End of term

One of the problems with our group, our church is the fact we run within school term, so at this point we take a break for a couple of weeks, some may see this as being problematic, though who says church must be weekly, we agree that it must be regular, but taking a break gives us a chance to reevaluate.

I have been truly encouraged by the last few weeks and how this grew from nothing to us having a core group, larger than we expected, with a good mix, with signs of young people really exploring, seeing how they are learning to grow as a group from all their different schools, some from churches and friendship groups.

Last night we had a social, a number of challenges to gain points in teams. The aim was to have fun, to show that we can learn from one another doing different things. We split them up with others they didn't know to see them grow in teams, relying on others and showing each other encouragement. It was great to see. Great to see children of God showing each other love and respect, in a time when young people get so much bad press!

We were short on adults to help lead the night, but the young people are taking charge more and more, in some ways scary. They initiate their own games at the start, take responsibility for checking who's there, set up and clear up. They are serving one another in their own group even if they're not using the word 'serving'.

We saw parents and guardians come at the end fro tea and mince pies, a chance for us to talk to them, for them to see a little of what goes on and to forge important relationships. We weer thrilled by how many came.

I'm looking forward to next term as we look at including prayer more in different ways, offering more chances to delve deeper using questions and hope to get them thinking about the wider community.

For some they will see this group as a youth group, but as we become a closer community, both adults and young people, as we seek to explore, pray and reach out we show signs of becoming a form of church which is exciting and relavent for so many who think that church must be boring.

Walk the walk, talk the talk...

So we are well and truly a group moving forward together now. We have settled into a regular group, still finding some coming for a first time ad others dipping in and out. But it has been greatly encouraging to see the group growing from being lots of different groups with those from different schools or church separating themselves to us starting to see them gelling together, and it's great. Young people particularly have an ID when they are in their school uniforms and its great to see them in their own clothes establishing what identity they want to take, and in a group like this seeing characters grow.

We've been really encouraged in the past few weeks, with parents chatting at the end, we are inviting parents in for coffee and mince pies the last session before Christmas, it will be interesting to see if any dynamics change and what conversations come out of that time. We want to do it so that parents feel a part of the group, rather than them being on the outside.

Another part we have developed is POD groups, rather than doing a main talk the break down into smaller groups with adults and discuss areas and pray if they want. This seems to be working brilliantly and we hope to establish this more as the weeks go on.

The most important part is that everyone seems to be having fun, thinking more about God and faith, both those from Church backgrounds and those not. Adults are learning from the young people and visa versa.

Community...

Following on from some of the comments left on the previous post (thank you they have been very helpful), I realise that my language has probably not helped me ion communicating what we see here, that I realise is something I need to be more careful with.

A community, I will do more reading on community soon (once more urgent study is firstly completed). I'm fascinated by community, how they work, what creates and maintains community, how they change and how they grow. I love the fact that communities can be so diverse. I think what is at the heart of our community is acceptance though. I realise now that some of my original statements may seem to have contradicted themselves, and to some level it is hard to get out of those contradictions. At present our community is a mixture of those who believe, those who are on the fringe and some who have no belief, and may choose to have a faith in something other than God. I do not want to see those people excluded or judged fro their choice, I want them to feel they are always welcome and loved in the group. However I think it is important to be true to ourselves, always being a place to explore faith, to talk about God and for those who feel able to worship God. By always being clear to the young people and adults that it is a place where we will explore God they can make their decision as to whether it is a community they can be involved in.

As for the 'leaders', this is a term which I have used, and yes we do have leaders, which may appear to create some divide and does, however I realise that a group with young people in needs some levels of leadership, at present the leaders do the 'teaching', however I make it clear that we learn alongside the young people, their comments, thoughts, questions are all valued contributions, ones we shouldn't take lightly, ones we may learn from, as Jesus told us to be like little children, we can learn from one another. I would love to see the young people finding their feet in the group and encouraging one another in how they live their lives, their own theology and faith. This is something I look forward to seeing grow.

