We invite you to read our Buzz Newsletter
In this month’s Buzz:
:
or you can watch it here
Click here for Buzz newsletter which includes:
Click here for Buzz newsletter which includes:
PYM is currently working on making some Tips and Tricks videos which will be used when coaching youth leaders. We need your help!
We are wanting youth leaders to film little 30s clips of themselves answering questions, Below are the questions we would love you to answer.
You can film 1 video answering 1 question or film multiple for each topic whatever feels manageable. The best way to film is to just film facing a camera and be somewhere quiet so we don’t pick up too much background noise! Just remember that 30 seconds is a great length and over a minute is probably a bit long (unless it’s a really epic story that needs slightly longer)
Video parameters:
Please send your videos to jasmin@pym.org.nz
We love to hear your stories and ideas and maybe even something that didn’t work well….
1.Dealing with unacceptable Behaviour
How you have provided discipline in a way that’s both loving and effective?
What is the best rule you have put into place in your ministry?
2.Teaching and Communication
What is the best tip you have to communicate what you want effectively with teens.
How do you get students talking during small groups?
3.Discipling young people
What does discipleship look like in your context?
4. Adolescent development
How has your teens adolescent development shaped what you do or how you do ministry?
What do you do differently for your year 9 vs year 13 students?
5. Engaging and Supporting Parents
What’s the best way you have found to support and engage with parents?
How has engaging with parents changed your ministry for the better?
6. Pastoral care
What is one practical way that you have shown care to your young people?
7. Intergenerational Ministry
What is the best way you have found for building intergenerational relationships?
Do you have a story of young and old forming connections?
Read the enitire Buzz newsletter, it includes:
http://oldsite.pym.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/The-BUZZ-Sept-2020-3.pdf
This could have big implications for youth ministry in our churches.
The team is recommending a number of things, including making changes to the way ministers are trained, what happens when a minister comes from a Presbyterian Church overseas or from another denomination, there are also some changes to the Presbyterian Research Centre, all of which you can give feedback on.
We wanted to highlight a couple of the recommendations as they may affect you as a youth leader. They are proposing to create a second tier of ordination below the minister. They would call such people deacons, and would have titles such as Youth Pastor. To become a Deacon there would be a lower entry level than for ministers, there would also be a shorter internship, and there would be a graduated training scheme if the deacon then decided to become a minister later on.
We are sure the team will receive much feedback from ministers and elders, but we think it is important for youth leaders to give feedback to this proposal as well because it affects youth workers and youth leaders. Whether you support it or not, it will be helpful for the team to hear your opinions
.
Here is the full report (61 pages)
Text in Red is directly from the report. In the Executive Summary it names 5 major streams coming out of the recommendations. Here are the two affecting youth workers.
2. We are suggesting the establishment for a new Diaconate which will replace LOM as a flexible second tier of ordained ministry. The Diaconate will have lower entry barriers and will be open to youth and other recognised ministries. We expect that a number of Deacons will also go on to become Ministers through a graduated training scheme.
4. We are suggesting retaining the core of the internship as an excellent model, but also making some simplifications and changes in delivery so as to provide for the incorporation of Deacons into a mini- internship and Ministers from other churches into a micro-internship.
The report then has 30 pages or findings from the teams research which are worth looking at. In their general survey, the themes that related to youth are:.
4. Youth: There was a real concern about the aging of the PCANZ, and a loss of youth. There was a repeated emphasis on ministry to children and youth. There were comments about reducing the average age of leaders and making our calling attractive and accessible to younger leaders. “All our leaders need ongoing training to be able to relate to children and youth.” We heard that “if we recognize there are different age cultures in our church, we need to recognize that all our Ministers need to be able to connect with those different age cultures and especially youth and children, not segmenting that work to someone else.” There was a call for ordaining youth pastors, and with some extra training seeing them transform into our current ordained role. We also heard a cry to improve the pay-scale and terms of employment for youth workers. There was feedback to recognize other specialist roles also. “We need to inspire and mentor young people to become Ministers.”
-Page 15
From the Presbyteries they heard:
When the group looked at the current practice in regards to Youth and other recognised ministries they said:
We have heard a cry for a better career structure for youth workers, and a pathway for progressive vocational growth. This call for training youth and other recognised ministries has been heard for many years now and was reflected in the 2008 review of the school of ministry. In Dr Rae’s report streams of training for youth workers were envisaged. The church currently provides specific youth work training through PYM and we hear a call for further coherence of training and a clearer pathway through training.
-Page 27
So taking into account what they heard, the group had the following conclusions:
Youth and other Recognised Ministries
13. There is a need to mark-out, but not necessarily provide pathways for career development for those individuals who feel a call to specialised ministries such as youth, children and families, music and worship, and pastoral care.
14. People who work in specialised ministries for 3 to 5 years could benefit from ordination by their Presbytery to a diaconate with the title of Pastor.
