Big Exo Day Part 3: Preparing for 2007

This is the third in a series of three posts about Big Exo Day. Part 1 was an outline of what happened at the Sydney Big Exo Day in 2006. Part 2 was some reflection on the 2006 event. This post will consider what you might do in preparation for taking a group to Big Exo Day 2007.

After my experience of Big Exo Day 2006, I am seriously considering taking my own youth group to Big Exo Day 2007 (September 1st). Obviously if you plan to take a group to Big Exo Day 2007 you’ll need to plan for all the usual things like advertising sufficiently early, transport, notifying parents, and budgeting to make sure you don’t loose money. However these are the three further things I plan to do in order to capitalise upon the Day’s strengths, and mitigate against the day’s weaknesses.

• Check out the 2007 speaker.


• Prime the kids before the day.


• Plan for follow up after the day.

I’m always cautious about allowing youth group kids under my care to be taught by a speaker who I have not heard myself, or received a recommendation about from a person I trust. The speaker for 2007 Big Exo Day in Sydney is Reggie Dabbs. I have not researched who the speakers are in other cities. Reggie Dabbs is an American with many years experience speaking to high school students, and has previously spoken at Youth Alive events in Australia. Searching across the web I was only able to uncover two examples of Reggie’s speaking. The most illuminating was a talk from a youth camp in 2004 (the other example was a podcast from Promise Keepers). The context of the 2004 talk appears to be very similar to Big Exo Day, so is a likely indication of how Reggie will speak at Big Exo Day 2007. If so, Big Exo Day 2007 will probably have similar strengths and weaknesses to Big Exo Day 2006. Reggie is likely to give a talk that creates enthusiasm and interest for Christianity in teenagers. However his use of the bible may only be token, and his communication gospel propositions is likely to be superficial.

As well as considering the speaker, it’s important that you prime the kids before you go to Big Exo Day. That is, the expectations you give them about the day can either help or hinder. It is easy to give kids the expectation that Big Exo Day will simply be lots of fun and entertainment for them to consume. If you do, Big Exo Day may unfortunately foster a selfish and consumeristic attitude that youth groups must be continually fighting against. It is probably more helpful to give kids the expectation that Big Exo Day is an opportunity to love others who they hope to see join the kingdom of Christ. That is, before the event encourage your youth group kids to be excited when their non-Christian friends say yes to coming, and not only excited about the fun they themselves will have on the day. Likewise, with so many different things on a the same time during the daytime, it is easy for kids to be focused on maximising their own fun, and forgetting to care for each other, particularly kids who may feel new or out of place. It may be wise to give kids the expectation that they may have to choose little less fun themselves in order to care for others.

Finally, before you go to Big Exo Day 2007 you must have a follow up plan for those who want to make a commitment on the night, or express further interest in Christianity. The shape of the follow up plan will vary depending on your context. It may be introductory bible study groups, one-on-one meetings, or something else. The important thing is that you have a plan. Those who make a commitment on the day will need lots of care and nurture far beyond what it possible on the actual day.

You may or may not bring kids to Big Exo Day yourself. However, my hope and prayer is that by reflecting on Big Exo Day you may be better able consider how best to use large evangelistic events in our common goal of growing the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Google Searches that have lead here #1

Tim has made a couple of posts recently - I'm warming up ready for some youth vanguard action in February - and we have some new contributors joining us shortly. But in the last couple of weeks the following search terms were used to stumble upon this site:

• national youth affairs conference
• vanguard youth
• emo youth today
• label/australia registration
• how youth become mature christians
• tim young youth pastor vanguard
• youth as vanguard
• vanguard evangelism
• newspaper articles with the word vanguard
• older emo's
• the real thingyouthworks
• youth ministries connecting with god

If you have stumbled here via google - feel free to leave comments...
If you don't know anything about Jesus, check this out.

Big Exo Day Part 2: Reflections upon 2006

This is the second in a series of three posts about Big Exo Day. You will find a description of Big Exo Day 2006 in Part 1.

