Evan Almighty...

Just come across the web site to this new movie Evan Almighty, obviously a sequel to Bruce Almighty, but they are trying to also promote being carbon neutral, apparently the movie itself is the first one made with a zero carbon footprint, what they are also doing is encouraging people to do Random Acts of Kindness. It's the sort of thing you look at and think why isn't the Church doing this... Well it seems that behind it are quite a few Christians, the people Youth Specialties for one . From what i can gather Evan is called by God to build an ark to save people from the coming flood - sound familiar. Should be a great
Check out Ark Almighty too to see how the movie can be used in your church...

Transgender kids, the church and sexual theology

Last night there was a really interesting doco on Transgender children, It told the story of three kids who all suffer from gender identity disorder. These are kids who believe they were 'born in the wrong body', and who have all gone through a process of dare I use the term being born again, into what they believe is there psychological gender. I have heard of adults who have done this and read the articles in the women's mags (purely for research...and gossip), and scene some of the scary photo's too, but never encountered it with Children. My first instinct then was to dismiss it as parents making the boy into the girl they always wanted, but to see the anguish on the faces of the parents of one six year old boy/girl and the mourning of their lost little boy, who finds themselves wanting and feeling that they are a girl certainly changed my opinion.
Though cases like this are rare they do exist and in Samoan culture they seem to be recognised in people referred to as fafafine. But what about the Church?
If ever there were families that need the love of God, a large dose of his grace and the transforming/accepting power of redemption in Christ it is these families but I suspect that if there peers reject them, then the Church would probably reject them more - I hope not. Why? because we seem to have an obsession with sex, and it's a reflection I think of our society's obsession with sex too. I would suggest that a major reason that this disorder made the doc because of society's sexual obsession, the same obsession labels people like this as outcasts and freaks.

It brings me back to Genesis, and the words of Moses, that when they had eaten of the tree of knowledge of they realised they were naked and were ashamed. I wonder if we could strip back and overcome this shame whether it would alter our understanding of sex and sexual identity, I suspect it won't happen this side of eternity, but in the mean time we need to be praying for kids like this, not that they come right, but rather that they become whole, and that people can whole heartedly accept them for who they are.

As a youth worker who works with kids who are forming and understanding who they are, I cannot be too quick to judge, but need to be able to demonstrate compassion, and stickability, that what ever strange, unsual or even normal behaviour a young person goes through they may or may not decide that is who they are, but in eternity we will be whole, we will be transformed, we will loose our obsession.

books,

I have been attempting to plow my way through some books over the last few months, some i would want to reccomend others - well I had to wonder why I read them:

Bored with God - nice title but very misleading - should have been I suspect bored with Church as that is what the book is about mainly - comming to terms with young people who (like many adults) find church boring. Wasn't the greatest book i have looked at - sorry could not read the whole thing - it was a little boring. Struck me though how in spite of the fact we talk about faith alone and christ alone as all important we still fall into a standard Church alone...

Presence-Centered Youth Ministry, working my way through this but am really enjoying it, its nice to find a book aimed at people who have been in youth ministry long term. And also nice to see that others are realising the focus of youth ministry sould be ministry and formation - the title says it all realy. Mike has a blog that is worth looking at too -

Exiles - A very worth while read for anyone interested in all things missional, It's not just about being a missional church for chnage but looks at some aspects of living out your faith in a post christendom climate. It's deffinatly a book for the times, dealing with discipleship through more holistic eyes. While many of the thoughts are nto new Frost has done a great job of gleaning and unpacking much of the thought surrounding missional living. Not neccesarily a great introduction to being missional as I think Frost is a little too academic at times, but I would recomend it as a follow up to something like Out of Bounds Church .

