Road testing ‘Soul’ with council estate kids
by Andy Toovey on Sep.17, 2011, under Gospel, Resources
So here’s where I’m coming from. At New Inn Church (www.newinnchapel.co.uk) we’d been running a youth group for a couple of years, with secondary-school-aged kids coming, mainly from nearby council houses, and almost entirely not Christians.
We’d started with simple talks based on their hardest questions (‘Why does God take good people and leave bad people?’ ‘Did God make dinosaurs?’ and ‘When Jesus comes back, will he be wearing old clothes, modern clothes, or will he be… naked?’ – ok, we didn’t do a whole week on the last question!). Then we began doing some narrative sections in the gospels, but still without directly engaging with the Bible text. Then this last year, we began by looking at the promises made to Adam, Noah and Abraham, all pointing forward to Jesus, and we used the Bible passages for that.
By this point, we had a consistent group of about ten teens, and were gradually piecing together the gospel with them. Ok, so most weeks we still had to send home a couple for bad behaviour, but the routine had been set – half an hour of Bible study, followed by half an hour of dodgeball (always, every week, without fail – their request! My knees have never been the same since…)
So I felt they were about ready for something like the Soul DVD – a nicely repackaged form of the youth Christianity Explored course (buy it from the Good Book Company here). How did it go down?
The DVD has seven episodes, and most clock in at the 15 minute mark. We decided it’d be best to show an episode, then have a time for Q&A afterwards. There is an accompanying study booklet, but that seemed a bit optimistic for our kids on top of the DVD!
The quality of the episodes is really good – it occasionally sails close to Christian cheese, but usually avoids that dreaded territory! I loved the imagery – it’s usually used as background to the voiceover, but sometimes as an illustration. There is one stand out moment where presenter Nate Morgan-Locke (yes, he’s got a double-barrelled surname, but he’s not so posh that the kids didn’t listen at all) retells Jesus’ calming of the storm, shouting it against the drenching rain of a full on studio hurricane, which at the words, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ dissolves into silence and sunshine. It’s powerful.
The gospel is clearly presented throughout, from Marks’ gospel. A lot of passages are read out, with the text always shown onscreen to follow as Nate narrates. This seems a bit odd at times, especially as the stories are often retold immediately following. The text is also never accompanied by music, which seems a bit superstitious – ‘the Spirit can only use the Bible when the text is visible and when there’s no music to manipulate people’s emotions’. I suspect the concern is to be demonstrating the source of authority – the Bible, not human opinion – but it often breaks the flow of an episode. Having said that, there was one point where Jesus’ words about plucking out eyes and cutting off hands to avoid sin were simply read out in silence (Mark 9:42-48), and man, that had an impact!
But what about the ‘youf’? How did they take it?
Well, it was mixed. Most sessions felt too long for their concentration length – we usually had to pause a few times during an episode due to too much heckling the TV. There was an amusing hang up with the kids insisting that I looked like Nate (I don’t see it. What do you think?!). The first episode – explaining why the best way to find out who God is, is to look at Christ – was quite philosophical and over their heads. I don’t think they got some of the irony either. But again, that’s probably another good reason to make the main feature of the episodes the Bible text itself.
There were moments throughout which captured attention – mainly where the visuals tied in closely with the content. The room of TVs, printers and cameras documenting our lives, as an example of how God sees everything in our heart, was strong. The GRACE episode was good, with a clever scene with Nate dropping large cards with writing on into a fire (‘I’ve never been arrested’, ‘I go to church’, ‘I’m nice to puppies’) to demonstrate how works are useless in getting right with God.
So the verdict? It’s a great resource, and for those at the club who were beginning to understand the gospel, it built on what they’d been learning before. But I think it’s still probably a bit too abstract and text-focused for kids for whom school sucks, TV is their teacher and the concrete realities of hanging out with their mates are what get them through the day. Soul will serve a purpose in middle-class youth groups with teens willing to focus, engage and grapple with conceptual questions. But it wasn’t down-to-earth enough for our kids – the visuals were more arty than everyday, perhaps impressive rather than effective. And it lacked a key ingredient which would have connected – humour.