The relationship between Christians and the culture they live in has been a tricky problem for the past 2000 years. Christian groups, such as some monastic orders, have attempted to separate themselves completely from the surrounding world. On the other hand, Christian groups, such as some Protestant Liberals, have integrated so closely with surrounding culture that there is little apparent difference. H. R. Niebuhr did some work categorising the different ways Christians have related to culture. The cultural stance of Big Exo Day most closely fits Niebuhr’s type of ‘Christ Transforming Culture’. The ‘Christ Transforming Culture’ type is characterised by the belief that the cultural world, or youth culture in the case of Big Exo Day, has been created good by God. This belief is justified by the observation that God first created humanity as cultural beings. That is, before the fall Adam and Eve engaged in cultural activities such as relating with one another, using language, working in the garden, and naming the animals. However, the ‘Christ Transforming Culture’ type does not believe culture is perfect now. Similar to the way sin has infected the lives of individuals, so too sin has infected culture. Therefore, the remedy is not to retreat from culture all together, for that is not possible, because we are inherently cultural beings. Rather, the cultural expression of Christians will bear resemblance to the surrounding age, but be transformed by the Lordship of Christ in the lives of believers.

The desire to see contemporary youth culture transformed by the Lordship of Christ is what I saw at Big Exo Day. Thus the song lyrics, the general behaviour of the crowd, and the attitude of the performers had all been clearly transformed by the desire to live with Christ as Lord.

Whilst the type of 'Christ Transforming Culture' is a valid way to relate Christianity and youth culture, the validity of this approach for evangelism must be weighed. On the positive side, a Christ transformed culture is ideally positioned to communicate, rather than simply proclaim the gospel. That is, as Christians we are called not only to proclaim the gospel, but to communicate the gospel in a manner that can be understood by the hearers. For example, Paul and the apostles were not ashamed, and therefore proclaimed the gospel fearlessly. However, they proclaimed in such a way that they communicated with their hearers. That is, the manner of their proclamation varied from audience to audience, be they Jews, Greeks, Corinthians, or Athenians, in order to communicate effectively. Due to their clear communication, some of their hearers responded with mocking, whilst others wanted to hear more, and some became believers. By partially adopting youth culture, the 'Christ Transforming Culture' type provides the language and environment for effective communication.

The weakness of the 'Christ Transforming Culture' type is its propensity to down-play the severity of the transformation Christ desires to work upon culture. That is, there is potential for the distinctiveness of Christ to be lost. Furthermore, the evangelistic call to be a new creation in submission to Christ's Lordship may loose impact. When following Christ appears to have little practical difference from following one’s own desires, pagan youth are right to ask the question, 'Why should I?'

In my opinion Big Exo Day partially succumbed to the weakness of the 'Christ Transforming Culture' approach, and failed to exploit the primary strength. In the end, the day spoke the language of young people, but didn't speak the language of Christ enough. Thus, in my opinion, the day failed to communicate the gospel with clarity.

At this point you may think I’ve written Big Exo Day off, but that’s not the case. There is one significant saving factor for Big Exo Day. No single evangelistic event ever happens in isolation. Before and after Big Exo Day there was a massive web of youth groups, schools, and personal relationships all seeking to communicate the gospel of Christ in partnership with Big Exo Day. Whilst the actual day could have done significantly better communicating the gospel, I am convinced the day did not hamper the growth of the kingdom among young people. Rather, it is my opinion that as a result of Big Exo Day the attitude of many teenagers toward Christianity may have been changed from apathy toward a readiness to listen. That is, Big Exo Day has enhanced opportunities for evangelism among a multiplicity of youth groups, schools and personal relationships since the event. Thus, Big Exo Day can be a helpful element in the broader evangelistic strategy of a youth group.

The third and final post about Big Exo Day will share some thoughts on preparing to take a youth group to Big Exo Day 2007.

Update - National Youth Affairs Conference 2007

I mentioned this conference in a post late last year because I thought it would be great for a few evangelical youth ministers to go. Since then more information about the conference has been released, some of it good news and some of it bad news.

The good news is that there has been lots of interest. Over 250 abstracts have been submitted for presentation. As a result the conference has been extended from two days to three days.

The bad news is that it is insanely expensive. The conference costs $220 per day. Yes you read that right: $220 PER DAY. And that doesn't include any transport or accommodation. Unfortunately it's too expensive for me, so I won't be going myself.

So I want to ask you: what's a reasonable price for a convention?

Big Exo Day Part 1: What was 2006 like?

