Driving home from a meeting last night, past a friends farm and there (by the side of the road rather than actually in the middle) was a cow eating away at the grass. I popped in to let the know and it turned out it she had recently calved and was probably looking for her baby although how she got out and away from baby not quite so sure. I haven’t been back to check but I believe mother and baby are both now doing well! One of those great moments in rural ministry!

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Currently trying to develop a policy for using Social networking as a youth work tool, thinking about issues of the balance between meeting young people where they are and endorsing the use of particular networks, how much time? Can you measure the impact? I tend to work to a personal policy of I don’t add young people, I let them know I am there and will accept friendship invites from them but I don’t invite them myself. Do you have a policy? If so can I see a copy please, if you don’t but are working on similar things can we share ideas? If you weren’t even thinking about it but you’ve suddenly thought “if I were to produce some sort of policy I would include this” please share your ideas.
Many thanks
Simo

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One of the churches in the Vale is going to be running a training session on running Family Worship, the evening will be Wednesday 2nd July, if you would like further details please contact me.

written by Simo

Vcashpiont are offering grants of up to £2500 for people aged between 16 & 25 to start a volunteer project in their local communities. The projects need to be run by young people and for young people, applications are from individuals but for projects that will involve both that person and at least three other young volunteers in helping their community, interested or no anybody that might be?
Check out www.vinspired.com to find out more.

written by Simo

Just received this video on Facebook (thanks to Carol), it is something that is encouraging the church to get back to the heart of Worship, reminding us that worship is for God and not for us, thought you might find it interesting/useful.
Enjoy.

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If your visiting having read ground level, the profile page in Youthwork Magazine then a very big welcome to you.
Regular readers may remember that a while ago I talked about putting up a video tour of the bus, well I have finally done it, as part of the preparations to put it on the market, so if you want to see it inside and out please click below.

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Well I had a meeting with the DDO (Diocesan Director of Ordinands) this morning as I continue to explore where God is calling me in my future ministry. It seemed to go well, some though provoking questions and quite a bit of reading to do now but I think it was positive, I now need to get on and do some reading before seeing her again in July. Thanks to all of you that were praying and I will keep you updated.

• ‘Being a Priest today‘ by Christopher Cocksworth & Rosalind Brown
• ‘Ministry in three dimensions‘ by Stephen Croft

I would be very interested in borrowing them.

Cheers

written by Simo

well almost… I have been asked to write a case study on the bus project for Youthwork Magazine and submitted my article at the beginning of this week. I think it should be in the next issue (which I guess is due out in three weeks or so guessing from when I got my last issue). Although mostly focused on the bus and only short I have tried to relate it to rural youth ministry as much as I can as well. I am looking forward to having a copy in my hands and I’m sure I’ll put a note up here when I finally see it in print.

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Last week we had the APCM at church, I had been waiting for this before I felt I could say too much about my thinking on the blog, but now the info is out with that annual report it all become a little easer as it is out there in the public domain anyway.

When I first arrived in Faringdon I was on a three year contract which was then extended for a further two years, this takes my contract until end of July 2009 but for the last year or so I have started thinking about what is next for me. Come that date next year I will have been in full time Church based Youth Ministry for 10 years (all bar a month) and I feel that perhaps I should be heading in a slightly different direction. As many of you probably know I feel passionately about Youth Work in rural churches, I have been frustrated by the focus on Urban Priority areas, not because I begrudge a focus on them but because I have been aware of a need in rural areas that seams to have been overlooked. (There is also a slight sense of irony here as the rural population of Britain is growing faster that any other!)

So I have had this vision for several years to set up a charity (called Not Ashamed, based on Romans 1:16 (I love that verse!) hence my owning the domain notashamed.co.uk) to ‘encourage, enable and equip good quality Youth Work in and through rural Churches’.

At Soul Survivor last year I went to a seminar by Bishop Graham & Jackie Cray called Getting Collard, obviously about ordination, this is again an idea that has been with me for quite some time, and something that had been suggested when thinking and talking about my vision as well. This has started much thinking and praying and as a result I feel I am being called to ordained ministry and that somehow this fits with the Vision, I don’t know how it all fits together, but I truly believe this is where God is calling me at the moment. As a part of this process I have an appointment with the DDO (Diocesan Director of Ordinands) on the 23^rd May to help start the process of exploring this calling.

At the same time as all this I am also looking around at what other jobs are around, I don’t know about you but it seams to me there is no one place to look for jobs in youth ministry, there seam to be several and not one that has all

I thought it might be helpful to have a list of places to look for ministry jobs and so at the bottom of this post is what I have got so far and I am sure there are several I have missed, especially any outside of the Anglican church, if you know of others please let me know and I’ll add them.

In the mean time I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as I look to what the future holds for me and my family.

job search monitor

church of England newspaper

churchtimes

cross rhythms

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Well I have freshened up the look slightly and made a bit more of a customisation job, I know some people found the heavy black of the old look difficult so I hope this is better, please leave your comments to let me know what you think.

written by Simo