- International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry

I
I
I
!
I
JOURNAL
OF
YOUTH AND THEOLOGY
Volume 4
•
Number 1
•
April 200S
Furthering the study, research and teaching
of youth ministry internationally
ISSN: 1741-0819
International
for the Study
Association
of Youth
Ministry
Editorial Policy
Ideas and Opinions
The ideas and opinions contained in articles in The Journal of Youth and Theology
are those of the authors and reviewers. They do not necessarily represent those of the Editor
or Editorial Board.
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All articles and letters for the Editor should be submitted
Shepherd, [email protected].
and should be typewritten,
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Notes and references should be in the form of single-
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If you would like to suggest a book for review, or have any comments
the reviews, please contact [email protected].
about
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Copyright for all articles and book reviews is retained by the author. If the author
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This Journal is available in electronic form on the IASYMwebsite, www.iasym.org.
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CONTENTS
Editorial details
.inside front cover
IASYM Executive details
.inside back cover
Editorial
Page 4
A Word from the Chair
Page 7
Article: Why Theology? It is Only Youth Ministry
- Malan Nel
Page 9
Article: Light of Day - Scaffolding a Theology of Youth Ministry
- Bert Roebben
Page 23
Article: Seen & Heard: A Theology of Childhood
- Nathan Frambach
Page 33
Article: Bored to Death: Entertainment, Violence and a Sacramental
Approach to Teaching Peace
- Russell Haitch
Page 51
Article: Developing Contextual Models of Youth Ministry, Part 1
- Christine Gapes
Practitioner
Spotlight on
Page 67
]acob Isaac, Bangalore, India
Book Reviews
IASYM Information
2
mN1rn~almflt<!ittlitmi:\l!J~oIOgy~W:()II:lili.eA; Nmnber
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Page 115
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Editorial
Welcome to the fourth volume of the Journal of Youth and Theology (JYY).
Whether you are a new subscriber, library reader or a stalwart of the International
Association for the Study of Youth Ministry (IASYM), we hope that this publication
will provoke debate and dialog on the nature and practice of youth ministry and
provide fresh ideas for your ministry.
The articles in this issue have been developed from papers presented at the
IASYM International
attended
Conference
the conference
held in London
were treated
in January
200S. Those who
to a wide range of elective and keynote
papers. The papers in this issue of JYT are illustrative of the quality of research and
writing on youth ministry stimulated by this gathering and demonstrate
of reflective practice and critical thinking
within
the association.
a bed rock
Other papers
presented at the conference are available on-line for members (www.iasym.org) and
are well worth a viewing. The articles in this issue have been reworked by the
authors
in response
to feedback from the conference.
presented in London are assessing and augmenting
for future inclusion
submissions
I know that others who
their research for consideration
in JYT and we look forward to receiving these and other
in due course. We are also delighted to receive unsolicited
papers and
have a guideline sheet available for those who wish to submit.
The IASYM is truly international
and multi-disciplinary.
\
whose focus is practice and others who concentrate
who minister primarily in the developing
'industrialised
world, those who live and work in the
international
interviewee,
of and categories for classifying
context in youth ministry. Isaac is based in Bangalore, India. His work
is caught up in a rapidly changing
organisational
on teaching and research; those
west' and those who do both! Indeed, our practitioner
Jacob Isaac, powerfully challenges preconceptions
geographical
It includ~s those
and
educational
flows of information,
(and polarising)
links
to the
post-industrial
USA and
elsewhere
context.
His
belie
the
goods and people that shape our world and
thus our context for youth ministry. Jacob faces (in his own unique situations) the
same challenges that face many of us (or those we teach and support): how do we
under gird youth ministry with robust theoretical
foundations
from which we can
build strong contextual work? How should we also translate and transfer practice,
which others have successfully applied, from one context to another?
The articles in this issue consider these matters. Malan Nel invites us to
consider the question, Why Theology? What is it about theological thinking and
method that youth ministry is particularly in need of and what does it mean to
develop theological understanding
of the practices youth ministry involves. Nel
not to consider 'a theology of
helpfully invites us, and the subtly is important,
youth ministry' but the place of theology in youth ministry. In different ways, each
article continues
this discussion.
simply an abstraction,
Bert Roebben explores how theology is not
in theological terms, of the processes involved in youth
ministry: youth ministry is living theology. The intersection of our lives with lives of
young people is a generative site for theological conceptualisation
and language.
This space created by youth ministry provides fresh opportunity to involve young
people in the development of theological thinking.
Nathan Frambach and Russell Haitch provide two articles that explore
in more detail the place of theology in youth ministry. Frambach seeks to establish
a theology of childhood
intentionally
building
distinct sacramental
from which we can base an ecclesiological practice of
intergenerational
church.
This practice is centred in a
framework of baptism and communion,
which Frambach
employs to argue for a more inclusive and empowering church. Haitch similarly
uses understandings
of the sacrament of communion but to explore an assessment
of our cultural context, namely entertainment,
boredom and violence, and to
explore strategies to work with young people who experience these phenomena.
The strength of both these articles is that they seek to bring a rigour to practice
through
applying
be disagreement
theological
thinking
on how these authors'
to
youth
ministry.
There
will
traditions have shaped their particular
perspective on the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. However, whilst
JYT would welcome supportive or counter views from other traditions to continue
this
debate,
I am
sure
to all in demonstrating
that
the
arguments
how we can extent
they
develop
are
the remit of youth
helpful
ministry's
theological enterprise.
~
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Christine Gapes' article has a slightly different feel. It returns us to the
second dilemma I proposed we face in youth ministry, the transference of models
and understanding
of practice from one context to another. Those who attended
the London conference were surprised and perhaps a little perplexed to find
themselves playing a game with pieces of household
recycling on the opening
evening. This game is the subject of Gapes' article on models of youth ministry.
Both the game and the discussion Gapes provides are helpful provocations
those of us who seek to teach and foster good contextual
for
practice in youth
ministry. It is rightly titled 'part l' as it perhaps provokes more questions than
it answers. It does though
provide valuable trajectories for the development
of this topic.
To conclude this issue we have altered our usual pattern
of reviews.
In addition
to two short reviews on recent publications
we have a longer
conversation
between Pete Ward and Kenda Creasy-Dean about Dean's book,
Practising Passion. This style of review is one that JYT is looking to adopt more
regularly. It gives an author the opportunity to reply to an assessment of their work,
which hopefully provides a more nuanced review. This style of review is slightly
longer
than
conversation
we would
usually
bring.
is particularly pertinent
Dean's attempt
interdisciplinary
However, I think
Ward and
Dean's
to the issues raised in the main articles.
to think and write theologically about youth ministry (in the
context within which we understand
young people, culture,
mission, church etc.) raises interesting questions of epistemology and terminology.
Dean and Ward trade opinions in this area, and I for one, find listening in on their
conversation
enlightening.
I hope this is the case for our readers as well, and
we look forward to receiving comment on this style of article/review either way!
If you would like to comment
or make suggestions for the betterment
of JYT, or enquire about submitting an article or text for review, please get in touch
with me through email to, [email protected].
Nick Shepherd
On behalf of the editorial team
A Word From the Chair
Greetings,
It is with great pleasure - and a deep sense of privilege - that I write my first 'Word
from the Chair'.
On behalf of the Executive and the whole of IASYM, I would like to express
my heartfelt thanks to Professor Malan Nel for his wonderful
leadership
over the
last few years. Malan is a man of immense wisdom and we are all indebted -to him
for his energy, enthusiasm
and vision in building
this Association.
Thanks, too,
go to Malan's wife - Marlese - who has supported
his ministry and given so much
to the Association through
at our bi-annual
her regular attendance
Conferences.
You will be pleased to know that the Executive have decided to recognise
the vision and ministry
of Malan Nel, Dean Borgman and Pete Ward (our first
Association Chair) by making them lifetime Patrons of IASYM. This will officially
be conferred upon them at the US symposium
wish to congratulate
in New Orleans, 2006 but we would
them at this stage.
For those of us who attended
the international
Conference
at High Leigh
in January, there will be memories of a most enjoyable and challenging
papers were creative, challenging
and - often - controversial.
event. The
The worship brought
out a range of emotions and led to quality debate and discussion. The Executive has
received excellent critique from almost everyone who attended. This has been most
helpful for us in looking forward to the next Conference, January 2007. Provisional
planning
has already begun for that event and more information
will be given
in a few months time.
Finally, I would like to formally welcome Nick Shepherd on board as Editor
of this Journal. We are privileged indeed to have Nick take over the reins. He has
fresh ideas on how to improve the ministry
of IASYM through
this Journal
and
I know that he would be grateful for any feedback, ideas and encouragement
you may wish to give him.
'--
__
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Journal of Youtb:'ai1d~ffi€()r9gy:(yoi~!ne 4; Number 1; April2005)
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It remains for me only to commend
this edition of 'The Journal of Youth
and Theology' to you. It is my prayer that your ministry
will be strengthened
through these articles and that our Association may continue to be knitted together
through the quality research and development
within these pages.
Sincere best wishes,
Rev Dr Steve Griffiths
Chair
of new ideas that are contained
Why Theology? It is Only Youth Ministry
Malan Nel
Abstract
This article explores what it means to be theologically motivated
and equipped for youth ministry. It examines the relationship
between theology as a discipline and youth ministry practice and
offers some potential trajectories for considering the theological
task of youth ministry itself.
Introduction
I have heard it many a time: 'Why study theology? People without
any training have done the job even better than people with degrees in theology'.
Or even statements like: 'the letter does not serve the purpose, the Spirit does'. It is
not as common as in the middle of the nineteen hundreds but once in a while
someone may even say: 'the disciples were without any training. They only had
Jesus and the Spirit and look what they did. They conquered the world in no time'.
When it comes to youth ministry the statements referred to above are used
more often. When youth ministry is approached as running programs for children
and adolescents the question is more obvious. Why would you need theological
training if your purpose is to simply keep them off the streets? Training in playing
games would in such a case be far more appropriate: Lessons in playing guitar
or drums more to the point. Working with 'gangsters' might call for some expertise
in karate, boxing or wrestling - Why theology? It is only youth ministry.
Understanding
Youth Ministry
From Youth Work to Youth Ministry
Without going into the history in any depth it is important to once again
state that what we now call youth ministry was known as youth work for many
years. Youth ministry is a relative new concept. We have come from working with
youth for many different reasons and from many different angles and perspectives
[O\[email protected]'f1l¥olQgY.(Volume
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to understanding
what we do as a ministry.
However we describe ministry,
at its least it has to do with what we do in the Name of the Triune God.
However
important
all we do to and
for youth
might
be (and
it is important to do all of it) Christians are motivated by more than having pity
for the poor, the sick, the lost, the homeless,
bottomless,
and everything
else-ness'.1
the parentless,
Such youth
the 'topless,
certainly need help and
programs. They do however need more. They need the holistic involvement
of
people motivated by the love of God and who are ministering to and with them in
the Name of the only one and true God in Christ. They need the holistic
involvement of the faith community who acknowledges that they themselves live
by the grace of the same God.
I am not saying that 'youth work' was and is done without theology, but
I am saying that it is possible. If and when somebody views involvement
with
youth as a program of offering help, a home away from the street, one can do it
without thinking seriously about theology. I am willing to put it even stronger: we
do what we do because of a theology - whether good or bad, knowingly so or
subconsciously
so. It is like preaching: all our sermons have structure: whether
good or bad, knowingly so or subconsciously. It is always there.
I have tried to cover some of the developments from 'youth work' to youth
ministry
in previous
writings.2
One of the obvious
reasons
for the past
discrepancies is the fact that in some (many?) traditions 'working with youth', or
youth work in any organised way, was considered to be for 'volunteers'. Christian
education was part of the official business of the local faith community. Anything
beyond
that was left to volunteers,
meaning
that is was never considered
as
important as the official. This perception still prevails in some circles. Of course this
kind of approach in the long run leads to 'volunteers'
the job. This eventually led to organizations
seeing the need and doing
taking over this huge responsibility
and sometimes (often?) doing a much better job than the few churches who did
come to realize that it is their calling to care in a holistic way for youth in and
outside of the faith community.
Many such organizations
realize the importance
of this work and churches owe a lot to them for many different reasons - which
is not part of my argument here.
110
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Youth Ministry - a theologically
motivated
ministry
The main purpose of this paper is not to argue this case (again). I have
tried to participate
in this discussion in more than one way.3 It is however
necessary to state my understanding
of ministry and in specific youth ministry -
in order to argue for the necessity of theology and theological training in and
for youth ministry.
There are many possible approaches in and to youth ministry but there are
a few non-negotiable Biblical (or in my mind theological) departure points. I would
like to state at least three of them.
God loves youth in the same way as He loves everybody else. People do not
grow into being loved by God. His love is not a matter of age but of grace, not a
matter of how old you are but of how good He is. In the sense of some of God's
people being more important, God is age-blind. The Bible teaches in more then one
way his involvement in children being there and them being His. In this regard
Psalm 127:3 is of paramount
importance:
"Sons are a heritage from the Lord,
children a reward from him." The Jesus episodes in the New Testament is nothing
but proof of this understanding
of the God of the Bible and his involvement
with children.
Similarly non-negotiable
is them being an integral part of the faith
community. "The love of God and the activity of teaching are inseparable".4 This
inescapable responsibility was mainly because of the understanding
that every
child of every Israelite was in this sense the responsibility of every other Israelite.
The faith community bridges the gap between the love of the missionary God and
the children of and within that community and outside of it in God's world.
Part of God's care for children and adults (parents) alike is the specific ways
in which He cares. In a sense the revelation is spelling out (in great detail) God's
differentiated
oriented
care for old and young alike. There is an age specific and need
nature in the care of God. He is at the same time inclusively and
specifically involved. His care is simultaneously
holistic and differentiated
in
nature. Being His faith community is to get in step with Him in caring holistically
(inclusively) and in a differentiated
C'
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way. Any given faith community
Youti1"@ndTl}~glogy
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(Volume 4; Number 1; April 200S) -
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to minister inclusively and at the same time be very specific and focussed as to age
and needs. This is exactly one of the reasons why ministry is defined as being
involved in the Name of this unique and only God in Christ: to do what we do on
his behalf, as He wanted it to be done. God's inclusive and differentiated
care
is equally important. However the inclusive nature is first between the two equals.
He is coming to his people in a holistic (inclusive and differentiated)
way and
we (his church) are intermediary in his coming to us and through us to the world.s
To my mind Youth Ministry can be described in a working formula stating
something like:
Youth Ministry is an inclusive congregational ministry in which God comes,
[through all modes of ministry and with special regard to parents (or their
substitutes)} in a differentiated and focussed way to, with and through youth as
an integral part of the local faith community and also with and through youth
to the world.6
Why Theology?
What is theology?
There are some basic premises in defining theology. The literal meaning is
well known: theos and logos. Without trying to be academic I want to play with this
reference: God and word. This definitely
understanding
means that the Bible is critical in
Christian theology. Some would even talk about Biblical theology as
synonym to Christian theology. My intention is first of all to refer to the 'talk of/by
God'. The word 'word' has become far too technical when we use it as 'Word of
God' - in most cases referring to the written and even printed word of God: the
Biblos/Book. It is of course not true. 'Word' refers first of all to talking. The talking
God and the God talk, one can say.
Thinking of it this way helps us to never forget that we are listening
to a talking God and we are talking to a listening God. The Biblical report of this
talk of God or this God talk carries the character of a dialogue. Revelation is a
dialogical reality. Truth comes to us through the dialogue of a talking God and a
talking world of believers. This, in part, lies behind the expression that truth is a
relational reality. God prefers to be a God in relationship with, hardly ever, if ever,
in isolation from the world and the people He created (by talking them into
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reality). The Biblical report on creation explains beautifully how He loved enough
to initiate/start
the 'talking' after the 'fall'. The Creator just do not give up on
seeking making contact, seeking dialogue. The talking God seeks to be talked to.
This
would
be
the
salvation/communication
ultimate
sign
of
a
restored
relationship:
restored, barriers removed, sins forgiven, forgiveness
experienced, mutual love expressed.
Theology
continuously
is this
continuing
that God initiated
dialogue
with
God,
the communication/talks,
acknowledging
after the complete
breakdown on our side. The ultimate proof of this being His intention and purpose
is what we call the incarnation: the word (the 'talk' if you want to) became flesh.
In an academic sense theology refers to the scientific reflection on this
dialogue. One can say that it has to do with an academic and scientific effort to
understand what God says and what we say in response. Old and New Testament
science therefore playa major part in theology: understanding
how people
responded.
Systematic
theology
what God said and
is an attempt
to systematise
(to arrange in an orderly manner) what the whole revelation tells us about what
God said and how people responded. Church history is a reflection on how God's
people through
the ages understood
what He said and how they responded.
Missiology is a scientific attempt to understand how we can help the world, which
He loves so much, to understand what He said and how they can and even should
respond.
In Practical Theology we try to explain how the reality out there
is responding to how we communicate
ministry
what God said and how can we improve
in service of the communication
of the gospel. Practical Theology
is indeed an arena seriously trying to get the conversation going and facilitate
the improvement
of the communication.
