Launching Headway Youth Blog

Rupert Murdoch wants his editors to pay them more attention. Dictatorial regimes are afraid of them. Celebrities take time out to write them… Blogging is suddenly the new thing!

If you don’t know what blogging is, don’t worry. Before my fiancé pointed me in the right direction I had no idea either. Basically a blog (or web log) is a website containing regularly maintained and dated entries. They began way back in 1997 but with the development of broadband suddenly they have become incredibly popular with people from every walk of life sharing their thoughts with the world through their own online journal. This may sound particularly boring, but blogging is kind of like eating Italian ice-cream for the first time! You’ve spent your life consuming Tesco-value, then one day your life is transformed and suddenly you find yourself increasingly dissatisfied with the lessness of blog-less life. A touch melodramatic perhaps, but nevertheless blogging is something which both stimulates and educates and with over 50 million blogs worldwide (though many are dormant!) and an additional 10,000 started everyday, there is plenty of choice.

As far as I can see there are essentially two different types of blogs. First of all, for those who love people watching, there are personal journals ('Dear Diary') that retell the day to day tales of the famous and the not so famous - www.jamieoliver.com is a good example. In contrast there are link-blogs, which are based around a specific subject and contain musing around that subject and links directing readers to material that may be of interest. There are scores of Christian link-blogs and as of April this year there is one more … www.headwayyouth.blogs.com. Here you will hopefully not find my 'Dear Diary' entries, and you certainly won’t find official Headway policy, but hopefully will find (a) links to other quality blogs and websites of interest and (b) some musings on issues facing the church and Christians today (which should hopefully provide a nice supplement to your quarterly issue of Headline).

As Youth Chair I am keen to equip and encourage those involved in work with young people and young adults. So in addition to the daily musings there are also sections of the website dedicated to equipping youth workers and those involved in new and alternative expressions of church. I hope you or someone you know might find them useful.

If you are one of those out there, seeking to engage with culture and not withdraw from it, then I really encourage you to take a look. There are some weird and wonderful blogs out there, which will equip and inspire, provoke and bemuse. Hopeful the Headway Youth site is one of them!