Today I pretended to have my new role for YFC for the day and attended a pre-launch of Chislehurst Youth for Christ. If all such meetings have salmon and champagne in massive back gardens the size of a Gillingham park, I could quite get used to this.
If you don’t know Chislehurst is in Kent and quite near to Bromley. It’s quite a well off area but as far as reaching young people is concerned I think that just means the issues are hidden and possibly harder to discover. In Gillingham we can see the needs immediately. In Chislehurst, the needs are there, but the masks are thicker.
Anyway … the centre has a fantastic swell of church support and I could sense a real passion to reach out to the young people of the area. It was so exciting to meet people of all ages and all churches with a passion to reach young people for Christ. I know it will amaze me over the years – how God is raising people to reach outside their cultures to young people.
They have a target of raising £30 000 before they fully launch and employ a worker. Please pray for them as they go for this.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 
Rob, when you become a famous christian, with dinner parties and royalties from books, don’t forget us poor commoners will you:)Lucy
We have the same problem here, that the top surface is wealthy, has champagne parties at the one and only church in the village too(how odd, are we in a parallel universe).Underneath though, there are many problems in the village, especially amongst young males.I dont know anything about YFC, but am interested in your thoughts on how to approach such a divide in your work, and meet the underlying needs, rather than just the surface stuff.Lucy
LucyThere is a link to the yfc website in my links section. http://www.yfc.co.ukI don’t thnik there is a definitive answer to the problem of massive diverstiy in an area. The most effective ‘projects’ I have seen work are those where workers make a decision to go and live in the community and act out their Christian life.I think this works well in Manchester where the Trbe run the Eden project with local churches and YFC. Also, in Hull YFC, Chris Hembury, the dirrector, for years has lived in the community with his family and developed what has been needed. One example being a breakfast club for children before they go to school for the last 10 years.I thnink it needs long term commitment like that to gain trust and for people to actually start to look into why we are different.
Yes, so true. Building relationships takes time, and so many of the lads here wouldn’t trust anyone who was coming from a ‘program’ or a ‘church’ because they are seen as do gooders.Lucy