I look forward to learning how to look at faith from a child's perspective again and sharing their experiences and my own with each other.

The Challenge...

I've been thinking about the comment left on one of the posts which has been greatly received in helping me think about how we grow and become noticeably different to just a youth group.

At the moment we are just a youth group of a mixture of believers and those who don't yet believe, as far as we are aware. This for start creates some interesting challenges, how do you encourage those who believe to challenge their faith in the way they think and live whilst at the same time reach out to those who don't yet have an active faith, who don't quite grasp some of the basic principles of faith, so to ask them to live out lives transformed by Jesus is hard. If we want to see a community of people living out faith we need them to see how it can transform your lives. Inclusion is really important to us, not leave behind anyone yet not compromising on what we see this group becoming. I am increasingly encouraged to see the young people come and interact with topics they may not yet fully comprehend, my prayer is that not just the adult leaders but the young people with faith will help teach and demonstrate God's love to those others.

One way of including all in being outward serving is to take part in something simple which will serve our community. This has been a good thing to be thinking through, it is something they can all enter into, most have the ability to sympathise and have the willingness to make change to people who's lives are tougher than their own. There is a local charity in our area who give out food parcels to families and individuals who can't afford food. This may just be something we can tap into helping, by asking young people to bring food to go to the charity. It's a thought...we'll see if this is the right one!

Hopefully we can grow a community who seek to serve their communtiy, those who know God for that reason, and those others may find God through it

The Atheist and Humanist campaign to appear on buses in London from January. As Christians do we believe this is the start of something terrible, or could it possible be something we could take advantage of? Instead of only seeing negative this campaign might create discussions and opportunities to talk with people of many opinions on what that word 'probably' means!

So What is Rock Solid

Rock Solid in our context is not a church at present, we do not intend it to be a church with pews, vicars, liturgy. We will not force or encourage any young person or adult who we meet through this group to attend a local church.

We are a mixed group, with adults who are believers in Christ and who passionately want to share this passion. The young people come from a variety of backgrounds, some go to a traditional/inherited church, some may enjoy this some may find this doesn't inspire them, some have no experience of church. The different groups come together, not knowing where each stands but all hear messages about values we believe God teaches us, we aim to have fun, God's message is about living life to the full, we do this through games, chatting, building friendships and discussing issues or values and faith.

We hope though this they may seek to learn more for God, and hope that this will take a form of church, not changing entirely how we express ourselves but leading people to know God for themselves, yet always being open to those young people who do not yet know God.

The start...

We started our Monday night Rock Solid group three weeks ago now. Perhaps I should start by explaining some of my initial thoughts before

Through my work I meet many people. There's is a true mixture or mindsets. I live in an area which isn't very ethnically and culturally diverse, it is predominately white British. I experience the contrasting views on Christianity which tends to be it's either a go-er, it's boring and irrelevant to our lives or they really don't know what it is about.

I had an assembly a few months a go in a primary school, I was telling the story of Noah's Ark, a story I have known well since being a child. However this one boy who I asked to be Noah, turned around and said 'I'm not being a girl'.

At first this really shocked me, then as I thought, we live in a mixed time now, where many of the older generations have experienced the time of Christendom where they know the stories, our young people and children are experiencing post-Christendom, their knowledge of the Bible is minimal.

Now this can be seen in two ways; we can be devastated that people no longer know the stories and the history of Christianity or we can see it as a new opportunity to bring these stories to life as they haven't been heard before.

I opt for the second option. We need to be having this emerging conversation if we are going to be serious about reaching these people in a post-Christendom era, and we need to be radical in knowing how to re inspire those who know the stories and see them as irrelevant. Too many people slip through the net because churches don't know how to reach them in the context of the 'traditional' church who may think we still live in a time of Christendom.

I pray that we will seek a church which is about people and community, a place where people with little or no knowledge can seek and find a spirituality and life in God.