15. The LOM pathway would incorporate into the diaconate pathway.
16. A deaconate pathway could incorporate a discernment phase, a training phase, and a miniinternship.
Ministers (National & Local)
17. LOM should be replaced with a second tier of ordination (Deacon) with a reduced scope and a reduced expectation of pre-ordination study.
18. We value an educated clergy, but we need to be more nimble and able to quickly deploy new workers with lower academic qualifications.
19. Ordination to a diaconate with the title of ‘Pastor’, could enable the replacement of LOM with a more functional and theologically coherent alternative.
20. A Deacon might oversee one ministry and a Minister with a higher level of training should oversee a wider range of ministries. Deacons would be able to preach and administer both sacraments.
21. A simplification of internship could be beneficial to the NOM pathway, some Deacons may go on to become Ministers.
Each Presbytery has a different format for giving feedback. We suggest your contact your Presbytery to find out how. The time frame is short also, probably by 12 August
Pacfic Presbytery – Clerk@pipresbytery.org
Te Aka Puaho – tukua2yruatap@gmail.com
Northern – clerk@northpres.org.nz
Kaimai – convenor@kaimaipresbytery.org.nz
Central -peter.m@presbyterycentral.org.nz
Alpine – martin@alpinepresbytery.org
Southern alan@southernpresbyterians.nz
SUNZ Youth & Camps Team have developed a weekend retreat resource for youth groups in this season of rebuilding and reshaping church communities.
This resource is designed to help process the past, acknowledge the present and dream/work towards the future as a body of Christ. SUNZ’s organisational mission is to be a resource supporting churches (and parachurch organizations) to help young people discover Jesus and become life-long disciples who serve the world around them, offering you these templates to use and to support you in varying degrees, from collaborating with you in the planning process, to facilitating the weekend for you, subject to conversation.
Here is the link to the resource: https://drive.google.com/
The Council for World Mission is inviting applications for next year’s Training in Mission programme (TIM). This programme will be held in New Zealand, Fiji, South Korea and Jamaica, which is fully funded by CWM, is open for all interested applicants aged 18 to 30 years old at the start of the programme, single and not an ordained minister (a maximum of two Presbyterian members can be selected).
TIM promotes leadership and service to the church and Christian mission, by providing opportunity for a group of young people from CWM member churches around the world to learn about mission in theory and in practice through classes, exposure visits, projects and hands-on work in various contexts for 6 ½ months. This could be an excellent gap year option, or an opportunity for someone who is considering a change of direction and would like to learn about mission and theology in a multicultural context.
Download the Training in Mission programme brief and Training in Mission application form here. For further information about TIM contact Global Mission Coordinator Phil King.
Social activists Shane Claiborne & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove offer a modern take on an ancient way of practicing faith with this new cutting-edge Common Prayer App
Grand Rapids, Mich., Nov. 29, 2012 – In a world where social classes are extremely divided and cultures remain separate rather than unified, the Common Prayer app may just be the common prayer that a socially, racially and politically segregated world needs to be transformed.
Following the release of Common Prayer on paperback, which sold 56,000 copies, the Common Prayer app is available on both Android and Iphone.
“This is truly a different kind of app,” authors Claiborne and Wilson-Hartgrove share. “It’s not one you try to pick up and simply read. In fact, this is a daily tool to be used at users convenience…meant to bring ultimate convenience and community. It’s a devotional broken up into days and times, so that everyone can essentially pray together.. on their schedule.”
Broken into easy-to-follow tabs, the Common Prayer app is accessible to someone who’s followed the Christian faith their whole life and someone who’s never held a Bible in their hands. Divided into tabs for different parts of the day, Common Prayer aims to connect people of faith around the globe, across cultures, theologies and continents. For one year, they will be praying the same prayers every day (at their desired time) and subsequently discover the richness and power in this tradition. The Common Prayer appcontains:
At the basis of the Common Prayer app, social activist, renowned author and the often controversial Shane Claiborne and sought after speaker and author Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove are setting out to enliven the ancient and historical practice called “liturgy.” An all-inclusive invitation, Claiborne holds certain that liturgy, a traditional act of praying collectively, has the power to transcend culture, create community and move hearts.
“Liturgy,” the authors note “invites us into a new ‘we’…The Church actually reflects the most diverse community in the world—white, black, and all shades in between, rich and poor, all walks of life… called together to bring our lives and our cultures and become a new community.”
“The world the liturgy reveals may not seem relevant at first glance, but…the world it reveals is more real than the one we inhabit day by day…outlasting McDonalds and Wal-Mart, America and South Africa,” they write. “The songs and readings and prayers of the liturgy are more ancient and true than any culture or empire.”
With the Christian faith home to more than 38,000 different denominations, it’s a known fact that the greatest barrier to becoming a Christian is the alarming amount of division seen within the church. Perhaps not any longer.
Common Prayer App from Andy Anderson on Vimeo.