Bite the Bullet
Getting ready for tomorrow's Bite the Bullet event in Wood Green. Details here.
Day time includes input from Professor John Pitts, a panel discussion, plus seminars and more.
Evening is an urban music concert.
Last year's event was fantastic, and this years looks set to once again help churches and practitioners face some of the difficult questions around youth gangs and violence.

For such a time as this...
Great stuff at the Bite the Bullet Conference today.
Unprecedented media coverage for a Christian event. All the major UK TV channels sent crews and reports made both local and nation news. Wow.
Lets pray for an end to the ongoing violent youth crime

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.

Dangerous to be young in London?
All over London yesterday the Evening Standard's sellers were flanked with the headline "5 teens shot or stabbed every day". Certainly an attention grabbing headline! By the time I got the paper the lead story had changed, but inside there was a report of youth crime in the Capital. Online version here.
It reveals that:
"From 1 April to 30 November, a total of 1,273 victims under the age of 20 suffered injuries in gun and knife attacks. Many were victims of gang violence."
It is possible to dismiss the article as tabloid panic mongering but clearly there is a problem.

There is some great stuff being done to work with young people, and address these issues, at both street and strategic levels, with Christians involved at all levels. But more is clearly needed, and a fresh realisation from the middle classes that this is not just "somebody else's problem".
These are complex issues, without simple solutions.