What makes this program so awesome? The girls.  Over the last 3 years we have worked together to find how this program can benefit them the most from within the Church. Their input is invaluable and is ever-changing. I learn so much from them and I hope they learn a thing or 2 from me as well that will help them along the sometimes difficult journey through high school.

We spend the first 30-45 minutes on time that allows girls to come in a talk to me and their peers (I am a trained counsellor so don’t panic) on issues affecting their lives. They have a space to talk without interruption and get some neutral input that can perhaps help them through the tough space they are in. After that, the floor is open to anything and everything they want to discuss. And trust me, its’ anything and everything!

These young adults are so awesome and their honesty is great. They accept my “aged” status and laugh at my shocked looks when I learn some new fascinating teenage trend, ideal, word or issue.  They tell me about movies they’ve seen, things going on in their lives, issues with peers, issues with families, friends and boys. We talk about feelings, thoughts, and actions in both the positive and the negative sense. Between the texts, emails and Facebook notifications we carry on our evening in a fashion that works for all of us.

The girls created this program. They tailored it to work for them and for their friends. I couldn’t ask for a greater group of girls who are willing to listen, accept some neutral yet often hard questions and to respect our discussions. They each come from various backgrounds, lifestyles and issues but each one of them brings a wealth of good things to the group. They are not all brought up in the church, but are willing to be challenged and be part of the church setting.  It is so important to meet our youth where their lives are and for us as leaders to be relevant. We need to actually hear what they are saying and experiencing. Girls Night Out is a great opportunity to do just that.

In a past post I said that I believe that Hip Hop is the Modern Day Psalms.  Over the next twelve weeks I will be making a Modern Day Psalms Mixtape.  Every Monday I will add a new song to the mixtape with an explanation of why I find it powerful.  This is track 3.  Check out Track 1 here. Check out Track 2 here.

You probably have never heard of them, but the Blue Scholars are incredible.  They are Hip Hop artists who are politically aware, and artistically strong.  They are from the North West, specifically Seattle, and proud of it.  In this they reflect one of the best parts of Hip Hop, it’s rootedness.  Hip Hop rejoices in place.  You don’t need to listen to much of their music to know that Kanye, Common and Lupe Fiasco are from Chicago,  that Jay-Z is from New York, The Roots (and Will Smith if you remember the Fresh Prince theme song) are from Philadelphia.  Canadian rappers show their pride in place too, Kardinal Offishall proudly talks about the T-Dot.  k-Os even raps about growing up in Whitby (which very few people would admit).  Each area has their own style, and feel.  In a world where rootedness and place seem to be less and less important, hip hop goes against the mold.

This particular song is especially beautiful as Geologic (Blue Scholars MC) takes us along on a Seattle city bus.  He observes his community: the struggles, the diversity, the beauty, and proclaims that despite, and because of these things he is committed to it.  We the church need to learn this.  We often have forgotten how to observe our community, how to commit to it and to be fully within it.  If we are the body of Christ, continuing the work that he began, then we need to do as Christ did and be incarnate within our communities.  We need to spend time seeing our community, learning from it, being in it and ultimately loving it, because it is this community we are called to serve.

We came across this great resource from David Lose, and wanted to share it with you here. It’ll get you thinking about how we can connect this story with our Christian story. How do you think the Hunger Games would connect with the story of the Exodus, the Beatitudes or the Last Supper?

Click this link for some background and a study guide!

In a past post I said that I believe that Hip Hop is the Modern Day Psalms.  Over the next twelve weeks I will be making a Modern Day Psalms Mixtape.  Every Monday I will add a new song to the mixtape with an explanation of why I find it powerful.  This is track 2.  Check out Track 1 here.

I have an uncomfortable relationship with Jay Z.  I mean he is amazing, his style, his beats, his creativity, there is a reason he is repeatedly hailed as the best rapper in the world, and definitely the most successful.  He is also obviously smart, and his songs portray the struggles of many working class African Americans in the U.S.  But his songs can be both incredibly powerful, and incredibly sexist at the same time.  His hit 99 Problems was incredible, the part in the middle where he is talking about being pulled over as a black man in the US, is both funny and poignant , but the constant referral to women as ‘bitches’, and then the final chorus where he says he has “99 problems but being a bitch ain’t one” portrays a very low view of women.  So I find listening to his albums both great and offensive at the same time.

