Church History
Spent a while this afternoon and some time last week with a friend who's a Baptist minister working on a one session whistle stop tour of church history, with a Baptist slant. The plan is they will run it at their church, but maybe it'll become something more...
It's been interesting to revise some of this stuff, and see how we ended up where we are.
Particularly interesting was to see some of the stuff the early Baptists went through - such as a £20 fine for holding a religious meeting not according to the Book of Common Prayer (£40 if you did it again). One bloke, a gardener, lost his house over a £3 fine for standing up for free worship and not attending his local Anglican Church!
Makes you think if we would be so committed. But also a reminder that our Baptist roots have much to teach us as we work out how to do church in post-Christendom.

Worst Young People
Apparently Britain's teenagers are the worst in the world. Or something like that!
Actually it's worst in Europe according to a new report. (see here, and the wonderful Daily Mail here).
Findings range from stating that 44% had been in a physical fight in the last year to "Just 64 per cent ate a main meal with their parents several times a week, against 93 per cent in Italy".
Be interesting to read the full report rather than just the tabloid headlines.

Linked to this is news that the government plans to invest more in youth clubs:
"Regular attendance at extra-curricular clubs helped pupils manage their emotions better, cut down on anti-social behaviour and "radically improve" life chances" .
The idea is for a club in every neighbourhood (BBC here), with "constructive" after school activities on the agenda.
Could be a great opportunity for some creative churches...

Big Babies
One of my holiday reads was "Big Babies" by Michael Bywater.
Its a kind of ranting polemical book on the state of Western culture.
He contends that people these days don't grow up, and that government and other agencies add to our self-absorbed perpetual adolescence. We are constantly being told what to do and being warned of danger, and therefore end up no longer thinking for ourselves. We are being watched, and mothered by the state.
Bywater also sees religion and the church as part of this controlling mechanism. In all honesty he's probably right about some part of the church at some times. But he is somewhat unfairly dismissive in my view ("We should distrust ourselves if we believe God loves us. At best God tolerates us and his self-interest is at the root of it all"p236).
He also seems to delight in swearing and using the "F***" word for emphasis, perhaps to prove how grown up he is? (my junior school teacher used to say swearing was a sign of a lack in vocabulary).

Anyway you can read most of the good bits in this Telegraph article. And this reviewer loved it!
It was an interesting read - but by the end you've got the message, and I found myself almost giving up on the book as he seemed to be going on a bit. But maybe I need to grow up to appreciate it...

East London
BBC London website has this positive report on churches in Newham.
Lots of good stuff happening and working together under the banner of Transform Newham.

Flying Ants
Lots of these pesky things around today. Not sure if I would name it "flying ant day" or not - but it's the right time of year and humid! (see here too)

Youth Ministry Realities
Two youth ministry things got me thinking this weekend.
First was "Back to Summer", an event in Ealing with Back to Reality. It was a nice event: Bar-b-q, music, games, Wii etc., and magician (fresh from TV work). Numbers were less than they had hoped but it was good chilled event - some youth bringing friends etc. I was merely there to help the cooking! But it was good to see an inter-church thing work well.

Today I was taking the youth group for one or our churches. It was good to experience the realities of Sunday morning youth group again - 25 young people in a small hot room, with noise from the adult service on one side and from the younger groups on the other, limited space, dependant on other groups timings and less than ideal conditions. You have to admire the youth leaders who run groups like this week after week trying to come up with creative ideas and nurture young people. Don't get me wrong - this is a good church that takes youth ministry seriously - but I was struck by how much such vital work is sidelined, separated and in way isolated (maybe not at this church but generally).
It'll certainly make me more aware when training leaders, and shows just how much work needs to be done with churches.

Missional Youth Ministry
Interesting letter over at Scot McKnights re. Missional Youth Ministry.
One to watch as the discussion develops.

Back in the saddle...
Great to have a week off. We headed down to Devon with a couple of friends, and stayed in a lovely barn conversion. Despite the wet English summer weather a good time was had - visited a couple of National Trust places, played the essential game of crazy golf and generally chilled out.
And now it's back to work...