book is versatile in that it can be used almost as an off the shelf, last minute session but that is not the original intention of the book. Indeed, more than that, it offers group leaders suggestions and opportunities for going deeper with issues. Like any good session resource, You Fish Shoes offers more than you could fit in any one session providing a panoply of activities, discussions, film clips and Bible studies. This means that, unlike some other resources of this kind, you can tailor a session for your group without necessarily having to use a source book merely as a starting point. This book offers such a good choice of alternatives that youth leaders and teachers will not need to add material of their own, though they might well be inspired to do so. As well as providing thirty sessions for use with young people, this book also revitalised my own planning of sessions on other topics as it offers such a good model of a balanced session made up of a variety of styles and activities.

Each session is punctuated with thoughts on the topic by modern thinkers, Christian writers, contemporary novels or celebrities which helps make the pages more approachable and readable. The chapter begins with an explanation of the issue in question. Following this brief introduction, there is a list of web resources for the youth leader to explore for themselves in preparing the topic or point the group towards for follow up. Next comes a few thought-provoking questions for use in preparing the session or to begin a discussion within the session itself. The Extras section which follows gives a handful of other things you could use in the session. There is then a list of books to read about the topic and some Bible references (with explanations) which link to the topic. These elements alone would be a good start to planning a session but You Fish Shoes goes on to offer the group leader even more.

The main part of each session offers various elements; Ways In, Bible Study, Response, Worship and Prayer. Each of these starts by explaining what type of activity it is, what the aim of this particular part is and what you will need for it. The Ways In offer a variety of types of beginning to the group session including film clips with follow up discussion, icebreakers, games, craft, brain storming and team activities. The Bible Studies are thoughtful (deeper in places than some other books might offer) and encourage reflection from the group.

I think it is in the Response, Worship and Prayer elements, that this book really places itself at the top of my list for resources of this kind. Unlike some other youth discussion books, You Fish Shoes really engages young people not only in Bible study and discussion but also in responding personally to issues through art, action and meeting with God in prayer and worship.

It is no surprise that Jenny Baker, who brought us Tune in Chill out, Transforming Prayer and Transforming Prayers: 40 Unique Experiences for Youth Ministry has given us another resource of innovative and engaging ways into communicating with God through a vast array of experiences including melting sugar cubes, listening to Dido or breaking paper chains. No-one should underestimate the power of this kind of multisensory worship for young people and Jenny Baker is certainly gifted in not only leading such worship but in giving guidance to others about doing so through books such as this.

If I had to make one criticism of this book it would be that there is too much good stuff in it and therefore it is difficult to decide which elements to use! So many of the activities are good that the problem is not “What shall we do with the group?” but rather “what should we miss out?”

It is a book suitable for the full time practitioner or the volunteer and is a good book to recommend to a group that is just starting either at a school or a church or to someone who feels their group has lost a bit of edge in its sessions.

Reviewed by Sarah Brush

Local Job Vacancies

There are a few more youth work jobs advertsied locally:

Director of Youth Ministry, Harbourne (Birmingham)
Youth Worker Hall Green (Birmingham)
Full Time Youth Pastor, Hereford Baptist Church
Assistant Youth Worker, Solihull
Youth and Children's Co-ordinator, Coventry

Contemplative Youth Ministry

Contemplative Youth Ministry: Practising the Presence of Jesus with Young People by Mark Yaconelli, SPCK Publishing
ISBN-10: 0281057826 ISBN-13: 978-0281057825

It is not often in reading a youth work book that I find myself unable to put it down and making a mental list of all those youth workers that I need to urge to read it. But this is one of those books. The sheer naked honesty and humility of Mark Yaconelli's reflection on his failings and failures is refreshing and challenging. His candour allows the reader to drop all guards and listen openly to Mark's stark appraisal of youth work. Yaconelli highlights every youth worker's tendency to busyness and overwork not only as bad for practitioners but for the nature of the work itself.

