My Writings. My Thoughts.

The First Chaplain

// June 2nd, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized

Join me on a tour of the rocks in Sydney where we follow the footsteps of Australia’s first Chaplain, Richard Johnson. This was shown at our staff seminar night at school.

Research findings

// June 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

In 2009, a national study of the effectiveness of chaplaincy in government schools was undertaken for the National School Chaplaincy Association by Dr Philip Hughes of Edith Cowan University and Prof Margaret Sims of the University of New England. The study was of the Christian chaplains in approximately 1626 schools for whom the members of the National School Chaplaincy Association were responsible, representing 85 per cent of government schools with chaplains. National surveys of principals and chaplains were undertaken, along with case studies of chaplaincy in 21 schools, selected to represent a wide range of urban and rural, primary and secondary schools across Australia.

have a look at the findings here…

http://www.suqld.org.au/_sys/_data/downloads/chaplaincyeffectiveness.pdf

niche_marketing_research

My Office - CHILL

// May 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

CHILL is my office. CHILL stands for Chaplaincy Internet Learning Lounge. As the name implies it is a large lounge area with an outdoor courtyard that is equipped with a kitchenette, fridge, wireless internet, mini laptops, (and soon a new class set of ipads which can be used!!), desktop computer and a sound system. The CHILL Zone is open to senior students and staff alike.

CHILL Mission

CHILL Mission

The aim of CHILL is to give members of our school community a relaxed place to come and hang out within the school grounds during breaks and free periods. It is also a room that can be used for reading, reflection or prayer, meetings and celebrations. The room (and courtyard) has wireless internet which means that students can book out a mini notebook or ipad and bring them down to CHILL to work on. It is our aim that CHILL becomes a social hub within the school, in a similar way to an internet coffee lounge at a university.

It makes a whole heap of sense for myself, as school Chaplain, to be situated in this central location rather than hidden away in a staffroom somewhere. By being in close proximity to the students I can naturally build relationships with them and be accessible for a chat. CHILL  is an easy way for me to be incarnational in my approach to reaching students by immersing myself in the daily rhythm of their school life rather than sitting back and hoping that they come to me.

I have been visited by a number of School Chaplains over the past few weeks and the concept of a CHILL area is one thing they are definitely going to try and replicate at their school. If you want to come and visit me at NBCS please ring the school and we can chat, I’d love to show you around!!

Here are some photos of CHILL.

CHILL from outside (note wireless internet)

CHILL from outside (note wireless internet)

CHILL Entrance
CHILL Entrance
CHILL Wall (edited by students)

CHILL Wall (edited by students)

Student Computer

Student Computer

Interactive Screen

Interactive Screen

If you want to see some other phots of areas around my school then go here - http://www.scil.nsw.edu.au/scil-building/ here is a sample photo from inside our SCIL building.

Inside the SCIL building

Inside the SCIL building

NBCS Chapel Service May

// May 25th, 2010 // No Comments » // Chaplaincy, Spiritual

We just had a great chapel service at NBCS (we call them CIA). We had an ex student, Tim Kay, return to school to share his testimony. Tim was a difficult student at school but just before he left he decided to follow Jesus and 7 years later he has finished Bible College and working for a Church. I love having ex-students back to share with students as their stories often connect as students can relate to what is being said.

Have a watch of some highlights from our latest Chapel service. I have included snippets of the music and intro that was played at the start and part of an item by a student.

The Future

// May 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Loved this post so much that I grabbed it in its entirety.

A blog post finds it’s way to us all the way from the future - 2059 AD:

Who would have thought with all the dire predictions making the rounds during the first decade of the 2000’s that youth ministry would still be going strong in the year 2059. Yet here we are — looking a little different, perhaps — but still here. What a difference a few decades make. I doubt many of those youth ministers from the early part of this century (remember the short-lived iphone fad of the early 2000’s?) would recognize the youth ministry of today. Just think of some of the changes that have taken place:

We stopped giving youth just what they wanted (pizza! crowds! video games! paintball!) and started giving them more of what they needed (and helped them to see why they needed it.)

We realized youth didn’t need “bigger and better” (mission trips to more and more exotic locations, huge evangelism events in football stadiums, louder and louder rock concerts) — they needed smaller, more meaningful experiences that allowed them to experience God’s love in the midst of daily life.

We came to understand that our youth didn’t need entertainment — they needed engagement — engagement in the Church’s work of peace and justice.

It finally dawned on us that they didn’t need more pop culture (no more helping the consumer culture in its seduction of our youth) — they needed timeless truths that help them live the way of Jesus.
We figured out that they didn’t need hype — they needed sabbath rest.

We discovered that our teens didn’t really just need charming, young, good-looking, sporty, charismatic leaders — they need caring, mature, companions in faith. Today that still includes seminary-educated pastors (though not as many as 50 years ago and most of them are now bivocational and have a lot more training in educational theory and adolescent development), as well as lay leaders who bring a whole host of life and career experiences to the ministry.

Perhaps most surprisingly, our churches figured out that “giving youth their own space/place in the Church” didn’t need to mean “separate spaces and places” but just room to grow and learn and minister alongside of everyone else in the Church. In fact, now we hardly spend anytime at all in the church building itself. Our youth ministry is happening out in the world, in the neighborhoods, at school, in the homeless shelters, the nursing homes, the community gardens, the protest rallies, and wherever there is need to hear the transforming message of the gospel.
the-future

source : http://www.rethinkingyouthministry.com/2009/08/end-of-youth-ministry-message-from.html

Faithbook

// May 19th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Classroom Activities, Education

I found this cool idea that I am going to use with my ministry class. You could use it with your church or youth group - especially if you are talking about community or prayer. Basically it is a prayer diary or journal that looks like a facebook page - lets call it faithbook!!

faithbook

How it works….

Print out the above sheet. If you wanted you could print out a few and put it into booklet form.

I got them to fill in their name, and draw on their profile picture. They then filled in the ‘mutual friends’ column as they prayed for their Christian friends, followed by the ‘friend’ section for other people who aren’t Christians. I then asked them to take this home and use the status update boxes to chat to God about whatever is on their heart for that day.

source : http://suzybower.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/faithbook-creative-prayer-idea/

NBCS Chapel Service

// May 5th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Chaplaincy, Spiritual

The Chapel services at NBCS are called CIA Assemblies. This stands for Christianity in Action which is part of our school motto - ‘excellence in education, Christianity in action‘..

What I want CIA to be:

Fun, engaging, strong Christian message, student owned and led, appealing to both Christians and non-Christians, Challenging, surprising.

What I don’t want CIA to be:

Boring, following a set formula, predictable, appealing just to Christian kids, run purely by the Chaplain.

Have a look and see what sort of things we get up to…..

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