Being invited to Church (Back to Church Sunday)

Church can seem like a scary place to those who have never been in.
I've grown up going to church and have never been scared to take my friends right up to the top balcony "That's where daddy is - lets go and see him", or at least those friends already in the building, but not everyone's dad is a local preacher.
When I first went off to university I went on a church hunt and it wasn't the amazing worship songs or the crush of people in the large churches I went to visit that I stayed with, nor the small churches where I could feel the stares on the back of my neck as there was a new person in the room. It was the one church where someone had bothered to do more than thrust a book in my hand as I came in through the door.
It takes an invitation, someone to show you what to do, where to sit and when to stand up so that you don't feel like an idiot that's doing it all wrong.
I know that the correct and proper answer is that we can't be doing it wrong but that doesn't stop me feeling like an idiot when I sit down and no-one else does because they know what's happening next and I've not been here before.
For young people who haven't grown up standing and sitting in the right places
The young person who has the courage to walk in through the door has made a bold first step. Now they need to feel the love of our Church Family (see last week) and to feel welcome, not with a new list of rules about who they can and can't be but someone who will talk to them about things that matter to them and make them feel welcome just as they are.
Welcome is not about adjusting new people to fit with us. Its about being flexible enough ourselves that we can work with what new people bring to us and mould ourselves to include them.

Loving God,
Make us a mould-able people prepared to change to embrace others,
Give us the courage to invite someone new in
May we have the strength to accept everyone who comes in through the door
And the wisdom to love them  just as you made them.

Amen

Extended Family

Many young people live with those who aren't their mum and dad but are still an important part of the family as they see it.
Some of these "relatives" may have little or no genetic links but all the same they love and care for one another.
Often the church is referred to as "The Family". In times of difficulty it can be a place of comfort, familiarity and safety.

Dear Lord, our Father, please have pity on me and my family,
for we fight with wrong in our minds and not right.
We fight without concern for other people and later we regret it.
Give us wisdom, faith and trust in our family.
Amen

 Having a "Gran and Gramps" (or other extended family) who live a long way away also has it's uses. A place to retreat to when parents or siblings get annoying. Someone to spoil you unconditionally on the rare treat of your visit and who see the excitement of the boring and mundane of your day to day.

Harvest at the Amelia Trust Farm

The Amelia Trust is a working farm is set in 160 acres of countryside in the beautiful Vale of Glamorgan. It offers a calming and therapeutic environment. The Trusts core objective is to support and educate vulnerable and disadvantaged young people. Through fun and work based activities the young people are empowered to participate, learn new skills and develop potential. The many people that make up the daily community on the farm include skilled staff and volunteers, young people who are discovering life, adults with learning difficulties in work placements and members of the public enjoying the countryside; it is a fantastic recipe that makes the Amelia Trust an amazing place to be.

This weekend sees Harvest Festival at the Amelia Trust Farm. (http://www.ameliatrust.org.uk/) The farm is a Methodist Project with Deacon Lorraine Brown as the Director of the Trust.

Looking at the readings for this Sunday (11^th September) - Matthew 18:21-35

"Then Peter came and said to him, 'Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?' Jesus said to him, 'Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.'" (vv. 21-22)

Often young people who are vulnerable simply need someone who will take them as who they are and give forgive them seventy-seven times, whilst they learn new ways to work in society or try to find a way to tell someone what is troubling them. But during this process it can be very rewarding to see young people who move to being able to trust an adult or realise that their actions are not the best way to deal with a situation and try to modify their habits.
The harvest of the farm does include tasty sausages, eggs and haylage for winter feed, but they also harvest developed young people who are prepared to go out and face the world prepared for further study or employment.

Young People who have to move schools

There are three groups of young people we are thinking of this week

1. Young people who have to move school because their family moves
2. Young people growing up and progressing to a higher level of education
3. Those who have left school

In Youth Space we think of one family particularly as they have moved away over the summer and the young people will be starting at new schools in September. Having to make new friends and find your way around a new environment which others already know well can be daunting but also allows new opportunities.

For those progressing in education (perhaps moving from Primary to Secondary School) it can be a scary big step but also a freeing step, going from the big fish in a small pond to the small fish in a bigger pond. It can also be freeing as you move to new friendship groups away from previous bullies and cliques or the nickname you just wish people would forget. Or perhaps your moving on with a group of people you know and can lean on each other whilst also taking the opportunity to make new friends and try something new.

Changes of school can also be something to be celebrated as a move of school can provide a more appropriate opportunity for learning, perhaps having a learning needs statement fulfilled and the support needs of a young person met or marking a move from Special Education into the Main Stream Classroom.

Finally we think of those who have left school. Those who are waiting to go to University or other Further Education and those moving on into work or still looking for the job or course for their next step in life.

Topics for the Autumn Term

Here are the topics for the Autumn term (up to the end of December 2011)
The full set of dates for the year can be downloaded from  http://youthspace.cardiffmethodist.org.uk/volunteers/pray/index.shtml

The dates shown are for the Sunday at the start of the relevant week

04/09/2011 Young People who have to move schools
11/09/2011 Harvest at the Amelia Trust Farm
18/09/2011 Extended Family
25/09/2011 Being invited to church (Back to Church Sunday)
02/10/2011 Fostering & Adoption
09/10/2011 Brothers & Sisters
16/10/2011 Circuit Youth Weekend
23/10/2011 Story Telling
30/10/2011 Youth Work Week (Thanks Sam)
06/11/2011 Methodist Youth Assembly
13/11/2011 Bullying (Beat Bullying & Cybermentors)
20/11/2011 Uniformed Organisations
27/11/2011 Preparations for Amelia Trust Farm Nativity
04/12/2011 Not my real Dad
11/12/2011 Football
18/12/2011 Young Carers (Last week of school)
25/12/2011 Christmas, Food & Presents