Department of Youth and Children’s Ministry Newsletter Issue 6 January 2013

Close to Home Conference

‘I don’t want to be known as “Helen the Presbyterian”, I want to be known as “Helen the Christian”’ (Helen, aged 21).

This statement was made by a young woman who was interviewed as part of research commissioned by YAC’s Research and Education Committee; it was discovered that even those who are entering adulthood with mature and growing faith may find little value in the distinctive theology or practice of the Presbyterian Church. While we may understand that it is positive that Helen sees her identity in Christ as trumping any denominational divisions, there were concerning indications that, with many young people leaving the church, even those who are still engaged are not likely to embrace the doctrine of the church or benefit from understanding the identity-strengthening nature of being a child of the covenant and belonging to the family of Christ.

The research, however, also found that when young people had a close relationship with parents who were nurturing to their faith, this had a lasting impact. Others demonstrated the value of relationships with people of all ages within their church family to their ongoing faith. There was enough evidence to suggest that our denomination needs to look again at its foundation in covenant theology

and find contemporary ways to practice this with children and young people.

YAC is delighted to be serving the denomination by facilitating a day designed to be a space to discuss the reality of ministry with this generation in this age, and to consider practical ways to develop contemporary covenantal ministry with children and young people. The day will include practical ideas and possible steps, but will not seek to provide easy answers (which do not exist!) but rather to be the impetus for further reflection and discussion at Kirk Sessions and throughout the church. We hope that it will be attended by many ministers, elders, staff and leaders who are committed to passing on faith to the young within the covenant community and that it will be a catalyst for much discussion and future developments in ministry.

The conference will be on Friday 19 April in the Assembly Buildings and Chap Clark will be addressing the main sessions, as well as facilitating a workshop on equipping parents to pass on the faith. In addition, local facilitators with wisdom and experience will be leading workshops on teaching belief (doctrine), engaging young people in the sacraments, intergenerational ministry and re-engaging with covenant wanderers.

Additionally, Chap will be speaking to parents of teenagers at two evening events to be held in Assembly Buildings on Thursday 18 April and 1st Coleraine Presbyterian Church on Monday 22 April. More information is available at www.pciyac.org/c2h and bookings for the conference can be made through the YAC office.

Graeme ThompsonYouth Development Officer

Chap ClarkWe are delighted to welcome Chap Clark to address us at Close to Home. He is Associate Provost at Fuller Theological Seminary where he is also Professor of Youth, Family, and Culture. With over 30 years’ experience in direct ministry, he is now senior editor of Youthworker Journal. Chap’s extensive list of publications includes Hurt 2.0, Sticky Faith, and Disconnected: Parenting Teens in a MySpace World, which he wrote with his wife, Dee. Chap travels extensively with his Hurt and ParenTeen seminars, and will be teaching the latter during this trip to Ireland.

“Chap Clark is one of the finest U.S. leaders in youth ministry. His voice is experienced, humble, insightful, honest, poignant, and practical--not to mention funny!” Mark Labberton,Ph.D.(Associate Professor of Preaching, Fuller Theological Seminary)

“No one has equipped the church more in understanding today’s teenagers and their culture than Chap Clark.” Rev Craig Mawhinney (Director of Young Life, Northern Ireland)

What percentage of church-going families are in the habit of doing family devotions? 90%? 75%? 50%? 25%?

The most shocking result of an extensive survey recently carried out was that fewer than 10% of parents who regularly attend church are making time to read the Bible and pray with their children, apart from saying grace at mealtimes. Yet when Christian teenagers were asked to name the people or things that had influenced them to become or remain Christians, Mum and Dad were top of the list, far ahead of any person at church or any church programme they’d been involved in. It was these startling statistics, together with the clear Biblical commands for parents to pass on their faith to their children within the home (eg Deuteronomy 6: 6-9 and Ephesians 6: 1-4), that led Mark Holmen to start the Faith@Home initiative. He believed that if parents could receive encouragement and practical help to make their homes the primary place where faith is nurtured, then this would have huge potential in terms of moulding young disciples who would in turn strengthen their churches and reach out to others.

