Youth Crime
Seems everyone is talking about youth crime and violence again.
BBC London did a debate a couple of weeks back and had a day of programmes about teenage life in London today (which in fairness covered more than that issue).
Channel 4 has a series Disarming Britain next week.

In a couple of weeks time the Baptist Union, along with Street Pastors and others has an event called Bite the Bullet.
Happening at Brixton Baptist on 12th July there are some good, experienced people coming to speak (including Deputy Mayor Ray Lewis). The plan is it'll be more than a one off event, and hopefully make a positive impact.

Language & Baptists
Confession time: in a room full of Baptist leaders today I used the word "arse"!
Not sure why, but it was part of passionate plea against negativity and passivity.
Nobody seemed too bothered (or if they did they've not yet told me), but I did feel a bit guilty on the way home.
So should I be bothered? Is it offensive?
Reminded me of this post from Andrew Jones about a year back now, which is helpful.

On a separate note - anyone seen this movie? Or read the book?
"Baptists at our Barbecue" - looks amusing, but I've not come across it until now.

Art and the Gola Store
I posted a couple of years ago about my love of Gola trainers (here, here).
Hunting for Gola's in old naff shoe shops and TK Maxx is part of the fun (and I can usually get 2 pairs for the price of your new fangled Nikes or other trainers), but now the hunt is over. Not the cheapest place to get them from, but on Saturday we went to the new Gola store in Carnaby Street. Amazing - wall to wall Golas, with T-shirts and other stuff too. Such temptation!

Apart from the Gola store we also checked out the exhibitions (degree shows) at Central St Martins. A mate of Suzie's had a couple of pieces (one of which was a noose - interesting!) on show, and another friend some knitware. A mix of stuff really, some interesting and thought provoking, some random and pretentious!

Durable Faith?
Interesting article from Relevant about 20 somethings faith struggles, post youth group.
Obviously massive differences in US context to UK but some challenges facing youth ministry to find ways to help young people develop what a friend used to call "durable faith", that lasts into adulthood.

More on Florida and all that
Following up a previous post on Lakeland, Florida, Todd Bentley etc.
Still lots of conversations and blog talk about this.
I guess having 24-7 God TV coverage, You Tube clips, makes this a media event and different even to the Toronto stuff.
Dan has added some helpful thoughts.

Related or unrelated to this stuff, I do hear of things "stirring" in churches, coming to life, the Spirit moving etc.
What does/will/could revival look like in post-Christendom?
Or do we need a new word?

Getting ready for...
The LBA's London Event on Saturday.
Hope to see a good turn out of London's Baptists...

Youth Group Ideas
Just come across Insight, a UK based site with loads of free meeting plans and ideas. Of course I might be late to the party and everyone else might have been using it for ages...
And Spikyheaded is still a good place for ideas too.

And there's this site with a huge list of youth ministry blogs