In this subject this purpose is called
the strategic perspective in our methodology.?
I do know that one can explain this in much more complicated ways.
I opted for this for many different reasons, one being the dialogical and relational
nature of youth ministry. Youth ministry as a discipline within Practical Theology
(at least in many parts of the world) is in a sense nothing but a ministry where we
attempt to get the conversation going again: listening to the one and only unique
God in Christ and talking to Him, calling Him Father.
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The purpose of theological
training
If the above is anywhere
of theological
training
close to being true what is the purpose
and can anyone dare work with people as important
as youth without theological training of some sort? I would like to draw upon
the understanding
'Clarification
of people who thought and wrote about this extensively.
of
Hough and Cobb
Christian
identity
as
the
basis
for
Christian
practice'
8
For Hough and Cobb this identity is developed as "the internal history
or memory by which Christians live individually
and corporately. The church
is defined by its commitment to keep that memory alive and to express it in present
practice. The concern of the seminary must be to help prepare persons who will be able to
keep this memory alive and to lead the church to become more of what its memory now
calls it to be" (emphasis mine). Later in their book the authors refers to the church
as 'being the community whose history has been determined by the memory of
Jesus Christ'.
9
According to them theological training is necessary because we need
leaders who can help faith communities
stay faithful to their identity as people
who keep the memory of Jesus alive in our societies. Hough and Cobb call this the
rise of the 'new professional,.10 We need to develop 'pathfinders' who can 'envision'
the purpose of God's people, but with sensitivity for the global context. For this
purpose churches need 'Practical Christian Thinkers' and 'Reflective Practitioners'.
They call this person a 'Practical Theologian'. Theology in their minds thus has
a strong historical basis and has to be missionary in essence.
In summary their understanding
points to the need for people in ministry
who are able to reflect not only on the praxis but also in the praxis.
Wood argues for theology as 'critical inquiry'.ll
Theological training
is a process where "persons acquire an aptitude for theology. An aptitude for
Christian theology is a capacity and disposition to engage in critical reflection
upon the Christian witness (which means, upon what is conveyed by everything
that Christians are, say, and do as Christians, singly and together)".12 His plea for
the development
of both vision and discernment is important
for ministry and
especially so for youth ministry. "If vision sees the totality, discernment is the grasp
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of the individual; the interpretation
of differences; discrimination,
rather than
synthesis".13 In theological training the both are important. Vision has to do with
the comprehensive and inclusive: "the quest for a coherent understanding
of the
Christian witness as a whole", Discernment is the theological attempt "to grasp and
assess the character of a particular instance in Christian witness -past, present, or
prospective. Discernment probes the actual logic of witness, to discover how, in
fact, its concepts and assertions do function".14 All of this asks for both 'Christian
formation' and 'critical inquiry', IS
Both
imagination,
vision
and
'discernment'
ask
for
"intelligence,
and a readiness to deal with the unforeseen",16
sensitivity,
Wood refers in a
follow up workl? to an article by Kant in which Kant describes the immaturity
within which we 'languish' as 'the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the
guidance of another'.
However one formulates it, Wood argues that the 'most
crucial to the overall function
of leadership is the leader's capacity to think
with and on behalf of the tradition",
This means that someone
facilitating the great dialogue must know
as much as possible of the tradition of the Christian witness as well as retain the
ability to keep a critical distance to the tradition. Openness relates to identity. IS
The
well
known
Dutch
theologian
Heitink,I9
often
emphasises
the responsibility of leaders to equip the local body of believers to sustain their God
given identity. This is important
for understanding
the purpose of theological
training for anyone in ministry. It is through his people that God is touching and
healing his world. God is at work and we are being incorporated
to participate
as restored (recreated) humans in what He is doing in accordance with his purpose.
Theological training equips us to equip the people of God for service in this
world.
Thus
we help
with
theological
integrity
to
"shield
the
identity
of the congregation".2o
Another evenly well known Dutch theologian Van der Ven made a critical
contribution by helping us to understand the importance of what he calls training
for 'reflective ministry,.21 He refers to "differential secularization, in the sense that
religion can be observed to exert a variety of influences within the various societal
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systems ...which sometimes reinforce and at other times contradict each other".22
This very complex nature of religion in our world and in the church itself asks for
a new way of thinking. According to him it looks like the two well-known models
of the sixties, namely the kerugmatic and ecclesial, no longer work. Mainly because
of research in the social sciences they were replaced by what he calls the
"therapeutic
model and the managerial model".23 According to Van der Ven we
need to go further than the management
approach.
To be competent
in this
complex world we need what he calls "general competent reflection in ministry"
as well as "special competent reflection in ministry".24 What we "must learn, and
what the education for ministry program must lay the foundation for, is to develop
the professional competence
to deal adequately with problematic
situations, to
discover, formulate and analyze the religious problems contained therein, to use
the basic tools to consider and weigh alternative solutions, to arrive at judgements
while experimenting,
and to reach decisions while acting" - all of this while the
training person realises that there will always be new problems and challenges that
will ask for new reflection. For this continuing reflection we need knowledge of the
previous problems and challenges and their solutions - in cooperation with the rest
of the body past and present.25 In developing such a framework for reflective
ministry we need a good understanding
of the identity for the faith community as
the people of God, for the mission of the church "as the movement of Jesus" and
the "imagination of the church as a community of the Spirit".26 What then is basic
to training someone who is basically capable to deal with the complex nature of
this society, the role of religion in it and the continuous new appeals on ministry
today? According to Van der Ven, "hermeneutic
common
denominator"Y
Competent
communication
leaders in ministry
functions as the
need knowledge,
insight, competencies and attitudes. Succinctly, Van der Ven means by this:
•
Knowledge refers to the ability '''to reproduce narratively and conceptually
structured information";
•
Insight refers to the ability "to produce narratively and conceptually
structured information" (Knowledge has to do with the reproduction
of information and insight with the production of information).
•
Competencies refers to the ability "to appropriately use social methods
and techniques which apply to specific aspects of concrete situations
in which the professional performs his work";
[[]
- Journal of Youth and Theology
1v~lu~e,1;_Numb~!.1;.M>_ri_l_20_0_S~)
_
•
Attitude has to do with "the affective-evaluative orientations which the
professional has at his or her disposal in order to perform his or her work
in an appropriate way. 'Orientation' refers to the particular style or manner
in which the person relates to persons or things". In these orientations
emotions playa major role and therefore the concept 'affective,.28
In my own words I would say that people in ministry (full or part time)
should be able to reflect upon the ministry with regard to knowledge, insight,
competency and attitude as to what we do, why we do it, how we do it, and with
what attitude we do what we do.
All members
of the faith
community
are being
called to a level
of theological (Biblical) literacy.29 The responsibility of leadership is to lead them
to such literacy. Of every faith community can be expected to be a 'community of
inquiry'.3D
theology:
According to Tracy this is exactly the important
"action
community
and thought,
academy and church,
of inquiry and the community
contribution
of
faith and reason, the
of commitment
and faith are most
explicitly and systematically brought together".31 In line with the arguments used
by Van der Ven, Tracy is convinced
that the western culture suffered greatly
by separating the three main issues that drive our ability to reflect: our ideals,
our hope, and our love.32 These three 'fatal separations' he calls:
•
The separation of feeling and thought
•
The separation of form and content
•
The separation of theory and practice.
Theology is vital to retain the true identity of the body of Christ. Without
serious Biblical reflection it is possible to develop' anything but the body of Christ'.
The moment we give up on an ecumenical challenge to think about what God said
and is saying we may come up with what we think He is saying. It is in a sense very
easy to make God say what we want Him to say. We are, after all, human and of us
humans it has always been true that we prefer to make us gods in our image.
Theology is supposed to keep us from speaking first and expect God to answer.
The dialogue in Scripture is initiated by God. Theology acknowledges that.
'--
Journal ofYouth_anc.:i~fh~6i9gy(Voi~!J1e4j
Number Ij April 2005) -
r
171
In this sense theology is us beginning to think with the rest of the body,
past and present. Coming to the understanding
that we are thinking with a long
line of reflective thinkers before us, trying even to understand why they thought
. that way in say 1517. And we are challenged to pass on the knowledge; we gained
through reflective thinking, to the next generation (cf Psalm 71).
Behind everything we say or do lies a way we think. This in its turn
is being formed by the way we were taught and brought up. As to ministry, and the
way we do it, our thinking is formed by theology - good or bad. Add to this that
the Bible is being used in our entire ministry. And theology has to do with how we
understand
this dialogue between God and human
- and how we relate this
dialogue to the people we work with. It goes even deeper: theology has to do with
our own identity, with how we understand ourselves. It has to do with our being.
We are before we say or do. How we are, is determined by how we understand 'Who
He is'. My 'who am I' is formed by the great 'I am'. Theology is a serious attempt
by the body to 'understand'
Him. Every Christian will agree that this is no easy
challenge and task. Theology is in this sense the task of the body and whoever
is serious about the Head has to be serious about how we think about Him
and what we know about Him.
Theology in Youth Ministry
I could have argued a case for Practical Theology in Youth Ministry, but
this is not in line with my purpose in this paper. This is however a topic of great
concern. In which way and to what extent is youth ministry an action in service of
the communication
of the gospel? Are we scientifically exploring the empirical
reality in the world of youth ministry? Are we hermeneutically
exploring the
sources available to us, including Scripture? Are we explaining current realities in
light of our empirical and theoretical exploration of our sources? And are we in any
way strategically and in a theologically credible way changing realities in service of
more faithful actions in service of the gospel of the Kingdom come and coming?
I opted for a broader approach to try and show forth the importance
of understanding
the gospel in youth ministry.
'Faith is a gift of God'
In evangelical circles 'leading youth
In itself this
is indeed
misunderstanding
critical.
When
to salvation'
we however
is very important.
work with
of what salvation is and another misunderstanding
a certain
of who gives
salvation we may do more harm than good.
When are people saved? When they know they go to heaven? If so when
is that? And who said so? This brings almost our total theology to the table. Why
and when are people not saved? What went wrong? What did people lose when
what went wrong went wrong? So the questions continue. And immediately our
understanding
of this beautiful but rather complicated 'library' we call Bible is at
stake. What does the Bible teaches on all of this? Is it as simple as some make it to
be namely we are now all sinners, Jesus came, died, paid for our sins, we confess,
we accept Jesus and all is said and done: we are saved. Seriously: it is not his simple.
The moment one uses the Name 'Jesus' your theology is at table: Who is He, where
does He come from, why did He come, what did He teach about salvation Himself,
etc., etc.
It is exactly along these lines that denominations
also differ. Theological
traditions understand it similarly but also differently. We agree, but we also differ.
In essence we are together, in detail we often find ourselves slightly apart. I want
to focus on a key confession on which most Christians agree - if not all. My
purpose, eventually, is not to 'prove' any point but to show how important
theology in youth ministry is.
People are saved 'by faith'. Often Romans 1:17 gets quoted to prove this
point. It is a matter of theological integrity that when you quote you better make
sure you do justice to the text - meaning the woven unity of words and phrases
used by the author. In the letter to the Romans Paul only gets to the understanding
of being saved in chapters 6-8. It is not difficult to deduct from these chapters that
to him (in this letter) salvation is about new life in the presence of God on God's
earth. It is to have life and life everlasting within a restored relationship with the
God that loved humans even when we were all his enemies (Rom 5:8). To be known
by Him is life. In the next three chapters (9-11 - however difficult they may be) this
is obviously clear: He initiated
~
our restored relationship
Journal of Youth and'f.heofQgy_(Voi~me4i
NUll1ber
with Him and He
Ii April
2005) -
I
191
is standing
in for the everlasting nature of this life. A new life within
understanding
means to be continuously
this
renewed by thinking differently about
life and serving the body and the world with the received gifts.
If only 50% of the above is true what damage do we do when we make
youth think that a sometimes pressurised decision can do the trick? First of all we
then often ignore the involvement of God even long before we were ever involved,
as Armstrong stated long ago: "You can't get up earlier than God".33 He is more
interested in saving people than all of us together ever will be. It is his world.
Giving salvation (restored life-giving relationships) is his prerogative. Faith is his
gift and his alone. A theological working formula for faith is that it is the God given
ability to acknowledge that God is at work. To be saved by faith is to admit, to
acknowledge, to accept - God did it. He restored this relationship between Himself
and me!
In youth ministry this is indeed being set free by theology: I do not have
to argue anyone into a decision.
"I am confessing my inability to make myself
believe, or to make anyone else believe".34 In a sense I can only share how I confess
God is at work in my live or to state it differently: acknowledge how I in my life
admit, accept, acknowledge: God did it! Calling youth to responsible decisions is
more than making them think they can save themselves by 'choosing God'. It is
calling them to realise they cannot life without and outside of a relationship with
the God who created them to live and have life in abundance.
'Forgiveness is good news'
Bad theology makes it sound as if 'confession' is good news. Confession
is not good news at all. It can be the most embarrassing thing ever to ask of a
person.
God's
relationships.
intention
is not
embarrassment.
His intention
is restored
That is exactly why Christ died to constitute forgiveness - for ever
and completely. It is not our confession that constitutes our forgiveness. We are not
forgiven because we confess. We are forgiven because Christ paid the price in full.
There is no sign of our sins on this 'letter of debts' nailed to the cross. "He forgave
all our sins, having cancelled the written code ..." (Col. 2:14). There is indeed
nothing
outstanding
when it comes to our forgiveness. That is a done deal,
by God's grace. We confess not to be forgiven but because there is forgiveness.
120
I - Journal
of Youth and Tll€oiogyjyQ'lu_me4; NumberIj~Qril200S)
~
Taking this seriously in youth ministry has tremendous
consequences.
We work with young persons who often are over their heads into guilt feelings. To
proclaim confession as if this is good news is, in a sense, cruel. Forgiveness is good
news. Confession is a relationship-restorer.
As such it is important and necessary
but is not to 'talk God into forgiving me'. That decision was made more than 2000
years ago and never changed since. Many wounded young people are struggling
through life because some worker has put this bad news in their minds: confession
brings about forgiveness. By faith we confess: God did it in Christ, He did it once
and for all, completely (d. the letter to the Hebrews). Neither my confession nor
my faith is making complete what God did in Christ. "It is finished" Oohn 19:30).
In Summary
The question is not '''why theology' It is only youth ministry" but "'why
theology' Because it is youth ministry"'. Everyone working with the young and the
vulnerable should have a fair amount of theological training. Our challenge and
opportunity
to participate
in the dialogue between God and his people is too
precious not to make the best of it.
Prof Malan Nel is Professor
in Practical
Theology
and Head of
the Division in Contextual Ministry, Pretoria University, South Africa
NOTES
Briscoe, D .5. 1972. Where was the church when the youth exploded. Grand
Rapids: Zondervan. pp.32-33.
2 Nel, M. 2000. Youth Ministry. An inclusive congregational approach. Clubview:
Malan Nel. pp.51-58.
3 d. Nel, M. 1982. Jeug en Evangelie. Pretoria: NGKB. 1982; Nel, M. 2000. Youth
Ministry. An inclusive congregational approach. Clubview: Malan Nel. ; Senter III, M.
H., Black, W., Clark, e. & Nel, M. 2001. Four views of Youth Ministry and the
Church. Grand Rapids: Youth Specialties.
4
Smart, J. D. ed. The teaching ministry of the church. Philadelphia:
Westminster. p.14.
S Firet, J. 1986. Dynamics in pastoring. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
6 Nel, M. 2000. Youth Ministry. An inclusive congregational approach. p.97.
7 Heitink, G. 1993. Practical Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. pp.201-219.
1
Hough, J.e. & Cobb, J.B. 1985. Christian Identity and Theological Education.
Chico,CA.:Scholar Press. p18.
9 Ibid p.76.
8
__
---"Uournal of Youth ar@thec>lQgy]yohlme4;Number1;April200S)-m
Ibid p.100.
11 Wood, C.M. 1985. Vision and Discernment. An Orientation in Theological Study.
Atlanta: Scholars Press. pp.21-3S.
12 Ibid p.1S.
13 Ibid pp.67-68.
14 Ibid pp.73-74.
15 Ibid pp.84-8S.
16 Ibid p.94.
17 Wood, C.M. 1994. An invitation to Theological Study. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity
Press International. p.36.
18 cf Hess, E.P. 1991. Christian Identity and Openness: a Theologically informed
Hermeneutical approach to Christian Education. Ann Arbor: .M.l. (Phd. Princeton
Theological Seminary).
19 Heitink, G. 2001. Eiografie van de Dominee. Baarn: Ten Have. pp.269-273.
20 Ibid P 273 (Translation from the Dutch MN).
21 Van der Ven, l.A. 1998. Education for Reflective Ministry. Leuven (Louvain),
Belgium: Peeters Press. p.1S6-1S7.
