Monthly Archive for September, 2007

I choose to stay

Published
by
Jon
on 25 September 2007
in Media and Youth Work
. 0 Comments

A friend recently lent me a book by Donald Miller called To Own a Dragon: Reflections on Growing Up Without a Father which I have been making my way through. It’s a good book that’s informally written and as you would expect focuses on finding purpose and identity without a father figure. In one part of the book, Miller talks of a man called Salome Thomas-El, a teacher in Philadelphia who received acclaim as a teacher and chess coach whose students have gone on to win world recognition as Eight-Time National Chess Champions. Miller tells what he learnt of Thomas-EL:

[Salome] would walk up to kids hanging around outside a convenience store and ask them if they wanted to learn to play chess. Of course the kids said no, chess not being the most fashionable sport on the playground. So Salome would tell them that telling him no was a bad decision, that if someone offers to teach you something, you should give that person respect, and ask more questions to find out if you might need this information in the future. That was a bad decision, Salome said to the kids, to dismiss me in that way. The kids didn’t really know what to say, so they got tough threatening him. Ah, Salome would say, another bad decision. I can see that, if you and I were playing chess right now, you would be losing, because in chess, you cannot make bad decisions and win. You have to make good decisions.

“Have any of you ever played chess?” Salome asked.

“I know how to play chess”, one of the kids answered.

“What is the legal move for a Rook?” Salome asked the boy. The boy stood there silently until finally Salome spoke into his shifting eyes, “You are telling a lie aren’t you? You do not know how to play chess. A lie is another bad decision. If you knew how to play chess, you would not make so many bad decisions. You would know, intrinsically, the way to get ahead in life is to make good decisions. And so I will ask you again, and I want you to think about it for five seconds before you answer me. Don’t answer right away, because this isn’t wise. I want you to think about what I am going to ask you…

“Do you want me to teach you how to play chess?”

The children stood there, confused but interested, until one of them blurted out nervously, “Yes, I want to learn chess.”

“Fine then. You have made a good decision. This is the first rule of chess. Make good decisions. The only possible way you can lose in chess, and for that matter in life itself, is to make bad decisions. If you do not make bad decisions, you will not lose in chess, or in life. And the more good decisions you make, the better your life will be.”

I’m fascinated by this idea of good and bad decisions. Is this what youth workers are essentially trying to do, enable young people to make informed choices? Is it really that simple? Can young people learn key life skills from playing chess?

When I read this part of the book, I looked up Salome Thomas-El on Google and found his website I Choose To Stay.com. It seems that after gaining recognition for his work, Salome was offered a promotion with greater authority but turned it down to stay with his students.

“I can’t leave my students,” he said. “What happens if they come in on Monday and I’m not here? They’ll say ‘He left because of the money,’ and I don’t want them to think that way. I’m the only male role model these kids have. I want them to know at least one black male who is committed to staying.”

I expect much of Salome’s success is due to his character and his faith in the potential of others. I now plan to get hold of one of his books and find out more about his ideas.

London Ink

Published
by
Jon
on 24 September 2007
in Media
. 1 Comment

Trapped!
On our way home from the Blog Awards, Kirsty and I saw this great installation at London Victoria Station. It’s purpose is to promote the TV Show ‘London Ink’ on Discovery Real Time and the oversize sculpture features an original tattoo on the small of her back. Click here to view the full Flickr set.

The Blog Awards

Published
by
Jon
on 23 September 2007
in Christianity and Technology
. 5 Comments

The Hosts
On Friday we spent a fantastic evening at the Parish Church of St. Stephen Walbrook (home of the London Internet Church) for the first ever Christian Blog and Web Awards!

The whole event was really well organised with an amazing four-course meal and a great string-quartet providing a touch of class to the proceedings. Thanks must go to Maria for putting it all together and hosting us so well.

I posted before about being entered for an award and I was short-listed for the Best Christian Newcomer category against some great bloggers. Unfortunately I missed out on a trophy but had a lot of fun watching Tom Smith trying to blag an acceptance speech on behalf of Tim Hughes!

Best Dressed

You can see the full list of winners on the Christian Blog Awards website and watch the edited highlights on Premier TV very soon (Kristie Winsen promised us)!

Awards

Published
by
Jon
on 21 September 2007
in Christianity, Personal and Technology
. 3 Comments


Later today, Kirsty and I are off to the Christian Web and Blog Awards ceremony in London. I mentioned back here that this blog had gone through to the final rounds and we’ve now been invited to go along to the event tonight and see if I’ve won anything! It’s a black tie affair and I was amused to discover that we’ll be having a time of worship after the champagne reception.

I’ve held off from posting too much about this before as I’m really not sure what to expect from the evening. I am of course excited about the possibility of winning something, but I’m also a bit apprehensive about drawing lots of attention this way (yes, I know that’s the point of a blog). The main reason I started writing here was to help me document some of my experiences in youthwork and to clarify my own thoughts by reflecting on my practice. It’s great that others enjoy reading it, I’m just aware that there are a lot of other great Christian blogs out there that deserve some exposure. Click some of the links to the right to see what I mean.

Baptism

Published
by
Jon
on 16 September 2007
in Christianity, Youth Ministry and Youth Work
. 2 Comments


This morning at church I was privileged enough to be involved in the baptism of Dan, one the young people in the church. I’ve been Dan’s youth leader in one capacity or other for around six years so when he phoned during the week to ask if I would help, I was really keen. In fact, I think I was a little too excited as my voice went up a few octaves while I babbled “Wow! That would be great!” as if someone had just offered me a year’s supply of free coffee. Thankfully Dan wasn’t put off and said I could still dunk him.

