An Hour to Change Your Town. Wednesday 17th June 7-8pm

A Youth for Christ Event Hosted by b-inspired

Premise
Young people have a profound influence on our culture, and the direction in which our country is heading. Indeed this has always been the case. 80% of historical revolutions have been started by people under the age of 25. On a more local level, the atmosphere in our towns is to a large degree connected to how young people in our towns behave and are perceived. If there are high levels of youth crime in a town, or young people are perceived as a threat by older people, a climate of fear and mutual mistrust will develop. Therefore, for those of us who crave positive, godly change in our communities, there seems an obvious solution. We must reach out to young people, demonstrate and declare the love of Jesus to them, help them feel connected to their communities, and encourage them to make positive life choices. If we reach young people, our communities will change. If our communities change, so will society as a whole.

Aim
An Hour to Change Your Town aims to inspire and equip churches to reach out to young people in their communities, and thereby change their towns for the better. The event will encourage members of churches that by investing time in young people, even just one hour a week, these young people can be profoundly changed, in terms of their attitudes, their life choices and their faith. As a result, the entire atmosphere in a community can be changed.

Format
As the name suggests, An Hour to Change Your Town will be an hour-long event. Since the typical youth leader (or potential youth leader) in a church is already committed to numerous other activities, keeping this event to one hour will make it as easy as possible for these youth leaders to attend, while still maintaining meaningful content. This will also serve to illustrate that by investing just one hour a week in young people, for a prolonged period, communities can be changed.

The event will take a workshop format, with a brief inspirational talk, followed by networking and idea sharing on practical steps that can be taken to change the town.

Fees
Attendance will cost £5 per person, which will include a free intro pack for a YFC resource of the delegate’s choice. (Which normally retails at £12.)

To book your place email jelena@birmingham.anglican.org

For more information, phone Simeon Whiting on 0121 502 9644 or email: simeon.whiting@yfc.co.uk

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As part of our commitment to reach out to young people on the edge we’ve been looking at ways to engage with them in their various contexts, to find out what God is already doing with them and join in! We ran a regional training day called Youth Work on the Edge recently looking at these issues which has helped to guide our thinking and sparked a few ideas of things we could do as a Diocese.

The Cathedral grounds (also known as Pigeon Park) are a place where lots of young people congregate, particularly on a Saturday and during school holidays. They would describe themselves as ‘alternatives’ – a mix of metal-heads, skaters, emos, goths, punks and other labels!

Over the last couple of years, Craig has been working on a partnership group with the Cathedral, Depaul trust, Birmingham City Council and the Police to think about ways in which we can make the cathedral square a safe, happy environment for everyone that uses it , including the young people.

On Saturday 18th April from 4pm til 7pm there will be a ‘happening’ in the grounds of Birmingham Cathedral. It doesn’t have a name or a brand it’s just something that will happen.

Following feedback from finding out what the young people would like to do, we’re going to give up and coming young bands the opportunity to turn up and play in Pigeon Park!
Outside will be an area with band equipment so they don’t have to lug their guitars and amps through town or on the bus! We’ll also have some musicians of our own to perform too. (If you are interested or know some young people who might be, then get in touch (craig@birmingham.anglican.org)

We’ll have free refreshments inside the cathedral and a place to chat and reflect using the Breathe resource http://dare2engage.org/breathe-

Breathe is a large and colourful circular mat, around 10 metres in diameter, divided into 12 segments which between them tackle 4 themes: the planet, others, self and God. Although Breathe is an individual and personal experience, participants can start by watching a short animation together, introducing them to the concept of Breathe. They are then free to move around the different segments using an iPod Shuffle mp3 player to listen to an audio track for each segment. The audio track guides them through an activity in each segment, raising questions, offering Christian ideas and beliefs and inviting reaction and response.

(It’s a great resource available to hire, particularly for use in schools or big events with young people interested in exploring faith so do come along for have a look at it.)

Also hoping to have giant garden games and goth face painting! :))
See you there.

See you soon
<><
Craig :)

There’s still time to book your place for Youth work on the edge - But not much!

We need to know numbers by Friday 13^th February so that we can sort out catering!

And remember it’s a bargain at £10 including lunch

Are you interested in engaging with unchurched/dechurched young people?

Do you want to understand more about youth subcultures?

Want to get some inspiration?

Youth work on the edge is a day of training, discussion, sharing stories and networking for people involved in youth work in the midlands region.

Our main speaker Nigel Pimlott of Frontier Youth Trust and co- author of Youth Work After Christendom will be speaking on the subject

“Young people & spirituality in a post Christendom era”

We will have a number of practitioners in different contexts talking about the work they are doing with opportunities for discussion and questions.

Brian Law will be talking about the work he is doing with FitForLife in an Urban context: Inspired creative learning through music, sport and IT.

www.myspace.com/fitforlifeintl

Rev. Mark Broomhead will tell us about Sanctum youth congregation in Chesterfield which developed from a monthly rock worship event run by his band Firefly.

http://www.sanctumyouth.co.uk/

Anna-Marie Moorehouse of Legacy Youth Congregation, will talk about this exciting project based in Benfleet, Essex engaging with young people in the skater/BMX community and beyond.

www.legacyweb.org/

Isaac Masih , an Asian Christian and singer songwriter with the band Angels Exist

www.myspace.com/angelsexistmusic

Tim Feak, Under 25s Officer for St. Asaph Diocese, Church in Wales will lead a discussion about engaging with young people in a Rural context.

We look forward to seeing you there

Please book a place by emailing

jelena@birmingham.anglican.org

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We’re going to be something new next year!  On Saturday 18th April we’ll be holding an event in Birmingham Cathedral - details will come later! so WATCH THIS SPACE