Christian Today Interviews UK’s Top Youth Ministry Leaders at Youthwork 2005

Thousands of Christian youth leaders gathered to be re-inspired and re-energised by the Youthwork Conferences in Southport and Eastbourne over the past two weekends.

The Youthwork Conference was organised by the Youthwork partnership between five Christian organisations, Spring Harvest, Youth for Christ, Oasis UK, The Salvation Army and Youthwork magazine.

Christian Today was able to interview a number of the leaders of these organisations about their youth ministries, and about the conferences and the hope and problems that Christian youth leaders face today.

Below are brief interview texts for Christian Today’s Interviews with Richard Bromley, Director of Local Ministries at Youth for Christ; Russell Rook, Director of Youth Ministry for The Salvation Army; and Jim Partridge, Head of Youth and Student Ministry at Spring Harvest.

|PIC1|Richard Bromley, Director of Local Ministries at Youth for Christ

CT: There are many challenges in youth ministries in the UK today – but what is the greatest challenge in youth ministry in the UK today?

RB: I think the greatest challenge in the youth ministry in UK today is the mission challenge. We haven’t thought about what we are calling people into – where the churches are great and strong it is fantastic and we have youth works that can accommodate them, but so often when we call young people to faith what we are saying is be like us and be socialised into this rather exclusive club.

So often the church has been challenged by youth ministry and are being led by youth ministry, which is why so many mission leaders are reading mission books, as they realise we are in a new day. So the youth ministry is going to transform the church and the church has got to allow that to happen in parallel with what it already does. I am not saying it as a revolutionary but we just have to accommodate a different culture of young people – not youth church but a youth culture church.

CT: What are your aims for this conference?

RB: I would think we want to inspire people, and on the leadership team we hoped the people will go away from here standing a bit taller.

I want people to go away from here inspired and a bit more passionate about the young people they work with, and if I can inject passion in them, then great!

CT: How do you think the young people have responded to the things being taught to them here?

RB: I was asked this before and I was surprised about how many faith developments there are.

I was surprised by the engagement and questions of a few people and the sharpness in their eyes. I have been very impressed with their engagement with this.



|PIC2|Russell Rook, Director of Youth Ministry for The Salvation Army

CT: How successful are you finding this conference?

RR: Like everything it is how you measure success. It is successful in that there are thousands of youth workers in the UK, and we are doing a brilliant job of finding media encouragement and new ideas and teachings. The conference is doing a brilliant job of giving these to thousands of youth workers and exposing them to some very experienced and greatly exciting youth work experts. So it is great in that way, but also people need more opportunity in their lives to spend time with God and teaching.

CT: What reaction have you had from the young people today?

RR: Great, being at the conference has given the opportunity to be in a group and suddenly find I have a person sitting next to me that I have not met before, but then they understand what I am going through and they know the hardships of you work in the church and the fact that sometimes you don’t see the results in the people you have hope in. So I think the people that make the success are sometimes the people that come to the conference and make this sort of youth-work community that can help each other out.

CT: What are you finding most challenging in your youth work in the UK at the present time?

RR: I think the challenge of helping older people in the church to understand what they need to do to reach young people. How they can understand that? How they can understand that the ministry of young people will look so different from the ministries that have been formed in the past 200 years.

CT: Where do you see it going and what advice would you give to the youth leaders?

RR: I see it going from strength to strength. The church in the UK is the greatest provider of youth work services, and we have over 100,000 volunteers in youth work in the church, and we have double the amount of professional youth workers of the statutory sector put together. In youth work terms the church is a success story. It is doing the biggest and the most, and I think, the best youth work out of all organisations – faith based or otherwise. The great thing is it is still growing.

We are employing more youth workers, and training more youth workers. We are training so many professional youth workers that they cannot find jobs in churches, and they have to work in schools and other areas. So I think it is very exciting as the best things are not happening in youth work but in the church, so that is really exciting and so more and more of that please.



Jim Partridge, Head of Youth and Student Ministry at Spring Harvest

CT: Tell us what you hope to achieve at the youth conference?

JP: The main reason we are doing this is for the volunteer youth workers who week in and week out are serving young people, often with little recognition and often little support, and often in isolation, never being part of something bigger and seeing the bigger picture.

So the weekend primarily is for the youth workers, to give them a good time, and also space to allow them to meet God, and give them tools and resources and to connect them with other workers and ministries so they don’t feel as isolated, as often youth workers do.

CT: What has the reaction been from the young workers here?

JP: It has been great. People are positive, and many are desperate for resources and ideas. Many are just very busy and have to rush in and out of their youth clubs and they are just wanting resources and ideas. So giving them seminars on ideas and putting tools in their hands, this has been very popular.

People have also appreciated having time to meet God as people are so busy. It gives them time and space to forget their youth work and worship God, really to focus on him and they are loving it. Also of course to have a laugh and a fun weekend away is very important.

CT: What is the biggest challenge to face Christians in youth work in the UK today?

JP: I think not saying no. There is always more to do with young people, and one more young person to see, and one more conversation to have. There is always another programme and idea, and often we run ourselves into the ground because we have such commitment to help young people, and we want to do that at the expense of all else.

It is about getting that balance of what does God wants us to do and what to invest our time in. There are always 101 things that we can do, and I think there are many youth workers that are tired and I want young people to know what God wants them specifically to do and what things people to invest in.

We just did a marriage seminar and many were balancing how to maintain a healthy marriage with doing youth work and all the pressures that exist. Sometimes you have to just learn to say no. We have a commitment and sometimes the commitment can wear us out. So we sometimes have to know how to say no also.

CT: What would you like to say to the youth leaders today that may be struggling?

JP: This weekend is about saying a massive well done. I am a volunteer youth worker and this is a place to be encouraged. The guys here are doing hours and hours of youth work every week and serving young people that others are not connecting with. So I want to say a massive well done to people as the stories that I hear, really it is incredible the work and commitment that is going on, and there is a hope that this can be a bit of an oasis in the year where they can get some refreshment and a new vision and new faith in what they are doing.