One Year on in Dunbar

It was the Dunbar Area Christian Youth Project's AGM on Monday and a time to reflect and chew over what has been achieved here in the last year since I started working for DACYP. Suprisingly there was a good turn out for the meeting and genuine support from people. How different to the annual meetings I went to in my last job working with a local authority where the main agenda for those kind of meetings was for local councillors to earn political brownie points for picking out the things you didn't do, rather than acknowledging what you did right. I did a little video of my work so far which went down well and put some faces to the reports I have been giving the management group all year. 'I didn't realise you did so much' said one.

People like the idea of youth work, but they rarely think through what it is. What people actually like is kids off the street, away from them, and doing something useful that won't make this generation of adults feel like failures in the way they have brought up its younger generations. They don't really think through how you get them off the street, what benefit it is to the 'young'ens' and what youth work might actually look like. In the church the adults often just want to tick a box that says 'we did our bit to stop the kids moral and spirtiual decline' by having a youth club or sunday school. Whether it functions well for the young people is normally only the concern of those at the delivery end. And here is where DACYP takes a new turn in its development.

The church...well people in it like the idea of young people somehow being able to be part of the church, worshipping there and keeping alive the faith. Good, and so do I, but as I think through what that means I realise that many in the church have not. The challenge to reach young people in this small town with the Christian faith is a tall order...to integrate them into the church even taller still. Young people are not a single unit and they all behave differently. 'Them lot on the high street' may well need to find faith, but be honest, can you see them in a church? Can you see them rolling out of bed early on sunday (if they go to Belhaven it's not too bad as it's an 11.30am start!) to join the fragranced elderly ladies and 30 somethings with kids families? Not really, and that's where the challenge lies...taking church to them in a way that is relevant and that also brings to life the Christian faith. Hopefully I will be able to report on it's progress here.