When I started Show&Tell I had all sorts of great ideas to provide news, reviews, articles and more which would be relevant to youth and children’s work. The truth is, I just don’t have time. So we’re stripping the site right back. It will continue to provide a place for people to share resources but that’ll be it. Please keep using Show&Tell and keep telling other people all about it.
Youth and children’s ministry for the 21st century This year’s residential conference for children’s and youth workers is again at High Leigh conference centre, in Hoddesdon (7 miles from the M25). Our theme is ‘The Message’—how to understand it; how to teach it; and how to live by it ourselves. Call 0845 225 0880 to book! Or visit www.thegoodbook.co.uk/conferences
Full details of the Big Issue training days are now available on the Good Book website (www.thegoodbook.co.uk/Conferences). The theme this year is ‘law and grace’. There are 8 venues nationwide… Cambridge, Nottingham, North London, Northern Ireland, Leeds, Sevenoaks, Bristol and the North West (Leyland).
Book early!
Guess people will be aware by now of the Sprint Harvest / Word Alive stuff, here’s an official statment from UCCF that should clear up some of the rumours going around…
STATEMENT
For Immediate Release
23 April 2007
Response from UCCF to the SPRING HARVEST decision to end the World Alive Bible teaching week after 14 years
FOR the past 14 years, the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship and Keswick Ministries have been delighted to partner Spring Harvest in organising Word Alive, one of Europe’s top Bible Study weeks with a vibrant student track aimed at young people. Widely recognised, orthodox Bible teaching has been the hallmark of the event. Read the rest of this entry »
Fancy winning a years subscription to The Briefing?* We’re looking for the most cheesy church signs we can find. You know the kind of thing…
• Ch _ _ ch – what’s missing? UR!
• In lifes big jigsaw, Jesus is the missing peace!
• Feeling down in the mouth? Get yourself a faith lift!
That’s the kind of thing we’re after. You’ll see them outside churches usually printed on dayglo posters. Either send in the ones you see around the place or make up your own. The best one we get will win the prize.
Just comment on this post to enter.
*We reserve the right to change the prize to something of an equal or similar value.
Mark Ashton & Phil Moon, updated by Jonathan Carswell
The question of how to do youth work is one with many answers on offer from many places. But how can the youth worker in today’s church discern which voice to listen to? Mark Ashton and Phil Moon help by pointing us to the voice that matters most – God’s!
The principles for youth work in this book are rooted in God’s word and the focus is clear: how can we best take the good news of Jesus Christ to the teenagers in our youth groups? The role of the local church in discipling and teaching teenagers is emphasised. The particular needs and problems that teenagers have are also recognised. These elements together help us to focus on people and not strategies.
The response questions at the end of each chapter avoid the easy trap of being ‘to-do’ lists of Christian activity. Instead they guide the reader as he thinks through the implications of what has been said for his own youth group and church situation.
Every youth worker and volunteer youth leader should read this book. However the reading should not just be left to the leaders! Chapters on ‘Young people in the family’ and ‘Strategies for church leaders’ make this book essential reading for parents and church leaders alike. Read this book and be better equipped to support your youth workers and together envision a youth work that is biblical and effective.
Amy Wicks
(this review originally appeared in the South East Gospel Partnership Newsletter)
Authentic Media. ISBN 978-1-85078-730-3
This is from an email originally sent to Oak Hill students
Dear Friends
We would like to request your help!
Over the past few years Alison & I have been working hard on a Children’s TV Series called “Friends and Heroes”. It is an action-and-adventure animation story which introduces stories from the Old and New Testaments to ages 6-10.
You can discover more about Friends and Heroes on our web site at www.friendsandheroes.com.
After many months of negotiation, we are delighted that the first series of 13 episodes is to be broadcast on the CBBC channel on weekdays 12 – 23 March! The output is largely targeted at schools – and the Stapleford Centre are working with us to ensure that at the time of broadcast we will be able to provide free lesson plans and pupil worksheets so that teachers will be able to use these programmes as part of the national syllabi for all the countries in the British Isles.
We have worked hard to ensure that our programmes are not branded as “religious”, so that they are accessible to the widest possible audience – whatever their faith. That said, we are sure that many Oak Hill students and supporters will be eager to help us make the most of this unique opportunity to see a positive representation of Bible Stories on National Television. If broadcast is successful, the BBC might be prepared to run the show on more popular Terrestrial TV Channels – and might also consider showing Series Two and Series Three when they are completed in 2008 and 2009.
Would you be able to help us in any way to get the word out, please. Any suggestions you can give us will be most gratefully received – and, as you’ll see, we already have lots of exciting material ready to go!
You may be especially interested to see the Teachers’ Introduction to Friends and Heroes which will shortly be mailing to primary schools in the UK – the electronic version is on our web site at http://uk.friendsandheroes.com/lessons/A4FH_Teachers_Info.pdf
Yours in His service
David & Alison Dorricott
Tel 01624 811747
david.dorricott@friendsandheroes.com
Many of you will know The Ichthus File – truly brilliant Bible reading notes for teenager that were written by Al Horn and published by The Good Book Company (GBC) 10 years ago or so. The GBC is starting to work on a project to develop a new range of Bible reading resources for teens and older, and as part of the research, are looking for help with a questionnaire on Bible reading among teenagers. If you can help by using this questionnaire with your youth group, then please log on and download it.
