Well, Liesl and I have arrived in Melbourne, and are slowly settling in, and realising that this is our home now. We’re staying at an Aunt’s place until Tuesday, so it still feels a bit like a holiday. However, we have done some things that make staying here very much a reality.
For example, one of the first things we did in Melbourne was to search for a new car. We sold our car in Perth, because we had a two door Hyundai Getz, and two door cars aren’t great when you’ve got a baby.
Category: Life
Farewell
Today is our last Sunday at our Church before we leave. Due to it being January, we actually had our Corps farewell on December 18. Today we will receive a farewell from the Division as well as an “official” farewell from our corps. I thought I’d share today our farewell, which was shared by Mrs Wilson, as well as Liesl’s farewell reply.
Farewell Speech to Ben and Liesl
A few weeks ago Liesl led the devotions at Songster Practice. She spoke about her life being in the ‘count-down’ phase as she was going through ‘the last time I will be doing this’ before leaving WA for the Training Collegeā¦ the half packed boxes a constant reminder that time was ticking away far too quickly. She expressed that her sense of excitement and anticipation was tinged with sadness because she would be leaving her church family here at Floreat. Liesl has grown up in this church since she was a baby, except for a brief period after the family moved to Morley and attended the Corps there. However Liesl’s heart was always at Floreat so she returned and became one of us again where she has been nurtured and encouraged in her faith and service for God. Those who have known Liesl would be aware of her strong conviction that God had called her into full-time ministry in The Salvation Army. Continue reading “Farewell”
A new year, a new challenge…
Well, it’s 2012. 2011 has ended, and with it a whole heap of changes have been brought about.
We’re in the midst of packing right now – we move to Melbourne in less than two weeks now. The usual routines that we have fallen into will change dramatically, with our new lives being governed by college timetables and expectations. Not only that, but we will be bringing a new child into the world in May – something that will also change our lives dramatically.
So for today, let’s look back on the year that was, and look forward to the year that will be…
Happy Christmas to you
and to you and to you!
Not a Booksneeze blogger
I came across this service, Booksneeze, the other day. It looked like a great idea. They send out books to bloggers, the bloggers review the book, publish a review and copy it to a site such as Amazon, and then get to do what they want with the book.
Thinking this would be a great little addition to my website, I applied. I looked through the website just to check any details, couldn’t find any reason as to why I wouldn’t get approved. As part of the application process, they ask what country you’re from, which makes sense because they’d need to send out the book to you and would need to know the address.
So I applied, and waited for my approval. Continue reading “Not a Booksneeze blogger”
The end of a period
I know it’s usually the end of an era, but I don’t think eighteen months really classifies as an era. Today I finished at the Uniting Church in WA.
It’s oddĀ to think that in July last year, I was sitting in Soto, writing this post about how I had finally found a job. After six months of looking for work, and coming literally about a week away from going to K-Mart to do anything there, I found a job that really allowed me to embrace my passions.
Over my time there, I have really grown to love that job, and be proud of my achievements there, so much so that I want to share them with you. Continue reading “The end of a period”
Angels from the realms of glory
O little town of Bethlehem
Today’s carol is an enchanting and stunningly beautiful version of O Little Town of Bethlehem, sung by Sarah McLachlan.
Continue reading “O little town of Bethlehem”
Leederville Coffee
This morning, I went for some coffee in Leederville. I started off at Greens and Co. Greens is a bit of an old faithful – I know that it’s good coffee, in a good place.
Greens is very funky, with concert posters all over the walls. At times, it can be very busy, making it hard to find a place to sit. However, this morning, it was mostly empty, and I could take my choice of couches, or tables. Ended up going with the couch, as I was expecting a few friends to come. I started with a cappuccino, which was very well made. It had a nice consistency of foam, and was a good strength coffee.
A little while after that, I had a short macchiato. This is something that I’ve only just got into, so I’m still getting used to the tastes. However, the coffee was nice, nothing overpowering about it.
The interesting thing for me came just after this. We moved to a new cafe, 50ml, which has opened up next to San Churros, taking over the shop that Gloria Jeans used to have. If Greens is funky, 50ml is wacky. The lights are covered by strainers, there’s an eclectic mix of artwork on the back wall, and the seating and tables seem to have been collected from various op shops from around Perth. For example, the table where we sat was obviously an old school table – you know the ones, wooden with the indentation for your pencil, and a lift up lid for all your books. My chair however was even more weird. The back seemed to be something that seemed more at home in a shower than a coffee shop.
But enough about the shop, the coffee was very interesting. I may not have noticed so readily had I not just had one, but the short macchiato that I had was very different. The coffee was very strong – it was the first thing my friend and I noticed. However, it wasn’t overpowering, and didn’t leave a bad taste in the mouth. It was in fact very nice, however people who aren’t fans of strong coffee may not appreciate it.
So if you’re in Leederville, make sure you check out one of these coffee shops and enjoy the vibe.
It works everywhere else but here
When I was first getting into Youth Ministry, the Anglican Youth Ministries (AYM) was pushing a program for youth ministries by Ken Moser. The whole idea of this was to develop a style of youth ministry that would work in both large and small youth groups, and enable the youth worker to not burn out in their average 18 months.
I went along, I did the training, and it sounded great. So we tried it out at our youth group. It didn’t work so well. The program was almost a church service, and our youth (who had all grown up in the Church) were coming to youth group to get something that wasn’t Church. It may well have been a good program, but it wasn’t a good program for the youth that we had.
Over my time as a youth leader, I have read numerous books of programs purporting to have “THE” program that will work at any church, that will work at any size youth group, and will work with any youth. I eventually grew skeptical of these claims, as while they were all written by youth leaders who had remarkable stories of taking their youth groups from single figures into the hundreds, they had seemed to forget that starting element, and their programs that they promoted just didn’t seem to work in smaller groups.
The other day, I heard someone complaining about a youth group program that was being pushed because “it worked everywhere else” yet the first night they ran it, instead of having a youth group of 30-40 like they have for their activity nights, they had 7 attend for this bible study. I’m not saying that bible study is not a great thing to have as a youth ministry, but it depends on your situation. The kids that were coming to this youth group were mainly kids from the community, who had no knowledge of Christ yet, and were more so interested in the activities than study.
What I’ve now realised that the program that works “everywhere else” or the program that works with “any sized group” should carry a disclaimer – “except in your situation”.
Youth Ministry must be one of the toughest gigs in the church. Many people have said this, so I’m not saying anything new here. You go into youth ministry with certain expectations of what you will be able to achieve. However, you also have to balance up what the minister expects you to achieve, what the parents of “Churched” youth want you to achieve, what the rest of the church community wants you to achieve, and what the community wants you to provide.
Each one of those expectations will be different depending on your community. One church minister may have an expectation that the youth leader will bring in a lot of members from the community. Another minister may prefer his youth leader to be focussing on building up the youth already within the church.
Because of this, no book that claims to have the method for your situation will actually work, because the expectations that they were working under will be totally different to the expectations you are working under.
However, you – as a youth leader – should still be reading these books. A youth leader needs to be constantly coming up with fresh ideas, and the more ideas they have, the longer they can go before repeating those they have already used. (However, be prepared to repeat ones that worked – one youth group I had was very musical, so talent nights, and Spicks and Specks quiz nights worked very well. They however didn’t work so well at the next youth group I worked at which had a very different community).
So before you go and start that “next big thing” or that program that has worked everywhere else, ask this most important question: “Will it work here? Why?”
You’ll save yourself a whole lot of work trying to make a square program fit a round community.
Ben Clapton 