22 Ibid P 43.
22 Ibid pp.82-83.
23 Ibid pp.1S6-1S7.
24 Ibid p.8S.
25 Ibid pp.100-116.
26 Ibid P 123.
27 Ibid pp.1S6-160.
28 Petersen, R.L. 2002. "Theology: What is the real thing?" In Petersen, R.L. &
Rourke, N.M. (Eds.) 2002. Theological Literacy for the Twenty-First Century. Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, pp.1-12.
29 Tracy, D. 2002. "On Theological Education: A Reflection". In Petersen, R.L. &
Rourke, N.M. (Eds.) 2002. op.cit., pp.13-22.
30 Ibid p.1S.
31 Ibid p.1S.
32 Armstrong, R.S. 1979. Service Evangelism. Philadelphia:
Westminster. p.32.
33 Ibid p.33.
10
Light of Day
Scaffolding a Theology of Youth Ministry
Bert Roebben
Abstract
Is Youth Ministry involved in the creation of new theology?
This article
assesses the potential
of engaging
in a 'living
theology' by listening to and liaising with the spiritual insights of
young people. The conditions for such a theology are created by
three movements
and respecting
within
towards young people. Initially, by noticing
their voices, secondly through
our theorising
theological
understanding
for young
people's
insight
space
to shape
and thirdly by embracing
of young people as a site for connection
construction
crafting
the lives
with God .and the
of theology.
Radical changes have occurred in the religious landscape
of Western
Europe. The analysis is widely known: in the city of the modern human being, life
formats are autonomously
designed and shamelessly recycled out of fragments
taken from existing ideological
systems. Within
religious self-actualisation, contemporaries
often
fail to see that
imperative'/
this happens
the fact that the modern
this process of spiritual and
distinguish themselves from others, but
under
subtle persuasion.
human
The 'heretical
being is 'obliged' to undertake
a personal and free quest for the meaning of life, hangs above urban life like a new
'sacred canopy'.
The Religious Landscape in Motion
Fortunately there are plenty of competitors who tell, in a whispering voice,
how a good life can be shaped, simple and less stressful yet authentic and spiritual.
We much prefer a simmering spirituality that can easily be applied to everyday life,
rather than a demanding one that leads into the yawning abyss of existence where
we are challenged
interpretation,
by the O/other.
traditional
religious
Within
the explosive
institutions
_JQ'ttritaJ!Qf&YouthM:fa"Jh~ology-(v~iiIme
profile
4;
field of religious
themselves
as safe.
Number1; April2005)
-
1~.231
Churches present themselves
as towers of strength,
same time. Their theology and ministry
relentless and generous at the
complement
each other: Ecclesia Supplet.
Whenever the safety of our man or woman 'on quest' is endangered
ecclesiallife-buoy
many principles
or in peril, the
is near and ready to assist. In the ocean of religious interpretation
and arrangements
and/or built on modern-religious
The theologian
are possible: based on traditional
signature(s)
desire.
has some knowledge
of these developments,
and rather
than denying the complexity of the matter, he asks himself what these 'signs of the
times'
mean
theologian
enthusiastic
in the light of the gospel? In my opinion
as a Roman-Catholic
this critical re-reading has just begun. During and after Vatican II an
unanimity
prevailed regarding the perspective that was believed to be
essential for reading the signs of the times. At the present these reading glasses have
steamed up. We live in a hazy universe. While some hardly distinguish
at all, others fail to differentiate
any religion
between the varieties of religious systems. Some are
seized up in pastoral panic and long for a quick and efficient fix; others retaliate,
and retreat into the bastion of their lived convictions.
However, we are, alongside
others in time and space, indebted both to ourselves and to our future generations
to continue
the completion
of the reading
process of the signs of the times
as a learning-experience.
It is the right time to clear our steamed-up perspective and
to have clear and open sight.
Soul Food
In the
for attention
meantime
our youth
and seeking authenticity.
keep
knocking
on
our
door,
asking
They don't take on the excess baggage of
religious systems and are not charged with the adult question
of "how, for God's
sake, faith and church should evolve?" Youth have taught me to leave questions
like "How can we possibly ... ?" on the backburner
and to focus myself with a steady
faith on the future. They take care of their own business.
At school they are
educated to critically perceive moral and religious phenomena
and also to practice
and implement
these critical skills by confronting
and theological
traditions.2
critically position
the dynamics of philosophical
These reflective skills are an asset for the ability to
oneself in future society. The question
however
is, whether
adolescents
learn to discern and appreciate
experience?
Is there a place where they can display the answers they have found
1241
the specific character of the religious
-Journal of Youth and Theology &:olu;;e17"iit1II!Q~ii;.Ap~iI2005)
_
and place them in line with or in contrast with the narratives and figures of our
tradition, as if these discovered answers are a 'new' tradition? For those who are
hungry, a simple explanation of the digestive system will not be satisfying. What
vocabulary do adults practice when they encounter yearning youth? What kind of
'soul food' can they offer? Young people challenge adults to show their true
colours. They compel them to open their sight and tell them where they are at even if their insights are provisional. Remaining silent is giving a statement too.
Prolegomena
for a Theology of Youth Ministry
This article asserts the generative power of the field of youth ministry.
Inherent in working with the youth, is the creation of a new theology. Anyone who
looks closely to the human resources that lie stored in adolescents, will eventually
change his perspective on the potential of theology.3
It is within the field of
tension between light and dark, the clair and obscur, that young adults 'live to tell'
(Gabriel Garcia Marquez). They articulate the contrasting experience of the intense
yearning of our time versus the disillusionment
of unfulfilled needs. Young adults
who are on the verge of mature life (age 19 to 25 years), in particular, feel what it
means to be poised between hope and fear. They have to form their identity in the
context of a society that, once confronted with this central breach, hesitates in
what strategy to follow. This is exactly the reason why young adults with ideals
remain attractive for adult people: they function as a mirror for what is at stake in
'real life' and present an image of how to cope with these circumstances with
creative vigour. In this paper I want to critically observe these developments.
In four stages I will plead for a theology of (not for) youth ministry. First, I will
explore the realm of young adults, secondly I will give an initial impetus to a
professional educational habitus, thirdly I will focus more deeply on the theological
aspects that encompasses ministry with youth and finally I will describe some
elements of a 'lived theology' that emerges out of my story.
Youth, Hopes of the Future and Human Dignity
To be young is to look with expectation to the future; 'progress' is the
keyword, because life lies ahead of you. The horizon winks, you are permanently
ready to leave and would rather not waste any time. You want to make a difference,
and do a better job than your predecessors, catching on to the new 'vibrations' that
can be sensed on the street. Adults are allowed to speak, sure, but their voice has
____
Journall'Of
YOllfh.~n<:l Theology
(Volume 4i Number Ii April 2005) -
rn
to carry an undertone
of hope.
Young people
are fed up with
adults
who
'sin against the Spirit'; who desperately count their own blessings and fear for what
dreams may come. It is exactly this type of adult who will send off youth none
the wiser, telling them 'to sort it out themselves'
or 'wait until later'.
According to the research of the Belgian sociologists Mark Elchardus et a1.,
titled 'Zonder Masker' [Unmasked],4 a certain unease towards the future can be
discerned
among Belgian youth. Ten to twenty percent of the eighteen year olds
have, to a greater or lesser extent, a rather gloomy view of their own future. Twenty
percent worry about their chances on the labour market. Fear creeps up on these
adolescents
anything
during
their
studies,
especially
when
their
course of study
goes
but smoothly. These experiences are even more strongly present in youth
that participate
in vocational
training.
More than their peers they feel that they
will miss out on a great future. The right of every young individual with prospects
for the future, passes them by.
Our society's
achievements.
have
some
answer to this is to work harder
Immortality
difficulties,
by challenging
and so improve
your
can be realised, even if you run out of luck. You can
but you
can also overcome
your
personal
demons
them with ferocity - as long as you try hard and do your best.
The myth of self-sacrifice is persistent
and ruins many lives. Those who do not
succeed in facing a difficult time are proved to be losers. A lot of our pedagogical
efforts don't
interests.
do justice to the fundamental
right of our youth
to realise their
We try to lure them in getting their lives back on track, but forget that
they yearn for authentic
involvement. This means being with them, standing next
to them and seeing them, in all their vulnerability
and brokenness
and in their
desire for growth.
Shame, for not being able to live up to the tacit norms imposed by society,
is a painful experience for today's young contemporaries.
The sense of falling short
of internal standards that have been imposed upon oneself (which is actually the
paradox
of post modern
experience
theologian,
in violent
existence),
that refers to a violation
bears deep. Deeper even than
of external
Evelyn Parker, claims that
urban
126 1 - Journal
young
the guilt
rules. North-American
individuals
practical
look for a hideout
gangs because they are driven by their overwhelming
of Youth and Theology
(Volu~~i
Nl!I!!~rli~Rr_i~r~20_0_5,,)
sense
_
of shame.s In her ethnographic
research she asked the following question: 'What
do you want to safeguard with your violent behaviour?' Often the answer was: 'In
this gang I at least experience some sense of pride, dignity and respect'. Young
people act in destructive behaviour against themselves and others out of fear of not
being noticed anymore, of not being included, of failing to exist. Random violence
often is an ultimate reaction to this threat of annihilation.
Creating Space for New Light of Day
Involvement
is the keyword. An educator who will give young people
the opportunity to show their vulnerable 'social capital', is assured of an audience
that is willing to listen. Those who understand
encounter
the art of maieutics in their
with youth, who, as 'midwives', are able to give birth to the deep
insights that young individuals already bear within themselves and are willing to
reveal, can count on respect.6 Revelation, then happens in the deeper sense of the
word. New life is born. New light of day dawns. Life without consciousness is no
life at all, as the ancient Greeks already knew. To be reborn is the fundamental
destiny of a religious human being, is said to Nicodemus in the gospel of John
Qohn 3:1-21). Proper assistance is needed in this rebirth. According to the qualified
hermeneutic
tradition of West-European Roman-Catholic
pastoral theology this
process in assistance can be described in three stages: vision, judgement and action.
In the following paragraph these three stages will also be theologically interpreted.
See
Pastors in the field of youth ministry need to be finely tuned and equipped
to perceive the experiences of the youth involved. They particularly must learn to
adapt to the modes of expression that young people have developed themselves, in
being able to capture their unstable position between light and dark, hope and fear
and translate them into new images. It requires an almost ascetic attitude on the
part of the pastor to really let the youth express themselves in their music, language
and images. Instead of creating opportunities
in which young people can define
themselves and the context they are in, the pastor is often too eager in giving his
own interpretation
of the given situation. In too many cases youth work is a
mental recovery for a distressed childhood
of the adult. Many adults, being a
casualty of a childhood gone awry, want to redeem themselves in their profession
"-
lournaH'OfYQ1IJ1L'!lld Theology
(Volume 4; Number 1; April 200S) -
rn
as a youth worker. But by doing this, they deprive young people the opportunity
of being an independent
and creative sign of hope for the future.7
Judge
What professional
attitude
fits the pastor best? I prefer an attitude
of presence over deficiency, an attitude of involvement
over creating issues. The
theory of presence developed by the Dutch practical theologian Andries Baart8 is a
welcome source of inspiration
something
that renders the notion 'that it is better to let
appear, namely human
dignity, than
to let something
disappear,
namely a problem'. The critical approach towards the life of adolescents then
doesn't depart from the idea of 'crisis' (of something that belonged to the past
and ceased to exist), but from a notion of kairos, an act of grace to see yourself
and others with new eyes and to be 'moved' again.
Act
Finally, there's
the perspective
of action.
A dynamic
youth
worker
will create space for new insights to (en)light the realm of human existence. She
offers adolescents the chance of opportunity
and stimulates them to become the
agents of their own actions. And by doing this, contributes to a 'life in abundance'
Oohn 10:10). Too much of young life seems to be hammered shut, and left without
any future expectations.
A couple of years ago German public opinion
campaign to offer adolescents more opportunities
ran a
for the future under the motto:
So jung und schon am Ende! [So young and already over the edge!]. Quality youth
work offers space for new light, as in a Lichtung (Martin Heidegger), an open space
in the wood. Amidst the density of everyday life new rays illumine our existence.
This light helps to see the wood for the trees and creates the clarity to enable youth
to make a conscious choice in the multitude of life perspectives. It also helps them
to catch better sight of drawbacks. Without light there cannot be shade, only
indefiniteness
and ignorance - like the night in which all the cattle is coloured
black. Quality leadership empowers youth by letting them make the difference
without feeling ashamed about it.
A Theology of Embrace
Within the whirling interaction of light and dark, between the fine line of
hope and fear, young people are balancing on the cutting edge. They reinforce the
128
I - Journal
of Youth and Theology
(Volum~ 4; NUIIl"'t;~!"J;~I>riL200S),_. __
~
dynamics of the desires present in our culture. 'Joie de vivre' alternates with dread.
Instead of backing away from these confusing conditions, youth must take up the
quest to face life in all its complexity and make a difference. As adults we can learn
from the passion of these adolescents. To live a life in shades, literally means calling
complexity into existence, in a sense of enduring and/or tolerating the internal
dynamics of the human
of chaos, reconstructing
condition.
It means refining a sense of meaning out
life. It also means: contemplating
in seclusion, awaiting
new light of life. Those who do ministry with adolescents, must be sensitive
to the cravings of their own soul in their own search for the meaning of life. They
must be inspired.9 Only then will 'mental support' become 'spiritual guidance' and
will 'youth work' become 'youth ministry'. Again three stages can be discerned.
See
The pastor has steeped himself in practice, gaining the capacity to discern
the biography of adolescents. He knows that his interest in their narratives is a risky
investment and that his sincerity towards their experiences may eventually lead to
a deeper sense of meaning. From a religious point of view, the pastoral worker
knows that the living God manifests and reveals himself in the vulnerable stories
of young people. The success of street kids priest Father Guy Gilbert in Paris for
example, lies exactly in his spiritual capacity to trust on a God who presents
himself among the children on the street. He can look at them in their own
uniqueness and approach them because he deeply believes that 'God created the
human being because He loves stories;,10 that He has created them in their specific
narrative condition.
Judge
This looking through the lens of faith offers also a particular judgement:
the judgement
of 'noble casuistics.,ll
This means that an adolescent
measured, for instance, by his problematic participation
but as an independent
interesting
is not
in a gang or subculture,
and respected person in his/her own value. A person is not
because his case represents
a particularisation
of a more general
principle and thus is found to be of interest to the care giver, but because of the fact
that he is a unique person himself. Presence towards the narrative of a single
adolescent therefore is more valuable than having solved a problem for a group
of young people that has not been approached with sincere interest. This brings
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me to a 'theology of embrace': the living God qualifies himself in a fully qualitative
encounter with people who long for a 'life in abundance' and who are willing to
share this in community. Theology can be distant and cerebral. She can develop
categories of faith and substantiate them with well-chosen cases of faith. She can
also touch the more physical modes of humanity like engagement, struggle, ritual,
friendship,
art, and bring about new insight. She can be wholeheartedly
and
efficient. With this down to earth strategy theology can create space for the new
coming of the living God.
Act
Of course, this incarnational
spiritual
stamina,
Concerning
pastor
theological
approach requires a lot from the pastor:
wit, and a willingness
to undertake
action.
the latter: it really is all about maieutics, about the vocation of the
to give birth
opportunities
to new life, who reveals unexpected
in the life of the adolescent,
who supports
capacities
a broadening
and
of
perspective and who sometimes challenges the other to change or radically adjust
his perspective.
'contaminated'
A pastor who accompanies
adolescents
in solidarity, will be
with their perspective on life. He exceeds in a risky kind of
solidarity (he helps to restructure shame into respect), in the hope that this path
will prove to be fruitful. In the hope also that this path will be compatible with the
coming of the living God, who always goes 'outside' and 'off road' incarnationally
in the life of His people. In this sense revelation is always a risky 'business'.
But then again, it cannot be otherwise.
Lived Theology
Many times I have been given the opportunity
to experience that this
'weak ontologyJ12 of a God 'in the hands of human beings,13 really can appeal to
adolescents. They have an aversion to immense theological projects in which God
can be found somewhere out there. For them the fountain of life is immanent,
hidden in daily acts of brother- and sisterhood, in the desire for a more humane
world and in the surprising
ingenuity
of human
minds to bring this into
realisation. God is in here, within the whirling undercurrent
of a life that asks for
animated storytellers. This divine experience requires new religious predecessors
and theologians who dare to submerge themselves into reality and therefore are
received by the same reality.14 It goes without saying, that a new theological
130
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vocabulary and new pastoral strategies will evolve out of this process, and that
new religious experiences will, in the long term, contribute
to the formation
of new theological contents, even to the development of new Christian doctrine.
The gospel itself elucidates how this process takes place. There, you will
not find any prophetic
oracle or subtle apologetic arguments for the existence
of God, but the narrative of a human being, Jesus of Nazareth. He is a loyal friend,
companion, and guest at the table. He tells stories, but most of the time he listens.
In his listening he becomes authoritative,
because he radically places his fellow
human beings in the middle. This man will not let adolescents be unmoved.
I have learned from them that out of this fundamental
self-offering (with and like Jesus), Christianity
experience of vulnerable
can be re-imaged and re-lived.