So, Soul – thoroughly recommended as a resource, but it might not be suitable if your youth group has more chaos than calm in it! A lot of my criticisms above would probably apply to any DVD resource used in this context – I’m becoming more convinced that better ways forward in deprived areas are hanging out with your youths, taking them with you for street outreach, being unashamed to bluntly confront their attitudes and assumptions with the gospel, and generally showing them your faith exists beyond the scheduled Friday evening hour.
But what do you think? Have you used Soul at your church? Do you have a formal ‘youth work’ programme, or is there a better integration with the whole church? Drop in a comment below, and let’s get the discussion going!
September 17th, 2011 on 11:34 pm
We used the Soul DVD in our ‘tough’ youth club up here in Dewsbury. There were some times when our kids really seemed to engage with it, and it certainly grabbed their attention. It was worth doing.
However, we leaders are increasingly finding that we make the mistake of thinking that we need to expose the kids to these well-crafted resources when we actually need to expose them to our church community “outside the scheduled Friday evening hour.”
It happens that those of us who lead the youth group spend time are good friends – some of us holidayed together this summer for example. So we’re going to try and let the kids see us away from the Friday night youth club. We want them to see how we live when we aren’t ‘leaders’. We’ve planned (not spontaneous I know, but most of us have families and other commitments) to watch a DVD and have a takeaway on a Saturday night in a couple of weeks time. We’re praying that we might be able to invite one or two of the youth group kids along speak the gospel with them as we speak about it with each other. God willing we’ll do more of this kind of thing – Sunday lunch, trip to the cinema, family days out and so on. Meanwhile, at the Friday night youth club we’re going to do a lot less up front formal teaching and use the occasion to build relationships.
Hopefully it will lead to a few young people who really want to study the Bible’s message with us being able to do so, rather than 10 disruptive kids not listening to a word we say ruining it for everyone else, which is more or less what we have now. God willing it will mean we’ll be able to reach the disruptive kids!
Pray for us!
September 19th, 2011 on 11:12 am
Hi Ian, thanks for your comments, and I’ll definitely try and remember your youth group in prayer.
Definitely agree with you on the “mistake of thinking that we need to expose the kids to these well-crafted resources” comment. I think we fall into such a trap of thinking that unless we present the gospel with ‘eloquence or superior wisdom’ (1 Cor 2:1) or professionalism and slick presentation, they won’t get it – which misses the point that it is the Holy Spirit who brings understanding, and reveals the wisdom of God in the foolishness of the cross. And actually, on council estates, I think people are more suspicious of what looks polished, tidy and sorted anyway.
We’ve definitely had some of the best times with our youth outside of youth club – hanging out with them at the park, a quick chat on the way to the SPAR (Thank you God for SPAR! Maybe it’s just a welsh thing…), or even having some of them in for food if they happen to call by when we’re about to have tea. That’s where they see the gospel at work in your everyday life.
But I would say, be careful with chopping down your ‘formal teaching’. ‘Formal’ doesn’t have to mean professional – it can just mean deliberate, week-in-week-out teaching. And on the other hand, too often ‘informal’ just ends up in a gospel cop-out. When the Spirit-filled apostles rampaged through the world in the 1st century, they primarily preached the gospel – they proclaimed it, they heralded it, and they did it constantly! Just as a messenger might have arrived at a city to announce another glorious victory for the Roman Empire, so the apostles went with boldness to proclaim Christ’s victory over sin and death, to people held captive.
If the gospel really is life-changing, we’ll shout it and plead it and preach it, not just present it! We should replace well-crafted gospel resources with simply more gospel – not less!
I’m gonna write another post on something related to this soon. Hope that doesn’t come over as patronising – it’s not meant to be, cos I’m no expert! I just know that when you stop proclaiming the gospel, you implicitly say something about the value of the gospel, whoever your audience is – that it’s not worth proclaiming!
September 19th, 2011 on 3:40 pm
Thanks for the advice Andy, and your prayers. We certainly won’t be giving up proclaiming the good news. We’ll be actively trying to engage the kids each week. We have just found that formal times of teaching are a considerable waste of time because the 3 kids who want to listen can’t because of the 15 kids who can’t seem to cope in that situation: constant giggles, silly remarks, getting up and walking around and even setting off fire extinguishers. so we are trying a different tactic. It means we need to be much more proactive in getting to know the kids and bringing the gospel in to conversation each week. We’re planning on using YouTube videos on phones and iPads and so on to provoke discussion.
