Further to my piece last Wednesday and Sally’s helpful comment on it, I’ve made a visit this morning to the ‘Guy Harlings’ Resource Centre and picked up some useful material. For the mission and vision course, I think I’m going to adapt the Anglican Mission-Shaped Church report for a Methodist audience. And although I thought the Emmaus Course was too long, I’ve now discovered some short Bible study courses they produce that could be just the ticket. I picked up David Day’s volume on Colossians, Christ Our Life. I’m going to pass that around and see what people think about it.
Having said that, I was particularly grateful for Sally’s reminder about the Beta Course. Last autumn I attended a theological lecture that should have been given by its author, Sara Savage, on her research into Generation Y (now published). (I say ‘should have’, because she was ill and had to email her lecture notes for someone else to give in her place.) At the time I picked up a leaflet about Beta. I can certainly envisage circumstances when I would use it, and having witnessed or learned about one or two personality clashes at church yesterday, I can well see its value! I think that especially with the cost of it I’d probably want to use it not simply in one small group but across a church, though.
Technorati Tags: mission+shaped+church, Emmaus+Course, Beta+Course, Sara+Savage
Big Circumstance 
The circuit I’m going into in September will be doing the Beta course and I’m hoping to attend as many of the seesions as I possibly can. I had Sara as a tutor for a ‘Psychology, Faith and Religion’ module. I don’t think Beta is strictly about Generation Y; I think it’s more about how to apply healthy group dynamics to a church setting with a Christian ethos (as opposed to a secular, psychological ethos).
The very brief conclusion of the Generation Y report, as Sara reported it to the class just before publication, was that contrary to all the researchers’ expectations, they did not find a great interest in spirituality amongst Generation Y. Generations Y’ers have what Sara named as ‘a happy midi-narrative’. It’s ‘With the support of friends and family, I am in control of my life and can be as happy as I want to be.’
It’s a ‘midi-narrative’ rather than a meta-narrative because it does not reach beyond extended friends and family to a grand vision for society. My first reaction was ‘Wow. Imagine how depressed you’d be if your life didn’t conform to that narrative.’ A chap in our module who had just finished teaching Generation Y’ers said that the report conformed to his experience of that generation much more than anything else he’d read on Generation Y.
Part of me wonders how much of this is simply being a teenager or an early 20s person, though. It’s still an age when most people’s lives are relatively me-centred.
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Pam,
Good to hear from you again.
I wasn’t meaning to make a link between the Beta Course and Generation Y – rather, I was going off on a tangent having mentioned Sara Savage. My brain works like that (well, such as it works … ).
Your summary of the Generation Y research exactly tallies with my memory of the lecture. I like your observation about the age of Generation Y and how it might affect their worldview. In the meantime I’ve saved the book to my Amazon wish list.
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My brain goes off on tangents too.
If you remind me nearer the end of this year, I’d be happey to give you some impressions of the Beta course if you like (I’d probably prefer to do that by email.)
I’d also be interested to hear how you get on with some of your shorter courses.
Tangent time.
I saw a course authored by Tom Wright at SPCK bookshop; it was sufficiently expensive that I wasn’t going to buy it just to have a look at it, though (about £60, I think). I think it had 8 to 10 modules, 5 participants’ books (you could buy more of these separately) and one leader’s book. I can’t remember whether there was a DVD or video. I’ve not really had an opportunity to look at the course although I like Tom Wright a lot.
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My brain goes off on tangents too.
If you remind me nearer the end of this year, I’d be happey to give you some impressions of the Beta course if you like (I’d probably prefer to do that by email.)
I’d also be interested to hear how you get on with some of your shorter courses.
Tangent time.
I saw a course authored by Tom Wright at SPCK bookshop; it was sufficiently expensive that I wasn’t going to buy it just to have a look at it, though (about £60, I think). I think it had 8 to 10 modules, 5 participants’ books (you could buy more of these separately) and one leader’s book. I can’t remember whether there was a DVD or video. I’ve not really had an opportunity to look at the course although I like Tom Wright a lot.
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Pam,
Thank you – I’ve made a note to contact you in December. And if you ever remember what the Tom Wright course was …
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I am the mistress of web-search! 😉
Here’s a tinyurl to the ‘Living Faith’ course:
http://tinyurl.com/nqugm
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Pam,
You’re a hero – thank you! I’m going to log that in my del.icio.us bookmarks.
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Oooh, glad you found it useful.
I’d be ever so grateful to hear what you ended up using and what your experience was of the course you chose.
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Pam,
Sorry it’s been a couple of days before approving your comment and replying – we’ve been away for the interment of my father-in-law’s ashes. What I really liked about the Tom Wright course according to the description on SPCK’s website was that it looked like it might fulfil another small group function I now have looming, namely the request for a church membership course. The fact that it apparently compares and contrasts Christianity with other major and minor creeds looked a plus point for a plural society.
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Dave, my best thoughts and prayers for the family on the interment of your father-in-law’s ashes.
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