April 2010 - The Boys' Brigade

"ok boys, next week we're going
to be looking at
faith "
...cue a loud collective groan!
You may as well be saying, ‘ok guys,
next week we’re going to watch paint
dry, do some flower arranging, and
make daisy chains together!’
It’s an age old problem. How do you
make the faith, that means so much
to you, come alive for the kids who
you care so much about.
You know your young people all
have incredible potential, and you
feel completely at ease nurturing their
sporting flare or creative gifts, but when
it comes to talking about Jesus, it’s
another story entirely. Your youth look to
you for leadership, encouragement and
inspiration. They seem more than happy
to discuss their struggles and worries with
you; they’ve turned to you for advice more
times than you can remember. And yet...
And yet, when you mention God or
Jesus, you detect the shutters coming
down. It can be so hard to help young
people reflect on what God would think
about their situation or what it would
mean for them to live a life of faith.
So, how DO you take your
conversations deeper, and enable faith to
feature in the lives of your young people
Monday to Saturday, as well as once a
month on a Sunday? Where do you start?
What’s the answer?
One solution is a brand new resource
called UNCUT, from Reflex, an
organisation that seeks to equip
local youth workers with relevant and
innovative resources! Reflex have
42 The Boys’ Brigade Gazette April 2010
long felt frustrated by the lack of
engaging resources out there to help
dedicated youth workers introduce their
young people to the Christian faith. They
developed UNCUT in response to this
blatant and widespread problem area.
One of the first people to use UNCUT
was Brendan Quinn, the Captain of the
8th Birmingham Company, based in
Woodgate Valley – a council estate in
South Birmingham. Brendan is used to
tackling the challenges of an inner-city
company head on. Having used
UNCUT over 6 weeks, he told us:
“UNCUT is an excellent resource that
has engaged our young people, exactly at
their level, in a manner that has provoked
questions and debate about Jesus and
faith in the lives they are leading. The
format has been well developed enabling
a focus upon topics that are essential
to our young people, but which rarely
receive the relevant discussion and
teaching they warrant.”
The UNCUT course consists of six
thought-provoking sessions that look at
the Christian faith in an honest and edgy
way, without the ‘cringe-factor’.
UNCUT comes with a DVD and each
session contains a 7 minute video where
four young
presenters
speak to
camera about
life and Jesus
in ways that
young people
can relate to. The four featured young
adults throw out ideas, opinions and
personal experiences in a conversational
style to help young people to think
about who they are and what their
purpose in life is. Accompanying these
videos are detailed group session
materials with ice breakers, games and
optional activities for low, medium or
high focus level groups .
The UNCUT videos also boast
some striking imagery. In one clip, for
example, a hooded man jumps from
a giant metal bridge, this powerful
bungee jump scene clearly depicting
a leap of faith. In another video, an
urban masterpiece emerges before the
viewers’ eyes, on a giant canvas behind
the presenters, as a skilled graffiti
artist adds his contribution. There are
some really clever and powerful images
throughout UNCUT.
Ultimately, UNCUT helps young people
explore issues relating to identity and
choices, and let’s them consider the
impact God makes on people’s lives
when they encounter Him. The last
section allows young people to look at
the life of Jesus, what He said, what He
did, why He died and what our response
should be. The course tackles the most
pressing everyday issues that affect
so many young people. It has been
specificially developed to ‘bridge the
gap’ between ‘relationship building’, in
other words ‘hanging out’ with young
people. and introducing them to the
Christian message.
Recognising the important work that
BB does across the country, Reflex is
offering a 15% discount for a limited
time. Simply visit www.yfc.co.uk/uncut
and enter promotional code BBmju10.
If you have any questions, or to order
by phone, you can call Reflex direct
on 0121 502 9647.
As part of ‘Youth for Christ’, Reflex
specialise in working with youth from
disadvantaged or abusive backgrounds,
and are experts in engaging ‘challenging’
individuals who are most in need of help.
To find out more about their work and
how they can help you in yours, visit
www.reflex.org.