Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long
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Home / Open to the World / Momentum / Momentum Spring 2009 / Features 
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Hear our voice
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Night-time street pastoring in Newcastle. David Walton (Vice-President, Methodist Conference), the Revd Leo Osborn (Chair, Newcastle upon Tyne District), Sarah, and Fiona Holmes |
There are a good many reasons why Sarah Malik is well qualified to be speaking to me as Methodism’s first paid youth president.
For a start, she’s no shirker. Her first holiday in the new job was spent putting in time at the residential Care Home where she holds a position as a carer – a job to which she will return once her year of office is complete.
It’s clear, too, that Sarah is prepared to put her money where her mouth is. She and her husband, Bobby, recently bought a plot of land in Bobby’s home town in Pakistan. Their aim? To build an educational centre there to help the poorest people with their learning.
Then there’s the fact that Sarah wasn’t brought up in a Christian home. "My Granny used to take my little brother and me to our local Methodist church on a Sunday morning. When we were old enough to choose whether we wanted to keep going or not, I said yes (which my mum thought was a bit weird!) and my brother stopped."
Sarah believes that this experience of an un-churched home life, combined with support from her church family, helps her empathise with the wide variety of young people she meets in her new role.
Indeed, variety is exactly what Sarah and her colleagues hope to deliver for the Methodist Church through its Youth Participation Strategy (YPS) - a greater variety of issues for consideration and response, and a greater variety of young people speaking up about what matters to them from day to day.
Already concerns about youth violence and knife crime have been raised. Through a scheme called 'Mission Possible', Sarah hopes that large numbers of other issues will be brought forward each year to the Methodist youth gathering – Breakout - to be discussed, voted upon, and then put firmly on the agenda of the whole denomination.
Schemes like this will only be possible, however, once youth representatives – known as youth enablers – are in place for every Methodist district in Britain.
In turn, they will be supported by a team of seven regional workers. The task in hand is to get all these posts filled by September 2009. It’s a big job, and Sarah would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in applying for these posts.
Meanwhile, Sarah is listening and talking at every level of the Methodist Church. Able to attend all its key committees, she is delighted that, for the first time, young people have 'access to all areas' of the Church’s decision-making processes.
"I’m focused and determined and organised," she says, "and I’m very passionate about the YPS."
So all those with ears to hear – let them listen!
MORE INFORMATION
Sarah is available to visit youth weekends, or any projects that are of interest to the Children and Youth Team. For more of Sarah’s activities, visit her blog. Meanwhile, full details of the Youth Participation Strategy can be found at www.youthparticipation.org.uk.
