A Consultation was hosted by Frontier Youth Trust and Worth Unlimited, and jointly organised by thirteen high profile partners, which took place in December using the World Café model of consultation to maximise participation, increase creative thinking and make collective discoveries.
Main questions that were considered by the 50 participants of the major denominations and Youth Agencies in the UK encompassed themes of what the future will look like for young people, what is the future of Church for young people as well as considering issues of marginalisation, vocation and training, ethical values of youth work, theology and partnerships.
These conversations were approached by delegates with a high degree of enthusiasm, insight and revelation. As one delegate remarked, ‘if you said to me that I was going to talk for four hours I would have said forget it, but I did and I thoroughly enjoyed the process’. Whilst another, in declaring the day ‘brilliant’, remarked that so much came out of the conversations that a second day was required in order to take the process forward!
To participate in discussions FYT and Worth will be taking The Future consultation process forward with a tour across England.
They will be visiting London (10 March), Bath (11 March), Newcastle (12
March) and Birmingham (13 March) and are open to bringing the process to a church or place near you. Further details can be obtained from 0121 687 3505, frontier@fyt.org.uk .
The Full report is available to download.
Local churches and projects are encouraged to use the questions raised in the report to consider their own responses to their future work with young people. This can be done by discussing the questions above with young people, communities, congregations and church and other governing bodies. The questions can be printed in newsletters, parish magazines and debated on blogs and networking sites.
So what of the future? The consultation concluded that in order to meet the challenges and possibilities there was a need to think more theologically and, unsurprisingly, the day felt like the start of something really significant rather than the end. There were wide-ranging discussions about the nature of social justice, young people and youth work, contextualised and liberationist approaches and issues such as non-book and accessible theology for young people. Above all a need to ensure there is continued theological reflection amongst the Christian youth work community as the future unfolds.