Welcome to this bumper summer edition of our newsletter. Inside you'll find out about various areas of our work and meet some of the people who make it happen. We have updates from the Club Work, Church Resource, praxis, and the Forum.
There are special features on a couple of our volunteers and some of our trustees. In his Thoughts from the Director's Chair this issue Paul will be reflecting too on how different areas of our work relate to our core purpose which is in bold above and there is also some reflections on our involvement in the Just 10 mission with J John.
And finally, a brand new feature for the e-bulletin this month, the Virtual Back Page (TM), this is where all those miscellaneous odds and ends reside, and also the first port of call if you have any questions about this e-bulletin.
We are presently in 2 clubs IKON (Wed, Fri & Sat) and TIME (Tues) but we are hoping to increase our involvement in TIME.
On the nights the team work over 4,000 young people will be in the clubs we are in.For the majority, our team is the only contact they have with Christianity - they feel the Church is irrelevant and that the Gospel message has nothing to say to them in their situation.
Evangelism in this setting is not just about telling a story, passing on truth in a 20 minute presentation or getting them to listen to information. It's about getting them to experience the reality of the gospel in their world, it's about allowing grace, unconditional love, mercy, forgiveness etc to invade their existence & change their lives. It's not a rigid, structured, distant, systematic thing - It's a spontaneous, 24/7, unstructured, up close & personal, living thing. Evangelism in this setting is not simply something we do - it's something we are.
How do we try to achieve this? By opening up & sharing our lives with the young people we meet in unconditional, unlimited ways and allowing them to do the same. By building real community with them where they are at and expressing what Church is through this community. This means our motivation is far from any sense of duty - but rather from a real love for those we meet.
Tracey says it's the most frightening, costly, physically, emotionally & mentally draining thing she's ever done - but it's also the most rewarding, energising and privileged things she's been involved with.
This approach of incarnational evangelism brings a constant challenge. When is it merely relational youthwork rather than communicating the gospel? Pray for us that we are faithful to our call.
…let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven - Matthew 5
Our core purpose is evangelism to young people. It is what we do, it is our distinctive. What does 'evangelism' mean though?
I'm currently studying for an MA in Evangelism Studies through Cliff College and the University of Sheffield which is giving me a great opportunity to explore questions such as this. William Abraham defines evangelism as that set of intentional activities whose aim is initiating people into the reign of God. Our activities are thus evangelism by virtue of their purpose. We intentionally do what we do in order to create space for young people to encounter Christ and enter his reign.
Our approach to evangelism can be described as incarnational and therefore contextual. I'll explain what I mean. Youth culture is significantly different to the culture of church. Social commentators describe a significant cultural shift occurring as the prevalent thinking patterns of society change. We are moving from modernism to postmodernism. Simply put, nowadays any youth work is cross - cultural.
This means that we have to take the timeless message of the gospel, embody it (incarnational) and communicate it relevantly (contextualise) to the culture in which we operate, recognising it has different thought patterns, expectations, assumptions and language.
In our work with young people we also find that there is very little background knowledge and experience of Christianity. A significant part of our work is moving people and even starting people on their journey towards Christ.
I am sometimes challenged about where are the successful converts and why are they not in church? Though we do see new converts, the answer to that question has several dimensions. The first assumes that our work significantly involves those young people who are about to, or have just come to faith. Youthwork is an often long term affair. Research suggests it generally takes people 4yrs to come from a place of no faith to one of faith. Given that we are often the only contact some young people have with Christianity their journey towards Christ takes a long time. This, combined with the fact that young people are reluctant to make promises in a world where so many promises to them have been broken, mean that becoming a Christian isn't simply about praying a prayer of commitment.
We are constantly reviewing what are the best ways to do evangelism to "young people" in Norwich and surrounding area and what activities we do. Everything is under the microscope. We are asking questions such as are there further things we need to stop in order to create capacity? Given the precarious nature of our funding what are our priority areas of work if we needed to change the way we were organised?