We had a tendency to think that because we had prepared a talk or a bible study and delivered it then the job was done. We had ticked the ‘bible’ box and we could run a game of dodgeball (our kids love it too!) and chat among ourselves. But we have been failing to take the Bible to the kids God has given us. Hence a change it tactic. You are right: more gospel, not less.
September 21st, 2011 on 9:00 pm
Good discussion … thanks andy for watching that for us .. I had looked at that and wondered if it was something worth using.
I’m in a similar situation to both of you in dealing with ‘lively’ unchurched yp (although in inner city brum)
Ian your dissolutioned with what I call the 15 min talk model. Personally I agree with you often it is too tick a box and to me often (if I can be so bold) can seem a waste of time, particularly if you spend most of it arguing with yp.
when we started our work 5 years ago, we did this, and felt much like you do – and this did not provide an opportunity to engage the yp around the gospel. So instead of dropping it we expanded what we do.
We had to do it with a new group (those we had before were straight off ‘road’ as we say and were of diff relgionss) but we began with a nucleus of unchurched yp who were from a younger group who were used to more teaching.
we then had our games (football) and then a talk (15 mins) with work sheets and discussion after, and on the whole this goes ok, and when new ones join us they know straight away this is how it goes.
and yes there are still weeks of rows but when it goes well it goes really well.
as for materials – i am currently using bruce wares ‘big truths for small minds’ with my own question sheets and with an evangelistic edge.
Previously i have worked through the gospels. no fruit yet, lots of struggle, but unlike before we are engaging them with the gospel and there is space in the smaller groups for discussions out of the lesson.
February 28th, 2012 on 5:55 pm
Hi Andy
Well written and couldn’t agree more. We have tended to use ‘soul’ here on our scheme with older adults (30′s-50s) and it has gone OK..In fact one lady in her 50′s came to faith (bonus). It was a but “trendy” and public school boy but we just took the mick out of parts of it and found that our relationship with our people papered over any deficiencies.
Keep up the good work!
Mez
March 20th, 2012 on 2:14 pm
Some really interesting and helpful thoughts here. We’ve recently just finished going through the Soul DVD with a small, select group who regularly come to our weekly youth group meeting in Speke. There was no way we could show it to the 25kids on a Wednesday night, they would never sit and listen to it all! We followed a similar format as Andy of showing the DVD with discussion/Q&A after, which seemed to work well. We had toasties and hot chocolate before watching the DVD which the kids greatly appreciated coming after school and also gave us a chance to just chat generally about life, have some banter and even play a quick game of Jungle Speed (a very fun and violent card game).
I agree with Andy saying that the DVD series lacks humour which deffo make a difference. When Nate finally smiled on the second to last clip, all our YPs immediately commented. HI think our YPs would find it easier to connect and engage if there was more humour throughout, although obviously in the right places. It would be wrong to take away from some very serious points made.
Has anyone tried any follow up material? Do you know of any good resources that could be used after Soul?
PS The guys in Speke also love dodgeball!
May 7th, 2012 on 5:44 pm
The teenagers I work with clapped at the end of the episode about the cross! They then became aware of it, got a bit embarrassed and were a nightmare to discipline afterwards. Strange eh?
July 5th, 2012 on 6:43 am
We have used Soul on a couple of occasions since it came out. I have found it to be more accessible than the regular Christianity Explored DVD material. We have used it with some young people, but keeping their attention was always difficult. I’m not sure if its a problem with the DVD or just a general problem that anything to do with ‘religion’ requires a bit of thought effort! I like the presentation of Soul and the imagery is great. But it does still come across as a bit too middle-class. I’m not sure what we can do about that, because you have to pitch it somewhere, and I guess the ‘middle’ is the safest place to aim for. I believe that Soul would not work as an evangelistic tool for kids who have never really thought much about the Christian faith. Perhaps planning is crucial here – being clear with the young people who you choose (yes, ‘choose’ – its good to be Calvinistic!) to show it to. Do the ground work – get their interest – and be clear that the gospel is serious. The Soul DVD presentation style is ‘dark’ (Manga type stuff – so my teenage daughter tells me!), and that certainly plays the serious nature of the gospel message. When all is said and done, we need to cover any evangelistic effort with prayer – seek God – when we pray God does amazing things!