Youth Groups Good/Bad?

David Fitch writes in a recent blog post:

I was quoted in the recent book Hipster Christianity as saying these words “Youth Groups Destroy Children’s Lives.” Putting aside the issues I have with the book itself, I admit I was quoted accurately by the book’s author Brett McCracken. I often use the pedagogical tactic that starts out by saying something provocative and then, after I’ve gotten myself into some trouble, and acquired some people’s attention, I try to explain myself. It’s a bad rhetorical habit. Nonetheless, it works. This time it seems to have attracted some attention so let me take advantage of it and explain what I meant.

Fitch goes on to point out three particular issues he has with youth groups (not with working with youth):

1. Youth Groups foster peer orientation
2. Youth Groups undercut holistic community (he's written 'wholistic' but I think he means what I've spelled.)
3. Youth Groups too often try to attract youth, playing to their worst interests.

Fitch is always provocative, as he says, but he usually has a good reason to be so. Check this post out and see what your thoughts are.

Men's Group

After my brief comments the other day about What Men Want I need to mention a feature-length movie about men, their needs, their feelings, their emotions (and the inability to express them). Men’s Group takes six men and pulls their lives together through a series of meetings. It’s raw, the language is blunt and down-to-earth (they are Australians, after all) and it’s made a huge impact wherever it’s been shown. Boris Sokratov, of the Out of the Blue depression awareness campaign, wrote: Men’s Group explores dark territory: anger, remorse, fear and regret. In ‘man speak,’ Men’s Group is a story about men talking about stuff: touchy feely emotionally hard stuff. Regrettably many of those who might benefit the most by seeing the movie are unlikely to go near it. On the other hand the more of us who do go the better. Definitely worth a look.
You can see a trailer of the movie here, and the website is here (though it’s a bit thin on information about the film itself). The film has been showing on a limited release around the main centres of New Zealand in May. Hopefully it will soon be available on DVD for all those who aren't in the main centres.

A 'sticky' church

Larry Osborne talks about why his church is 'sticky' - that is, it keeps the people it gains.

We work hard to minister to the people we have. We want to serve their spiritual needs incredibly well and do it in a way that their non-Christian friends can easily understand. As a result, they tend to spontaneously invite their friends and co-workers. We've never had to ask or persuade them to do so. They just do it.

We've also learned to slam the back door shut by providing opportunities for people to develop deep and long-term spiritual relationships. Rather than trying to pretend that everyone can care for everyone, we've created lots of relational pods where people are velcroed together by the kind of authentic friendships that can only be found in smaller and more stable settings. And these kinds of relationships have proven to be incredibly sticky.

and

I’d also regularly take a gut check to make sure that I haven’t fallen into the trap of viewing the people I have as tools to reach the people I want to reach. If we aren’t caring for the ones we already have, why should God send any more our way?

Osborne has more to say about small groups in particular, and also throws in a little plug for his new book, Sticky Church.

David Droga on creativity

This struck me as being of interest. Although it's talking about working with a group of creative individuals in an advertising agency, it's very possibly applicable to working with a group of creative individuals in a church setting:

Top adman David Droga, head of his innovative agency, Droga5 revealed the creative process his company uses:
1. Decide what emotions they want to evoke;
2. Get together a wide range of people to work together right from the start--creatives, tech people, etc.;
3. Manage the massive insecurities and egos of the people working on the challenge so everybody feels they are being heard and will keep contributing;
4. Refine the goal - a totally open brief can be too intimidating;
5. Don't fall in love with the first idea, even if it seems like a great solution. Force yourself to keep going and writing;
6. Skepticism can be healthy, it prevents blind optimism and exposes flaws or weaknesses that can be addressed;
7. When it's time to sell the client, you can't sell on creativity, but you can sell on WHY you got to the solution you're proposing.

Point 3 is possibly the most relevant of all!