We are reflecting as a staff team as we look to next year on Paul's words to Timothy where he says preach the gospel in season and out of season. This is our challenge. Not to use 'long term relational youthwork' as an excuse for not bringing the challenge of the gospel but rather to get a right balance between demonstrating our faith, declaring it, giving opportunities for decision and discipleship.
Finance
The past few months have seen much of our one - off giving dry up. For instance in June we received £0 one - off giving from churches and £676 from individuals. This has meant we approach our year end with tight cashflow. Often this happens in August as people go on holidays, but it is disconcerting that it has happened earlier this year.
It is also disappointing given the strides we have taken over the last two years to increase our predictable income that cashflow hasn't eased. Next year on paper it looks more positive as we expect certain one off gifts but the figures are not ideal.
Please pray for our finances and consider if you can help as a regular giver or in a one - off capacity.
Stop Press: - Tim Yau has a new job and will be leaving us in the Autumn. We are both pleased for him and will be sad to see him go. More next time.
Paul Cracknell
Many of you will have been involved with, or heard of the recent mission at the showground involving J John (pictured) who spoke over ten nights basing his theme on the ten commandments.
We were privileged to be asked to look after the youth side of the Just 10 mission. The youth work has looked different in all the locations that the mission has visited. We believed for Norwich that it was important to encourage young people to feel part of the mission and to encourage them to bring along their non Christian friends as part of their on-going witness.
The youth side of the mission started on the 1st of March when J.John visited Thorpe High School to speak to 850 young people present. The message he brought was one of challenge, encouragement and gave a chance for young people to respond to the Gospel. It was a great start to the mission, which saw in the region of 70 young people making first time commitments to God and about 130 young people responding to recommit their lives to Christ or ask for prayer, often to help them better share their faith.
At the showground itself we provided "detached" youth work based from the bus. This meant a team of youth workers being available to talk to young people who were not attending the meetings or who had additional questions to ask. Although we saw different young people every night we found that we would be in contact with a small group of the same young people each week and this provided opportunities to form strong relationships. We also found that the detached work gave us the opportunity to develop relationships from other areas of the work of NYFC in particular the forum and Fridays.
Some of the young people who attended the showground were those who became Christians at the youth event and they attended on a weekly basis to learn more about God. The mission also seemed to provide a good opportunity for youth groups and church young people to develop a closer relationship with God. It seems that one of the strengths of the mission was in presenting those who have been brought up in a Christian family with a challenge to make a decision.
One of the ongoing challenges that we feel as an organisation and attempt to respond to, is how can we reach and disciple those young people that the Just 10 mission did not attract? Young people for whom church culture and meetings such as Just 10 are barely recognised let alone understood.
We asked a few young people what they thought of the mission. Here are a few of their thoughts:
We'd also like to thank all our volunteers who helped make our involvement happen.
Well, praxis reaches the end of another year. Our two students Faye and Simon have had 11 months working with us now, so this would be a good time to get their final reflections:
Q. So Faye, Simon, have you enjoyed this year then?
A. Yes, Its been great, with a cherry on top!
Q. Looking back on the 11 months, what have been the highlights for you both?
A. Faye: Being able to work in the nightclub full-time, and sleeping in in the morning.
Simon: Probably training days, I've learnt a lot of stuff.
Faye: Oh yes, I realised how much I'd learnt the other day when someone asked a question about the composition of the Bible in the pub and I knew the answer!
Q. What would you say you have learnt this year?
A. Faye: I've learnt to talk a lot more!
Q. Any experiences that stand out as particularly funny or embarrasing this year?
A. Faye: Kids still come up to me shouting "You're the air girl!" after an assembly I did with Tim.
Simon: Working with Tim is embarrassing.
Q. So what's next?
A. Simon: I need to find a job really…
Faye: I need a job too! One thing I am doing though is competing in a yacht race to raise money for Norwich Youth For Christ in September. We'll be using ex-BT Global Challenge Yachts and following the course of the Fastnet Challenge. Our boat will be racing against the Saltmine crew, and we're aiming to raise £2500 per crew member for the charity. Our celebrity crew member is Roy Crowne (YFC National Director), and he's never even sailed before! If anyone could help out with sponsorship for this that would be great.