In August of 2006 I had the privilege of going to the Sydney Big Exo Day for the first time. Big Exo Day’s are large evangelistic events run by Youth Alive once a year in most capital cities. The sheer size of the Sydney event (15 000 people) means it warrants some attention. However, aside from the size, the approach to evangelism taken by those who organised Big Exo Day is worthy of analysis and reflection. This is the first of three posts over three weeks about Big Exo Day. The first is a description of the Sydney Big Exo Day in 2006. The second post will be some reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of Big Exo Day in 2006. The final post will be my thoughts about preparing to take a youth group to Big Exo Day 2007.

Big Exo Day has two parts, daytime from 10am-5pm, and evening from 6pm-9:30pm. The daytime was largely unstructured, whilst the evening kept a rather tight program. During the day the large event area was scattered with many different things to see that could be browsed and experienced at one’s own leisure. There were at least five different stages each featuring a different genre of music, from hip-hop, to acoustic, to metal. Also on display was freestyle bmx and motocross, wake boarding, skateboarding, and streetcars. On the more interactive level, there was open skating and basketball areas, make overs for girls, linked X-boxes, and a variety of carnival style rides and activities. With so much on, there was always something to do, watch, or get excited by.

The character of the evening was quite different from the day. Everyone gathered inside the arena focused on a single central stage. The evening opened with three bands doing short sets, interspersed with various announcements, video clips and advertisements. Then the worship band came on for several songs, enjoying far more crowd participation than any of the prior acts. Collective singing was followed by the keynote speaker, an evangelistic appeal and, a few songs to conclude.

The whole Big Exo Day was clearly highly culturally influenced. The structure of the daytime is obviously modelled on secular youth festivals such as The Big Day Out, or Homebake, with many different activities and bands on at the same time. Likewise, the evening had strong similarities to a secular rock concert, particularly in light, sound, and crowd behaviour. However, despite heavy cultural influence, the whole mood of the day was clearly different from an analogous secular event. The difference was particularly seen by the attitude of those on stage, but also by the attitude of the crowd. The catchphrase for the day was ‘life is excellent’, and was embodied by all the performers I saw. There was no spirit of anger, cynicism, apathy or melancholy that is embodied by some secular acts. Rather, there was a spirit of fun, excitement and joy. The crowd too, whilst energetic, was generally thoughtful and positively enthusiastic. Over the nine hours I was there I didn’t see any evidence of bullying, and everyone in the evening mosh-pit was careful to look after the smaller people in the crowd and make sure on one got hurt.

Whilst the event was clearly different from a secular gathering, I was surprised how little Christ was spoken about for what was labelled an evangelistic event. During the day I didn’t hear God or Jesus talked about at all by any performer. There were a few information stalls set up by mission organisations, but it was hard to tell that proclamation of the gospel was aim of the event. Gospel themes weren’t readily apparent until unmistakably Christian lyrics were projected on the screen when worship band came on in the evening. The talk itself more closely resembled a testimony than a classic gospel presentation. The speaker, Darrell Scott, is the father of Rachel, one of the girls killed in the Columbine High shootings in 1999. Darrell talked about his daughter Rachel, her character, and her faith. The logic of the presentation was along these lines:

• 1. Rachel was a person with a kind and loving disposition, who cared for the outcast.


• 2. We see in Rachel character traits that we would like to see in ourselves.


• 3. Rachel’s character was somehow closely linked with her Christian faith.


• 4. Therefore, come and take a closer look at the Christian faith.

Some propositional truths of the gospel such as Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, Lordship, and wrath, were mentioned during the talk, but they were not the focus of the presentation. From my perspective, the talk seemed to be highly effective at igniting in many of the teenagers the desire to investigate Christianity further. However, I think most of those who came forward during the appeal would need more time and explanation before they entered God’s kingdom.

For me, Big Exo Day 2006 was a blast. It was tons of fun, and distinctively Christian. However, proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ was not a strength of the day.

Further analysis of Big Exo Day 2006 will be in Part 2.

The Real Thing blog

The Real Thing is a Youthworks Holiday Camp (formerly known as Camp Howard) that I lead on for 5 years or so. It's the sister camp to Swing into Action - another Youthworks camp that Row and I direct during the July Holidays.

They have a blog set up counting down to the camp this year. I think it's a great idea. Check it out here. I'm not sure who is running the blog - but I found the link on James and Anita's blog.

Youthworks Holiday Camps are great for Christian teenagers and for their non-Christian friends. They are great for Christian teenagers in that they can hear the gospel clearly proclaimed and be certain of their stance before God. They are fantastic for non-Christians to hear the glorious news of Jesus death and resurrection in a super-fun context. Youthworks Holiday Camps work hard at seeing teenagers followed-up into local youth groups.

