Youth Community Network is a Lightwave group which is pioneering a youth community which meets on Friday evenings in oth West Ipswich. They are developing partnerships with local churches, schools and colleges.  currently working in collaboration with a local primary school and local 6th form college building relationship and offering pastoral care. The group is led by James Hawksworth of Suffolk Centre of Mission who is keen to share his experience and support others in Lightwave across the county.

James Hawksworth
Leader of Youth Community Network

Contact me to find out more about the Youth Community Network in Chantry & Pinewood areas of Ipswich.

James writes…

"Young people already know about social action, probably a lot more than the church does because we focus a lot on what we believe, rather than necessarily what we do, whereas they would say social action is more important than anything else.

So, I think, how do we build a relationship with the Revolutionary God when they’re already Revolutionary?

I want our young people to experience that shift in perspective that only encountering God can give. We’ve started praying with one another and practicing some spiritual exercises, encouraging them to engage with the Other, with the spiritual, rather than just the knowledge of who He is.

None of the kids are from faith backgrounds except maybe one, and my daughter. At first many were quite anti-Christian, even in our youth group.

One girl, put this song on the karaoke machine that we have, and they were all singing along to these lyrics about ending up on your knees in a leash at church. I had to ask them if that’s how they see us, as Christian youth leaders, and they responded, ‘oh no, you’re different,’ but we could see there was a journey to take.

Last week, we discovered the same girl, who has become so much more supportive of what we’re doing, at the front of the church behind the altar, praying with another girl.

INSTEAD OF SNEAKING OFF TO DO SOMETHING THEY SHOULDN’T, OR BECAUSE THEY WERE BORED, THEY HAD FOUND A QUIET SPACE TO PRAY TOGETHER.

It was beautiful."

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