Not out of the motive to conform or adapt the Gospel to our present culture,
but to bring it closer to itself, where it belongs, namely into the realm of friendship
where God happens.
Hopefully adolescents will be granted the opportunity
to generate such
new religious experiences and language. And hopefully there will be enough
resilient pastors around who can unlock the wealth of our tradition and make
it transparent in this quest. Finally, we can only hope that the church will continue
to invest in this valuable project: as the 'backing vocals' of youth- and young adult
ministry,
a helping
hand,
to complete
the chord,
consonant
or dissonant,
but always with dedication.
Dr Bert Roebben is Associate Professor of Practical and Religious
Education
at
the
Faculty
of
Theology
of
Tilburg
University,
in the Netherlands
NOTES
Berger, P. (1979). The Heretical Imperative. Doubleday: Anchor Press.
2 Roebben, B. (2001a). Religious education through times of crisis. Reflections
on the future of a vulnerable school subject. Pp.24S-272 in Religious Education as
Practical Theology. Essays in Honour of Professor Herman Lombaerts (ANL 40), edited
by B. Roebben & M. Warren. Leuven/Paris/ Sterling (VA):Peeters.
3 Roebben, B. (1997). Shaping a Playground for Transcendence. Postmodern
Youth Ministry as a Radical Challenge. Religious Education 92: 332-347.
1
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(Volume 4; Number 1; April 200S) -
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Roebben, B. (2004). The Mirror Effect: Reflective Theological Education and
Religious Consciousness in Young Adult Ministry. In Towards a European
Perspective on Religious Education, edited by R. Larsson & C. Gustavsson. Lund:
Artos, pp.332-343.
4
Elchardus, M. et a1. (1999). Zonder maskers: een actueel portret van jongeren en
hun leraren. Gent: Globe.
sParker,
E.1. (2003). Trouble Don't Last Always. Empancipatory Hope Among
African American Adolescents. Cleveland: Pilgrim Press.
6 Van den Berk, T. (1999). Mystagogie. Inwijding in het symbolisch bewustzijn.
Zoetermeer: Meinema.
7 Roebben, B. (2001b). The Vulnerability
of the Postmodern Educator as Locus
Theologicus. A Study in Practical Theology. Religious Education 96: 175-192.
8 Baart, A. (2001). Een theorie van de presentie. Utrecht: Lemma.
9 Van Knippenberg,
Tjeu (2002). Towards Religious Identity. An Exercise in Spiritual
Guidance, Assen: Van Gorcum Publishers.
10 (Elie Wiesel).
11 (Emmanuel
Levinas).
12 Vattimo, G. (2000). Belief. Cultural Memory of the Present. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
13 Schmidt, P. (2000). In de handen van de mensen. 2000 jaar Christus in kunst en
cultuur. Leuven: Davidsfonds.
14 Borgman, E. (2002). Identiteit verwachten. Van theologische antropologie naar
cultuurtheologie. Tijdschrift voor Theologie 42: 174-196.
I thank Ms. Andrea van Dijk for the translation
For more information on this research, see
www.tilburguniversity.nl/people/hroebben.
~
- Journal
into English.
of Youth and TheologycVo1uE";; 4;~u..!!11Jer1;-Ap~ri_l_20_0_S,~)
_
Seen &: Heard: A Theology of Childhood
Nathan Frambach
Abstract
What are the central tenants of a theology of childhood? In this
article I consider a perspective that sees children and young
people as active agents of faith. I argue that this requires a
theological shift to enable children and young people take a fuller
place among the community
leaders and theological
argument
which
of the baptised as participants,
educators
in a matrix 'intentional
I suggest requires
themselves.
I locate this
intergenerational
consideration
ministry',
of ecclesiology
and
sacramental theology to provide this intentional dimension.
Theology Grounded in Practice
It was the first session of our monthly
"Life of St. Philip the Deacon"
membership orientation process. The topic was grace, and we were just beginning.
I asked the group: "How do you understand grace?" and then we divided into pairs
to respond to that question and to identify and share some "grace moments" with
one another.
There were nineteen of us. Everyone had a partner except Jay, who
was nine years old; so Jay and I began to talk. We chatted about school and sports
and favourite foods-everything
except the topic at hand.
Jay waited for an
opening, and then said, rather brashly, "Hey, mister pastor, I thought we were
supposed to be talking about grace?" I got the hint.
"Okay, Jay, so tell me, how
do you understand grace?" Jay was ready. "My Dad is like grace. He's so very nice
to me and he doesn't always have to be. And every night he lays down beside
me and reads me a story from the Bible."
There are two people who comprise the Krivo family, Richard and Jay.
It sounds like there is ministry happening in that home on a daily basis. It's not
exactly what comes to mind for many of us when we think of "youth ministry"no guitars, no skating or mall scavenger hunts, not even pizza. But it is ministry,
the ministry of faith formation.
II
And I could only hope that the congregation
IT~IP~fif<rr1~!itne'ology
(Volume 4; Number 1; April 200S) -
18381
was providing
support,
encouragement,
and resources so that ministry
could
continue in the Krivo home; so that Richard could continue to be, in the words of
Luther, "the apostle, bishop and priest of his child".l
fundamental
Laying claim to the
partnership between the home and the congregation lies at the heart
of the renewal in ministry with the younger generations today.
Integrated,
Equipped, and Empowered ...
Ministry
with
the young
is the birthright
of the
baptized.
This
is an ecclesiological claim I am compelled to make up front and then unpack as this
article unfolds. It is the privilege and responsibility of ALL adults-not
and not just the professionals-to
love and care for young people.
A change is needed in the consciousness
congregations
just some,
so that every adult understands
adults have the gifts to communicate
and imagination
this birthright.
of many
Granted, not all
the Christian gospel to the young, or to plan
and lead programs. But every adult can acknowledge young people-speak to them,
learn who they are, call them by name. Every adult can pray for young people, and,
furthermore,
let them know that they have been prayed for. These are things that
matter in the unfolding
life of a child. Who can't afford to take three-to-five
minutes a week to write a note to a child, letting them know that someone has
prayed for them because they are known and loved? It is both a great challenge and
privilege to hear and respond to God's call to attend to all of God's kids, particularly
those to which one does not have to attend. Barbara Kingsolver offers a muchneeded reminder in this regard:
Children are not commodities
but an incipient world. They thrive best
when their upbringing is the collective joy and responsibility of families,
neighborhoods,
communities,
and nations. Children deprived-of
money, attention, or moral guidance-grow
love,
up to have large and powerful
needs .... We can see, if we care to look, that the way we treat childrenall of them, not just our own, and especially those on great need-defines
the shape of the world we'll wake up in tomorrow.2
Ministry with the young is also about adults loving and caring for those
kids that God has specifically entrusted to them-sons
and grandchildren,
l34(
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and daughters, godchildren
nieces and nephews. The primary and most effective locus
of Youth and Theology (V9iuI#~.:i;Num~~tl;~pril\ZOOS).__
~
of faith formation is the home. There is an ever-expanding body of research and
literature
spawning
contention.3
resources
for congregational
ministry
to support
this
This means a change in consciousness for many congregations as
well. It is the high calling of all the adults in a home to teach and model the faith.
And we need not make it too hard.
A critical confluence of partnerships is needed to tend the lives of children
and the youth. The central partnership is between the congregation and the home.
How can congregations encourage, support and resource homes so that lively faith
formation
takes place there? Equally as important
between home, congregation
are the public partnerships
and community. The rich focus on asset-building
research from Search Institute4
offers a practical, usable, common
that can help forge and foster those critical partnerships.
language
But finally, for the
purpose of this article, it is the relationship between adults and children in faith
communities
that is paramount;
and it is to that relationship that I will devote
primary attention.
An old saying has circulated for a long time now: "Children should be seen
and not heard." Who knows where or when or even why it originated-or
even
whether or not it has any historical basis whatsoever. Regardless, I think it has
become embedded, over time, like a rock in a streambed, in the consciousness of
many adults, and even in many of our churches-although
we certainly wouldn't
want to admit it publicly or in polite company. Often we want to see a lot of kids
running around our churches, we just don't want to hear them-both
figuratively. This sends a powerful message to kids-particularly
literally and
when what so
many kids want and need is to be heard. I still believe that one of the greatest gifts
an adult can give to a child, a teenager, a young adult, another person, is one's full,
undivided attention. Listen to what Kate Erb, age 17, has to say about being seen
and heard in her poem "Fiery Spirit":
The soul projects itself through eyes, I'm told,
But mine springs out in piles of crazy hair,
Of spirals colored rust and brown and goldMy mind and mane an unruly pair.
They are not ladylike, and brush the edge
Of etiquette-rebellious
~
strands that pop
Journal of Y()Uth~!5.d,l!ieology (Volume
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From braids and buns to raise a wispy hedge
Like weeds sprung from an ancient statue's top,
And small green questions that would break in time
The stone of dogma's temple down to leas
Where mums and pansies thrive on crumbled lime
And redheads charm the honey out of bees.
So let the matrons point and gasp behind.
I will comb my curls and speak my mind.5
There are kids who want to be heard-indeed,
must be heard-regardless
who will be heard,
of adult sensibilities or propriety.
I fear that the old adage, "Kids should be seen and not heard" has seeped
into the ecclesiastical consciousness
of many faith communities
and become
operative, perhaps more than many of us dare imagine. Of course congregations
want kids around; the more the merrier, right? In my small experience of relating
to synods (judicatory bodies) in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
ministry with young people consistently floats to the top of most congregational
lists of needs and desires. Yet the question becomes to what extent are children and
young people-their
voices, gifts, passion, curiosity, energy-heard,
valued, and
honored as fully participating members of the Body of Christ? Congregations must
resist the tempting siren song that calls out, "kids should be seen and not heard,"
and communicate the exact opposite to all of God's kids: you will be seen and heard
here, really.
The biblical image of the Body of Christ (Romans 12; 4; I Corinthians
12:12-14; Ephesians 4:15-16) casts a vision for life and ministry in Christian
communities
that is naturally intergenerational
people. Congregations are intergenerational,
A congregation
and intentionally
inclusive of all
local gatherings of the Body of Christ.
is created and called by God to provide a safe place wherein
kids can come to voice as daughters and sons of God, equipped and empowered
for Christian leadership in God's world.
Children have a calling; children as well as adults are called to vocation6•
The calling of childhood is to live and work in God's world in a variety of ways
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and through multiple relationships (home, school, friends, etc.) and alternatively,
to play, question, wonder, worship, serve, learn, love, care, and, at times, to create
chaos. One of the distinctive
is "spice"-enthusiasm,
gifts that
zeal, impatience
children
and youth
bring to life
with the status quo, and occasionally
a dose of chaos and disorder. This is what ministry in daily life looks like vis-a-vis
the child.
From my perspective, the wellspring from which comes this calling
of children to vocatio, to ministry in daily life, is baptism. "Baptism makes us priests
before God and frees us to serve our neighbor in our particular arenas of life.
Vocatio ... had become in Luther's hands a word for the day-to-day world in which
all Christians found themselves."l
Baptism is the particular means through which
God forges this relationship-with-a-purpose
and grafts people into the Body of
Christ.
the profound
Timothy
understanding
Wengert
has unearthed
import
of Luther's
of baptism in relationship to children and vocation. He asserts that
Baptism, for Luther, is the sacrament of justification by faith alone par excellence.
Luther ... realized that children came to Christ in Baptism .. .In Baptism God
links our destiny to that of Jesus Christ. In Baptism Christ himself baptizes
and joins us to his death and resurrection, not just allegorically but, to use
modern parlance, "for real." In Baptism God ordains all to the royal
priesthood we share in Christ.s
Far from 'justifying' Christian faith traditions that practice infant baptism
as the primary means for welcome and initiation into the Christian community,
this view is a fundamental
welcome and initiation.
challenge to consider more deeply the nature of that
Again, Wengert on Baptism, children, and vocation:
"Baptism was no longer a stepping stone in the child's life, easily lost in the struggle
against sin. Instead it had become the place where a child entered the realm of
God's favor. ..Baptism now remained a valid, irrevocable promise of God.,,9 There
is a purpose for welcome and initiation
into the Christian community.
Being
grafted into the Body of Christ through baptism into the death and resurrection of
Jesus involves welcome and initiation into servant-living and missional ministry.
Children, indeed, are members of the priesthood of all believers by virtue of their
baptism into Christ, fully part of the Body of Christ right now, today.
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Probably nothing from the Christian faith better captures the essentially
mutual relationship that should exist between individual Christians and
the Christian community that the image of Church as Body of Christ. As
the historical Jesus was present
in his physical body, St. Paul was
convinced that the Body of Christ continues in the world through the
community-of-persons
called Church ... But Paul's understanding
body and how it functions
communal.
of this
places equal stress on the personal and
In the body of Christ, each individual is valued, cherished,
needed, and has a unique function-a
role that no one else can play.
And yet each part needs the whole for its own functioning ... So, the
well-being of the whole is crucial to the well-being of individual members,
and vice-versa.lO
As members of the Body of Christ, children, too, are called to ministry
in the present moments
of their lives. Theology such as this begs for local
ecclesiologies that move beyond welcoming children passively, that is, primarily as
those acted upon (e.g., as learners) to integrating, equipping and empowering them
actively as agents of the faith and bearers of the Christian gospel. Children need
adults-parents,
teachers, pastors, coaches, the whole people of God-who
are
present with them, available and accessible, serving as "God bearers.,,11 Adults are
called, as spiritual companions, to accompany children and help kids discern and
clarify their vocations and strengthen and deepen the ways in which they already
are "proclaiming the praise of God and bearing God's creative and redeeming Word
to all the world.".J2
In an Intergenerational
Matrix ...
It is our view that
the phenomenon
of segregation
by age and
its consequences for human behavior and development pose problems of
the greatest magnitude for the Western world in general and for American
society in particular. If the institutions of our society continue to remove
parents, other adults and older youth from active participation in the lives
of children, and if the resulting vacuum is filled by the age-segregated peer
group, we can anticipate increased alienation, indifference, antagonism
and violence on the part of the younger generation
of our society.13
~
in all segments
- Journal of Youth and Theology (Vblunied;~~:til!1bei!L~Rriiz005)4-
These words, written some three decades ago, sound now like an eerie
prophecy. In many, many sectors of the Western world, the United States in
. particular, hyper-paced
individualism,
lifestyles built on the increasingly
consumer choice and mobility are pulling the generations apart at
the seams. As a result, generations,
fragmentation
pervasive values of
in families and communities,
experience
and are often isolated one from another. A host of cultural analysts
and observers are paying close attention
to these dynamics.
In A Tribe Apart,
Patricia Hersch has explored and narrated the affect of this fragmentation
in the
lives of the younger generations as well as any in recent times. At the heart of her
analysis of American adolescence lies one reality: aloneness.
The most stunning
change
for adolescents
today is their aloneness.
The adolescents of the nineties are more isolated and more unsupervised
than other generations ...The aloneness of today's adolescents changes the
essential nature of the journey ... Their dramatic separation from the adult
world is rarely considered as a phenomenon
in its own right, yet it may be
the key to that life in the shadows. It creates a milieu for growing up that
14
adults categorically cannot understand because their absence causes it.
These last two sentences capture and summarize both the central curiosity
and essential thesis of A Tribe Apart. This "dramatic separation" of young people
from adults has far-reaching consequences.
It is a problem not just for families but for communities
generations
when the
get so separated. The effects go beyond issues of rules and
discipline to the idea exchanges between generations that do not occur,
the conversations
not held, the guidance and role modeling not taking
place, the wisdom and traditions no longer filtering down inevitably. How
can kids imitate and learn from adults if they never talk to them? How can
they form the connections
to trust adult wisdom if there is inadequate
contact? How can they decide what to accept and reject from the previous
generation when exposure is limited? The generational threads that used
to weave their way into the fabric of growing up are missing.
Neither
fragmentation,
I.
are faith
communities
immune
from
the
IS
effects
of this
so often fueled by age-segregation.
Journal of Youth
~tll4IheoloiY (yolume
4; Number 1; April 2005) -
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Most people experience the church on Sunday mornings as spectators
to a traditionally prescribed worship form. There may be an educational
opportunity
for the young and more active adults, but there is generally
very little conscious awareness of any need for intergenerational
activity
that enables people to experience "koinonia" wherein needs are shared,
spiritual
bonding
occurs,
people
are
is empowered. The norm is fragmentation
energized,
and
"diakonia"
in congregational life. 16
It is difficult for people to love and care for one another, particularly
the young, in the midst of age-segregation and isolation. The generations belong
together; there is a desperate need for the lives of adults and children to be woven
together in community. "T.S. Eliot posed the question succinctly: 'What life have
you if you have not life together?' ... we receive life, we foster life, and we pass life
on within the context of fellow humans."I?
Human life is indeed a shared activity.
Human life is not to be lived in isolation.
for life together in community.
