Pretty much everyone in Catholic Youth Ministry must know when I am really busy... it's the times when nothing much appears on the site for days on end.

Over the last week or so, it's been pretty chocka (English slang for busy!) and the next week is going to be pretty similar.

That said though, it's a nice time. Busy, but we're getting a lot of good stuff done. And, as ever, I'm learning a thing or two as I go along. Here is some of what I have learned lately...

I've learned that when working with short attention spans, short sharp bursts of info/ talks/ video work better than long talks.

I've learned that five minutes is as long as a video clip should be - unless it's really good.

I've learned that publicising events is a must. Always. Never take your foot of the gas!

I've learned that I need to be less last-minute and prep better!

I've learned that I should remember that new leaders aren't that comfortable with small group work. They need support, encouragement and tips...


What have you learned lately?

This November we had an interesting idea at one project I'm involved with...

We put a load of candles (little tealights) and some permanent marker pens in the chapel and invited young people to come along and write the names of people they had lost and wanted to pray for on the candles. We the used these as a focal point for a Mass of remembrance this last Friday.

It was really successful. Almost 100 candles were taken and written on and a load of young people turned up to the Mass too.

If you want to do this, it's dead easy. You just need a bag of cheap tealights (Ikea?), some permanent marker pens, and something to go under the candles. We used cardboard. Tell the young people not to light the candles themselves, but tell them when you are going to come together in prayer around them. If Mass isn't possible, maybe a night prayer or some other sort of liturgy/ devotion might be nice.

A simple idea, that worked a treat!

Now that September is here and we're back at the mill, I thought it would be fun to ask everyone what they did over the summer?

And by that I mean both work and play. Did you get involved in any youth projects? Celebrate? Lourdes? Taize? Youth 2000? New Dawn? Greenbelt etc etc?

And, what did you do to relax? Any nice holidays? BBQs?

Personally, I had a week in Lourdes with the Diocese and then a few weeks to chill out before going on a cruise round the baltic. It was an amazing summer!

Your turn...

Next summer I am taking a group to Taize - hence my last post - and I am trying to make a to do list. I thought I'd share my list on here so that other people can tell me what I've forgotten. Also, if it's any good, it might make a half decent resource...

-Get approval for the trip
-Advertise the trip
-Work out costs for the trip and a payment structure
-Draw up consent forms
-Arrange an initial parents meeting
-Work out the structure of prep and follow-up
-Work out who your leaders are and what prep/ training they will need
-Find out about where you are going: accommodation, activities, Risk Assessment etc etc
-Get some nice custom hoodies made!!
-Work out joining instructions and travel arrangements
-Work out an emergency plan for getting somebody home if need be
-Make sure parents have all the info they need
-Make sure YP are aware of contacts and emergency procedures during the trip

-Go on the trip!!

I got up nice and early this morning to catch my train to London for Youthworkmag Summit 2012. I'm currently sitting on the train looking at the programme and it's an exciting day ahead.

I'll try to post as many updates on this thread as I can, so keep checking back...

I am looking into producing a hymnbook for one particular project I am involved with, and I want to make sure that we get the choice of hymn right. I don't want to incude stuff that we probably won't use, but I also want to include some stuff that is current but which we might not quite have got round to learning yet.

So, my question to the site members is this...

Which modern hymns are currently popular with young people? I'd especially like to know about newer stuff that's just coming out.

And, we're talking about youth friendly stuff here - we don't have to be all parish-inclusive, since it's just for youth Masses.

I'd appreciate some input from music ministers, youth liturgy co-ordinators and anyone else with some active current knowledge of what's hot and what's not!!

Thanks 

Hi everyone... An RE teacher friend of mine wants to know where he can get hold of a load of free (or v. cheep) Rosaries to handout to students.

Any ideas...?

 

I've just been watching the amazing rebuild my Church Online Youth Ministry training conference online and it has been absolutely amazing. I'll probably miss the very end because I'mm off out now sadly!!

When the videos become available online, we'll link to them on the site and have plenty of chances to talk over them.

In the meantime, if you watched the conference, it would be great to get your thoughts on this thread...

One of the best youth workers I've ever met was a guy called Reg Hibberd (right). He was a De La salle brother working at Kintbury and was still active in youth ministry when he was in his mid eighties! He would offer counselling to schools, lead small groups, tutor young gap year volunteers and much more besides. He did it all with a great deal of understanding and skill. There was nothing at all that seemed past it.

Whenever anybody tells me that you have to be young to be any good as a youth worker, I always remember Reg. My rule: if you're good enough, you're young enough. And, for the record, I've held that view since I was 22!

I was reading a piece on MoreThanDodgeball.com today about the perspectives of a veteran youth worker. Their idea of veteran is wildly different to mine, but it's interesting stuff.

As you get a bit older - he says at 33 - you certainly lose something. But you also gain. You get more perspective, experience, knowledge, and an important confidence in handling situations that's just not there in your twenties.

Interesting reading anyway. As ever, all thoughts welcome...

A BBC report claims that the majority of pupils in state schools do not take part in a daily act of worship each day, despite there being a law saying that this should happen.

My first reaction to this was 'ya think...?' After all, the law requiring a daily act of worship is seen by many - at least outside of faith schools - as one of those archaic laws that parliament just simply never to round to quashing. Like the laws banning kissing and making it legal to kill a Welshman with a crossbow inside the city walls of Chester (Really).

In Catholic schools, it happens far more uniformly, but I know a lot of Chaplains still struggle to enforce it. I have been to many a Chaplains' meeting where we talk about how best to, shall we say, encourage form tutors to pray with their forms each day.

Anyway, I thought it might be a good discussion for us Chaplains to have on a cold, wet Tuesday afternoon...

I've had an idea... it came to me during my first Mass with the revised translation this evening.

The idea is quite simple. It goes like this: Every time you accidentally say 'and also with you' or 'God of power and might' or 'Christ has died...' or anything from the old translation, you put £1 in a box and give it to CAFOD.

It will help us to learn the new Mass and also raise some cash for a good cause.

So... who's in?

(image hotlinked from CAFOD [Kate Stanworth])