Meeting the Needs of the Youth

Youth in my books would be defined as Grade 8 – Grade 12. What makes this a challenging ministry, is the ever changing make-up of the youth. It seems that every 6 months or so you have an entirely â€Å"new youth group. It is not â€Å"new' in the normal sense as most of them have been In the youth ministry for a while, It Is that they have all changed and it seems like a â€Å"new† group. They speak of the generational theory, stating that each 20 years or so we have a different generation.I however see a new generation every 2 – 3 years. The culture we live In Is changing at a pace never before experienced. Simply looking at the advancement of technology over the last decade demonstrates for us the enormity of our current growth spurt. Although I fall in the same generation theory category as many of my youth, they are vastly different to me. A change has definitely taken place. I am not sure when It was that I moved out of the â€Å"cool† to â€Å"bo ring† category but It seems that it has happened. As all this change takes place one can only expect that the needs will also shift.What I wanted as a youth is most definitely not what the youth wants today. And it is herein that the difficulty lies, assessing the needs of the day. Meeting this Need Now that the greatest need has been identified, how are we to meet this need. Let me suggest the following methodology: 1. Clear concise exposition of the Word. There Is no other way to bring a person to the point of repentance. Paul while ministering to an Idol riddled generation, did not soften the truth. No In Acts 17 we see that Paul does not shrink in declaring the whole counsel of God. Paul even goes s far as telling the hostile audience that they need to repent.Too often today those ministering to youth do not want to teach on so called hard truths found In scripture. We are being told by the â€Å"experts† that teaching too much doctrine is not good. At a recent yout h workshop we were told that teaching systematically through a book of the Bible â€Å"is Just wrong†. We were told that the youth wants fun filled stories and entertaining challenges and nothing that actually breaks down their self esteem. In saying this however, I do acknowledge that some systematic teaching can be done incorrectly, so as to bore or put anyone off.The clear concise exposition that is needed is one that requires much preparation. The preacher needs to know his audience and has to be diligent to bring the message to bear on that audience. Just as it is no use teaching speed reading to 4 year olds, it is no use teaching Supernaturalism to your youth group. It is my opinion that it takes much more work to teach the scriptures to youth and children than adults. More illustrations are needed, more explanation is needed and bridging the gap requires more work. But at he end of the day Is that not what preaching Is all about? 2.Diligent discipleship 1 OFF to conver t the nations. The youth worker needs to work hard at discipline his youth. This takes the form of personal discipleship and the arranging of other discipleship relationships. It is not a dereliction of duties to ask some of the adults in the church to help with discipleship. One youth pastor cannot himself disciple the entire group. This is the primary reason I prefer not to have the main youth meeting on Sunday nights when the â€Å"adult† church meets next door. No, the young people need to get to now the church members and see how they live their Christian lives.This is not a new concept, but simply the Biblical example of having the older men and women training the younger members of the church. (Titus 2:1-8) Discipleship is hard work and time consuming, but also the most rewarding part of my ministry. What a Joy it is to see a young man growing in his walk with the Lord and seeing the same young man's discernment consistently growing. Loving admonition It is often diffi cult to admonish one of the people we love and enjoy. We perceive that our admonishment will create barriers in our relationship.However â€Å"faithful are the wounds of a friend†. During my ministry I have seen that even though the initial reaction is not always what we would desire, the long term affects are rewarding. The youth sees that you are willing to admonish so that they can grow in Christ. You are not simply standing by and condoning (sometimes nonverbally) their obvious wrong behavior. This should always be done in love though. Admonishing must be done carefully and lovingly always addressing a pattern of sin and not one isolated incident. As a parent I feel the tension of loving and disciplining daily.None of us parents or youth workers delights in admonishing, but we are commanded by God to admonish. While admonishing I always keep the following two Proverbs in mind Proverbs 13:24 â€Å"He who spares the rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him p romptly' and Proverbs 8:9 â€Å"Do not rebuke a scoffer, lest he hates you; Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. † 4. Purposeful ministry The adage is true, â€Å"if you aim at nothing you will be sure to hit it every time. † In order for the youth ministry to be successful it needs to have a defined purpose.A narrow repose, â€Å"having a large youth group† is not specific enough. Each youth ministry is going to have a different local purpose; I say local as the ultimate purpose should be to â€Å"bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord†. Some local purposes will be to establish an initial vibrant youth ministry; others will be to effectively reach the local High School, or even to establish spiritual growth in a core group. Whatever your purpose, it needs to be defined and a plan of action developed. It is important to know how you plan to achieve your purpose.What steps are you going to take so as to assure (realizing it is God who builds His church) that your ministry meets the intended purpose? Conclusion While I agree that doing the same today as we did 10 years ago is not going to cut it, I argue that at the heart the ministry is the same. The youth of today has the same fundamental need as the youth 30 years ago – regeneration. If you are serious about meeting the needs of the youth this is where you must begin. Take the above begin to minister to the youth of today. Always keeping 1 Corinthians 10: 31 as your guide.

