SD: That’s the other half of the story: recently Scripture Union hasn’t had a schools worker in Glasgow (for about the last two years). So although there are some great youth groups & clubs in some parts of the city, and some very active churches, there are other places with little youth work going on, and many schools with apparently no Christian presence in them at all. There is a precedent for our plans: SU has begun a similar project in Edinburgh where there is now a team of four schools workers, called es-team – Edinburgh Schools Team – and we are now planning something similar for Glasgow.
CT: What is the spiritual condition among Glasgow youths at the moment; is there a desire to meet Christ?
SD: Not a conscious one – or they certainly wouldn’t express it like that. I think it’s best summed up by saying that these young people (almost 80,000 of school age in Glasgow) are substantially unchurched, i.e. they have no exposure to the claims and teachings of Jesus, or even to the moral messages of traditional Bible stories. What they would say is that there is a desire to be accepted, to be taken seriously, to discuss deeper things in a safe environment... These are what they urgently need – as well as adults and older children who will be role models for them. It is these things that attract them to SU groups and activities, and ultimately, perhaps after several years, attract them to Christ.CT: How do you think young people in Glasgow will respond to the project?
SD: Very positively. For all the reasons I’ve mentioned above, SU groups (and all the associated activities like weekends away and holidays) can be a very welcome feature in some children’s lives. Remember too those children who are already Christians but for whom school can be very threatening; they may just need the steady encouragement of others in their school in order to grow much more confident and open about their faith.
I have to say that by its nature this is slow work! New schools workers are likely to spend much of their first year building relationships with local churches and winning the confidence of head teachers. The experience of our regional workers generally is that you need to be in post for at least two years before the real fruit appears in young people’s lives. And after all, children won’t readily trust adults who fly in briefly and then disappear; but if they’ve seen your face in assemblies for years, and watched you about the corridors of the schools, they might be absorbing far more of the gospel message than you imagine.
CT: You said that the GO Project won’t replace any existing church youth groups or projects in Glasgow: can you explain a little bit more the precise role that the GO-Team will play alongside these existing youth initiatives?
SD: The answer to that is a mixed one – it just depends what is needed. Maybe local ministers and youth workers already go into a school, in a chaplaincy role – the SU team member might simply get in touch and offer support, link up occasionally for joint activities, but gladly move on to one of the several other schools in his area. Meanwhile, for instance, a church youth group will take place outside school time and on different premises: so the SU schools worker won’t be doing anything that competes with that – on the contrary, he or she will hope to make contact with the people who run it, again perhaps offer support, and just make sure that the different activities complement each other... all in order to meet and encourage children as effectively as possible.
CT: How do you see the GO-Team project developing in the future? Are there any plans to expand the project beyond Glasgow?
SD: My dream? At the moment we are thinking of a team of only three workers for Glasgow, and financially that is a daunting challenge; but Glasgow has over 200 schools, and each of those three will have a huge area of the city to cover. If the schools discover the benefits of inviting these folk in through their doors, and if the Christian community sees the value of the work and supports it financially, then there is easily scope for a bigger team. I’d love to see six schools workers in Glasgow after three or four years.
Beyond Glasgow – well as I mentioned, Glasgow is actually the second phase, and all credit to the team in Edinburgh who have pioneered new ideas over the last couple of years. I suppose any city means a large concentration of school-age children, and therefore a very good reason to have a team whose purpose is to take the challenge of Jesus Christ into schools. So no new plans yet – but every reason to be open to new vision!
The Glasgow Project is seeking financial and prayerful support for the new initiative.