More of the background to Faith@Home can be found in Mark Holmen’s book, Building Faith at Home. He has also co-authored Take it Home, a practical manual giving detailed plans for 13 sessions, each focusing on a different aspect of faith in the home for different age-groups of children. In setting up

our own Faith@Home programme at Knock we used the manual to get titles and some ideas for the different sessions but had to adapt and add to the material to make it more culturally relevant, creating some new topics in the process.

Faith@Home at Knock consists of 9 sessions for different age-groups and is held once a month from September to June. Often at Knock we struggle to get people to come out to courses held during the week, so key to the success of Faith@Home is the fact that it is held during our Sunday morning service, with parents of a particular age-group coming out of church with their children when the other children leave for Sunday School. In most of the sessions parents and children fully engage together in the various activities and discussions, beginning conversations which hopefully will continue at home. Another key element to Faith@Home is that at the end of each session, families take home a resource to immediately help them put into practice what they have just been talking about. These can range from Biblical prayers or blessings on simple laminated cards for parents of babies and toddlers to use when praying for them, to a Bible and Bible reading notes for each child at the P3 session.

After more than three years, response to Faith@Home at Knock continues to be overwhelmingly positive. Having regular family devotions is clearly a struggle for most families, and parents welcome the

Faith@Home at Knock

Resource ReviewsHave you ever wondered about how to teach or learn catechism with your children? If like me you have found the whole process a bit daunting and the material a little dry, let me suggest a great new way to reintroduce the teaching of important doctrinal truths into our churches and families…

The New City Catechism app provides a fun and simple set of tools to help children and adults memorise foundational truths based on the Reformation Catechisms. The material has been adapted by Timothy Keller and Sam Shammas.

The app allows users to track their own progress and the progress of their kids or Sunday school class as they memorize the catechism together. It also allows you to choose between NIV or ESV for Scripture text and the adult version includes teaching from a historical preacher (e.g. Augustine, Edwards, Spurgeon, Wesley, etc.) for each question and answer alongside video material from

Don Carson, Mark Dever, Tim Keller and John Piper exploring the catechism answers.

It is simple, easy to use and a great way of learning some of the basics of our Christian beliefs. It comprises 52 questions and answers—one question and answer for each week of the year, making it simple to fit into church calendars and achievable even for really busy people. It’s available on iTunes or online at www.newcitycatechism.com

opportunity to get advice and share ideas with others. Those with older children appreciate the chance to start talking with them from a Biblical perspective about issues such as use of money and guidance for the future.

Is it time to consider setting up a Faith@Home programme in your church?

Further information can be found at www.faithathome.com.

Nicki Jemphrey

Nicki can be contacted at njemphrey@knockpresbyterian.co.uk.

“Faith sharing is not happening today in most families of the church”

Mark Holmen takes Deuteronomy 6:4-9, one of the best known passages of Scripture, and explains how parents can share faith with their kids by taking each phrase of this passage and applying it to our lives. He also includes letters at the end of each chapter to a friend who is also a dad and helps to explain in a very personal way some of the theory that he has been sharing in the chapter.

New City Catechism App

Impress Faith On Your Kids

Urban EyesLast summer, as part of a partnership between the Board of Youth and Children’s Ministry, the Board of Mission in Ireland and Youth Link: NI, we embarked on a new venture known as Urban Eyes - a missional team with a twist. It was a new type of team designed for those familiar to the traditional PCI summer teams and one which would take them on a journey of discovery. Set in the heart of East Belfast in Mountpottinger Presbyterian Church the team were encouraged to soak in the reality of life in the area and wrestle with the question of what it means to live out the gospel message.

We all have a different idea of what mission looks like. I have experienced young

people becoming immune to Christians just dropping in, doing some good, cleaning up some graffiti, doing a wee bible club and then heading back home feeling good that they have made a difference. I’ve met young people on the street who have had numerous Christian groups come and go. But young people are tired of it, tired of Christians who just want to talk at them, tired of people who don’t want to get to know them. One of the messages that kept coming up in each of the projects we visited was how long it took to gain the trust of people and start the process of building purposeful relationships. Most organisations said it took between 18 months and 2 years.

