Dave Wilkie

Can your musical tastes get you closer to God?

My dissertation with CYM has been focusing on finding a name for God in youth culture, as a result a number of young people identified God (or their God/idol/characteristic/i got lost here) as MUSIC.  Here is my strategy to engage with young people to raise self awareness & explore spirituality.

The rise in the consumption of digital music through the internet and personal players, is beginning to provide us with the ability to engage with listeners in depth.  In the world of youth work this  topic can be a daunting one with constantly changing trends and mediums.  The data of a persons listening habits can be stored through the majority of applications using a website service called Last.fm and then used as a tool for spiritual engagement. Andrew Godwin has written a graphical program to crunch the data, called Lastgraph

 

Above is a graph of my years listening habits (April 2009 to 10), below I have zoomed in on the months of February and March 2010.

A number of avenues for investigation can emerge, some of these are suggested below;

• Look at the musical ebb and flow of your life, times when you were away from your music, or reasons why some weeks you listened to far more (December in my case).

• The moments when you started to listen to a band, was it a gig, a friend that introduced you, what memories does it bring back?

• How has your overall tastes in music or listening habits changed, what does this say about you?

• Compare your graphs with your friends or community, how do they compare? Are they also on the same musical journey you are on?

• Think of a sad or hard moment in the past year. What were you listening to then?

• If you experience God through music, are there any points you can identify that you were close to him/her?

• Does your music taste accurately represent you as an individual

Communion with Dietrich Bonhoeffer

When asked what Communion represented, I remembered this story i had read within Andrew Root's paper: Youth Ministry as Discerning Christopraxis a Hermeneutical Model;

Loaded in the back of a truck and headed deep into the Bavarian Forest sat prisoners heading to the concentration camp at Flossenburg in the final days of World War II. In one corner sat pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, next to him was a Russian soldier. As they travelled the Russian soldier and Bonhoeffer talked, becoming friends as the soldier taught the pastor Russian. When the truck stopped for the night and it became clear that many of the prisoners would soon meet their demise, pastor Bonhoeffer was asked to administer communion. He agreed and stood to begin, but the Russian soldier remained sitting, explaining that he was a communist atheist and therefore it would be hypocritical for him to partake. Upon hearing his response pastor Bonhoeffer sat back down and is reported to have stated, “Then neither will I partake, for how can I be sure that in leaving you for the communion table I would not be leaving Christ.”

During communion it is often the individual receiver that is emphasised but taking communion while others are excluded splits rather than builds community.  In this case, perhaps it is in the denial of communion you are partaking in Christ's ministry rather than merely remembering it.

Compromise or Collaborate?

Recently I was involved in a discussion on the benefits of collaboration over compromising with James Henley.  This has also been enforced within the predicted management fads for 2010, where capitalism will no longer be founded in competition but collaboration.  I have had the opportunity to work within a community of 18-30 year olds attempting to set-up a new church service for a growing Anglican church.  We have faced many challenges with a great diversity of views, doctrine, and beliefs being expressed. 

This community has often focused on the needs of the individuals within it and the mission to others their age. My question here is, in attempting to provide a focus for a community of 18-30 are we able to collaborate, bringing together all of our gifts, creativity, and passions without having to compromise and let a preferred style become dominant.

I see the congregation as consisting of 3 main groups (I may be wrong)

1. Social: those people involved who are there for relationships, want relax with increased time to relate to one another over a coffee.  This group are key at keeping Church relevant to the wider culture of 18-30 year olds as spend a lot of time 'hanging out' in pubs etc.

2. Alternative: those that feel they want to try something new, shaking the foundations of what church is perceived to be. They get energised by daring and creative times, need to be given the space to experiment, may not work, but will be different.  This group also get frustrated easily if the routine of a service becomes a regular

3. Solid: those who know what they want in a Church service and are able to meet God using the tried and tested formulae.  This is may consist of worship-preach-prayer ministry = growing Christian.  It is solid so easier to plan/form and safe.  This group are devoted and very passionate.

God loves us all, so lets collaborate! Any suggestions?

Johari Window Worship Exercise - Gifts

This morning for staff worship at St Paul's Church i decided to use Johari's Window as a group development tool during the weekly worship time.

(link)

1.  Everyone had 5 mins to list their gifts, that were within the "Known to Self" column and then were encouraged to think of at least one example of a gift they had that "Not Known to Others"

2.  On completion of the "Known to Self" column, we moved into small groups and took it in turns to speak aloud our list of gifts we had written.  (note: some could not take part in this as were not comfortable in doing so, that is fine but still encouraged to take part in affirming others)

3.  Once someone shares their list, the rest of the group affirms and adds to that list, getting the individual to fill out their "Not Known To Self" but "Known to Others" Column. 

4.  Then the group prays for that individual and move onto the next person willing to share

5.  Lastly a selection of Bible verses on the theme of gifts were handed out to every person and we spent 5 minutes in silence, praying for God to reveal gifts that were hidden to us.  If any revelation or a desire of a new gift was felt then they are encouraged to put it within the bottom right box in the Johari Window.

6.  Finished with a song: "Waterboys - The Christ In You"

This worship/prayer exercise proved effective for building a more vulnerable & open community within the staff team.  A good reflection of our gifts we have as a group