The YWS Early Day: in-depth practical teaching from our keynote speaker. Mark Oestreicher.

A unique opportunity to spend a day with one of the world’s leading youth ministry coaches, exploring together what it means to create a vision for our youth ministry that takes a wide-angled, long-term transformational view. We’ll look at at how adolescence is rapidly changing, how every context is different, and how to craft values that both allow for great practice and create space for God to move. A practical day that gives you a chance to take stock, learn, and dream for the future.

Mark Oestreicher is a 30-year youth ministry veteran. author of over 50 youth work books and the former president of Youth Specialties. In 2010, he launched the Youth Ministry Coaching Program and The Youth Cartel.

The day runs from 10.30am through to 4.30pm. It’s a mix of teaching, discussion, practical exercises and a chance to reflect. The venue is the London School of Theology, which is also the venue where we’ll be holding our Big Chill events later in the evening. You’re also close to the main Summit venue for the following day.

Tickets cost £30 or just £20 if you book a ticket for the Summit at the same time. Just click through from this website to order.

Note: If you’ve already bought a Summit tickets, we’ll be contacting you soon to offer you Early Day tickets with the same discount… so you won’t miss out!

We’ve realised that the reason that YWS works because it’s run by youth workers, for youth workers. So as we seek to grow it, it’s only natural that we’re going to need to get even more youth workers involved.

That’s why we’re launching Team YWS. It’s a chance for you, as someone who has been involved with the Summit in these early stages, to get more involved in the planning and promotion of the event. Here’s how it works:

1. YOU sign up to become part of Team YWS. Yes, you. We’ll be accepting applications again soon so look out for an announcement.

2. As a member of the team, you commit to communicating the vision and news about the Summit to other interested people who missed out last time. We’ll send you some stuff, both virtual and physical, that will help you to tell others over the next few months. The aim is that you become a little beacon of love for YWS, rallying others to come along and join you on May 19th.

3. You’ll be invited to join the Leadership Team online for discussion and debate about the programme for May 2012 and beyond. This will only be open to Team YWS members.

4. We’ll send you regular, exclusive info about how the Summit is coming together. We’re going to be completely open with you - you’ll know our latest booking figures, even if they’re terrible; you’ll get an update of how we’re doing against budget - however we’re doing. Plus, we’ll keep you in the loop about latest updates on programme and more.

That’s it (although we’re bound to think of other stuff)! Please consider helping us out, and being part of something exciting that God seems to be doing. If you want to be part of Team YWS, just drop an email to us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), and we’ll let you know when we’re accepting applications. And if you don’t want to be involved in this way, we really hope we’ll see you on May 19th.

Good question. You can email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)... that’s the easiest and quickest way to make contact and find out whatever you need to know.

If you have any questions about booking tickets and payments, you can email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 01582 589847.

In 2012, we’re trying something different – as the Summit extends for the first time into Saturday evening.

Taking our inspiration again from Joel (2 v 28), we’re going to use this extra time to hear from some of the Elder statespeople of UK youth ministry. Hosted by Youthwork Magazine founder John Buckeridge, this will be a one-off opportunity to hear the wisdom of the men and women who were doing youth work before some of us were born – and to listen to their dreams for the current generation of youth workers.

So it’s a day of vision, and an evening of dreams. Join us on what promises to be an incredible journey.

Summit venue: Jesus House, 112 Brent Terrace, Brent Cross, London, NW2 1LT.

The 2012 Youthwork Summit is taking place in the stunning auditorium at Jesus House in Brent Cross. It’s situated next to the North Circular [A406] off the intersection which leads to the M1, making it easy to reach from all major routes. There’s plenty of free parking on site. It’s also within walking distance of Brent Cross station on the Northern line of the London Underground. We’ll have the venue and car park clearly signposted on the day from all major routes. You can see exactly where it is on Google Maps.

(Note: Details of the location of the Early Day and Big Chill events on Friday 18th May are in the Early Day section of our website).

We’ve worked hard to negotiate special rates on a wide range of accommodation options to make sure everyone can get to the Summit, whatever your budget how far you have to travel. Here’s what’s on offer.

The £5 bargain option: Bring a tent and camp in the grounds at LST and it’ll cost you £5 including use of LST’s facilities and showers and a hearty breakfast. You’re also right there on site for the Early Day and Big Chill events. There’s limited space so make sure you book a pitch early by applying to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

The very cheap option: London Backbackers hostel is within 5 minutes drive of the main Summit venue and has shared rooms from £11. It’s just a few metres from Hendon station on the Northern line of the London Underground. You can book direct with the hostel at http://www.ukhostels.com.

The bargain hotel option: There are a range of hotels close to the Summit venue offering great accommodation to suit every budget. You’ll need to contact the hotels direct to book.