If you would like to help Faye raise money for YFC, then you can contact her through the office.
We currently have 3 trustees and are keen to recruit more. The role of a trustee is both a legal one but also one of guarding and guiding the vision of the organisation.
Our most recent trustee is David Adeney. He has recently retired from being the Diocesan Secretary of Norwich. Before that he has had a number of roles including executive director of Tearfund. We asked him why NYFC and what particularly excited him about the vision.
"Youth culture requires understanding and specialist approaches if the gospel is to be presented and communicated relevantly. I am particularly encouraged by the vision to provide help to local churches in their struggles to witness to young people. NYFC has the understanding of youth culture and effective ways of ministering to young people to compliment the ministry of local churches. It also has the ability to make contact with young people who are not in touch with the Churches."
Margaret Smith is the church administrator at Holy Trinity in Norwich. She describes how she sees her involvement.
"I know that if the cogs run smoothly, then ministry will grow and be blessed by God. It's rewarding, encouraging and exciting to see NYFC growing - and being a Trustee means one can play a small part in God's work, doing it for His glory. I guess it's being on the 'inside', supporting and taking on the business/management roles, so that those who work on the 'outside' are freed to carry out their ministry."
If you might be interested in being involved in the governance of NYFC and sharing in the joy of our mission please contact Paul or any of the trustees via the office for more info. We are particularly keen to have a solicitor and teacher as trustees.
However, if you have a passion for communicating the gospel relevantly to young people and feel this is a way you could serve, then do get in touch.
Remember these ? 
In the last bulletin we introduced you to our exciting new project using the internet. If you have not yet visited our website, then now would be a great time to stop by. We have recently updated the Church Resource section so there is now some more useful information there, and the key feature of the site at the moment, the Forum, is getting bigger every day.
In case you have not already heard, the Forum gives people the chance to interact with each other and us on the website. Like many of the arenas we work in its not always as well-behaved as our church services are, but what it's great at is letting people ask questions and get to know each other in a positive environment. We have found that Christians and non-Christians have been able to discuss issues related to faith and life in general, without descending into heated wars of words. The internet as a whole is full of many things, some great and some awful, and there are a lot of sites with axes to grind about the Church, Christianity & religion in general. The Forum gives us a chance to cut through rhetoric and respond as a community to people's concerns. It seems that some come looking for an argument, and when all they get back is compassion it can be confusing!
The other benefit is it gives young people a chance to discuss issues close to their hearts, but in a non-threatening way. We asked them what they thought of the forum:
"I find the questions of faith section really helpful in discussing issues that perhaps you'd find difficult to discuss in person, or simply because it gives you a chance to reread through things people say and think them through."
"The board is a good place to ask questions at any time which otherwise you might have had to wait for days or weeks to ask a youth leader who then gives a complicated answer etc etc....here there are lots of people who can explain things piece by piece if you see what I mean!"
"I like it because I think I've finally found some Christians who give me answers other than 'you're wrong, you're blind etc.'"
"its a gr8 place to chat 2 fellow Christians about things that u wudnt b able 2 discuss with ur non-Christian friends! yet whilst the Questions of Faith board is a serious place, the general board gives u sumwhere 2 just chill out and tlk about anything!"
"I think 'time' has a lot to do with it. Answers are not required immediately. All parties can think & reflect, sort out their views etc before saying anything. Also when else would I get the chance to talk about such deep issues with people? Everyone's so busy these days it's impossible to find times to chat face-to-face."
"Confidentiality - we don't have to say who we are, therefore we have the freedom to express what we feel on issues without worrying what others think of us."
It is interesting to see that in many cases where people use nicknames over time they are revealing their true identities. Also, because the forum is more than just a virtual community and connects with other areas of our work e.g. Fridays many of the young people know who each other are anyway and the forum helps them develop friendships.