“Work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.” - Jeremiah 29:7

Sticky FaithOver and over again, children and teenagers cite their parents as their primary role models and heroes. Based on research by Kara Powell and Chap Clark, Sticky Faith directly challenges parents to be intentional in their child’s spiritual development and addresses them as the primary influencers that they are. Sticky Faith is a great book and an important read for parents, ministers and youth workers, it is full of helpful hints for parents about how to have spiritual conversations with their teenage children and encourages churches to develop larger intentional networks of caring adults to support children and young people as they come to know Jesus. Throughout the book there are numerous suggestions as to how we can create meaningful intergenerational relationships that build lifelong faith and spiritual vitality in our children and young people. Check out www.stickyfaith.org

We are delighted that Chap Clark will be the keynote speaker at our Close to Home Conference on 19th April 2013 in Assembly Buildings.

Looking for new ideas and resources? There are over 50 new reviews on our website. Why not visit - pciyac.org/resources/resources-reviews

Urban Eyes is a great opportunity to engage with missional thinking that lasts a lifetime. It’s not a question of how I spend a week in my summer it’s a question of how I spend my life. Many of our participants during the summer came away from the experience energised, rejuvenated and possibly with more questions than they arrived with! Why not come and join us next summer, it just might change your life...

Jim McDowellTeam leader

Further information on all fifteen Summer Outreach teams can be found on www.pciyac.org/summeroutreach

YAC News

After 20 years of dedicated service to youth and children’s ministry throughout the denomination, Roz left the position of Director of this ministry at the end of September. Roz has been a true pioneer of youth work

within our denomination, she brought vision and dedication to this vital work along with a pastoral heart that has endeared her to all her staff team, all of whom hold her in the highest regard. Roz is also held in the great esteem by many involved in this work from leading professionals in youth and children’s ministry all over the globe to many of our ministers and volunteers within PCI. In the month of November Barbara McDade was appointed to the position of Acting Director and we wish her God’s blessing, leading and guiding for the future. We also wish Roz God’s blessing in the days ahead as she undertakes to step out in faith into the next exciting chapter as she expands her work with Cleopas, a charity committed to the provision of soul care opportunities for those in Christian ministry.

Jonathan Moxen, Board Convener

Board Welcomes New Committee ConvenerRev Darran McCorriston, minister of Ballyloughan Presbyterian Church, took on the role of Training Committee Convener at the General Assembly in June. This area of the Board’s work is highly strategic as it offers a wide range of training opportunities for congregational youth and children’s leaders. The ‘Close to Home’ initiative falls under the remit of the Training Committee and Darran wants to encourage as many as possible to attend this important conference.

Kids’ Big Day OutAfter the success of our sixth Kids’ Praise Party last year we decided to try something a bit different and so the event has now developed into the Kids’ Big Day Out!This event will have a holiday Bible club style feel to it with everyone gathering together for some teaching and praise before splitting into groups to take part in interactive and energetic games and activities. We will then come back together for a few minutes at the end before going home.The theme of the event is Worship and we will start by asking and exploring questions like “Who do we worship?” and “Why do we worship?” before moving on to encourage children to think about “How do we worship?”This event is for any child of primary school age, with activities appealing to both girls and

Contact InfoYouth and Children’s OfficeAssembly Buildings2-10 Fisherwick PlaceBelfastBT1 6DW

www.pciyac.orgyac@presbyterianireland.org+44 (0) 28 9032 2284

“Many have heard the term ‘covenant theology’, they know that it’s something that is important to us as Presbyterians but struggle to grasp precisely what it means and what it’s got to do with church today. The Close to Home conference promises to be a day when we are solidified in our understanding of covenant theology and, importantly, the conference will focus on practical outworking - what difference it makes to us as we carry out youth and children’s ministry in our churches. In YAC we’re really excited about this conference, we’re so looking forward to the input of Chap Clark, and we wholeheartedly encourage ministers, elders, staff members, and those in key positions of leadership with children and young people to come along.”

A New Addition to the YAC TeamCarol Johnston, our Young Adults’ Development Officer, commenced maternity leave in November and we are delighted to announce the safe arrival of Callum David on Monday 3 December weighing in at 6 lb 9 oz. We want to congratulate Carol, Stephen and Connor on their new addition to the Johnston family.

boys. Bring your Sunday School, kids’ club or your own children and engage with us in thinking through this very important topic!

Team Update