But one of the things that I think makes Jay Z one of the most interesting rappers is his ability to be both incredibly macho and proud, as well as incredibly self reflective and self critical on the same album, sometimes in the same song.  Minority Report is just such a song.  Here Jay reflects on the after affects of Hurricane Katrina.  He starts with his reflection on the neglect of the Federal Government of the people of New Orleans.  He puts himself in the shoes of the struggling, asking “wouldn’t you loot? If you didn’t have the loot? Baby needed food, stuck on the roof…”  He questions why we have so many helicopters flying over and filming the people stuck on the roofs of their homes so that we can see what is going on, but they don’t actually pick the people up?  But what makes the song so powerful is that he doesn’t stay there, because he then turns the blame on himself, yes the government has dropped the ball, and needs to be called out, but he recognizes his complacency in the whole thing  “Sure I ponied up a mill, but I didn’t give my time, so in reality I didn’t give a dime, oh damn, I just put my monies in the hands of the same people that left my people stranded.”  

I hear this song, and it makes me think of how often I get outraged at the companies, the governments, the people who oppress, who destroy, who neglect, and then forget about my own complacency, the role in which I play in the injustices that are happening around.  The paradox that is Jay Z makes me uncomfortable, but maybe that is because he makes me acknowledge that the same paradox exists in me, he just admits it.

Ok, I have writers block. I have had it for at least a month. It took me ages to write this and then I couldn’t even come up with a catchy tag line! I’m slipping……must be old age or living with teenagers. Either one seems plausible.

There are a million and one things to write about in the world of Youth Ministry and every time I start a topic I change my mind. I was trying to figure out what my issue was (well, one of them anyway) when I began to wonder if it was simply the fact that I find myself in a place of confusion in regards to the church, our youth and where we are supposed to be. I actually couldn’t find something I had a consistent feeling about so then I couldn’t write about anything with a sense of conviction. Hence, my writers block.

My current sense of confusion happens because I am part of the lives of my youth through the social networking world and our get togethers. I wonder if I and the Church truly do what we should to help them in their life journey. Social networking has opened a door that allows a youth leader to see the feelings, minds and life struggles of our young people in a new way as they grow and live through adolescence. In one week I watched a young girl work through her parents separation, another lose her best friend, one more lose her father to suicide and a 17 year old continually struggle to raise her 2 year old son. There are struggles in everyone’s life but I truly wonder how some youth get by day to day.

As leaders we plan our youth events. They are fun, thoughtful, full of games, music and learning but I don’t think we truly see into the depths of our youths lives often enough. We can’t fix everything or take on their issues but are we there for them beyond our youth nights? Do we try to understand where they are and where they are going? Youth programs don’t always give them the tools to grow and survive in a difficult world. We tell them to have faith, be strong, and believe. But we need to actually teach them about faith and help them understand why they should have faith and believe.

Youth often stand on the peripheries of the Church and watch the politics, self-indulgence and egotism of some within the leadership and in the church pews. They see the good and the bad. Perhaps if we, as adults, were a little less focused on the internal workings and politics of the Church and create a more of a supportive life experience for the youth we can walk with them through both the good and difficult times in their lives. As people who are involved with youth we are blessed to be given the opportunity to make a difference in how they choose to live their lives. The opportunity to go in depth, to teach,to  love and accept is such an extraordinary gift that we really can’t afford to miss it. Perhaps using such a gracious opportunity will ease some Church confusion on all our parts.

In a past post I said that I believe that Hip Hop is the Modern Day Psalms.  Over the next twelve weeks I will be making a Modern Day Psalms Mixtape.  Every Monday I will add a new song to the mixtape with an explanation of why I find it powerful.  This is track 1.

