G’day everyone,

My name is Paul and I used to blog here.

So sorry I’ve been off the radar, and thank you to those who have noticed and have emailed me to check if I’m not dead. I am indeed alive and around, and working hard. There have been some changes around the traps.

Firstly, I have decided to take a leave of absence from ministry. As of 1 January, I will not be a minister but an ordinary bloke. I’ve relinquished my magic powers for the time being to “pursue secular employment” and focus on my PhD. I am staying at the agency, but under a new role, and a new minister-type person will be taking over my role. I have to say I am really looking forward to the break: though I love the ministry, I am tired, physically tired, of dealing with people who give lip service to community ministry but in reality expect me to turn back time to 1953.

But God and I are still cool. We’ve just decided to see other people for a while.

The new role at the agency is exciting and challenging and scary. A couple of years back I gave a day each week to pilot a program in Shepparton called the Youth Referral and Independent Person Program (YRIPP). Its aims were to recruit and train volunteers to assist young people who are being interviewed by police, and facilitate a referral to a local support agency should they need support. The program was a success, not just in Shepparton but in all pilot areas, and the Vic government agreed to roll out the program to 103 stations around the state.

So I’m taking on the job coordinating the arrival of the program in police stations in Northern Victoria, from Merbein to Wodonga and down as close to Melbourne as Gisborne. So I am doing a lot of driving. I’m presently suffering from a really sore throat (I can only manage a whisper) due to the constant bad singing I do at the wheel. I wonder if I can get WorkCover for that.

The PhD is surviving, and I’m helping my supervisor apply for a grant to the Australian Research Council for a research project that he would like me to lead when I’ve finished the thesis. So I better get cracking.

And on Monday I’m heading to Vancouver for AoIR 8.0. I’m giving two presentations and I’m bloody nervous. But I’m looking forward to catching up with people I met at last year’s do in Brisbane, who can give me the extra kick-up-the-bum that I need before I present my last semester’s work to RMIT (two days after I return - eek!).

If I had more experience at this sort of thing, I would find it thrilling, but at the moment it’s a little scary. I just discovered that, if you include the PhD, I am in the middle of writing three books at the moment.

I’ve been encouraged by my supervisor at work to take more time out to write the two books I’m in the middle of: Spirit in Youth Work, and Sexuality and spirituality: a resource for youth workers, plus time to write an article about youth work ethics online (in particular, on MySpace.com). Which is nice of the agency but it means I’m knuckling down and thinking hard and trying to compose new research/writing structure, as well as maintain my own composure.
That’s why I’ve taken the page about Spirit in Youth Work off this web site. there’s no point keeping it there if it’s undone and half-finished. I’d rather show the real mccoy when it’s ready.

My boss went to a CEOs meeting of UnitingCare agencies in Brisbane this week and came back with her head and heart full of great passion and resolve. Discussions with her and the coordinator of our Diversity program led to the commitment to produce a new resource.

The new package will be education for youth workers, church workers and ministers who want to support young people who are, or who are thinking about, coming out as not straight, but who want to hold on to their Christian faith. Already we’ve established what the resource will contain and how it will (kinda) look. Naturally, it will have to have stuff on Christian sexual ethics and homosexuality in the Bible, because those discussions are always played out in our chruches and affect the mind of every young person going through this process. Yet our main focus should be on managing a queer identity while maintaining a solid Christian one, which means more focus will be placed on dealing with relationships in a young person’s faith community, dealing with stereotypes, embracing a new path of life with God.

I’ve found some resources on the net to help us, such as Soulforce, and, of course, the United Church of Christ in Canada. If anyone out there knows of any other resources, I’d love an email.

And if you’d like to help Cutting Edge develop the resource, you are really really welcome. I mean, really.

I’ve been set the task of writing a theoretical or philosophical statement for my work at Mind Body Spirit. I had set myself the deadline of 31 January to complete it and post it on the net, but I decided to follow the tradition of all great writers and ignore that deadline, despite the fact I’ve had a few queries about it.

The worst part of it is that what started out to be just a set of guiding principles, based on some best-practice evidence, has turned into a pretty large work. This is mainly because there is little/no best-practice evidence that I can find for this work, so I’m having to develop my own sources. What fun!

I think I’m half-way through writing the thing. So I’ve decided to post it on this web site, and ask all you terribly busy yet smart and good-looking and wise and suave and did I say good looking? people out there to have a gander at it and let me know what you think (I’m starting my own peer review).

Now, if by chance you’ve checked out the links from the “articles” page and read that stuff you will find that I’ve plagiarised myself quite a bit (I’m thinking of suing), so please don’t be too bored or annoyed.

I want your honest feedback, but know that it aint no PhD work. Click on the links on the sidebar or the link saying “spirit” up the top. There aren’t any comments enabled on these pages so please make comments to this post or email me.

Spirit in Youth Work