By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 13:57:43 +0000

I am very pleased, even relieved, to have stumbled on your website. Someone must be looking after me out there! It’s always great to have your own ‘hunches’ confirmed! At the mo, I’m writing a piece on youth ministry for the Maryvale Institute [Birmingham, UK] It’s connected with final module ‘Ministering to Young People’ for the Certificate in Parish Pastoral Ministry [CPMM]. It’sveryt challenging ,like the rest of the modules have been. However, the main and particular challenge of this one for me is that I have not worked as any kind of leader in a youth setting since 1987, so, at present, I hold a figurative rusting sword in my hand always ready to do battle with windmills. As it happens, fifty years ago, I qualified as a community education worker. To be truthful ,I’ve participated, since then as a member, not facilitator, in ‘charismatic renewal’ sessions. These, though amazing, do not easily align with what I think Maryvale is looking for from me. The particular word I relate to in your comments is ‘messy’ I get that we have to think relationally. I also get that, in a sense, the process itself is the message . The content grows from our empathetic understanding of the aspirations and needs of the group as a whole and the individuals within it. All well and good ,one might say, but I think you must have read my mind. As soon as I began to consider what to write about concerning session planning, [ as this assignment requests], I found myself thinking, ‘What do I really know about the envisaged target group? How can I honestly plan a relevant session without having a very good idea of the likely participants?’ Can I really risk a prat-fall, flying by the seat of my pants, just hoping that ‘it’ll all be right on the night’? I could argue that in doing that I am trusting in the Spirit to direct affairs on my behalf. I just ‘go with the flow’, so to speak, and let what will happen happen. Planning? What planning? Should I deliberately plan to NOT to plan? A good example of what I believe is very desirable ‘open-endedness’ is the very successful Alpha movement which was initiated in England, as your probably already know, by the Anglican community over twenty years ago.The beauty of it is that it does not presume anything about the entry levels of its participants other than what they choose to share.All I need to do, I suppose, is just write about organising an Alpha session and then risk being subsequently accused of brand theft and plagiarism! My temptation is to say, ‘Stuff all this theorisinig! I need to get directly involved before i can suggest any sort of sessional program [programme] ‘ I am not a quitter, though. I’ve decided to be a fiction writer instead. I’ve invented my ‘dreamboat’ group They are to be undergraduate students , which is cheating a bit because, strictly, they would not be youths, as such, but young adults. I thought, rather wickedly, that there would be less explaining to be done; they would tend to be more receptive to fresh approaches, be more patient of eccentricities and more ready to accept a seminar model than a younger cohort. I have sometimes found, counter-intuitively, that a teen group can feel more threatened, be more change-resistant than an adult group.Such a group will tend to treat your ‘amazing’ insights with a considerable degree of scepticism. I have also found that groups seem to develop a personality of their own. A group may or may not be receptive to an intervention but there’s no way I know of to predict the outcomes. Put another way, I thought they, the ‘undergrads’, that is, would tend to make less ‘mess’ of my well-meant interventions. I could be quite mistaken, of course. I’ll soldier on, nevertheless. Fortune favours the brave, so I’m told. I will submit my assignment and then put my head below the parapet in order to avoid predictable shrapnel subsequently flying in my direction
I very much appreciate what you’re doing. Keep it going, please!
Thanks!
Chris

Comments on: Embracing the Mess of Relational Ministry

By: Chris