New year... new group

On Monday 5th January we started a brand new group for school years 3-5 (ages 7-10). We (the clergy and I) have been reflecting for a number of years about providing something that bridges the gap between 1st Holy Communion and jGYM. And finally last term we decided to set up a new group with the same structure as jGYM for 7 to 10 year old's. The sessions are just an hour and a half long and run on Mondays in St Joseph's Church Hall.

We have had two sessions so far with around 30 at each session and as word spreads it is bound to grow! The atmosphere has been fantastic as well and the children seem really engaged with all aspects of the evening. It is a great pleasure to provide something for this age group. I've never worked with this age group before but it has been so much fun. So in the first week of this new year we journeyed with 95 children and young people through our three groups!

Please pray for GYM-jams, the children and all those who help at the sessions. And please do keep praying for our growing youth ministry!

6pm Mass band

When I first started leading the band at the then 6.30pm Mass I didn't realise the impact it would have on the youth ministry as a whole. We play contemporary music at this Mass with a full band including keys, drums, bass occasionally string instruments etc. There are more and more young people getting involved. And my goodness are they talented. Playing at Mass can be really intense because you are under so much pressure to get it right, to come in at the right time, to not be a distraction and to help enhance the communion and worship we are partaking in through the Eucharist. And we don't always get it right...

GYM Journal

At GYM (school years 10-13) we are embarking on a year long journalling exercise. All the young people have been given a scrap book each and the idea is that they decorate the front page to make it their own and then in a week or so they'll bring them back and swap them with a friend who will fill a page of their journal. This continues till their journals are full, which will probably be the end of the school year.

GYMers starting to decorate their scrapbooks

Each week at GYM we will look at a theme that may inspire them with what to fill in the journal for their friend. So, for example, last week we looked at love and this week are looking at healthy/unhealthy relationships. They can fill in the page of their friends scrapbook with something motivational linked to these themes or whatever they like. The idea is at the end each young person will get their scrapbooks back filled with colour, inspiration and expressions of God's action in their lives. For our year 13's who will be moving on to uni, they will make fantastic year books!

Book Review - "Unpacking Scripture in Youth Ministry"

How do we "unpack" scripture with young people? At jGYM, our younger youth programme, the bible is central to all that we do together. Each week we read a section, discuss it, animate it and pray through it. But I've never really taken a step back to consider why we should unpack scripture with young people. "Unpacking Scripture in Youth Ministry" by Andrew Root has made me address why and how I should approach scripture in youth ministry.

Here are some key points I took from the third instalment of Andrew's inspiring series:

• The success of a bible study is not what young people know at the end, we don't need to teach them the bible any more because we live in a information filled world. The success is in how they have read it, how they have made meaning in their reading.
• Our goal in youth ministry is to help young people to read the bible in context, understanding the context of the original writers and more importantly the context of the present readers.
• Youth ministry should invite young people to seek for God in their lives, where and how God is moving and help them read and interpret the bible in a way that shows them how God is acting in their lives and so participate in His action and be witnesses to it.

Book Review - "Taking the Cross to Youth Ministry"

"Taking the Cross to Youth Ministry" is the second book in the series by Andrew Root. In this book we continue to follow the theological journey that Nadia is taking in her role as youth minister.

The cross can be a confusing topic for young people and can incredibly challenging to explain it as well because it's more than just about a good man being punished for his friends. God through Jesus takes on death itself, our death and conquers it. There are some excellent resources and demonstrations to aid our conversations with youth regarding the cross such as Youth Alpha session "Why did Jesus Die?". But "Taking the Cross to Youth Ministry" addresses this issue in a radical new way.

Urban Saints - Energize Resource

One of the main things I have to do start planning the sessions. Over the past year or so we have been using "Urban Saints - Energize" online resources for our jGYM sessions. Energize is a fully comprehensive web-based resource that gives you access to huge catalogue of engaging, dynamic, Biblical material for ages 3 - 18. It gives you syllabuses that contain a varied number of themed sessions. Each session give several suggestions for games, discussion questions, bible study and prayer responses. You can pick and choose from these and create PDFs of the session and even share it with your other leaders via email.

I have found it a very useful, dynamic and accessible resource and it's worth the subscription fee.

This term we are doing a 12 week course on Christian Character for 11-14's. The themes for the sessions are based on characteristics of walking with the Spirit that St Paul gave in the letter to the Galatians:

jGYM & GYM is back this Friday...

We are so excited about the start of jGYM and GYM again this Friday. Check out our new posters.

See you on Friday!