God creates
Christian spirituality, too, is a shared, communal
human
beings
activity. The doctrine
of the Trinity affirms that the design for human community is grounded in the
deeply reciprocal and communal nature of God. Theologian]usto
Gonzalez reflects
on the deep relationality of God and the clear challenge this poses for the life
of Christian communities.
If the Trinity is the doctrine of a God whose very life is a life of sharing,
its clear consequence is that those who claim belief in such a God must
live a similar life ... The doctrine of the Trinity, once cleared of the stale
metaphysical language in which it has been couched, affirms belief in a
God whose essence is sharing ...This love of God, however, is not only
something we receive, or something we must praise. It is also something
we must imitate, for if God is love, life without love is life without God;
and if this is a sharing love, such as we see in the Trinity, then life without
sharing is life without
God; and if this sharing is such that in God
the three persons are equal in power, then life without such power sharing
is life without GOd.18
140
I - Journal
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This sharp theological
implications for the relationship
challenge
issued by Gonzalez
has significant
between adults and children in congregations,
particularly with regard to the sharing of power. The proverbial playing field is
levelled in a community
of the baptized, wherein the pattern and goal of life
together is ordered and defined by the Triune God.
Justification
by faith alone implies that God is no rejecter of persons.
Baptism, as the sacrament of that justification par excellence,
becomes
19
the great equalizer of Christians. Even age no longer divides them.
The nature of this life together is such that life-sustaining
fellowship,
deeply reciprocal at its theological core, is an integral dimension of a Christian
faith community.
In the community of faith, personal identity is grounded in a reality that
transcends every individual, creating a basis for equality and freedom and
the redress of wrongs committed.
In Christian community, this equality
and freedom is expressed in the access every individual
has to God
through the mediation of Christ. This mediation constitutes the people as
a priesthood
of believers,
within
which
no privileged
classes are
recognized, but only redeemed sinners all standing underGod's
and grace.20
judgment
Life with God, the life of faith, is deeply relational.' Through our baptism
into Christ we are called into relationship with God and with others. This reality is
made crystal clear as congregations
prepare to welcome the newly baptized: "By
water and the Holy Spirit we are made members of the Church which is the Body
of Christ."21 John Westerhoff reminds us that, at its inception, the Sunday school
was designed
to foster this deep relationality
between
people
of all ages
as participants in Christian community.
The function
of the Sunday school, with its variety of programs, was
to give persons an opportunity
to share life with other faithful selves,
to experience the faith in community,
to learn the Christian story and
to engage in Christian actions. The key to these Sunday schools was not
curriculum, teaching, learning strategies, or organization;
it was people
in community.22
______ ,]ournai.:oIYoutl1arld Theology
(Volume 4; Number 1; April 200S) -
rn
In the final analysis, it is the quality of relationships
members
of a faith community
between all of the
that creates an environment
in which faith
is nurtured.
Intentional ingernerationality
A congregation is a rich, intergenerational
matrix, and as such a natural
crucible for such relationships between children and adults. A pressing question for
faith communities
is thus: What best fosters genuine, mutual relationships within
the Body of Christ so that people of all ages can discover and exercise their Godgiven gifts for ministry? Intentional
intergenerational
ministry is a perspective, a
way of thinking and acting together in community that integrates the generations
rather than segregating them, thus seeking to pass on the faith from generation
to generation.
James Gambone
defines intentional
intergenerational
as "the determination
to bring together all generations-past,
in the
sacred conversation
service and
congregations
an intentionally
of the
are naturally intergenerational.
intergenerational
ministry
present, and future-
Body of Christ.
However, thinking
,,23
Most
and acting in
manner does not seem to come so naturally
for many congregations.
Intentional
intergenerational
a commitment
ministry means the entire church makes
to involve as many generations in as many parts of church
as possible. It requires a dramatic change in the church culture. It also
means every church that takes up this ministry will work for the benefit
of the most vulnerable of all generations.24
Although intentional intergenerational
ministry seems to be the exception
rather than the norm in many congregations,
indeed often requiring a dramatic
change in a congregation's
the Judeo-Christian
culture, it is certainly not an alien notion
heritage.
The church
has a long
history
relationships.
The difference between the past and the present is that in
previous times these relationships
of encouraging
and much more intentional.
cross-generational
occurred more naturally. In an aging
society, we need to make intergenerational
relationships more formalized
By promoting intentional
intergenerational
ministry, the church will be in a position to increase opportunities
kinds of transfers-spiritual
142
within
I - Journal
and material-across
of Youth and Theology
(Voluri;e
for all
the generations.2s
4;N..!:I~berJ;.&prihoos)
_
In an intentionally
intergenerational
ministry environment,
adults must
be willing to share their power and those younger must be willing to take on and
honor responsibility.
I heard preached once that "the first act of love is to listen." Intentional
cross-generational
ministry places a high priority on the faith community
as a
listening, nurturing environment wherein people of all ages are fully present to one
another. A congregation I visited recently attempted, a few years ago, to implement
a congregation-wide
mentoring initiative between older adults and children and
youth of all ages. As one of the leaders of this initiative, Mary, noted, "It was a
valiant, well-intentioned
effort, but it fell flat." The initiative was germinated and
planned very intentionally and carefully, but it simply didn't take hold ... at least as
it was intended. There remained a vibrant constellation of relationships between
adults and kids who were in fifth grade when the initiative began. It seemed as
though fifth grade was the right time to focus on mentoring in that congregation.
Again, Mary put it quite well: "We took it as a cue from God. We listened. We paid
attention. We jettisoned the overall initiative and held on to whatever was going
on with our fifth-graders." Thus the inception of what eventually came to be called
"Stories of Wonder, Stories of Wisdom." Fifth-graders and their older spiritual
companions would gather every few weeks. They would eat yummy things served
up best by grandmas and grandpas, playa game or two, giggle and laugh a lot, and
eventually
sit down and talk for a while-sharing
their stories of wonder and
wisdom. Mary summed it up best: "It was so simple. So spontaneous.
SO... God.
Such a beautiful thing to be a part of." After hearing this story during my visit,
Robert Coles' final musings at the end of his book, The Spiritual Life of Children,
came to mind immediately:
So it is that we connect with one another, move in and out of one
another's lives, teach and heal and affirm one another, across space and
time-all of us wanderers, explorers, adventurers, stragglers and ramblers,
sometimes
tramps
or vagabonds,
even fugitives, but now and then
pilgrims: as children, as parents, as old ones about to take that final step,
to enter that territory whose character none of us here ever knows.
Yet how young we are when we start wondering about it all, the nature
26
of the journey and the final destination.
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(Volume 4; Number 1; April 2005) -
1.43\
Hence .the importance
of creating regular occasions so that young and old
can come together in a variety of ways and learn from one another, listening and
talking, sharing prayer and praise, questions and struggles, life and faith stories. All
of the senses are employed in attending
song and dance,
environment
puppets
to God's Story-wonder
and paint
and plenty
of play. In this kind of an
people of all ages are full and valued participants
community.
and imagination,
in the life of a faith
Women and men, boys and girls come to voice together as the people
of God, discovering and exercising their gifts for ministry. The baptized of all ages
are integrated,
equipped and empowered
Intentional
leadership
intergenerationality
A congregation
crucible
to bear witness to the reign of God.
requires cross-generational
is a rich, intergenerational
for such relationships
between
matrix, and as such a natural
children
and adults.
A congregation
is created and called by God to provide a safe place wherein kids can come to voice
as daughters
and sons of God, equipped
in God's world. Congregations
of Christ.
However,
communities
and empowered
are intergenerational,
the overarching
is to communicate
purpose
for Christian leadership
local gatherings
of ministry
of the Body
within
such
faith
the good news of God's Reign in Jesus Christ
to one another and to the world.
The community
of faith is thus a gathering of those responding
to God's
saving grace by devoting themselves to God's plan for the restoration
of all
creation ... therefore, 'the people called' is a people belonging to God. This
sense of being God's possession constitutes
its identity, its vocation,
its vision ... Life accordingly presents itself to the faithful as a summons
and
to
participate in God's purpose of redeeming all who remain in bondage, and
of restoring
a creation
righteousness
and peace prevail.27
As members
welcoming
ravaged
by sin to a state
of the Body of Christ, children,
in the present moments
beyond
long
too, are called to ministry
of their lives. For many congregations
children
(e.g., as learners) to integrating,
passively, that is, primarily
equipping
in which
and empowering
this entails moving
as those
acted upon
them actively as agents
of the faith and bearers of the Christian gospel.
rn -Journal
of Youth and Theology
(Volume 4; NU~2er !;~P!il
2QQ.?)
_
God is an agent. God acts in history on behalf of his (sic) coming
community where justice, liberation, wholeness of life, unity, peace, and
the well-being of all peoples are realized. That is the central affirmation to
be made about God. It is the good news of what God has done in Jesus
Christ ... We are created by God in God's image ... The human self, like God,
is an agent. .. The self as actor is not an isolated individual. Our existence is
dependent upon interactions with God and other persons ... Our created
28
corporate selfhood places us in an essential relationship with all others.
This theological
claim about human
agency applies to all persons,
and children, of course, are fully persons. When thinking about children it seems
more natural to readily claim that God's creative gift is given to them, but all too
often congregations seem reluctant to see the ways in which the Holy Spirit may
be at work through
them as children.
How can we ensure that the agency
of children is honored? How can we cultivate children as agents of the faith?
The teaching and practice of Jesus in the Gospels reveals a dynamic
perspective of childhood grounded in the full participation of children in the Reign
of God. Judith Gundry-Volf has explored Jesus' perspective of children in the
Gospels and suggests a number of ways in which the significance of children is
accented in Jesus' teaching and practice.29 The radical nature of]esus' teaching and
practice
regarding
children
has profound
implications
for Christian
life
and practice in congregations today.
In light of the traditional reception of the New Testament teaching, the
most significant challenge before us is to recapture in our own particular
contexts the radicalness of Jesus' teaching on children. Children are not
only subordinate but sharers with adults in the life of faith; they are not
only to be formed but to be imitated; they are not only ignorant but
capable of receiving spiritual insight; they are not "just" children but
representatives of Christ. What makes that challenge so difficult is that it
would entail changing not only how adults relate to children but how we
conceive of our social world. Jesus did not just teach how to make an adult
world kinder and more just for children; he taught the arrival of a social
world in part defined by and organized around children. He cast judgment
on the adult world because it is not the child's world. He made being
___
~.Journarof YOlitharid..:rheology
(Volume 4; Number 1; April 200S) -
rn
a disciple dependent
on inhabiting
this "small world." He invited the
children to come to him not so that he might initiate them into the adult
realm but so that they might receive what is properly theirs-the reign of
God.3D
Children are not valued and valuable because of what they might become;
they are valued and valuable for who they already are, a child of God and recipient
of the Reign of God. The efforts of adults in the faith community
directed at turning
children into valuable and useful Christians.
should not be
Rather, it is
incumbent on the adult community to find ways to honour and value the unique
and authentic gifts that children bring and offer as children. Children and young
people need to be nurtured as agents in all aspects of Christian life and practice
within the Body of Christ. To see children as agents of the faith means that the
voices and gifts of children are honoured
and valued and children are given
meaningful and vital roles in the life and ministry of the congregation. It means
that people of all ages engage in ministry together. Ministry in the Body of Christ
is with children, not to or for childrenY
Leadership requires apprenticeship
If an intentionally
intergenerational
environment
seems most conducive
for nurturing the faith of the young, then an important question comes to the fore:
How can children and youth best learn the faith, discover and exercise their gifts,
and live into their calling as sons and daughters
of God? I want to offer
apprenticeship as a natural and appropriate way to equip and empower young
leaders for Christian witness and mission, particularly a) within an intentionally
intergenerational
environment
and b) in light of the agency of children in the
Body of Christ, full participants in the Reign of God. In the life of congregations,
apprenticeship is the wedding of mentoring and leadership development.
Websters
defines an apprentice as (lb) one who is learning by practical experience under
skilled workers a trade, art or calling. For our purposes here I am less concerned
with apprenticeship
apprenticeship
as the learning of a trade or an art and more interested in
as a crucible within which one catches the faith and lives into one's
identity as a child of God. Apprenticeship,
at its core, is a deeply relational way
of living into one's calling-little by little, day by day-as a full member of the Body
of Christ.
146
I - Journal
of Youth and Theologi(\TQiuITIe1Lr'iuIIl1:Je;'i;~p'~ri~1
2_0_0_S)~ _
A few years ago I was traveling on the West Coast. It was Pentecost
weekend and I joined a California congregation
for worship. In many ways the
service began as garden-variety Lutheran worship-well-done,
good music, and lots
of red for the occasion. Then came the reading of the texts. Perhaps you can recall
the texts set forth by the Revised Common Lectionary for Pentecost Sunday, the
first of which is from the second chapter of Acts (verses 1-21 specifically). It is a
powerful
and profound
text, and none
too easy to read, given places like
Cappadocia and Phrygia and Pamphylia from which the crowd had come. A young
woman stepped up to the lectern. I was to find out later that she was in fifth grade.
She carved up that text from the second chapter of Acts, and I mean that in the
best sense of the phrase. For two or three minutes she owned that sanctuary. She
read carefully, confidently, and deliberately. Her pacing was exquisite. There was
passion and inflection in her voice. I was on the edge of my seat; to this day it is
hard for me to hear that text read without hearing her voice. Afterwards I quickly
sought her out to thank her for such a fine reading. "How did you learn to read the
lessons so well at such a young age?" I asked her. "Jim," she replied. "Jim?"
I responded, looking for more. "I learned to read the lessons for worship by reading
with Jim. He's a really good reader. We take turns
reading
and listening.
Then, before we leave, we pray together."
Let's imagine
apprenticeship
at work from another,
quite
different
perspective. Many congregations have reached the place where young people who
are able and willing can participate on the congregational
council, with voice and
vote. This is no small feat and is to be affirmed. It represents one way in which
power can be shared with the younger generations by integrating them into the
primary
decision-making
body of a congregation.
Yet how are young people
prepared and equipped to serve in such a capacity? One way would be to give them
their own copy of the council notebook and tell them to enjoy their reading. Most
young people I know would file it with the rest of their notebooks-in
backpack-and
their
end up with a heavier backpack. What if, rather than equipping
them with a notebook, we paired them up with another person, say, a council
veteran. Someone a bit more seasoned, who has served on the council and knows
the kind of things that are not likely to be in a notebook. This becomes their "go
to" person-any
____
questions or quandaries, this is the person to whom they can go.
1ournal of"youJ!:Llll!<:[Theology'(Volume
4;
Number 1; April 200S)
-
I
471
A young person is equipped
for a particular
calling within the congregation,
and another generative relationship is fostered within the Body of Christ.
The young in our midst need to hear, clearly, that their voices and gifts
and silliness and even the chaos they often bring are needed and wanted within
the Body of Christ. "If you are gifted, interested, willing, committed,
nothing off limits in terms of your participation
in this congregation."
there is
A message
such as this is truly good news for kids. If, indeed, the first act of love is to listen,
then children are hungry for times and spaces within which adults will be truly and
fully present with them. Children of all ages need adults-parents,
teachers, pastors,
coaches, the whole people of God-who are present to and with them as persons,
pilgrims and sojourners together. Adults are called, as spiritual companions,
to
accompany children and help the young discern their gifts, clarify their vocations,
and strengthen
and deepen the ways in which they already are "proclaiming the
praise of God and bearing God's creative and redeeming Word to all the world.,,32
A companion
is literally one who shares bread with us as we walk
alongside one another. Jesus was such a companion to those with whom he walked,
as tired and confused as they were, on that dusty road from Jerusalem to Emmaus
(Luke 24: 13-35). The Risen One opens up a whole new world to those who are
Christ followers, a world in which people of all ages walk together along the Way.
So often Jesus' first act of love for us is to listen: As we walk alongside one another,
may we do the same, focusing on the other, the stranger, the child, the Christ
in our midst.
Dr Nathan Franbach is professor of youth, culture & mission
at Wartburg Theological
Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, USA
NOTES
The full reference is from Luther's Works. Vol. 45, The Estate of Marriage, 1522
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1962), 46: "Most certainly father and mother are
apostles, bishops, and priests to their children, for it is they who make them
acquainted with the gospel."
2
Barbara Kingsolver, "Somebody's Baby" in High Tide in Tucson
(HarperPerennial: New York, 1995) 103f£.
1
~
- Journal
of Youth and Theology
(Volum~4; ~!ill1bS~i.APliI 20Q~),,
_
Cf. Family: The Forming Center by Marjorie Thompson, now a classic in the
field; a variety of research that has emerged from Dr. Peter Benson and The
Search Institute in recent years; and the work being done by Dr. David Anderson
of the Minneapolis-based Youth & Family Institute, specifically, The Child In Our
Hands initiative.
4 Visit the Search Institute online at www.search-institute.org
for more
information on their growing body of research on developmental assets and
asset-building communities.
5 Mary Motley Kalergis, Seen & Heard: Teenagers Speak About Their Lives (Stewart,
Tabori & Chang: New York, 1998) 62.