If you visit the forum and go through the conversations you'll find there are a lot of things which are just plain silly, a fair few which are useful to varying degrees, and some which seem to be so vital that sometimes we are amazed. The challenge from here is to maintain the feel that we have managed to build in, and continue to welcome new members without them being overawed by the history of the thing (some of our members have posted over 2000 comments on to the forum!).
Do drop by at www.norwichyfc.co.uk, click on forum, and let us know your thoughts.
One of the projects the Church Resource Department has been involved has been a youth club at Wensum Chapel. Matt (pictured) and some NYFC volunteers have been there for a number of weeks now. The purpose of our involvement is two fold, firstly to share the love of God to those young people who attend and secondly to work with the current leaders to ensure that their work with young people is fruitful.
This is what Phil Johns (pastor) said about our involvement.
"The leadership at Wensum Chapel have been
looking for support and help from various areas concerning the youth club
over a number of years including NYFC.
NYFC were contacted and were willing to assist and bring in ideas relating
to the club. Matt has been along and the youth responded positively to him,
especially in competition with pool, table tennis and even the arm wrestle
challenge.
Matt has a great way of mixing with them and the club has been encouraged
with his help and support and we look forward to see what develops from his
time with us. It's always good to get ideas and direction, especially from
an organisation that is on the cutting edge concerning young people. Matt
is one who has a heart for the youth in the community and is always willing
to help people who are dealing with youth in their area."
This is one example of how we demonstrate our commitment to equip the wider church in its work with young people. More information of what we offer can be found on the website. Or contact Matt for more information.
NYFC is currently supporting several Rock Solid clubs throughout the area with more due to start shortly. A volunteer heads up Rock Solid in Norwich - Angela Fox. Angela has had a great deal of experience running Rock Solid clubs, seeing 250 young people attend a club that she ran. Angela firmly believes that Rock Solid is an extremely effective way for churches to reach out to non-Christian 11-14 old with the gospel.
So what is Rock Solid? Rock Solid is a three year programme where no two evenings are the same. Each club night is based around a particular theme such as: friendship, bullying, the media, drugs, forgiveness etc. They start with energetic games and move on to life-skills, which includes small group discussions, video clips and role-plays. Towards the end of the evening they look at how God wants to help with the issue in focus. The club then closes with a lively, memorable game and refreshments.
The benefit to the leader is all the preparation work is done for you all you need to do is glance through the material and make sure you take any props with you that you might need.
This is what one Rock Solid leader said about it.
"Rock Solid clubs provide a friendly environment for young people to have fun and to learn the relevance of the Gospel. It is a great resource for those people who lead busy lives but still want to reach out to young people."
Coming soon - RS2
RS2 has been produced for those young people who are a step on from Rock Solid and who need more than an outreach programme. It still very much geared for 11-14 year olds, but is for those who are:
To take advantage of this great resource call Matt at the office or contact rocksolid@norwichyfc.co.uk We will then place you on the waiting list .
Much of our work would be impossible without the generous help of many volunteers, so we thought it was about time we featured some in the bulletin:
This issue we are pleased to feature Paul Steward, more commonly known as PJ.
PJ has been on the scene with NYFC for around 10 years in different capacities, from his early days as a young person known to an Operation Gideon team, through to his current involvement as one of our dependable, faithful, all-round star volunteers. In the last couple of years he has been involved in: bus work; Christmas Unwrapped; youth clubs; J10; helping the Fridays band at various events; Fridays; Living Water & many one-off events. On top of this PJ is one of those people we seem to be able to call on whatever the situation for a helping hand.
Ask any of the staff what they think of PJ and the words that come through are: loyal; trustworthy; sacrificial giver; dependable; flexible; good laugh; practical and tee-total!
We asked PJ some questions to help you get to know him:
Q. What do you do when not volunteering with NYFC?
A. I work as a delivery driver for a freight company based near the airport.
Q. Any interesting hobbies?
A. I buy a lot of boy's toy's and gadgets, does that count? People have said
I could build pretty much anything from the bits and pieces under my bed.