The Developement of Polyphony

Rick Serra Professor Graham Music History 1 2 October 2012 The Development of Polyphony Polyphony is a musical concept that completely revolutionized music as a whole. The development of polyphony began to take shape around the 11th century. When talking about polyphony, we are referring to a texture made up of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony).Although we have an overall understanding when polyphony came about, many historians are still concealed in speculation and theories. Despite its beginnings we can assume that polyphony existed in one form or another somewhere else before it grew in the West. Some scholars suggest that roots may lie in Greek music, when the technique of improvising on the same melody could be found, also known as heterophony. Others opinionate that its origins rest in the natural variations in voice placement from one person to a nother.This is best described as when two different voices would sing the same melody using the most comfortable parts of their ranges, causing a succession of parallel intervals to be produced. It can also be viewed as a result of philosophical assumption on the possibility of synchronized interval performances. In order to understand the earliest stages of its development, we must rely on theoretical treatises. These are the technical descriptions of part singing, that have a distinguishing name, organum.Organums can be found in theoretical works by the ninth and tenth centuries, but we do not find any signs of the early history or an attachment to any specific region in them. Conversely, these treatises describe and arrange practices that may well have been widespread and could be considered a custom, not a novelty. Another theory of when European polyphony came about begins when the rivalry between the Western and Eastern churches reached a crisis in 1054. When that was taking p lace, scholars believe polyphony slowly made its way into church music.So instead of monophony or heterophony, we started seeing separate voices sing together, not in unison or octaves but as diverging parts. In the eleventh century, when singers began improvising under the limits of certain rules left from simple parallel motion to give these parts some independence, a development unique to music history began. This was not a speedy process though, there were no sudden, sharp breaks with the past, these changes came about gradually.Although we saw polyphony develop from the churches, we have good reason to believe that polyphony existed in Europe long before it was first unmistakably described. Melodic doubling at the third, fourth, or fifth, along with heterophony is found in many cultures and probably existed also in Europe. Unfortunately, no documents of such early European polyphony survive. But the first clear depiction of music for more than one vocal part, written in the nin th century, absolutely refers to a practice already in use, not a new one being proposed.Passages in an anonymous treatise, Musica enchiriadis and in a dialogue associated with it, Scolica enchiriadis, describe and illustrate two distinct kinds of â€Å"singing together,† both labeled by the name organum. People would sing in parallel fourths sometimes results in a tritone. To evade this undesirable sound, a rule banned the organal voice from going below G or C in these circumstances. Instead, it was expected to stay on one note until it was safe once again to proceed in parallel fourths without meeting another tritone.Under this practice, the organal part became separated from the plainchant and a larger diversity of synchronized intervals came into use, not all of them familiar consonances. This lead to what we now know and understand as today’s standard notation and rules for writing polyphony. Works Cited â€Å"The Beginning of Polyphony. † About. com Music Education. N. p. , n. d. Web. 05 Oct. 2012. <http://musiced. about. com/od/historyofmusic/a/polyphony. htm>. Burkholder, J. Peter, Donald Jay. Grout, and Claude V. Palisca. A History of Western Music. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010.Print. â€Å"Polyphonic Development and the Importance of the Polyphonic Era. † Music of Yesterday. N. p. , n. d. Web. 5 Oct. 2012. <www. musicofyesterday. com/history/general/Polyphonic_Development_and_the_Importance_of_the_Polyphonic_Era. php>. â€Å"Polyphony. † Dictionary. com. Dictionary. com, n. d. Web. 05 Oct. 2012. <http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/polyphony>. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Music of Yesterday [ 2 ]. A History of Western Music [ 3 ]. A History of Western Music [ 4 ]. A History of Western Music [ 5 ]. A History of Western Music

