Ten Commandments, Five Ages, and a Sword

26/01/2007

These are the Ten Commandments of Youth Work?

As reported on the Youth Blog, Bishop Roger Sainsbury recently outlined the Ten Commandments of Christian Youth Work. They are:

• LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF YOUNG PEOPLE
• HAVE A SPECIAL CONCERN FOR THE SOCIALLY EXCLUDED AND DISADVANTAGED
• WORK CO-OPERATIVELY WITH OTHER AGENCIES, PARTICULARLY SCHOOLS
• GIVE SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT A PRIORITY
• DEMONSTRATE TOUGH LOVE
• OFFER EMOTIONAL AND SPIRITUAL SECURITY
• ORGANISE ACTIVITIES THAT HELP YOUNG PEOPLE FEEL VALUED AND SIGNIFICANT
• CHALLENGE THE DEMONISATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND OFFER RESPECT
• HELP BUILD COMMUNITY COHESION BY YOUTH WORK THAT EDUCATES YOUNG PEOPLE TO VALUE OUR COMMON HUMANITY AND SHARED CITIZENSHIP NOT SECTARIAN HATE
• BE ACTIVE POLITICALLY TO SEEK LONG TERM FUNDING FOR YOUTH WORK FROM NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

For the record, I think these are all terribly wrong. But before I get into that I'd like to say the following; these are all good and proper things that Christians should be doing if they do youth work. Certainly if you're working for a secular youth work organisation, this is entirely what you should be doing, and if you are in Christian ministry working with the poor and disadvantaged and the socially excluded then I'd suggest that you should probably be doing all these things at least at some point (apart from maybe the last one). And so maybe, when Bishop Roger Sainsbury says these things he only means in relation to youth work done by Christians in the context of secular agencies and not Christian ministry. But I don't think he does, I think he means, as someone speaking to Christians, that these should be taken in the contexts of explicitly Christian work.

So if they are good commandments sometimes why am I saying they are all terribly wrong? Because you can keep all those commandments and never do a bit of Christian youth work. The job of Christian youth work is the same as every other Christian ministry, to glorify God through proclaiming Christ crucified to people and so making disciples of all nations. And so if these ten commandments don't necessarily do that, they aren't necessarily a good thing, and therefore aren't commandments, merely good ideas that you should put into practice if they will help your ministry.

Quick Links

• Q&A: Youth justice system. What the Youth Justice System is, courtesy of the BBC.

• Tim Hawkins on getting old (and being young) in youth work (self referential I know, but whatever).

• Article on Christian youth conferences and culture in the associated press (ht).

• Story about drug use among Asian young people. Nothing revolutionary, but if you work with a similar group of young people it's worth a read.

• Church youth worker attacked with a sword. Automatically wins 'my youth work's tougher than your youth work' bragging contests.

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the real Phil Brown

the real Phil Brown

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