In my humble opinion there is not a better band in the world, not just in hip hop, then the Roots.  This song in particular I find very powerful.  Hip Hop is the home of the remix, taking something, and remolding it and reworking it into a new piece of art.  This song is no exception, a reworking of the folk super group (yes, such a thing exists) Monsters of Folk’s song Dear God (sincerely MOF).  This is a great song in its own right, but the Roots take it and go darker.  Exploring the long asked question of why God allows suffering.  Here Black Thought (the Roots MC) doesn’t give us an answer but also doesn’t give up.  You don’t get the feeling that God is on trial in this track,  for he makes sure to say  “it’s still me, one of your biggest fans…” but he has real questions. “Why’s the world ugly when you made it in your image, and why is living life such a fight to the finish…”  There are no easy answers to these questions, for theologians have been struggling with this forever.  My prayers often reflect this struggle, why is there so much hate in world created by the God of love?  Why do God’s followers so often perpetrate this hate?   I don’t listen to this song for answers to these questions, but rather to join my prayer with his.

For a bit of an extra treat, here is the Roots performing the song live on Jimmy Fallon with guest singer Jim James (Monsters of Folk, My Morning Jacket).

By Christian Harvey

I love hip hop!

Not a very revolutionary statement but it took me along time to admit it.

You see I am a white kid who was a teenager during the 90′s, we listened to grunge music, grew our hair long, wore all used clothes, etc.  Hip hop was not a part of my subculture, and was actually looked down on as a lesser art form and culture, but deep down, I secretly loved it.  There were a few bands, such as the Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine, G. Love and Special Sauce, etc. that were hip hop inspired that were deemed suitable for grunge sub culture consumption, and I ate them up.  There was something about Hip Hop that kept drawing me in, but I never fully embraced it, never could bring myself to cross over.  That was until I bought the Roots album Things Fall Apart.  The more I listened the more I was hooked.  Their track “You Got Me” featuring Erykah Badu blew my mind.  Their mix of darkness and fun was infectious, their beats forced you to move.  This brought me to buy more and more Hip Hop albums.  What I loved was also what scared me about it.  It was so real, it talked frankly about the dark side of life, about struggle, anger, regret, but also was just as comfortable speaking of love, sex, fun, God, faith with a no blush honesty that I could not ever bring myself to have.  And the beats, they draw you in, your whole body responds, it is impossible to listen to hip hop without it making you nod your head, walk with a bounce.  As I write I am listening to the Roots on the bus, trying my hardest not to bob my head.

I began to come to the realization that Hip Hop songs are the modern day psalms, they are the real struggling of a people, often an oppressed people with what it is to live in our messed up world.  A hip hop song acknowledges the contradictions in our lives, having in one song a powerful spiritual revelation and an explicit description of a sexual encounter.  Maybe even challenging our perception that there is a contradiction.

Like the Psalms, hip hop is not perfect, and doesn’t try to be, but is rather a true glimpse into life.  For this reason, over the next 12 weeks I am gong to share with you a Modern Psalm Mixtape.  Each Monday I will share a hip hop track with you that I find draws me closer to God.  I know I will miss tracks that many would feel are important, so please share your picks.  I hope you enjoy the journey.

To get you warmed up, here is the track I mentioned by the Roots.  ?uestlove’s drumming at the end changed how I played drums from that day forward.  Enjoy.

This is a response to Christian Harvey’s article about the Omnibus Crime Bill that was recently passed in the House of Commons.  Check out the article here.

The new “tough on crime” bill is challenging. It is meant to grab the attention of voters who are misinformed about the crime rate and create buzz that the government is getting tough.  However, I do think we need to be careful not to dismiss incarceration altogether. We need to do our utmost to protect victims of crime and those who are negatively impacted through no choice of their own but by those who make poor life choices.

Crime is declining in many ways but studies show that it is increasing in areas such as elder abuse, domestic violence and child pornography. These types of crimes attack the vulnerable. I agree completely it is smart to invest in prevention rather than incarceration but there still has to be consequences for those who commit crimes and to protect those who are victims of crime. There are criminals who have committed heinous acts and will never be rehabilitated. As Christians we do believe in redemption but as one who studied criminology I also know that there are some people that are so morally, emotionally and socially damaged that they cannot safely live in an outside community. To expose communities to this danger is morally wrong. We cannot ignore that those who are sociopathic in nature may never be able to integrate safely. We need to incarcerate those who are true threats while also creating programs for those who are candidates for rehabilitation and support.

Many of our offenders are victims themselves as Christian points out. I’m sure if there had been new and preventative programs had been in place before they offended the chance of being an offender or repeat offender would have been reduced. If the poor, mentally ill, Aboriginal and other minority members who fill our jails had proper social programs available to them it would substantially reduce their numbers within the legal system along with the recidivism rate that these marginalized groups struggle with.