For more info click here. Download the rego form here. And encourage any teens in your youth groups to think of friends they can take along.

Have you been on a Holiday Camp before? What's your fondest memory?


Congrats Matt & Tash on the engagement!!

Emo Evangelism

Go over here to read my thoughts on Evangelism to Emo's.

Would love to hear your comments...

Australian Youth Facts and Stats

Here's an awesome research tool for writing and thinking about Christian youth ministry in the Australian context. It is a website called Australian Youth Facts and Stats put together by the Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies. Whenever a significant academic study into some aspect of youth in Australia is released the people to the following very helpful things:

• Explain who did the study and why


• Give you a summary of the main findings


• Link to more detailed stuff about the study, and link to the study itself if it is available online.


• Link to newspaper articles that have referenced the study

They also categorise all the material for easy access. Of particular interest is the Religion & spirituality section.

Enjoy.

Youthworks Youth Ministry Conference 06

The following is copied from an email from Youthworks. For more details on this conference click here. Who is planning on going?

Just letting you know that REGISTRATION IS CLOSING SOON. Final registration for the Youth Ministry Conference closes Nov 22. So now is the time to talk to your team and get booked in.


SPEAKERS

• Jodie McNeill (Youthworks)
• Scott Petty (Christ Church St Ives)
• Andrew Cameron (Moore College)
• Stu Crawshaw (Gymea Anglican)
• James Fong (Youthworks) will be speaking at the dinner on Monday Night

TOPICS

• Connecting with God’s People - Where does Christian community fit within our increasingly individualistic culture?
• Connecting within God’s People - How do we see youth in the bigger picture of the church community and the dangers of being lost in transition from one group to the next.
• Mission in a Disconnected World - There are thousands of youth in every suburb who do not know Jesus. How do we connect with these youth in a God honouring way? More importantly how do we help them connect with Jesus?
• Right and Wrong in a Disconnected World - How do youth today understand the concept of morality and how should we respond in our youth ministries?
• Connecting for Eternity - Exploring the importance of helping young people become mature Christians, with deep roots that can withstand the turmoil and temptations of life.

WORKSHOPS - Practical workshops to help you work through different areas of your ministry.

• Creating Focus and Flow at youth group
• Using Music
• Conflict Resolution
• School Ministry
• Teaching times
• Discipline
• Where to Next?

FORUMS - The forums are an open discussion on issues facing Youth Ministers and leaders.

• Volunteers- Serving in a Time Starved Life
• Starting out- Surviving and Growing in the first 3 years
• Veterans- Dealing with Baldness, cellulite and the Long Haul

BAND
REVIVE will be encouraging us with the music and playing some of their new stuff.

TO REGISTER
1) Go to Youthworks.net and register online
2) Go to Youthworks.net, download the brochure and fax/ mail it in.
3) Call 8268 3388 and ask Julie to send you a brochure or book over the phone
To Find out more go to www.conferences.youthworks.net

Another Teen Car Crash

I just read this article in the SMH. This is the second crash in a couple of weeks, and one of many over the past few years. It's been quite a talking point in opinion columns and with politians in NSW over the past little while. My guess is it doesn't really concern teenagers in our youth groups, unless they are in a community directly effected by a death (I could be wrong on this, just my guess). However, I'm sure it is on the mind of parents in every youth group in NSW. I'm not really sure what to say about it all, or if there is anything that should be said. But, as leaders of you groups is there anything we can contribute to the discussion? How can we help look after parents as we also look after teenagers? I wonder how many of our youth group parents see our main purpose as creating a safe place for kids to be, as opposed to our main purpose being the growth of Christ's kingdom amoung teenagers?

