Reflections on Youth Events from a Cynical Anglican
Highlights of the last three weeks have been meetings really. The Anglican Centre for Youth Ministry Studies had a great meeting where we talked about what we are going to do. Not in theory, but the nuts and bolts. And I am off tomorrow for another two day meeting to really give that a good going over. I am the kind of person that needs others ideas to spark off, and I have felt really constrained not having that starting point. We are trying to do some different things with the seminars that will engage people who are there, but also provide good material for dissemination through the web.
A week ago I was asked to run a discussion on our year of youth at the Auckland Diocesan Youth Synod. Youth Year is a three Tikanga year that will run from the beginning of Advent this year (4 Sundays before Christmas) to that same point in 2006. The point of the discussion was to work out some of what might be done during this year at the Diocesan level and at the parish level. What struck me was how small people’s vision was. Some under 40’s on vestry, more young people involved in church etc…. Me, I want 50% of our congregations to be under 40, and our worship caters for that age range. I want half our priests to be under 40. I want half of synod to be under 40. I want half our vestries to be under 40. We need to dream big, and until we do we will achieve little.
This weekend I was at Waikato Diocesan Road Rave, the annual big Diocesan Youth event. These guys think big. It numbered over 100 this time, and want to double it next year, which will be way too big for the venue we use. However, I really struggled. Partly because no one came to my workshop, which I spent too long putting together and spent way too little with campers. Partly it was the worship. I am so Anglican. Something happened in Israel and as a result I am way more into good 9and I mean good) liturgy, which we just do not offer young people. We sang lots of songs with I, and not much we. When we did go liturgy we had to chop and change it for the Baptist speaker, instead of working with her to see how what she was offering would work really well in the liturgy. I just got really cynical in the end and started singing “it’s all about me”.
And now I am sick, and I am off to Auckland for a 2 day meeting.
More after the meeting.
A week ago I was asked to run a discussion on our year of youth at the Auckland Diocesan Youth Synod. Youth Year is a three Tikanga year that will run from the beginning of Advent this year (4 Sundays before Christmas) to that same point in 2006. The point of the discussion was to work out some of what might be done during this year at the Diocesan level and at the parish level. What struck me was how small people’s vision was. Some under 40’s on vestry, more young people involved in church etc…. Me, I want 50% of our congregations to be under 40, and our worship caters for that age range. I want half our priests to be under 40. I want half of synod to be under 40. I want half our vestries to be under 40. We need to dream big, and until we do we will achieve little.
This weekend I was at Waikato Diocesan Road Rave, the annual big Diocesan Youth event. These guys think big. It numbered over 100 this time, and want to double it next year, which will be way too big for the venue we use. However, I really struggled. Partly because no one came to my workshop, which I spent too long putting together and spent way too little with campers. Partly it was the worship. I am so Anglican. Something happened in Israel and as a result I am way more into good 9and I mean good) liturgy, which we just do not offer young people. We sang lots of songs with I, and not much we. When we did go liturgy we had to chop and change it for the Baptist speaker, instead of working with her to see how what she was offering would work really well in the liturgy. I just got really cynical in the end and started singing “it’s all about me”.
And now I am sick, and I am off to Auckland for a 2 day meeting.
More after the meeting.
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