Barriers and solutions to international trade

Barriers and solutions to international trade INTRODUCION This essay provides an overview of the barriers to international trade faced by economies today with examples of barriers faced in various countries, and their solutions. International trade promotes high standard of living for trading nations and hence, despite its various ill effects, it is best to practice international trade as it provides economic and social benefits to economies bringing about an upturn in global economy. This essay attempts to bring to light, the general barriers international trade faces presently and its solutions with recent examples. INTERNATIONAL TRADE: AN INTRODUCTION Trade among countries has existed for a long period now. The trade between Asia and Europe marks this fact as Morrison (2006, pp.314-315) examines that these two continents have engaged in Trade since a long period. He also suggests that with time, international trade has come a long way as far as volume and patterns of trade between nations is concerned. Morrison (2006) has re ferred to figures by the World Trade Organisation (2004, cited in International Trade Statistics 2003, World Trade Developments 2002) from the official website of the WTO that Asia’s share of global merchandise exports has gradually increased, Northern America’s share has slightly decreased and Western Europe’s share has recovered from a downfall in 2001, but not as much as it did in 1990. Morrison further suggests, from 2000 to 2002, China’s exports and imports rose by 30 per cent and today, China is one of the world’s largest traders. Therefore, we may note that International trade plays a very essential role in globalization trends in the world economy. UNDERSTANDING ‘TRADE PROTECTIONISM’ Protectionism is †The deliberate use or encouragement of restrictions on imports to enable relatively inefficient domestic producers to compete successfully with foreign producers, or to protect and preserve those industries and producers con sidered of critical national interest.† (McCracken, 2005) Coughlin et al (1988) state that Protectionist Trade Policies are meant to improve the position of domestic products as compared to its foreign equivalents, and that this may be done through various policies – by increment of the market price of the foreign product or by barring access of foreign products to the domestic market. They explain that protectionist trade policies aim to expand domestic production in the protected industries for the benefit of the owners, suppliers and workers of the protected industry. However this may lead to a downturn in the consumption of protected goods due to either associated rise in its price or consumers start using less of other goods as a result of the decline in outputs and increase in prices. Coughlin et al hence, argue that domestic consumers are said to be impaired as the price of the protected goods keep increasing. Hence, imposing of tariffs lead to domestic producers ’ and the government’s gain, while domestic consumers’ and other domestic producers’ loss. These trade policies also affect foreign interests. ‘FREE TRADE’ & ITS THEORIES Free Trade is †trade between nations that is unhampered by Government constraints such as tariffs, restrictions, and other barriers.† (Financial Times Limited, 2009) Theory of Absolute Advantage

BUS WK4 HOMEWORK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

BUS WK4 HOMEWORK - Essay Example The following section discusses the literature review in support of universal precautions and identifies gaps in the research. Research on the topic supports the use of universal precautions over contact barriers. Kirkland (2008) explains that the emphasis on contact isolation in most hospitals is not based on strong evidence. Instead it is based on conventional beliefs about patient safety. Similarly, in an important study Ribner et al. (1986) share the opinion that a more effective substitute to strict isolation may be available in the form of a modified approach based on a case by case analysis. Although they do not recommend doing away with the use of gloves and gowns, their study reveals the potential for developing precautions on the basis of the necessity for preventing the spread of infections in each case. Allegranzi and Pittet (2009) state that hand hygiene is the most important factor in preventing the spread of infections in a hospital setting. Furthermore, Brouqui (2003) is of the opinion that the practice of adopting hand hygiene procedures among hospital staff can be encouraged by the use of alcohol sprays in hospitals. Cepeda et al. (2005) also show in their study that the continuous use of gowns and gloves is likely to increase the transmission of infections. They also state that the use of gloves tends to reduce adherence to hand hygiene practices among health professionals. In addition to cost savings, the research will also study the effects of universal precautions on the emotional well-being of patients. Barratt et al. (2011) explain that the use of gloves and gowns can be restrictive and may act as a barrier to the information and empathy needs of patients. This can result in the patients experiencing greater anxiety and frustration. In a similar research, Skyman et al. (2009) also reported that patients who were isolated for risk of spreading MRSA infection described their experience as a