Click here to access the questionnaires…
‘Here, you should read this,’ said my brother as he dropped a little book, with an out of date cover down on my bed. I had heard him say that before about other books, but when he commends a book he is usually right. Unfortunately though, my towers of ‘should read’ and ‘must read’ Christian books were so high they were causing a health and safety hazard! I took one look at the out of date cover, and foolishly doubted his high praise. So the book was put to one side like the others…that is until the same book, with a new cover, arrived on my desk again early last month. When I mentioned to my brother that I was going to give it a go he augmented his praise for its content, but warned me of its challenge. I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to read…
You know whenever an author presents the challenge of ‘nothing less than unconditional surrender’ on the first page that he is serious and you are in for a white knuckle ride, that leaves your hair windswept and your heart racing. Spiritually speaking, this is what MacDonald’s book, True Discipleship does. For many readers they will remember the book, (and its naff cover!) from its release in the early 60’s, but the message of this book is so important it is well worth a re-visit.
MacDonald sets out to challenge the ever growing caution of being so ‘sold out’ for Christ that one might be labelled a “fundamentalist”. He does so strategically and methodically, dismantling the weak yet frequent arguments we often use when settling for mediocrity in our Christian lives.
I was caused to re-evaluate my commitment to both gospel projects and people by MacDonald’s call to invest in things destined for heaven; for, as he puts it, ‘the only way we can lay up our treasures in heaven is to put them into something that is going [there].’ MacDonald’s message is not simply about time and money though – he wishes to challenge attitudes too. One cannot fail to be stirred by the examples of disciples such as C. T. Studd or John and Betty Stam, amongst others, who had clearly adopted the mentality of ‘all of Christ, none of self’. It is spicy stuff when MacDonald turns his thoughts to that of martyrdom. We live in an age of the suicide bomber so perhaps martyrdom is discarded as something just for those who are misguided or mentally unstable, but MacDonald urges his readers to think again. While, he concedes, ‘not all are required to lay down their lives as martyrs…each of us can have the martyr spirit, the martyr zeal, the martyr devotion.’ It’s sobering stuff and left me with much to contemplate.
Page by page MacDonald uses the Bible to impose tough questions upon his reader’s life: I found myself having to stop after each paragraph or two to consider the implications of the teaching I had just read. My knuckles were getting whiter and my heart racing harder, as the truth and necessity of the teaching became clearer and clearer.
Every Christian becomes a disciple the moment they are born for a second time. However, not every disciple allows the supernatural power of a Holy God to rule supreme in their lives. We need to hear the message of this book loud and clear as we devote ourselves to Him, permitting Him to take hold of us, change us and use us for His purposes. I commend MacDonald for his skill in biblically challenging us in the quest to be ‘Christ-like’ while realising ‘he’s not there yet’ himself.
May I challenge you – will you get a copy of this book from your local Christian book shop; strap yourself in for a unsettling ride, but one which I hope will do you the spiritual good it did me. Perhaps you have the dreadfully covered book from back in the 60’s – why not dig it out, dust it off and read it again, or pass it on to a friend? With the helpful study guide at the back of this book its ideal to study with a friend, or in a prayer triplet. Go on, I dare you!
Available from www.amazon.co.uk
Published by Gospel Folio Press | ISBN 188270191-01
Review by Jonathan Carswell, Hamilton Road Baptist Church,
Bangor, Northern Ireland
This review first appeared in Evangelicals Now
John Chapman:
“This book is a first-class tool kit to help in the reading and understanding of the Bible. The Bible is a book for every Christian to read and hear the voice of God. It is not just the domain of the Christian scholar. A person does not have to be an intellectual to read and understand the Bible.”
Linda Marshall:
“This book is just brilliant. It is practical and accessible, and will revolutionize the way you read your Bible. It will help you to see the Bible as an ‘all-you-can-eat’ buffet rather than a ‘Mcquick-and-not-very-satisfying’ nibble. Dig deeper and get to know God better!”
With clear purpose, short chapters and worked examples Dig Deeper will help leaders and older teens that are serious about handling God’s Word correctly to do so.
The tool box contains some 16 tools (Author’s purpose, Context, Structure, Linking words, Parallels, Narrators comment, Vocabulary, Translations, Tone & Feel, Repetition, Quotation/Allusion, Genre, Copycat, Bible Timeline, ‘Who am I?’ and ‘So what?’). ‘Each chapter introduces you to a separate tool and explains how it works.’(p17). There are also exercises that ‘give you a chance to practise using the tools for yourself.’(p17) At the end of the book they’ve included a helpful appendix with a suggestion of how you might use the ‘toolkit’ concept in your small group.
I plugged this book a lot over the summer to some older teens. Here is what they said:
“Thank you for going on about this book so much that I finally gave in and bought it. I’ve found it to be really helpful.” Rather than spoon feeding older teens, equip them; let them unearth the Bible’s treasure themselves and be transformed by it.
Available from www.thegoodbook.co.uk (Dig Deeper)
Published by IVP | Review by Helen Morrow