6 Although it is beyond the scope of this article to consider fully the
relationship between the notion of vocatio and childhood, it is a relationship
begging for theological exploration. It simply needs to be stated here that
children are called by God to live and work in God's world in a variety of ways
and through multiple relationships (home, school, friends, etc.).
7 Timothy J. Wengert, "Luther On Children: Baptism and the Fourth
Commandment" in Dialog (37:3, Summer 1998) 187.
8 Ibid, 186.
9 Ibid, 189.
10 Thomas Groome, Educating for Life: A Spiritual Vision for Every Teacher and
Parent, (Allen, TX: Thomas More, 1998) 181-82.
11 I find this metaphor, employed by Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster, a
beautifully descriptive and much-needed way of re-framing the relationship
between adults and kids in ministry. Cf., Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster,
The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending forYouth Ministry (Upper Room Press,
1998).
12 Lutheran Book of Worship, Order for Holy Baptism, p. 124.
13 Urie Bronfenbrenner,
Two Worlds of Childhood (Pocket Books: New York, 1973)
120-121.
14 Patricia Hersch, A Tribe Apart (Fawcett Columbine:
New York, 1998) 19-20; 23.
15 Ibid,20.
16 Harold J. Hinrichs, "Intergenerational
Living and Worship: The taring
Community," 1986.
17 Paul Hanson, The People Called: The Growth of Community in the Bible (San
Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986) 1. The full text of the Eliot quote reads: "What
life have you if you have not life together? There is no life that is not in
community, and no community not lived in praise of God."
18 Justo Gonzalez, Manana: Christian Theology from a Hispanic Perspective
(Nashville: Abingdon, 1990) 114-15.
19 Wengert, "Luther On Children", 186.
20 Hanson, The People Called, 501.
21 The Lutheran Book of Worship, The Rite of Baptism, 121.
22 John Westerhoff, Will Our Children Have Faith? (New York: Seabury Press, 1976)
83.
23 James Gambone, All Are Welcome: A Primer for Intentional Intergenerational
Ministry and Dialogue (Crystal Bay, MN: Elder Eye Press, 1998) 63.
24 Ibid, vi.
25 Ibid, 3.
3
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Jol1fnargf
Youth and~Theol()gy_(VOlllP;~4;Number
1; April 2005) -
I
491
Robert Coles, The Spiritual Life of Children (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1990) 335.
27 Hanson, The People Called, 514; 517
28 Westerhoff,
Will Our Children Have Faith?, 33; 35-36 ..
29 Judith Gundry-Volf,
"To Such As These Belongs The Reign Of God" in Theology
Today (56:4, January 2000) 469-480.
30 Judith Gundry-Volt,
"The Least and the Greatest: Children in the New
Testament," in The Child in Christian Thought, ed. Marcia Bunge (Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans, 2001) 60.
31 What this might look like in the life of a congregation?
Here are but a few
examples. Create and offer children's "activity bags" and/or bulletin inserts that
will help children to make connections with what they actually see and hear in
worship. In other words, draw children more deeply into the life of worship
rather than distracting them from it. Instead of taking sermon notes, invite
students to engage in text study and sermon preparation with the pastor (even if
it means springing for some pizza or a few sodas on occasion). Involve children
and youth in pastoral care, accompanying pastoral leaders, when appropriate, in
visiting the sick and sharing communion with homebound members. Recruit
young people to create and/or manage a web site for the congregation. This
involves young people at the interface between church office, staff,
congregational leaders and communication.
Provide opportunities for young
feople to "teach" adults in the congregation about the web site.
2 Lutheran Book of Worship, Order for Holy Baptism, p. 124.
26
Iso I - Journal
of Youth and Th~ology(Yol!lIQei_N~@~L!i-ill2_ri_I_20_0_5_) _
Bored to Death: Entertainment, Violence
and a Sacramental Approach to Teaching Peace
Russell Haitch
Abstra.ct
This article focuses on the nexus of boredom and violence in the
human spirit, and the nexus between the aim of peacemaking and
the activity of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, in the relationality
of human spirit to Holy Spirit. To elucidate the first nexus, I turn
to Erich Fromm's classic study of aggression, and to elucidate the
second I turn to both Orthodox
and Anabaptist
sacramental
perspectives, which though different supplement each other.
"Boring ... /I
Signs of boredom abound.
continually
Youth ministers become entertainers.
buy new toys for their kids and themselves.
Parents
Teenagers fall asleep
during Casablanca (sometimes).
The desire to ward off boredom starts early and can become lifelong.
Erich Fromm said boredom is serious.
not just a symptom, but an underlying
It is not passing, but prevalent;
condition.
Boredom is so severe that
violence can provide welcome escape.
This section of Fromm's famous study, The Anatomy of Human
Destructiveness (1973), did not receive too much attention when first published.
Perhaps prophetically
psychopathological
he said: "Chronic boredom ... constitutes one of the major
phenomena
in contemporary
technotronic
society. "I
As
a "shared pathology," boredom is not generally considered a sickness. But "it has
no small part in generating aggression and destructiveness."z
Like Freud before him,
Fromm
assumptions about the nature of the mind.
for stimulation.3
combines
clinical
observation
with
He postulates a "basic organic need"
He defines boredom as the lack of stimulation, or more precisely,
the inability of an organism to respond to the various stimuli that are always
present in the world. However, all stimuli are not equal. One may be stimulated
by Greek drama or Roman gladiatorial games.
One may be stimulated by love
and work, or by blood and violence.
Fromm distinguishes two types of stimuli: 1) an almost reflex-like, simple
stimulus, which is rooted in the neurophysical organization; and 2) an "activating
stimulus" (such as a poem, idea, music, or loved person), whereby one becomes
stimulated through active relation to the other.
While behaviorists might reduce the second to the first, Fromm's point
is that stimuli of the first kind lose their effect through repetition.
To hold interest,
either the intensity must be increased or novelty must be introduced.
they become the same, and boring.
Otherwise,
Stimuli of the second sort, however, can
be continually interesting, ever new and changing.
The two types of stimuli can issue in two types of passion and two types
of learning: 1) learning as a way to stimulate feelings of success, versus 2) learning
that pursues
"truth,"
that penetrates
beneath
the surface and that becomes
interesting in its own right because of the need for "human growth" (Le., reaching
full human
potential).
In Fromm's view, modern industrial life operates with
simple stimuli, favoring the first sort of learning, which is perpetuated
the entertainment
through
industry.
What matters here is not just the stimuli but the capacity of the organism
to respond.
Humans enter the world with wonder.
At an early age children can
create their own small worlds out of scraps of paper, blocks of wood or a few small
stones. Later, by about age six, they get bored and want more elaborate toys.
Hence young people need to grow, and this growth needs to be internal,
not just a growing collection of toys. They need to learn patience and discipline,
concentration
and attention,
endurance through frustration.
critical
and imaginative
thinking,
as well as
People who have not grown in this way will also
grow easily bored and will seek stimuli to which they can respond with little effort:
such as accidents, fires, crimes, violence, the sight of blood, or explicit sexuality.
The condition
of boredom is often not diagnosed because people go to
lengths to avoid it, not only through entertainment,
achievement.
but also through compulsive
They compensate for boredom by keeping busy. "I'd rather be busy
than bored" is one motto I have heard.
Fromm gives the example of a lawyer who worked twelve or more hours
a day and became so absorbed in his job he never felt bored; yet unconsciously, as
his dream life revealed, he felt like he was part of a prison chain gang, for his life
1521
-Journal of Youth and fheolo~:-CYQl}1Ige_1; Numbe!.J""ill;lril200S),v
"served no purpose except that of making money."4
of a person who repressed his boredom
exploits," but under hypnosis
through
He gives another example
"active and ever-new sexual
expressed his feeling that "sex is dull," though
"not as dull as other things."s
Many people, starting in youth, find relief from boredom through
use
of drugs, which may express their "genuine longing for a deeper and more genuine
experience
of life," but
which
"does
not
eliminate
the
permanent
roots
of their boredom.,,6
"Not the least dangerous result of insufficiently
is violence and destructiveness."
of being attracted to violence.
compensated
boredom
This outcome usually takes the passive form
But "it is only a short step from passive enjoyment
of violence and cruelty to the many ways of actively producing excitement by
sadistic or destructive behavior.,,7 In other words, malignantly aggressive behavior
in some people may result less from a failure to distinguish
real from fictive
violence, than from a hope that the real will be more stimulating.
Fromm
also finds
(and then violence).
connections
He distinguishes
between
boredom
"boredom-depression"
and
depression
from "endogenous
depression," saying the former is quite prevalent and can manifest "extreme forms
of destructiveness."s
He describes adolescents who manifest boredom-depression.
They include
a girl who slashed her wrists "to see if she had any blood"; a boy who threw rocks
on top of his garage and caught them on his head in order to "feel something";
and a 16 year-old honor student who shot his parents "to see how it would feel
to kill somebody,,9
In conclusion:
youth desire to feel something (even if it kills them or
others) in order to know that they are alive and not dead.
Critique of Fromm
Fromm's basis for hope seems to be part humanist,
Marxian.1o As far as education
direction.
is concerned,
part romantic, part
he points mainly in the humanist
The goal is character formation, because character functions in humans
as instinct does in animals: it serves the purpose of restraining destructive passions
and feeding life-furthering
ones.]]
Freudian recipe for happiness-"to
A person of good character can follow the
love and to work."
Instead of becoming
addicted to reflex-like stimuli that grow quickly flat, the productive person derives
____
Journal;of Youth:and~theoJQgyjVolurne
4;
Number 1; April200S)
-
I
531
pleasure from activating stimuli and the classical life of the mind; the "productive
person, ideally speaking, is never bored ... ," because this person is pursuing
humanity's "nobler options."12
Here I think Fromm's argument
pursuit of this productivity
runs into problems.
can develop into the achievement
narcissism that he has already linked to unconscious
The first is that
addiction
and
boredom and malignant
aggression. He seems to imply that the psychologist or professor who works twelve
hours a day is qualitatively in a better position than the workaholic lawyer, because
some jobs are more life-furthering, whereas others only mask boredom; but he does
not list which jobs fall into each category. The goal of pursuing humanity's "nobler
options"
presumes
some ideal standard,
but
Fromm's
basic anthropology
is grounded in the mythos of evolution, in which the bottom line is a losing battle
for survival.
Hence a second objection is that Fromm may not take seriously enough
the problem of death.
Even pursuit of the superior stimuli that Fromm prizes can
end in futility, if behind it all there is a sense that nothing really matters, it all ends
in death, the whole universe is running down, only the fittest survive and they die
too. Whether nihilism is a philosophical position or psychological condition, the
point is that it can attach itself to any sort of stimuli or human endeavor. Nihilism
can lead to a desire to take drastic, violent measures.
antidote to social malaise and depression.
purpose:
people pull together
Then war can become an
War purports to give life meaning and
for a common
cause; there are opportunities
for heroism; there is the heightened sense of being part of some collective drama.
A third problem with Fromm's argument is that even if his neo-classical
humanist
approach were the best approach, the fact remains that in many places
(including schools and churches) a pragmatic philosophy
the agenda, though its proponents
ethos among young people.
has more often guided
may not intend to feed a "whatever works"
The Problem with Pragmatism
Extrapolating
somewhat
from Fromm, we may say that engagement
with the world calls for a sense of purpose; by contrast a sense of meaninglessness
can lead to boredom, and a search for stimuli, even violent ones, to which one can
respond easily. But this search ends in futility, if behind it all is the sense that
nothing really matters-nothing
1541
-Journal
is really real or meaningful.
of Youth an(ttheoIQgy<Y()l4-IIl~.i;
Number 1;~Q_ri_L_20~O_S).
_
Therefore
"interest"
and
"meaning"
are central
to our discussion.
One attempt to combine interest and meaning can be found in the philosophy of
John Dewey. In the United States, Dewey may have had as much influence on
youth ministry as anyone, because of the way his pragmatic ideas became absorbed
into American culture, including the religious education movement.
For Dewey, learning begins with "interest," which refers to the learner's
energy to work in a situation because of some anticipated outcome.
Dewey is not
unconcerned with "meaning," but he wants meaning to arise from inquiry, and he
wants educators to start with interest-with
and desire as moving
springs."n
"the importance of personal impulse
At times for Dewey "meaning"
is akin
14
to a commodity that one extracts from the raw material of experience.
In education,
humanist
philosophy
Dewey wanted to overthrow
the influence
built upon idealist (essentialist) thought.
dynamic educational philosophy
His goal was a
suited to democratic society. Education entails
rigorous engagement
with and reflection on experience.
education,
and
personal
of classical,
social meanings
Out of the process of
are constructed,
or else there
is
constructed a worldview in which things have no definite or ultimate meaning, or
then to prevent ensuing chaos it is decided democratically who and what are right
and wrong, good and evil.
In the interplay of interest and meaning, interest has conceptual priority
and exercises marginal control.
We follow our interests and they lead us to
meaning, or not. Piaget's structuralist approach develops along the same lines. For
him learning is based upon the child's own interests and experiences.
The aim is
to have children and young people construct their own meaning, rather than
passively inheriting a cultural legacy of "right" answers.
To be sure, educational pragmatists and constructivists do care about the
past, since continuity
is usually a principle of their experiential approach.
Their
aim is not reflex-like reactions to random stimuli, but rather it is to build up and
construct a more or less coherent worldview. Pragmatism's scientific method and
focus on problem-solving
have educated youth who have gone on to achieve
notable success in the spheres of technology and industry. Its scrutiny of prejudice
and its unifying tendency have helped move societies to question racial, social and
gender divisions.
to interest-based
Imported
approaches
into churches,
the pragmatic
approach
that have helped some moribund
has led
congregations
to revive their numbers.
Journal of YoutIi"aii'a Ih~Ql.ogyRol~;ge4;
Number 1; April 200S) -
F 551
But this
approach,
experimentalism,
experienced
instrumentalism,
some observable
misunderstand
which
goes
by various
progressivism,
pitfalls.
names
(pragmatism,
constructivism),
has also
First, there has been a tendency
to
the scientific method, so that verification becomes confused with
creative discovery in the process of inquiry;
this tendency
creativity needed for peaceful conflict transformation.
may squelch the
Second, there has often
been a lack of accounting for the unconscious;' this lack hinders the understanding
of destructive human passions. Third, the approach commits a naturalistic fallacy
in adopting democracy as the social basis for its ethics, since democracy itself is not
a scientifically proven norm. Without arguing against democracy, one can say that
there is nothing
inherent
to keep it from feeding a culture of entertainment,
in which people respond to those products or images, those actors or politicians
by which they are most easily stimulated.
Thus a final pitfall of many pragmatic approaches: they do not resolve the
crisis of meaning.
They offer instead substance-free methodology
and an empty
reality waiting to be filled by whatever contents of culture are most powerfully
attractive or immediately stimulating.
Progressive education has taken its cues from science, and if we wait long
enough some help in the crisis of meaning may come from there. John Wheeler
has spoken of the third era in physics as "meaning physics."
Guiseppe Del Re
uses musical metaphors and an image of the "Great Dance" to speak of causal and
non-causal relations in science as a hierarchy of meaning.
of the human
open-structured
Addressing the question
"soul" and using concepts such as "apophatic"
to describe the
character of science, Del Re offers a counterbalance
to Stephen
Weinberg's contention
that the universe becomes more pointless in becoming
more comprehensible.
If in the crisis of meaning some scientists are gravitating to
theological categories, then naturally it behooves practical theologians, including
youth ministers, to consider how they ought to contribute to an understanding
of the heavens and to peace on earth.
The Youthful (Age-Old) Search for Authenticity
For many young people the crisis of interest and meaning takes the form
of a search for authenticity.
They want something to be really real. Here we need to
consider what has often been taken from them during the last century, at least in the
American understanding of teenage years: namely, meaningful decisions and activity.
They are now too young to marry, too young to go to work, too young to
go to war, and too young to suffer persecution for not going to war. They are not
too young to give their lives to Christ-these
perhaps in the movement
not made enough prior meaningful
import of this one.
years are ripe for conversion; but
from being self-centered to Christ-centered
they have
(even self-centered) decisions to grasp the
Even church youth associations, which in the nineteenth
century were run by youth, are now run by adults.
Many youth are restless and fight boredom, in part because they are as
biologically
ready
for careers
counterparts,
perhaps more ready, due to an earlier onset of puberty. But they are
also restless and fighting
and
boredom,
marriage
as their
nineteenth-century
because even if they could make these
decisions, would they be experienced as having meaning or purpose?
mottos of previous decades-"you
work your whole life and then you die"; "the
one with the most toys in the end wins"-speak
of an unironic reality: life may
have no real point to it. The aim is to be endlessly entertained.
in an entertainment
The ironic
Youth are steeped
culture.
In the search for meaning,
a particular problem is the universal fact of
death. Religions of the world have tried to deal with death; a large part of their role
in the social order has been reconciling people to this universal fact. But in the
triumph of secularism-which
has been largely a phenomenon
the Christian world, and arguably a result of Christianity's
death-centered
view of life is no longer tenable.
emanating
success-the
from
ancient
Most modern and postmodern
people no longer want to have this world explained to them only in terms of some
"other world" to which one supposedly gains access only at death.
