Mission Shaped Youth Ministry: Conference in Australia:
Mission Shaped Youth Ministry: Conference in Australia:
To be honest I was a little underwhelmed and disappointed with this. But I suspect that was more my fault, with too high an expectation really. AS a result I did nto engage as much as I had hoped. But that was my problem. I often (I discovered in Dunedin) try to persuade people, and maybe I did not have the platform to persuade people of my great ideas. That is a little humbling.
But I did gain quite a lot of insights and have some really good conversations.
• I really liked the honesty and frustration about just how successful the emerging church stuff in England is, and eh fresh expressions/mission shaped church initiatives. It is early days. It is small. Who knows how long lasting it will be, or effective in reaching people who know nothing about Christianity?
• I enjoyed the beginning of the discussion on what the rich Anglican tradition offers mission. I was also frustrated at the level of engagement with that. It seems this sis a crucial question, and yet some seemed to want to dismiss it.
• I was excited by the schools stuff, especially seeing young adults engaged in missions shaped youth ministry in schools and their wondering what will emerge from that. These young people will struggle to engage with church as we do it, and are not part of that. They are meeting for bible study, prayer, “worship” and mission, but have no links with our church. So how do we resource them? I was excited by young people seeing a opportunity in their local context and being “resourced” to engage with that, and out of that came “mustard – check it out!” They did not import ideas, programmes or people to do their mission in schools. Their work was not planned by older people , but the church leadership in their parish gave them space to create mission and church in schools that makes sense to the young people they are ministering among.
• Not surprisingly I bumped up against the “worship” thing. I was a bit surprised to here and ordained person define worship as glorifying God! Is it really? Is it only that? Or is it an encounter with God as a community that shapes our imagination, our sense of who we so that in our lives we glorify God?
• I get this impression that a lot of evangelicals think that by definition they are engaged in mission shaped youth ministry. But some of it didn’t sound new and still really wanted people to join them as they currently operate. And that is problematic I think.
• In the end I left wondering what Mission Shaped Youth Ministry might be? I am not sure it was clearly stated, and may be it can’t be. I was left wondering if it is mission to young people, or young people being empowered in mission? Or empowering young people to be the church, or maybe offering young people our version of church? Or is it something else completely?
To be honest I was a little underwhelmed and disappointed with this. But I suspect that was more my fault, with too high an expectation really. AS a result I did nto engage as much as I had hoped. But that was my problem. I often (I discovered in Dunedin) try to persuade people, and maybe I did not have the platform to persuade people of my great ideas. That is a little humbling.
But I did gain quite a lot of insights and have some really good conversations.
• I really liked the honesty and frustration about just how successful the emerging church stuff in England is, and eh fresh expressions/mission shaped church initiatives. It is early days. It is small. Who knows how long lasting it will be, or effective in reaching people who know nothing about Christianity?
• I enjoyed the beginning of the discussion on what the rich Anglican tradition offers mission. I was also frustrated at the level of engagement with that. It seems this sis a crucial question, and yet some seemed to want to dismiss it.
• I was excited by the schools stuff, especially seeing young adults engaged in missions shaped youth ministry in schools and their wondering what will emerge from that. These young people will struggle to engage with church as we do it, and are not part of that. They are meeting for bible study, prayer, “worship” and mission, but have no links with our church. So how do we resource them? I was excited by young people seeing a opportunity in their local context and being “resourced” to engage with that, and out of that came “mustard – check it out!” They did not import ideas, programmes or people to do their mission in schools. Their work was not planned by older people , but the church leadership in their parish gave them space to create mission and church in schools that makes sense to the young people they are ministering among.
• Not surprisingly I bumped up against the “worship” thing. I was a bit surprised to here and ordained person define worship as glorifying God! Is it really? Is it only that? Or is it an encounter with God as a community that shapes our imagination, our sense of who we so that in our lives we glorify God?
• I get this impression that a lot of evangelicals think that by definition they are engaged in mission shaped youth ministry. But some of it didn’t sound new and still really wanted people to join them as they currently operate. And that is problematic I think.
• In the end I left wondering what Mission Shaped Youth Ministry might be? I am not sure it was clearly stated, and may be it can’t be. I was left wondering if it is mission to young people, or young people being empowered in mission? Or empowering young people to be the church, or maybe offering young people our version of church? Or is it something else completely?
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