It is well known that crimes of abuse and violence are often learned and are cyclical. If you break the cycle, you lessen the chance of offences being committed. This takes time, money and substantial social assistance programs to do this. All which are much more beneficial than incarceration. There are programs that are increasing crime prevention, including an increase in youth-at-risk programs, doubling the National Crime Prevention Fund budget, and creating the Youth Gang Prevention Fund and the National Anti-Drug Strategy. These are all positive steps as are the Restorative Justice Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs. They are programs that attempt to address some of the social issues affecting the cyclical nature of an offender. They are far from perfect or enough but they are a step in the right direction.

Along with programs that are both pre and post offence, we also need to hold people accountable for actions that are the result of poor choices. Most people know right from wrong and to not hold one responsible for poor choices is an easy way out.  We need to create an environment that acknowledges the failings of our system while holding those who offend accountable. Our justice system is truly flawed but must be amended to create a supportive, fair and safe environment not just for the offenders but the victims of crime as well. We need not only to be fair to those who are threatened with incarceration but to those who were harmed in the commitment of a crime. Vengeance cannot be the goal of our justice system but fairness. ”Tough on crime” has to mean preventative toughness not deterrence toughness. True justice will be found in the ability for the system to integrate programs that take into account those who are victims of the current system and culture along with those who are victims of the offenders. When a balance is struck and compassion is shared on all levels then justice will be present.

READ LOCKING UP THE POOR

READ LOCKING UP THE POOR: JUDY’S RESPONSE

READ LOCKING UP THE POOR: ANDREW’S RESPONSE

By Christian Harvey

This review has spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the movie, then go see it then come back and read this.  You have been warned, now you can’t get mad.

Harry Potter?  Too much commitment, I mean those books are long and there has to be about twenty of them.

Twilight?  If I read them I would have had to pick a team, and how do you do such a thing when they are both so dreamy?!

But the Hunger Games, there was something about them they drew me in and before I knew it I had read all three of them and was having deep arguments with youth in my youth group about the minutia of Panem and it’s districts.

It had its problems, I mean seriously, a teenage boy and girl think it is their last night together on earth and they spend the night cuddling?  These should be used as the textbooks for the abstinence movement.  But over all I loved them, so last week, at the age of 31, I experienced the same excitement as the tweens that surrounded me while waiting for the movie of the first book to start.  I was not disappointed.

Sure they made decisions I didn’t agree with.  I wish they had included the scene where District 11 sent Katniss the bread.  Peeta and Katniss were in pretty good shape after the games, where in the book they were almost dead and so on.  But what I loved was that the focus of the movie was not the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta and Gale, but rather the social commentary on our infatuation with violence, our cultural obsession with being entertained by the misery and destruction of others via reality TV.  The fact that the comfortable “capital” is wealthy because of the poverty of the “Districts”.

This film, and these books I think are a gift to the church.  Fascinating conversations can be started from this film.  Just asking our young people where they place themselves in the story can be a fascinating discussion.  We typically want to associate ourselves with the good guys, the underdogs, but we need to push our youth to stretch and see how much we are like the Capitol, satiated and oblivious to the destruction our lives cause.  We need to lead them to the realization that this is not just a action movie, but is really an anti-action movie.  Why is Katniss and Peeta not happy when they win?  Why does Katniss waste time decorating the body of deceased competitor?  Why does she waste time mourning, and why does this lead to District 11 revolting?  Why do the film makers make all the shots from the Capitals prospective clean and steady, where shots from the Districts perspective were gritty and shaky?  Why so little music throughout the film?

These questions and others can lead our young people into a deeper understanding of the film, lead them beyond getting excited by the violence into seeing the violence that we are complacent in.

Finally, we can ask the question that we should always bring our youth to: how does our Christian faith interact with this story?  This is a fascinating story to explore this question.  What does our faith say about violence, oppression and poverty? What does our faith say about wealth, power and comfort? Though the answers may seem obvious to these questions, we then need look if the answers we come to are reflected by the Christianity, by our church, by us individually.

And once we have had these important conversations we need to ask the question that gets to the root of it all,  the one that really matters, which is obviously is she going to choose Peeta or Gale?  Shoot, I have to choose a team again!