Youth Ministry and Culture: An Introduction

Well friends, this blog is about youth ministry and writing, so here's our first real post in that direction. I've been reading Niebuhr's book Christ and Culture recently, and it's really helped me get started thinking about youth ministry and the wider youth culture can and should relate. Here's a possible introduction for an extended article:

Youth ministers are forever watching, analysing and copying secular youth culture. This isn’t a fundamentally good thing, or a fundamentally bad thing. It is simply a necessary part of the job. Youth ministers are frequently aware that be they 25 or 55, they no longer inhabit the same cultural sphere as a 13 year old. Whilst it mustn’t be overstated, there is some degree of cultural remoteness between youth ministers and those they lead. Thus, to effectively bring the light of Christ and the word of the gospel to teenagers, youth ministers become students of youth culture. Many youth ministers pause to take in the nuts and bolts of youth culture, such as musical styles, technological trends, and linguistic variety. However, fewer youth ministers stop to consider their fundamental stance toward youth culture and the theological foundation, if any, for that stance. Is youth culture something that needs to transform and inform the church in order to serve the youth of today? Is youth culture so full of evil that Christians must come out and be separate from it? Or is youth culture essentially good, whilst being tainted by sin, and in need of redemption? Wether we have thought about it or not, our answer to these questions will fundamentally shape that nature of the youth ministry we pursue. Wether we have thought about it or not, the way we answer these questions must be theologically grounded.

I'd love some feedback. Does the intro seem clear? Is it interesting? Does it make you want to read more? Does it raise an issue for you in youth ministry?

How to Get Teens Excited About God - time.com

It looks like Time magazine is becoming a youth ministry magazine... two articles in the last week!! This article is based on some Barna research.

Our context in Australia is significantly different from the USA... but...

What gets your teens excited about God?

Maybe the more foundational question is:
ARE your teens excited about God?

What are the drop-off rates of teenagers from your church/ministry?

(The picture is from the website - they always get these photos when people are in odd-looking poses...)

About our name: The Youth Vanguard

We've called this blog the 'Youth Vanguard'. It's got youth in the title, cause it's about young people - that's pretty simple. But, what's with the 'Vanguard' bit? Vanguard simply means the forward party, the group who are pushing ahead, testing out, trying, scouting. We are not claiming that our little group is some sort of leader in youth ministry. Rather, this is where the members of our group push ahead with ideas about youth ministry they are working on, where we try out thoughts on others. This blog is the forward party for ideas that will hopefully become polished pieces of writing published in youth ministry books, journals and magazines.

Hope that makes sense. We think it's cool.

Christian Writers Conference

I don't want to look like a conference junkie, but I thought I point this one out to you all. I looks pretty cool. It's run by CASE (Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education), and consists of two days for Christian writers to both learn new skills and refine those they already have. Karen, a good friend of mine, and an editor for Matthias Media gave me the heads up. If she's keen, I'm sure it will be quality.

Anyway, if you want to get more info from CASE about the conference drop in here.

National Youth Affairs Conference

The Youth Affairs Council of Victoria is hosting the first Austrailian National Youth Affairs Conference in eight years. It is a secular gathering, but I am seriously thinking of going.
Are there any other Christian youth ministers out there planning to attend? Has anyone been to previous conferences, and what where they like?

Introducing Tim Roediger

I'm Tim. This project is the brain child of Dave and myself, but it is our hope that others will be joining us shortly.

I am a Christian, and have been all my life thanks to the grace of God, and the blessing of wonderful Christian parents.

I am married to a wonderful woman called Liz, and we have a one year old daughter Miriam.

I am currently a student at Moore Theological College, but only for another four weeks. Shortly after final exams are done, I'm moving to Nowra, a town two hours south of Sydney to work for Nowra Baptist Church.

I look forward to talking youth ministry.

In Touch With Jesus - time.com

This article seems to have some encouraging information about the state of youth ministry in the United States. The time magazine article describes the move from youth ministry "wrapped in pop-culture packaging" to youth ministry that studies the Bible and doctrine.

What do you think? Is this accurate of youth ministry in the USA? Is this accurate with the culture in Australian youth ministries?

(h/t to JT for article)

Introducing David Miers

DAVID MIERS is reported to be in the top 10 cage fighters in Gosford. He has some serious dish washing skills and thinks that Elizabeth Bennet is hot. Although he thinks that his wife Rowena is hotter. David works in youth ministry for a great church. Likes to: speak in third person, watch and play soccer, eat food and surf the web. He has never watched Star Wars.

You can find his own blog here.

Contact us

Email youthvanguard@gmail.com

About us

We are a group of reformed evangelical Christians interested in the theory and practice of youth ministry, particularly in the Australian context.

We have observed that youth ministers in general don't write much, and evangelical youth ministers write even less. Thus, our little gathering hopes to teach and encourage each other to write, and to also publish occasionally. This blog is like a sketch-pad where we can try out our thoughts and writing skills on each other and the wider world as they develop.

We look forward to your comments.