Oh, I play the drums and like to have a go at DJ'ing too.
Q. Any exciting ambitions?
A. No, I haven't got time to think about ambitions as I'm always working with
you lot!
Q. How did you first get involved in NYFC?
A. I started when an Operation Gideon team asked me to help out at my church
where they were based. From there I just seem to have been sucked in and unable
to escape!
Q. What do you think you have gained from your involvement with NYFC?
A. Its always been a good laugh working with NYFC, and its given me opportunities
to do a lot of different things that I wouldn't have had otherwise, like driving
double-decker buses! I've also been able to use what I've learnt at my Church.
Recently Tim asked one of our volunteers, Kimi, who she was and first and foremost, without any hesitation she referred to herself as an American.
When I asked Kimi about why she came, she said that back home she didn't know who she was, as she was only 19, and she wanted to grow into the person she should be. She said, "I'm still learning about myself, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I've grown whilst being in the UK. I've had to learn real practical stuff but most of all I've learnt to rely on God more, for money and help. I've been on my own a lot and God has become more of a friend than a duty, I've had to rely on him because I couldn't turn to my friends and family back in the States."
Kimi's main duties are with her hosting church, but for one morning a week and one afternoon slot she's been working with me in two of the local schools close to the church doing assemblies. I've found this model works well, linking churches to schools with NYFC acting as the catalyst or the link, then when the young people from the school feed into that local church there's a friendly face that they recognise.
When I asked Kimi how NYFC has impacted her whilst being here she said that before coming to the UK she wasn't confident about herself she never thought she'd ever be standing up in front of hundreds of young people talking about Jesus. When she first started coming into school with me she says she was really scared, but also excited at the same time. Slowly but surely with coaching, practice and encouragement I saw Kimi start to come out of herself. Kimi says that because of NYFC she's had more fun and made more friends and done things she never thought she'd ever do.
Calling all Youth Leaders! Fancy Breakfast!In partnership with the YMCA, the Diocesan Youth Service and Crusaders we are organising a series of breakfasts for anyone involved in leading any type of youthwork - especially volunteers. They will be on Saturday mornings (8:30-10:00) at Trowse YMCA. The aim is to meet other youth leaders, network, share ideas, pray and leave feeling better equipped and less isolated. The first 3 dates and themes are: 14th Sept On Resources 9th Nov On Youth Culture 11th Jan On Vision For more information/ directions and for an indication of numbers please contact Nick Jeffery at the YMCA on 01603 630049 or nick-ymca@lineone.net Pray For Us!If you are interested in praying for specific requests and/or would like more regular prayer updates please contact the office.
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DatesSept 2-4th Staff Retreat
Got 2 B TruTo start off the new school year, Fridays will be joining with the Diocesan Youth Service. Instead of Fridays there is a special 25hr residential at Letton Hall. The Fridays band will be leading worship and many of the usual NYFC faces will be there! Contact the diocesan youth service for more info and a booking form - 01603 881352 Contacting UsIf you want to e mail us our addresses are: office@norwichyfc.co.uk If you prefer the more traditional approach, then our postal address is: Norwich Youth For Christ, 3 Brigg Street, Norwich, NR2 1QN Our telephone number is 01603 620678 |
Any Questions?Q. Who are
you people? Q. Why have
you sent me this? Q. This is
a great piece of communication, but why do I get this as well as a paper
copy? Q. I don't
want anymore of these sent to me? Q. Actually
I've changed my mind, I don't want to stop receiving this, in fact I
want all my friends to get it! How do I do this? If you prefer the more traditional approach, then our postal address is: Norwich Youth For Christ, 3 Brigg Street, Norwich, NR2 1QN Our telephone number is 01603 620678 Check out our website – www.norwichyfc.co.uk, including our brand new feature, the forum, your chance to interact with NYFC staff and volunteers. |
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