Secularism
rejects the ancient dualism of death to the body and immortality
for the soul.
Secularism thus rightly rejects Christianity
has wrongly
insofar as Christianity
identified itself with ancient pagan doctrines of death and life; for Christianity
ought properly to proclaim God's kingdom in this world as well as the next, and
the resurrection of the body as well as the soul. But secularism is also a religion,
not the absence of religion.
It is the religion of those who try to view death as
natural, and to forget about death by being busy rather than bored, and to be useful
and dedicated to building a better world upon a foundation
and unconscious boredom.
of underlying futility
15
The last two centuries witnessed at least two important
to deal with death.
secular attempts
Both eventually served as justification for violence and war.
Iourna19f YQutl1Jln{[th~61ogy
(Volume 4; Number 1; April 200S) -
m
One was the Darwinian outlook: death, the outcome of the struggle for existence,
leads to an overall improvement
of the species. This approach rationalized death,
and also killing, but it did not give meaning to survival. Meaning or "value" could
be located in the marketplace, appropriately, since Darwin's idea was preceded by
the economic theory of Malthus.
Quality of life and the "abundant life" came to
be seen almost exclusively in economic terms.
economic oppression.
quintessentially
and beyond
Oppressors and oppressed alike saw themselves as being
consumers.
that
Survival of the fittest justified
In this outlook,
to attain
various
people
consume
forms of pleasure
to survive,
and entertainment,
with consequent boredom and underlying aggression.
A second attempt
to deal with death was Freud's view, which made
Thanatos, the death force, the counterpart
of Eros. Death and love were already
conjoined in romantic literature, but Freud gives a psychological explanation: the
drive toward death is natural, instinctual, given at birth, and bending toward the
quiescence of the womb. The desire to die is a longing to go back, not to be born.
But the intense
interpretation
fear of death
in Freud's own case suggests an alternative
of his theory: is it simply a reaction formation?
And even if not,
the fact remains that normalizing death in this way does not contravene its power
to rob life of purpose,
or of enduring
interest
past that
of entertainment.
This approach also fails to deal with the nexus of death, boredom and violence.
Baptism! Communion!
Baptism and the Lord's Supper may seem like unlikely places to look
for aid in the search for interest and meaning, because from the standpoint
of an
action-packed existence, so little of immediate interest may seem to be happening
here; and because their own meaning has been so subject to doubt and debate.
To drive the paradox deeper, much of the confusion about their meaning stems
from centuries
of trying to resolve the question
systematic theology.
of their meaning
through
Formulas have been developed, such as "visible means of
invisible grace," whereby it is said that a lesser reality we can see (the sacramental
act) mediates a greater reality we cannot see (grace). This way of thinking divided
form and essence (or in Augustine's language, signum and res) and had the general
effect of fostering dualistic thinking; and once secular materialism denigrated the
invisible, insensible reality, the "visible means" largely lost their meaning.
IS8 I - Journal
of Youth and TheolQgy
(volii!Pi.1; l::1}lJIlber Ii AQril
2005),
_
The dichotomy
of form and essence was not a problem for the early
church, though later it became the problem of sacramental theology. For the early
church the question was not what do the sacraments signify, or what reality do
they mediate-but
experience.
rather, what are they in fact and in truth
Interest and meaning
are either present inherently,
and in lived
through
and
through, or they are not at all. This fact is a starting point for at least two Christian
theologians-Alexander
Schmemann, who is Orthodox, and John Howard Yoder,
who is Anabaptist.
Both Schmemann and Yoder are sacramental realists, though of different
sorts. Yoder asks what were Baptism and Communion
in Jesus' day, and therefore
what are they in everyday life? Schmemann asks, what are they in liturgy? Yoder starts
with the world and focuses on the political order; Schmemann starts with worship
and focuses on the cosmic order; but both share a common
aim-to
remove
the gap between worship and the world, and to make the life of worship normative
for life in the world.
The Christian community
"is a political reality," says Yoder; it is the
harbinger of God's intent for the whole world. The Christian liturgy is a cosmic
reality, says Schmemann;
it is God's grace active in humanity,
transforming
the whole world.
Yoder says that
for the Christian
community
Baptism was the act
that enacted a whole "new world" (not just a new creature, in his translation
of 2 Cor. 5:17). Baptism set forth "a new kind of social relationship, a unity that
overarches those differences Oew/Gentile, male/female, slave/free) that previously
had separated people.,,16
Likewise in the Lord's Supper, Yoder hears Jesus' words, "whenever you
do this, do it in my memory,"
as referring to the church's
and he notes: " ...bread is daily sustenance.
common
meal;
Bread eaten together is economic
sharing.,,17 This is his version of sacramental realism: "just as ...breaking bread
together
whose
is an economic act, so baptism is the formation
newness
and
togetherness
explicitly
relativise
of a new people
prior
stratifications
and classification."ls
Addressing causes of violence beyond that of boredom, Yoder helps us
to see the human and political dimensions of Baptism and Communion.
These
acts did not issue in modern socialism, but rather in a Christ-centered unity that
removed tribal animosities, and a Spirit-led sharing that replaced economic greed.
Journa[O(Youth
'!I.!d n:!~Qtogy~(Volllme4;
Number Ii April 2005) -
I
591
It might be proposed that if the church could extrapolate this sacramental
reality, live it out in daily life, and become leaven for the rest of the world, then we
could have peace on earth.
But clearly there are obstacles.
power to grasp this reality and carry it forth.
Communion
Granted
One is finding the
that
Baptism and
originally had human political power, unless their power was and is
also divine, it is hard to see how they will surmount baser political motives or the
plethora
of simple
destructiveness.
stimuli
that
appeals
to people's
greed, narcissism
and
Thus Baptism and Communion need to be part of an ongoing way
of life, characterized by what might be called an attitude of epiclesis: an openness
and expectation for God's action, in, through and beyond human action.
A second obstacle is that social-political
activity, meaningful
as it is,
probably does not contravene the power of death to rob life of ultimate meaning.
Here Schmemann's cosmic view helps us. Baptism does not just signify death and
resurrection, but he says, "Baptism is death and resurrection.,,19
To say how Baptism is death and resurrection,
and how it overcomes
death's power to rob life of meaning, Schmemann starts with a Christian view of
death.
This view does not rationalize death (a la Darwin and Freud); it does not
attempt to reconcile people to death, as did ancient religions.
death to be obscene.
whereas Christianity
Instead it declares
Old religion and new secularism both normalize death,
"proclaims it to be abnormal and ... truly horrible.
At the
grave of Lazarus Christ wept."zo Human experience seems to validate this point,
and most people would not debate it at the hour when someone they love has just
died. Schmemann's critique of those who repress the fact of death is mordant:
To live in a cosmic cemetery and to "dispose" every day of thousands
of corpses and to get excited about a "just society" and to be happy!this is the fall of man. It is not the immorality or the crimes of man that
reveal him as a fallen being; it is his "positive ideal"-religious
and his satisfaction with this ideal.z1
What
understanding
saves
Schmemann
from
being
a nihilist
or secular-
is his
Orthodox
that the world is a sacrament of the divine presence and that Christ
died to defeat death for the life of the world.
This teaching can be explicated
briefly, by drawing on Schmemann and several other sources.
160
I - Journal
of Youth and Theology(Y:9i~~~~4;~mber i; AJ!ril2005)
_
The world, created good, is given to humanity for communion with God.
The whole world is sacramental in this sense. The world is not physical or spiritual
but both, and its life is in God.
In taking and eating of the world apart from
obedience to God, the woman and man approach the world as commodity rather
than sacrament. They desire to be like God (Genesis 3:5)-but
to be like God apart
from God. In this root sin, this separation from God, humanity dies, since life is
in God. To be like God is indeed humanity's ontological vocation (Gen. 1:27), but
to attempt it apart from divine communion spells sin and death to humanity and
the world. However, Christ the God-man is born into the world to defeat sin and
death.
To see how Christ does so, it is necessary to say that spiritual death and
physical death are distinct but connected.
In both cases the reality of death is
opposed to life; and what is life? When the fourth Gospel says of Jesus, "in him
was life" Oohn 1:4), this "life" refers to a communion with God and thence with
people and the world, a communion
betoken life.
of love, joy, peace, goodness-all
these
Because physical death is experienced as precipitating separation
from this life, it is greatly feared.
for spiritual death-separation
In fact the experience is somewhat deceiving,
from God-is
This death Jesus defeats.
the prior reality.
From the start, his earthly existence is the
apotheosis of life. It consists purely in love of God and thus love for the world;
in obedience to God and thus in the desire to save people. Nor in this respect did
his death differ from his life. His desire to "drink this cup" and to be plunged into
the "baptism" of crucifixion (Mark 10:38; Luke 12:50) was 'an extension of his life,
the consummate expression of its love. But if death is the absence of this love and
obedience,
then
this death,
his death, becomes "deathless."
His life-filled,
love-filled death even destroys the power of death; in the words of the Orthodox
paschal liturgy, "Christ has risen from the dead, trampling down death by death."
Physical death as a general phenomenon
has not yet been destroyed,
because God has not yet destroyed this world in which physical death is an aspect
and even a principle of life and growth. But Christ transforms the world once more
into communion
with God, and even transforms physical death into a passage
or "passover" to fuller communion.22
To unite Schmemann's
cosmic perspective with Yoder's political focus,
we might start with the over arching Orthodox sense that the center of Christian
faith is theosis.or
____
participation
in the divine life.
.lo1.nnarof Youth an5LIh~g:fogy
Thus (following Romans 6)
(Vo]-tlme4i Number 1; April 2005) -
rn
Baptism is a participation
in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In his
life, Jesus' mission entails reclaiming ground for the sake of God's dominion, which
is the dominion
of peace. The physical world needs liberation: "matter is never
neutral"23; it is either referred to God, or else it becomes a bearer of the demonic.
The laissez-faire capitalist ethos may postulate a large neutral zone, but it has
dawned on thinking people that their daily material choices have ramifications,
either promoting peace and justice or the opposite.
To enter into what God is doing entails recognizing what Jesus is doing
when he enters the waters of the Jordan to be baptized: reclaiming ground from the
enemy by confronting
the devil, whose power is both political and spiritual.
Thus in the Orthodox liturgy even before the baptismal candidate is exorcised and
anointed,
the baptismal
water is first exorcised and anointed.
The exorcism
is a "poem" in the original sense of creating what it announces-the
liberation
of creation.
Baptism is a voluntary step of participation
that sets the pattern for subsequent
in God's new creation, one
steps of the Christian life. When baptized
people become united with Jesus in a death and resurrection like his (Rom. 6:5),
there commences a baptismal and eucharistic way of life. Here Yoder helpfully
describes how this life is political
and peaceful: Baptism replaces old tribal
animosity with new unity in the Spirit, while Communion
evinces a new ethos
of generosity.
Peacemaking
Patterns
The cosmic reality just depicted
is distinctly
Christian,
seem divorced from the everyday "reality" of most Christians.
of ministry is connecting
is connecting
yet it may
Therefore, one task
this sacramental vision to the Christian life. Another
that Christian life to the wider world, for example, for the sake
of peace-making.
To guide the first task, one principle
of continuity
is continuity.
The principle
means that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are not isolated events;
rather they are potential
events of the Holy Spirit through which people come
to participate in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This ongoing life
in the Spirit is endlessly interesting and meaningful.
to the nexus of boredom and violence.
It is the ultimate antidote
However, as second principle, there is also a summons to fidelity. Fidelity
means that our participation in these activities is not based upon some anticipation
that they will be immediately fun and exciting, even interesting and meaningful,
but rather upon our desire to love and obey.
If initially we find them boring,
perhaps so much the better; for then when interest and meaning do arrive we can
be more certain they have come from God, and not just by human manufacture.
While Young Life's founder Jim Rayburn famously said, "it is a sin to bore a kid
with the Gospel," perhaps it is a worse sin to entertain young people with things
that are not the Gospel, instead of exemplifying
for them the fidelity and
perseverance (even through boredom) that give rise to a knowledge of the Gospel's
eventual, eternal stimulation.
Busyness can be a mask for boredom, as Fromm
notes; but boredom can also be a defense against the anxiety that a true encounter
with God may appropriately arouse.
Thus a third principle, the most important,
is relationality.
is the reality; and it means that the energy for participation
that of divine-human
Baptism
interaction-of
in these activities is
human spirit to Holy Spirit communion.
and the Lord's Supper are construed
mainly
"practices," the focus may become too human-centered.
pursuit
charismaniac
If
as "experiences"
or
Then even rightful
of the Spirit may take people in wrong directions.
workaholic
Relationality
There can be a
search for novel experiences to escape boredom in worship, or a
focus on Christian
practices to supplement
a workaholic lifestyle.
Without for a moment denigrating spiritual gifts (such a tongues) or works of love
(such as almsgiving), we may recognize that the goal must be something more than
a menu of experiences or a menu of practices and then a flitting from one thing to
another when the first bloom of excitement fades. It is better to sigh or groan in
boredom, prayerfully, as way of relating to God, in order to receive an ultimate
answer from God.
While the language of experience and practice may become too humancentered, the more traditional language of sacrament, mystery or ordinance faces a
different problem: it may connote "divine" activity in the wrong sense of being
magical or divorced from daily life. The task, however, is not just finding the right
rubric, difficult as that may be.
Relationality has to be lived in order to be
understood or taught. Here all the power of God's Word and Holy Spirit come into
play. Here too young people are not just the recipients of ministry, but potential
examples to the church.
~ __
louIl1a(of
Their ready acknowledgement
YOtlth
ancLIhe()lOgy
of boredom and restless
(Vol;me4; Number 1; April 2005) -
I
631
search for authenticity
can mean their lives have not yet fully hardened
into
the patterns of their surrounding culture.
If through Baptism and Communion
young people can enter more fully
into a spirit-to-Spirit relationship with Jesus Christ, then through Christ they can
enter into worship, and from worship enter the world-not
in a struggle to escape
boredom and death that ends in death, but with a willingness to die (as in Baptism)
that end in life. For in union with Christ death is destroyed, and daily life can
become redolent with meaning.
The eating of a simple meal, the washing of feet
and drying them with a towel, the breaking of bread and drinking together
from a cup-such
activities can become interesting, mysterious, meaningful.
They
are unique in Christian worship, but paradigmatic for everyday life.
At times in this worship one can regain the capacity of a small child to find
interest and delight in the most mundane objects of affection and creativity. Gone
is the drive to repress death through
boredom and seek stimulation
busyness; gone too the need to escape
in violence; gone finally the societal temptation
to fight nihilism through making war.
Though this is the "normal" Christian vision, it is not automatic, nor do I
think it can be learned solely through cognitive instruction,
or even a gradual
process of Christian "formation," important as they are. What pattern then can we
find for the second, related task of ministry
named above-connecting
this
Christian vision to the wider world where most young people live?
The book of Acts offers a pattern that integrates interest and meaning.
It begins not with formation or information, but with a transformation
the Holy Spirit through
the apostles.
enacted by
First, the Holy Spirit does something
interesting, in response to prayer. A crowd gathers, stimulated to listen. Second,
an apostle rises to the occasion to explain the meaning of the remarkable event.
In short, it means that Jesus Christ is alive, risen from the dead.
Third, there
is a summons to die and live in union with Christ. Baptismal repentance gives rise
to a eucharistic way of life, one that consists in stimulation "through active relation
to the Other" (to alter Fromm's language slightly).
What does this mean?, they asked with awakened interest, when they heard
the rushing wind and speaking in tongues and came together in bewilderment
(Acts 2:6,12). We can well imagine the same question was asked again and again,
when the lame man began walking; when other miraculous signs were done by the
apostles; when the believers sold their possessions and goods in order to distribute
1641 - Journal of Youth and Theology
(y~i~l11e'4;
Number 1; AI1ril 2005)
_
them to any who had need (Acts 2:43-45); when Saul the violent persecutor became
the proclaimer of Christ's peace.
This way of awakening interest is obviously very different from bait-andswitch entertainment
approaches sometimes found in youth ministry.
It calls for
more intense preparation than many adults are willing to devote. Before Pentecost
they
devoted
themselves
to prayer.
Afterward
"they
devoted
themselves
to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the
prayers" (Acts 2:42). Perhaps if youth saw more intense adult devotion that in itself
would awaken their interest enough to ask, what does this mean?
Conclusion
Boredom is a serious problem for young people influenced by "Western"
cultures.
boredom.
national,
Depression, addiction and drivenness to achieve can all mask chronic
Such boredom can engender violence-fictive
self-inflicted and directed toward others.
ministry based on entertainment
and real, personal and
Meanwhile
approaches
to
or even interest can easily make the problem
worse, not better.
A better solution lies in first recognizing the source of the problem, which
is not just the loss of interest, or even the failure to learn endurance
through
frustration, but beyond that a prevailing sense of purposelessness and an incapacity
to deal with the specter of death amid a surrounding
culture that is both death-
denying and necrophilic.