It's official teen behaviour is caused by brain damage

Now this won't be new information to some but apparently teenage behaviour is caused by changes in a teens brain make up. Fortunately they normally come right and develop into sensible, nice, well mannered adults, like this guy who was in Auckland last week....

more inspiring young people

Just had lunch with a young person who i find rather inspiring. He has not has it easy the past few months but has managed to build on the garbage that has been thrown him, and further develop and grow in his faith. As a cynical 30 something I find this type of thing inspiring - his/her resiliance and ability to role with punches.

God I love this job (today i do anyway)

An Inspiring Young Person

I sometimes wonder why i work with young people, and then i hear about a guy like this Zach Hunter and I remember....
He's a 15 year old abolitionist - that is someone who wants to stamp out slavery not flush the toilet (that would be an ablutionist). He has inspired me, not because he is fast becoming famous, or because he is so outspoken, but because he is not prepared to take no for an answer, he will not be told it cannot be done.
I get fed up with all the talk about taking this country for God, when it means nothing and encourages nothing, but I believe in every young person is that ability to make a difference, not because of talents but because they have not (hopefully) been soured by failure.

In a few weeks we begin a 6 month part time youth development course aimed at high school age youth, my hope is that we can inspire them, and grow them into fully committed followers of Jesus.

check out a video at this link http://www.youthspecialties.com/zachhunter/

faith is enviromental for teens

One of our legendary youth workers said the phrase to me today - Faith is enviromental for many teens... i thought it was very profound and accurate that many teens find it easy to live for Jesus when they are surrounded by others with similar values, beliefs etc... but when the enviroment is changed they often adopt different values.
I guess when i think about my early faith days I was on one hand a raving fundametalist around christians, but very different around my none christian peer group.
While i have no solutions to this dilema - i don't think the Christian ghetto which is so prevalent helps at all, becuase you cannot hide from the 'world' for ever.

And happy new year to you all - i have had a long break, and feel refreshed

Church and enviromental issues...

Had an interesting chat about enviromental issues yesterday. In an area like Nelson the church taking a position on enviromental issues is throught with danger, and so largely we remain silent - or even promote a position that may be counter to popular 'green' thinking. Take a recent issue of coal minning in Westport, with the desire to open up a new coal face meant the removal of an endangered colony of giant snails. I was asked to sign a petition to prevent this happening but refused on grounds to do so would put people's livelyhoods at risk (many of whom are part of the parish in Westport) and I believed and still do that the local mines willingness to remove and relocate the habitat was a win/win.
In our region we rely heavily on the enviroment for business and people's livelyhood, what is under the ground - eg coal, gold and what is above the ground, forestry, vineyards and what is in the sea... Being an enviromentalist then is not just about protest, but respect for other people's right to work also. While I would love to see the Church take a stand on many enviromental issues - and i think we have a responsibility - the issues are never so simple in a region like ours.

In saying that there is still much we could and should be doing, in the case of the westport snails (which i know sounds like a joke) I believe we should be encouraging the mine for there willingness to relocate. I believe we should also be doing some of the following..

• Undertake an environmental/energy audit
• Install heat conservation measures and change lighting to low-energy sources
• Promote sustainable transport, e.g. through provision of secure cycle-storage facilities and car sharing
• Make/purchase and install bird feeding stations in church grounds
• Establish a recycling programme for church consumables such as paper
• Initiate a policy at church of using washable crockery and cutlery and environmentally friendly cleaning products
• Switch to green electricity
• Establish a wildlife garden
• Establish and maintain an Environmental Notice Board
• Install a compost pit for waste flowers and other organic material
• Advertise or provide clear signage of church policy and why it has been initiated

Next year during the Easter Holidays we are planning a Youth Camp with a bit of a twist, as part of it we will be doing service projects, but a focus of them will be on how we can be better stewards in our congregational and community life.

Youth Ministry Oversight Team

As part of my work I have a team that kind of holds me accountable... I had two new people join it today and we had our first meeting for me to fill them in on what is happening in the region. It was a great time, and i came away not only feeling inspired but hopeful of what can be achieved in this region for young people....