"Unfortunately, for many young people the last place where they find people open and available is within churches. Instead of a listening ear, they find advice. Instead of a witness to their lives, they're offered programmes and activities." (p.5)

The assessment of the status quo in youth work may be challenging but the suggested response reflects that simplicity which is common to much true discipleship. It calls youth workers to focus on God and focus on the young people and their needs, challenging the demands of parents for youth work to help make young people "nice":

"It's so difficult for those of us in the Church to admit that Jesus can offer us another way of life - a way of life that's more than being a good citizen, more than obeying the law, recycling your garbage and attending church on Sunday. Although we try to ignore Jesus' life of passionate freedom and relationship, the witness of Jesus is not overlooked by the young."(p. 20)

The book not only reflects theologically on the nature of youth ministry but proposes tangible means to engage in a new contemplative style of ministry. It gives solid practical models for recruitment, for focussing the discussions of a meeting through group reflection and meditation, for recruiting leaders not out of desperation but through serious discernment and supporting all this with prayer (drawing on traditional forms such as lectio divina, centring prayer and the examen). It offers some wonderful stories of youth ministry, even in unusual places such as the work of a community of older people serving young people as adoptive grandparents (p.129).

Mark Yaconelli's book reminds all of us in youth ministry that it is not all about being the coolest one in the pack and putting on the best event in town, packed with young people.

"Contemplative youth ministry is about trusting unashamedly that God desires our presence more than our activity. It's about recognizing that, unless we find rest in God, we will continue to live lives that are harried, depleting, and a counter-witness to the life we seek to share among young people." (pp. 6-7).

Yaconelli manages all this in a concise, engagingly readable volume at an affordable price. It is a must read for all in youth ministry.

The book is now followed up with a deeper reflection of some places engaged in contemplative youth ministry Mark Yaconelli, Growing Souls: Experiments in Contemplative Youth Ministry (SPCK Publishing, July 2007)

Reviewed By Sarah Brush

This book is available to borrow from the Department for Children, Youth and Education.

Rural funding

There will be a meeting about funding for rural areas and church leaders are invited to attend:

A Consultation Conference
Bank House Hotel
Bransford
Worcestershire WR6 5JD
Friday September 19th 2008
9.30-4.00

"There should be money to be spent on community projects in rural Wychavon, Malvern
Hills and Wyre Forest. This consultation is so that (within the limits imposed on us) you can have your say about how and where the money is spent."

Resource on Disability Awareness

A while ago Leonard Cheshire commissioned Nick Park and his creature comforts team to work on some animations about disability called Creature Discomorts. You may have seen some of the adverts on television. This are a great resource for exploring issues of disability and the new animations are especially good for discussing this issue in groups of young people as they focus on young people's experiences in school. Along with the animations themselves there's also a chance to see how they were made, hear about the people behind the characters and test your knowledge of disability with a quiz. Scripts of the adverts are also available for those who want to take the discussion deeper.

New Resources at the Old Palace

For those of you looking for resources to use with young people in parishes, I have recently purchased some resources which will be available for parishes to borrow.

If you would be interested in borrowing any of the following, do get in touch.

Nooma DVDs
Mission with Young people at Risk from the Frontier Youth Trust
(This is an excellent CDROM which leads parishes through looking at mission with young people in their communtiy)

Games:
Twister Scram
Unihoc
parachutes
tug of war rope
Bopit
large connect four
giant scrabble pieces
lawn darts
Breathe
play paws - a dvd of icebreaker games led by a Geordie Panda!

I am also about to invest in a Kubb set after this Swedish stick throwing game went down very well with the young people at the diocesan assembly.

Games for youth groups

If you're struggling to find games to paly with your youth group, have a look at this list of some 2000 games!

Diocesan Assembly

I've had a fabulous three days with a group of young people at the diocesan assembly up in Swanwick.



There's a video of the conference available here.

Local jobs

For any youthworkers looking for full time employment in and near the Worcester Diocese area, I've spotted the following posts recently:

Sports Development Officer for Youth For Christ
Part-Time Youth Worker, Barnt Green
Director of the Service Centre, Youth for Christ
Christian Education Development Manager, Birmingham
There are also some churches and deaneries exploring appointing youth workers at the moment so if you are looking for a full time post, do get in touch with me.

Playpark competition

News from the Department for Children Schools and Families:

There is a competition to design your own play area with the chance to win a digital camera.

This could be a good thign to fo with groups or individual young people over the long wet summer!