Under £60: Premier Inn (Wembley Stadium) is just over 10 minutes drive from the Summit venue with rooms from £54.

Under £70: Days Inn is 15 minutes drive from the Summit venue with rooms from £69.95.

Under £80: Holiday Inn is right next to the Summit venue and has rooms starting at £79.50.

In 2012, we’re taking our inspiration from this verse from the book of Joel (2 v 28):

“I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
  your old men will dream dreams,
  your young men will see visions.”

There’s a lot of words in that verse which resonate with the YWS approach. In the first two events, we’ve heard plenty of prophetic men and women, and in 2012 we’re going to be asking our speakers for their ‘Visions and Dreams.’ Big ideas that could impact a generation – great hopes for the future laced with experience and wisdom.

During the day, we’ll hear from a more diverse range of voices than ever before, drawn from way across the youth work and ministry spectrum. More than ever before, the focus of the day will be on young, emerging, mainly unknown voices – all presenting their visionary ideas in our dynamic bite-sized format.

Then, during the evening, we’re going to do something a little bit different…. check out what’s new for 2012.

If you’re a full-time youth worker, then we count you as a friend. You know what it is to pour your whole life into ministry among teenagers – spurred on by those twin loves that set us apart and bind us together: for Jesus and for young people. These are the same passions that drive the team behind Youthwork Summit – our aim in putting together this event is to see you inspired, resourced and better connected; to bring you together with over a thousand others just like you; to involve you in a day that will make you laugh, pray, open up and dream bigger.

The Summit offers a chance not only to listen to a diverse range of voices, but also to contribute, discuss, network and imagine. We’ll aim to present you with a mix of experts, pioneers and practitioners, and give you opportunities to engage with their ideas through more than just listening.

We’re passionate about your continued professional development, deadly serious about the need to take space and be reflective once in a while, and desperate to create ways for you to meet other youth workers to network, share practice and most of all, make new friends! Our aim is to make the Summit a relevant, challenging space where all of these things can be achieved. Come along – bring your team – be a part of something bigger.

You are a volunteer. This is not the only thing in your life. You’ve got all sorts of pressures on you – from work, to finance, to carving out time for friends and family. We understand that – the leadership team behind the Summit is made up of volunteer youth workers.

We also believe that youth ministry in the UK and beyond is underpinned by the tireless work of a small army of people just like you. Without you, the church’s work among young people simply wouldn’t get going. You are the hands, feet and voices that take the love of God into the lives of young people. And we know that whether you volunteer once a month or five nights a week, you take your call to minister among young people as seriously as the most committed full-timer.

The Youthwork Summit isn’t just for full-timers – it’s aimed just as squarely at volunteers. We want you to join in with those deep discussions about the future of your youth work; we want you to be inspired and equipped; we want you to be blessed, to feel looked after, to enjoy yourself. Why not get your whole team together for YWS 2012? It’s going to be an unforgettable day.

2012 sees the Youthwork Summit head back to the Capital for our biggest and most exciting event so far. We’re at Jesus House, a thriving church and conference centre in Brent Cross in North London. It’s an amazing venue with the latest media and tech equipment and plenty of space. There’ll be coffee on hand - of course - and a bunch of other things to see and do during the day.

If you’ve never been to a Youthwork Summit event, it’s time to join the party. Since 2010, we’ve been organising a unique annual one-day convention for every kind of Christian involved in every kind of work with young people. Why unique? Because over the course of just one day, you’ll hear more than 20 diverse voices presenting their big ideas about Christian youth work. For 5, 10… 15 minutes at the most, we ask a mix of world-leading experts and grass roots practitioners to take to the stage for a series of high-impact presentations – then create an atmosphere of interaction and engagement to ensure their ideas are accessed and developed by our delegates.

The vision behind the event was developed by Chris Curtis, Martin Saunders and Matt Summerfield during a prayer retreat together in early 2010. The question they had set out to explore: how could they and the organisations they represent (Youthscape, Youthwork magazine and Urban Saints) work together to better serve and resource youth workers? Part of the answer was to launch a new kind of youth work event, where breadth, diversity and unity are celebrated; where innovation and new ideas are the focus.

In 2010, we launched in London, where we were joined by over 500 excited early-adopters. In 2011, considerably more youth workers joined us for a stunning day in Manchester. And in 2012, we’re moving the Summit to May.

We’ll keep on moving, reinventing, and reimagining, because frankly, we can’t help it. It’s who we are, it’s what makes YWS so exciting, and it’s how we make sure we continue to serve you, the youth worker, with the very best event we can. So get ready for a very different, very brilliant Youthwork Summit 2012. Just don’t get used to it – we’ll change it all again next year.