By Mike North

1. Module Two:
Understanding Children & Young People
& Ministry Practice

2. Identity
Identity
How do you identify yourself?
What are your identifiers?
• Vital statistics, race, education, wealth, faith,
personality, interests, health, culture, sexuality,
achievements, affiliations, status, place of birth…
‘Identity represents a sense of self that includes a conscious sense of one’s individual
uniqueness and a sense of solidarity with a group’s ideals. It embodies an understanding of
how one is like all other people, like some other people and not like any other person.’
– Kerry Young, Art of Youth Work, p34

3. Identity
Identity
Often formed by the
communities we are in
• Family
• Friends
• Colleagues
• Neighbourhood
• Online

4. Identity
What can we do about our
identity?

5. Identity
Identity v
Role confusion

6. Identity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYCBdZLCDBQ

7. Identity
Identity statuses
By James Marcia
Commitment
Crisis
https://www.youthworks.net/articles/discipling-youth-through-identity-
struggles

8. Identity
Young people we know
• What opportunities do you have with
young people working out their identity?
• What identities do you remember working
out when you were younger?
• What influenced you in making decisions
about your identity?

9. Identity
Racism
• Do we talk about race and
racism in our youth groups
/ churches?
• What are we doing well?
• What could we do better?

10. Identity
Racism
• What’s your ethnic and religious heritage? Do you have a story about someone in
your family standing up against injustice?
• What’s your earliest memory of becoming aware that some people looked
different from you?
• What’s one way you think your life would have been different had you been born
into another race?
• What privileges do you have that others do not?
• What privileges do you NOT have that others do?
• What do you think of when you hear the term white supremacy?

11. Identity
Racism
The shortage of empathy and lack of responsiveness from some white Christians is
what maintains racial inequality in the UK church. (Lindsay, 2019. p.143)
If we are to see change, black people who have the ear of white decisionmakers
should consider using these opportunities to speak on behalf of minorities who do
not have the same access. (Lindsay, 2019. p.144)
How important is it to have a strong relationship before having
conversations about racism?

12. Identity
Sexuality and gender
• The Church’s stance
• The Bible’s teaching
• Personal experience
• What’s the problem?

13. Identity
Sexuality and gender
• Learning together about the subject matter, about each other, about God and about
our calling as a Church (from April 2022).
• Listening to what is emerging from our learning together about identity, sexuality,
relationships and marriage and about our life together as church communities and as a
national Church (from September 2022).
• Discerning what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church today (from December 2022).
• Deciding how discernment is translated into a way forward for the Church (from
February 2023).
• Implementing the ways forward agreed by the bishops and General Synod (from July
2023 onwards).

14. Identity
Sexuality and gender
• Matthew Vines – LGBTQ+ theology
• +Steven Croft – Together in love and faith
• Evangelical Alliance – conservative, traditional
• Focus on the Family – conservative, traditional
• 4 Views on pastoring LGBTQ Teenagers (Oestreicher.
2018)
Despite your theology – how will you love and do
ministry with an LGBTQ+ child or young person?

15. Identity
Disability
• We are all different.
• What are some of the
struggles that people with
disabilities face?
• How accessible is your
children’s or youth group?
• Does your diocese have a
disability adviser?

16. Identity
Multiple
intelligences
https://www.verywellmind.com/gardners-theory-of-
multiple-intelligences-2795161
By Howard Gardner

17. Identity
Identity
in Christ
What the
Bible says…

18. Identity
Youth ministry
What the Bible says about me:
 Accepted, Ephesians 1: 6
 Loved, Ephesians 1: 4
 Adopted, Ephesians 1: 5, 6
 Forgiven, Ephesians 1: 7
 A child of God, Romans 8: 16
 A friend of Jesus, John 15: 14
 Saved by grace, Ephesians 2: 8
 Chosen, John 15: 16
 Complete, Colossians 2: 10
 Redeemed, Galatians 3: 13
 Rescued, Colossians 1: 13
 Cared for, 1 Peter 5: 7
 Blessed, Ephesians 1: 3
 Healed, 1 Peter 2: 24
 Eternal, 1 John 5: 11, 12
 A new person, 2 Corinthians 5: 17
 A masterpiece, Ephesians 2: 10
 An heir, Romans 8: 17
 A temple, 1 Peter 2: 5
 An example, Ephesians 5: 1
 Declared not guilty, Romans 3: 24
 Not condemned, Romans 8: 1
 Made right with God, 2 Corinthians 5: 21
 Led by the Spirit, Romans 8: 14
 Living by faith, 2 Corinthians 5: 7
 Being transformed, Romans 12: 1, 2
 Not afraid, 2 Timothy 1: 7
 Strong in the Lord, Ephesians 6: 10
 Victorious, Romans 8: 37
 An overcomer, 1 John 4: 4
 A co-worker with God, 1 Corinthians 3: 9
 A workman, Philippians 2: 13
 One in Christ with other believers, Galatians 3: 28
 Part of the church, Ephesians 5: 29, 30
 In his image, Genesis 1v27

19. Identity
Youth ministry
“There is a greater and more lasting standard of identity than what
can be found from an internet search. Look to God’s Word and
explore his truth. Go on a journey of knowing the God who created
you. Do things that glorify God and serve others. Ignore the lies
that tell you identity is found within yourself. Turn your focus to
Jesus Christ and let his truth and righteousness have the ruling vote
on who you are.”
Sara Barratt,
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/teens-identity-crisis/

20. Identity
Youth ministry
“I’ve accepted that the whole of my life will be a pilgrimage toward
the sound of the genuine in me. This may sound troubling to those
who’ve been conditioned to believe that our journey is to God and
God alone, but I say the two paths are one. My journey to the truth
of God cannot be parsed from my journey to the truth of who I am.
A fidelity to the true self is a fidelity to truth. I won’t apologize for
this.”
Cole Arthur Riley
This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us

21. Module Two:
Understanding Children & Young People
& Ministry Practice