MYA 2010

Ok, today we are back on the subject of Methodism, one of my favourites…

On the 19^th of November, Methodist Youth Assembly 2010 kicks off just outside Swindon, and I am happy to say I will be there. It’ll be my first MYA/MYC that I won’t be there in any official capacity (I was a District Rep in 2006, Planning Team 07, Youth Exec 08 and Facilitator 09). It is going to be a good weekend, although the travelling will be a bit of a killer. I am looking forward to meeting old friends, making new ones and hopefully influencing the Methodist Church for the better. It is great that the Methodist Church does support the voices of young people and does listen to them. But the pessimist in me wonders how much longer it will last.

Why do I say this? Well, this year, for the first time, you could monitor the sale of tickets online, as they were sold through an internet site. And at midnight last night the booking closed. And out of 350 tickets they have sold a grand total of… 155! Not even half. Now I am not going to speculate as to why the sales are so low, because I honestly don’t know. But I am worried how it will look to the ‘Big’ Conference (the governing body of the Church). In 2008 Conference fully committed to a total restructuring of Methodist Youth, and pledged £4.4m for the initial five years of the Youth Participation Strategy. At Conference 2010 this budget was halved, killing of any idea of a full time young person working in each District, and even cutting the Youth President’s roll to part-time. Questions were being asked of the value for money of the YPS, especially in such a hard economic environment.

So how will Conference see this massive drop in the numbers of young people attending its main youth event? In 2007 we had 230ish people, 2008 was about 250, and last year was massively over booked with about 310. Again, I don’t know what has happened, but I know what Conference might say. ‘We have spent millions of pounds, and young people don’t seem bothered. So let’s cut our losses, pull the money and spend it on something else which is looking more successful.’ I will admit I am generally scared this may happen, and I’ll fight it tooth and nail (I will be at Conference 2011, see my earlier post). I know I am thinking well ahead, but it could happen. Possibly short-sightedness and money-saving exercises could, no WILL, be disastrous for the future of Methodist Youth and ultimately the Methodist Church. I have heard (and said) this so much, but young people aren’t the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today. Yes numbers might be low, but then if there is nothing for them to get involved with then numbers will just keep dropping.

I’m not sure how to finish this post, other than if you do want to come to MYA 2010 and didn’t book a ticket, try and get one! Ring up the Children and Youth Team, email them whatever. But it would be great to get a lot more people there. Who knows, it could save the Methodist Church…

Being positive about Methodism

Well, I promised something positive about the Methodist Church, and I will stick to that. There may be a little bit of a rant to start with, but it’s just background.

So, having been involved in the Methodist Church locally all my life, at District level since 2006 and Connexionally since 2007, I have had many ups and downs. And the YPS has been involved in much of it. For those of you who don’t know, the YPS (Youth Participation Strategy) is the Methodist Church’s big money idea to improve participation of young people across all levels of the Church and wider world.

At MYC 06 I thought it was a very good idea, but very complicated, By MYC 08, I was very passionate about it, had very high hopes and joined the reference group and was on a real high. Within 10 months I was back down, lost all faith in it and despairing for young Methodists. With the cuts made to it at Methodist Conference 2010, I thought it was the beginning of the end…

But recently my faith has been restored in it, at least at a District level. Wales Synod has been very supportive of young people since I got involved in 2006. But last week I got a call from my minister. He explained that the Synod wanted to have a young person as one of its reps to Conference 2011, and would I like to do it. I said yes! Wales is also sending two reps to MYA2010 (which all Districts ‘must’ but many don’t) as well as supporting others to go by giving them some funding. Also Wales has just employed a new Synod Youth Enabler, funded fully from its own pockets to run alongside the 10 across Britain that are paid by the Connexion.

All this shows that the Wales Synod is committing to giving young people a true voice, not a tokenistic, patronising ‘oh aren’t the young people good’ voice. A true, representative voice that will hopefully allow the Methodist Church in Wales to lead the way and, one can only hope, reverse the declining numbers of young people and the ‘missing generation’.

Jesus said "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I truly hope that this is the first step towards the Church becoming like children, and being what Jesus calls it to be.