Midterm study guide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Midterm study guide - Essay Example Mantiklos dedicated the sculpture to Apollo, the hunter, hoping for gift in return (Helen, Fred, & Christin, 2005, p. 787). What is a kouros? Kouros is a statue built to the size, sometimes larger than the actual size of the objet that it represented. Most of Kouros were made of marble except in limited occasions where they were made from other sculptor materials. Kouros had a standing frontal posture with one of the legs displaced forward in a manner of walking. The arms were close to the body, rested on the thighs. Kouros depicted strict symmetry and different parts of the anatomy constructed as simple geometric forms (Helen, Fred, & Christin, 2005, pp. 805-810). The favorite subject of Greek artists was male instead of females. Female nudity was rare in Greek art because it had either religious or erotic implications. Therefore, women as the subject of art were restricted to vase paintings of courtesans and slave girls. The portrayal of nude goddesses was considered scandalous and artists rarely sculpted woman (Helen, Fred, & Christin, 2005, p. 835). The Greek temple layout was based on an architectural design of megaron, a form of building that has been in use since the Bronze Age. The temple was organized into rectangular cellas that had protruding walls called antae. The protrusions framed a porch called pronaos at one end. The building was cordoned off by a margin, the adyton that served the purpose of admission of priests. Two or more columns supported the porch. The temple was constructed on a raised platform called stylobate. As a design rule, the external colonnade contained along the long side twice the number of columns in the short side. Columns comprised of three parts; the base, the shaft and the top (capital) (Helen, Fred, & Christin, 2005, pp. 923-925). What is the center of the temple – what were temples for? Greek temples served as homes for gods and goddesses whose role was

Understanding Cross-Cultural Issues in the Contemporary World Essay

Understanding Cross-Cultural Issues in the Contemporary World - Essay Example Today, we have multinational companies that operate across different continents and regions of the world thanks to the concept of globalization. Yet, every community or society has its own unique culture. It is interesting to know how the cultural differences play out in this global village context. Globalization has intensified cultural interaction, leading to emergence of multi-cultural societies (Liu, 2012: 94-95). Culture is a strong element that influences the behaviors, perceptions, and attitudes of a community. Based on this understanding, it is important to establish how these cultural influences play out when people from one culture interact with those from a different culture. This forms the basis of this study. The study purposes to investigate the integration of Korean culture in the UK culture. This study will be relevant to understanding cross-cultural issues in the contemporary world because it focuses on a real cross-cultural integration. 1. How do Koreans perceive UK culture? This research question will focus on the perceptions that Koreans have when they interact with UK citizens in the UK. The main objective of this research question will be to highlight the cultural disparities and or similarities between Koreans and British citizens. 2. How do Koreans react to the cultural disparities or similarities when they come to the UK? This research question focuses on the reaction of Koreans when they come to the UK. The main objective of the research question is to identify specific responses, whether cultural assimilation or isolation, of Koreans in the UK. It will also highlight the aspect of cultural dominance. Culture can be defined as the unique shared characteristics of a group that differentiates it from other groups (McLaurin, 2006: 9; Herzog & Leker, 2011: 58; Moore, 2004: 5). Therefore, different communities can be identified by their unique cultures. In identifying a group’s

Childrens Literature - Depiction of Fatherhood Essay

Childrens Literature - Depiction of Fatherhood - Essay Example The essay ‘Children’s Literature - Depiction of Fatherhood’ highlights the role of fatherhood in children's life based on discussing of two novels: Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women’ and Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’. Both the stories have very strong story lines relevant to that age when society was made up of gender identities and set patterns of behavior that were unique to girls and boys. The father in ‘Little Women’ plays a pivotal role, even though he is either at war or when he returns home, remains in the background in the novel. In her own life, the author, Louisa May Alcott had a lot of father issues. Her own father, Bronson Alcott was an unconventional thinker and a Transcendentalist philosopher, who always disrupted the peace and harmony within his family with his conflicting ideas and crazy projects. In R.L Stevenson’s historical adventure, Jim Hawkin’s father does not hav e a major role and his character is used to move the story forward. When his father dies, Jim is in search of a father figure throughout the story of ‘Treasure Island. The author R.L Stevenson has aptly substituted the father figure with other characters in the story. Both the authors make the readers realize the importance of a good and noble father and what could happen for the lack of it. Both these novels are masterpieces and indispensable to many youth who experience the same condition even today.