I’m not sure of all of the differences between baptism across the denominations but in our church, due to holding our Sunday services in a school sports hall, we’ve come up with the practical solution of a collapsible ‘tank’ that is assembled at the front of the hall where we submerse people backwards from a sitting position. The tank is about 5 foot long and the fact that Dan is around 6′ 8″ caused some logistical problems but we got there in the end! The part I played was to kneel alongside Dan and, with his father, actually baptise him.

I’ve been involved with a few baptisms over the years but they never fail to excite me, I just love the fact that the person is making a public statement about their faith and what Jesus means to them. In the case of Dan, I’ve watched as he’s grown in his understanding until ready to make that statement. Youthwork really is the best job in the world!

Starbucks updates

Published
by
Jon
on 11 September 2007
in Technology
. 1 Comment

Along with the new iPods announced last week was the news that Apple were going into partnership with Starbucks to allow customers of the coffee chain free access to the iTunes WiFi Store to purchase music. There have been rumours of a collaboration for some time. I even posted about it back in January.

Unfortunately this won’t be available in the UK, but Dave has pointed out some news for seriously lazy Starbucks fans. Apparently you can now sit in-store and order your drink online so that a barista will bring it over to your table and you don’t even have to move!

The fashion Police are coming

Published
by
Jon
on 10 September 2007
in Media and Youth Work
. 0 Comments

I read earlier in the week on ysmarko about various laws being passed across the US to ban baggy trousers that show off people’s underwear.

Last week, Atlanta became one of the largest cities to join a growing movement in the U.S. to consider fining or jailing people for saggy pants. The Atlanta City Council is holding hearings on a proposal by Councilman C.T. Martin to impose a civil penalty such as a fine for “the indecent exposure of his or her undergarments” in public.

That means young men no longer could wear their pants hanging off their hips, exposing their underwear. The law also could target women in pants cut low enough to reveal the strap of a thong, a style popularized in music.

Well it seems airlines are at it too, trying to kick an unsuspecting 23 year old woman off a flight for “inappropriate” clothing. This is what she was wearing:

It all reminds me of the media storm kicked up in the UK over hoodies a couple of years ago. Dictating what people can and can’t wear in public is bordering on ‘Big Brother‘ territory. Of course some fashion is inappropriate or offensive (unlike the two examples above), but should we react by trying to ban it or instead call for dialogue and understanding? I’d love to raise the question with our youth groups and see what they think. After all it is them that will become victims of this type of discrimination.

All Change

Published
by
Jon
on 9 September 2007
in Schools Work, Youth Ministry and Youth Work
. 1 Comment

Traditionally Arun Community Church has run various clubs for children and young people. Some were to teach the Christian faith, others purely social, with others seen as an outreach to the community that fit in with the government’s Extended Schools agenda. In fact, we do so much that people have had trouble putting it all in some sort of context.
As a team, we’ve spent the last few months thinking and praying about direction. In a relatively short space of time we’ve developed a strategy, found an amazing team, changed much of what we were doing and then this morning at church, we explained it to the wider congregation!

We now understand our work in three key areas: Church, Community and School. By developing a range of clubs, activities and services in these areas we hope to be ’salt and light’, engaging with children and young people in different areas of their lives.

In order to facilitate this change in thinking, we’ve also totally overhauled our church-based clubs with new names, teams and content. These are the logos for the new groups:
Kickstart
Ignite
Fuel

We’ve also pulled our community activities into a tighter relationship with each other and they now run at similar times and work together. As for schools work, we’re proposing to deliver a far more holistic programme in schools by following the model of LCET. This will take some time to role out, but will really complement the things we are doing in the other areas. For more info on the actual activities we run, click here.

It’s been a busy time getting all this ready for a new term and there’s a lot going on in Littlehampton with regard to children’s and youth work. I’m just really excited that the church is at the forefront!

Lessons from strangers

Published
by
Jon
on 4 September 2007
in Christianity and Personal
. 4 Comments


The other day, I was in Tesco’s queing at one of those self-scanning checkouts. At the till to my right I noticed a young girl aged about 10 or 11 putting in loads of coppers to pay for a 6 pint of milk. Pretty soon all the coins in her hand had gone into the machine, but the display still showed a balance of 9p. With a scared look in her eyes, the girl glanced around before putting the milk in a bag and quickly walking out the door with it.

Although I stood still and did nothing, I thought about calling over a staff member to point out how I had witnessed a terrible and blatant theft. In my head I told myself how outrageous it was that a child would do something so morally wrong and I began to imagine how badly her parents must have taught her - they were probably alcoholics anyway…

As I watched, the guy next in the queue walked up to the checkout. I looked closely to see his anger when he realised what had happened. He saw the outstanding 9p on the screen, smiled, and reached into his pocket. He then quietly paid the remaining money before scanning his own items.

In those few seconds I was shamed. What a great example of the gospel played out before my eyes. The generosity of someone who paid the debt of another happily. And there I was a signed-up follower of Jesus ready to heap judgement and scorn on a child who was a few pence short. I’m so grateful that just when I think I’m doing quite well, God sends a little reminder to let me know that I’m still in need of a saviour too.