If this analysis is correct, then ministry with young people ought to begin
not simply with human
interest,
but with life in the Spirit.
a conclusion and theological starting point-to
That is both
say that life in the Spirit of Christ
is interesting and meaningful; passionate and powerful enough to change a culture
of death and violence.
Baptism and the Lord's Supper are potential
events of the Holy Spirit
through which people participate in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In this participation-in
the relationality of Holy Spirit and human spirit-Baptism
and the Lord's Supper are ways that God destroys death and the power of death
to rob life of meaning; and also restores the material world so that it becomes once
more an ever new and interesting communion
with God.
Dr Russell Haitch is assistant
professor of practical
theology
and
director of the Institute for Ministry with Youth and Young Adults
at Bethany Theological Seminary (USA)
NOTES
Erich Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston, 1973), p 243.
2 ibid P 242.
3 ibid, P 237.
4 ibid, P 245.
5 ibid, P 246.
6 ibid, P 247.
7 ibid, P 248.
8 ibid, P 249.
9 ibid, p.249-50. Fromm well recognizes that boredom is not a feature of all
violence, and even when it is a feature other psychological or neurophysical
factors may be involved.
10 Fromm believes people were naturally peaceful in the Neolithic era. Negative
qualities became more powerful with the process of civilization, but in the
Marxian scheme of things evil and violence must run their course until the
economic material base is built up to the degree that people can peacefully
pursue life-furthering passions.
11 Fromm, p 251.
12 ibid, P 245, P 256.
13 John Dewey, Experience and Education (New York: MacMillan, 1938), p 83.
14 Dewey, p 51.
15 These thoughts are prompted by the writings of Alexander Schmemann,
discussed in the following section.
16 John Howard Yoder, Body Politics (Scottsdale: Herald Press, 1992), 30; d., Gal.
3:27-28.
17 Yoder, p. 20.
18 ibid, p. 33.
19 Alexander Schmemann, Of Water and the Spirit (Crestwood: St. Vladimir's
Seminary Press, 1974), p 55.
20 Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy
(Crestwood: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1973), p 100.
21 Schmemann, For the Life of the World, p 100.
22 Schmemann, Of Water and the Spirit, 64.
23 ibid,p 48.
1
166.1 - Journal
of Youth and TlieoIogy_(~!olume4; Number 1; AQ=ri=-1:=.;20""O""S
•••) _
•...••.•
_
Developing Contextual Models of Youth Ministry,
Part 1
Christine Gapes
Abstract
In this article, I outline
of youth
ministry
implemented
an argument
that the. many models
on offer are. helpful
guides
well in a local situation because ~f
butT rarely
~u~berof
.•..
factors that interfere with their translocation.T NfodelSOfy~U~h
ministry multiply like rabbits out of a hat!
YOuth!w9rkers.can
become confused and overwhelmed by the variety. In this article,
I do not propose a new model, but offer. am~thod
(agarn~D!~o .•..
enable youth work students and those in youthmin~st~~ t() r~fl~ct
critically on and to analyze the models theyuseso.that
.more!
effective application may occur. An approach that
suited to the complex reality in which we minister.
are based on experiences of playing the
at
conference in London Gan 200S). These illtlstrate
promise of the game for analysing models of youth ministry.
"In connected education, the learner is already a 'knower' and ends up building
upon and reconstructing what is there." Carol Hess 1
As the Synod Youth Consultant
for the New South Wales Synod
of the Uniting Church in Australia, I travelled on whirlwind trips to rural and
urban churches meeting with folk who were keen to improve their youth ministry
for the sake of the reign of God. In my bag of tricks I took the latest models for
youth ministry or the newest diagnostic tools to help them analyze, evaluate and
reconfigure their youth ministry programs.
revolutionize
their youth
ministry
I left them with new ideas that would
and trekked on to the next group who
so desperately needed my hottest quick fix.
Given the size of the state (larger
than Ohio or Scotland) and my workload, I rarely had time to re-visit any group
to determine how the new ideas were panning out.
_urntn~~ffifmrpeO!ogy(Volume
4;Number1;April200S)- [f6'iJ
As I look back on those
times I am compelled
to make confession.
I wonder now how many of those churches were able to put into practice the new
ideas I had mined from the conferences
discovered.
I attended
or the overseas programs I had
I have a sneaky suspicion that I left them feeling guiltier about their
youth ministry and primed for an even greater fall when they failed to implement
my new programs.
Discouragement
from youth ministry.
and failure must have weaned many away
I have no evidential basis for these suspicions but if I had my
time over again I would do it differently.
In little country towns where two, or even
one, are investing their energy and time in youth ministry, I would now help them
name and value what they are already doing well, rather than tell them what they
need to do for maximum
success. I would help them listen to the Spirit that guides
them in their passion for youth and children.
College
I have found
about youth ministry.
a better
In teaching at United Theological
way to encourage
It involves playing a game.2
I will survey briefly the supermarket
workers may choose.
those
who are passionate
Before describing this game
of youth ministry models from which youth
What is a model?
One dictionary
or comparison;
defines a model as "a standard
a representation,
or serve as a copy of something;
in more durable material. ,,3
generally in miniature,
or example for imitation
to show the construction
an image in clay, wax, or the like to be reproduced
A model (of a building)
helps others to visualize
quickly what the building will look like and to assess its beauty or utilitarian
A model may reduce to a reasonable
by the observer.
value.
size a building that cannot be fully viewed
Ward, Adams and Levermore
defined
a youth
work model
as a simple analysis of'a particular approach to youth work.4 A model will always
be a bit unreal because it is a simplification
and at the same time a generalization.
In order to make a model of youth work, the elements have to be simplified so they
can fit. Model makers rarely explain those elements that they have left out because
they do not understand
their importance
of youth work are presented
diverse settings.
or they take them for granted.
for guidance,
imitation,
and translocation
Models
across
Models of Youth Ministry over time
Over the past 50 years many models have been developed to explain
existing forms of youth ministry or to propose solutions to problems and decline.
In the 1950s, models simply described what was already happening
ministry.
in youth
They were global designs for or descriptions of work that seemed to
happen effortlessly. Youth work was in its glory yearsS and the church found it easy
to entertain, involve and disciple the many young people who flocked to what was
usually the only gig in town.
and the United
States.6
the "big church's"
The Four Square Program was popular in Australia
Hierarchically structured youth ministry models emulated
governance.
In Australia,
the Presbyterian
Fellowship
of Australia (PFA) and the Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) organised growing
numbers of youth into the Four Square Programme (worship, study, fellowship,
service). These models fall into the category (or family to use Joyce and Weil's
terminology)
of Group models, which arose in reference to the large numbers
of young people who were involved in the church from the golden years of youth
ministry in the 1950s.7
As the radical 60s and the turbulent 70s challenged the church's monopoly
on youth work, many churches found it harder to find the right model of youth
ministry that worked in their area. Gone were the regular Sunday night programs.
New models were proposed to remedy the illness of depleting youth groups.
Programmatic models continued into the 1970s but small groups, team ministry,
and conciliar models became the flavour. Maria Harris used more metaphorical
categories
to describe
the essential
elements
of youth
ministry
with
two
pivotal categories (Priestly and Prophetic) divided into five activities: Teaching
(didache);
Prayer
(leiturgia);
Communion
(koinonia);
Advocacy
(kerygma);
and Troublemaking (diakonia).8
From the 1980s to the 1990s falling numbers and changing worldviews
forced another rethink of the older programmatic
emphasis on relational models.
This philosophy
models and lead to a greater
of incarnational,
or relational
ministry, sought "to communicate Jesus' love simply by building relationships with
young people through
whom they can experience the love of God".9
suggested that youth workers "enter a metaphoric
in space and time certain kerygmatic claims."IO
'-- __
Journaf of Youti1'ai'ldTh~Q!ogy
Myers
framework which plays out
For him four models depicted
(Volume 4; Number 1; April 200S) -
I 691
this metaphorical
world: the "Lone Ranger," the "team," the "congregational,"
and the "peer minister" models of youth ministry.
The 90s saw the demise of the idea of any grand narrative that would bind
together disparate threads.
a deconstruction
Local was celebrated but little help was offered except
of the norm. The growing post-modern
era produced a variety
of local models. Mike Yaconelli suggested three commonly observed approaches to
youth ministry; Entertainment,
Charismatic
Youth Leader, Information-centred
and then gave a fourth alternative of ContemplativeY
Mark Senter invited writers
to consider 4 different approaches to youth ministry: Inclusive Congregational,
Preparatory, Missional, and Strategic.12
through
He presented
two questions
the four approaches. What is the relationship
missiology? Should youth ministry
to weave
between fellowship and
focus on engaging adolescents
in present
ministries of the church, or prepare them for future congregational involvement?
A variety of models such as the Comprehensive
14
Based
Approach,13 and Family
were proposed as radical new models that might address decline and
remedy the woes of youth ministry. The importance of parents and family systems
was added to the youth ministry mix. IS The church was rediscovered as a vital
piece of the youth ministry puzzle and there was a move away from garage (or
basement)
style youth
ministry
(where youth
are separated from the church
because of their noise and vitality) to an inclusive form of youth ministry.
and Kinser talk about a shift from simply relational or incarnational
where the focus is on the relationship
Wright
youth work
between adult youth worker and young
person towards an ecclesiological youth work.16 Some of these shifts arise out of
the increasing professionalism
and aging population
of youth workers who now
have families and have less time to be out on the streets making contact with
individuals in such time intensive methods.
These theologically literate youth
workers are more aware of the traditions of the church that have been ministry's
bedrock for generations.
The list goes on with many more popular youth ministry approaches:
Mentoring;
model;
Discipleship; High School Subpopulation
Meta model;
the
Urban
model, Campus Ministry
or Safe Place models;
Young Life model;
the Purpose-Driven model; the Logos model; and the Child in Our Hands model.1?
/70
I - Journal
of Youth and Iheo1ggyJyo&me,:l;
Nl~mberl;~12!i1200S)__
---.I
Still the search for the perfect model continued!
Duncan McLeod talked about
the need to re-invent old models such as adventure camping, school teams and
one-to-one mentoring
in order to meet the drain from youth ministry and the
challenge of the 2151 century. He called for "fresh and courageous models of youth
ministry developed for the local context"
.18
So, how does a youth worker choose from this cornucopia?
Choosing (Guilt induced emulation)
"Mental models are the images, assumptions, and stories which we carry
in our minds of ourselves, other people, institutions, and every aspect of the
world. Like a pane of glass framing and subtly distorting our vision, mental
models determine what we see./I Peter Senge19
When youth workers hear about the latest model we may feel guilty.
Why aren't we using that model? If we have focused on relational youth ministry
and then discover that the latest model is ecclesiological, do our hearts sink as we
consider our failings and the massive work needed to overhaul
our current
programs to include this latest model? Dave Wright and Dixon Kinser confessed
to the guilt that warped their ministry as they tried to copy the incarnational
2o
model that had been so successful for them as young people.
As we try to emulate
the models set by others we often fail to realize that there are subtle reasons why
that model worked for that person in that place and time. The reasons for
successful implementation
may even be unknown to the originator of the model.
In part, this is because when new theories and practices are superimposed
over old theories and practices with little restructuring,
in a confusion of theory and
practice.21
they will likely result
New programs don't work effectively
because the old operating system is still installed.
Few people have the courage or
the time to start from scratchi removing every program and beginning
Unlike the computer
again.
world where the latest software can be installed fresh,
in youth ministry the software are found in the leaders and young people. For every
new model we try to install we use the old people (if your church is like mine there
are a limited number of people who will volunteer for youth ministry.)
In fact
some see a change in models as a chance to jump ship and enjoy life a little easier.
i~ TQurn~(On:You.th
a.nd
]~QIQm(vqr~me4;
Number 1; April2005) -
I
7.1\
A new model can mean a sense of redundancy
models as a criticism of their methods
models are attributed
enough youth.
as leaders interpret the change in
and leadership.
The failure of the old
to their failure to care enough, give enough time or save
Providing new programs for comparison or implementation
deflate practitioners
so much that they cannot continue.
may
It may be counter
productive to present new models for imitation and copy.n
Each of the models mentioned
above has great value and for its location
and time worked well. However, the tools are missing that enable youth workers
to analyze models and ascertain their suitability for their very different locations.
How do youth workers build models which reflect their localities?
How do they
value and affirm the parts of their ministry that work well? How do we offer them
a new way of looking at what they are doing so they can reflect critically on it and
change where necessary?
The many different models that are offered are to be
valued and I don't intend to criticize those who have worked hard to suggest
alternative ways of viewing youth ministry nor for their reflection on their practice.
What I offer is a way in which leaders might reflect on their own practice and learn
how to evaluate new models to determine their "fit" for their own location.
In this paper I do not propose a new model nor suggest major answers
to the problems that face youth ministry as it tries to find space in this complex
world. Instead I offer a method I have used in my classes that allows youth leaders,
youth workers and ministers to reflect upon the ways in which they use models or
develop their own. Instead of out-sourcing their critical self-reflection through the
use of consultants and the reproduction
what they are doing
of models, I help them consider carefully
(well and badly) and how they might
adapt
models
to augment what is already happening in their local setting.
Tinkering with Models
In post-modern variety how are practitioners to be helped to analyze and
develop their own models?
game for communication
A demonstration
I have found helpful an adaptation
of a simulation
analysis, Tinkertoy.23 The basic premise is as follows.
model, or prototype, is produced using Tinkertoy or Lego blocks
or any "junk" material like balloons, straws, toilet paper rolls. The demonstration
model is hidden behind a screen so only certain players and the Game Facilitator
1i72tII - Journal of Youth and[Th~9Iogy:(y(")!1I~~_4;Nu~~~~r1;l~2ril~2005)11
can see it. Teams of 6 are divided into 3 pairs: 2 observers, 2 runners and
2 builders.24 The observers are the only ones who may see the prototype so they
can describe it to the runners.
The runners pass information
the builders but may not see either the demonstration
from the observers to
model or the final product,
nor are they to see any material that the builders can use. The builders rely on the
runners for information
about how they are to build the final product. The entire
process takes about an hour and a half with the game played for 10 to 20 minutes,
followed by small group discussion, plenary and debriefing.
A three stage process
of reflection follows the game:
1. Reflection on what happened
in the game
2. Relating the game to the analysis and implementation
of models
of youth ministry
3. Debriefing the roles played in the game
Reflection 1 - The "Game,,25
At the London conference the game was pretty chaotic.
first night of the conference
Given this was the
and many people had travelled long distances
and
were tired, the room was full of energy. The game had to be adapted somewhat
there were more people than expected.
faced with a quandary:
as
Two groups received no material and were
can we be part of the game if we have no material?
After
the game was over, groups were keen to see the original and to determine how close
their models were to the prototype.
They then discussed the process and shared
surprises, discoveries and learning from the game. As in all simulation
important
during
to allow sufficient time for processing
the game. Yet, it was amazing
connection
between
this "simulation"
games it is
feelings and thoughts
that arise
how easy it was for players to make
and the reality of their youth
settings - despite the limited time and the poor educational
ministry
process I modelled
in cutting short the small group discussion and the plenary!26
The London game aroused considerable
of the conference
conversation
as players shared their discoveries,
applications
ideas. It is in playing the game that we discover the assumptions
models - there is revelation
name that disturbance
conference
illustrate
over the remainder
and transfer
and biases in our
of what disturbs us about our work and an. ability to
and move to changeY
this succinctly.
Two comments
from the London
One about the value of the abstract nature
journal gfyoutK(il!c[Theology
(Volume 4; Number 1; April 2005) -
rn
of the prototype and one on the problem of having incorrect materials indicate
some of the value of this game.
Abstraction
The abstraction of a model made out of recycled material helped some
participants
to explore issues that
prototype was recognizable.
hidden assumptions
might
have been too confronting
if the
Sometimes the "truth told slant" invites us to see
and regular patterns in new ways.
If the prototype
is too
familiar we may bring many of our unexamined assumptions to it without realizing
how they interfere with a truer understanding
of that model.
When the model
seems to have no recognizable form and we have to ascribe meaning to it, there is
space for mistakes
assumptions.
and an examination
of that
ascribed meaning
and our
One participant commented on how playing the game helped him
to articulate the unexpressed and unexamined
difficulties he'd experienced in his
organization.
The abstract model was helpful in providing distance from the
organizational
model that was replete with supposition and directives about the
"normal" way of seeing and doing youth ministry.
The abstraction removed him
from the personal issues that may have made him more defensive and resistant to
surprise and transformative
discoveries.
A prototype
representing
a baseball
diamond or relational model of youth ministry might have raised personal and
professional issues that obstructed his analytical ability.
What materials?
"I was surprised
did not work outside the box. We didn't have
(egg carton) but I didn't think to use other things.
the materials
Why didn't I?"
When translating
inspired adaptations.
translation.
models into a local context we make intuitive
and
Often we do not even realize we are doing this contextual
Two groups at the London conference received no materials and
wondered how they could play the game.
I first suggested and then excluded
(because of time and space constraints) that they steal their material from other
groups.
Such devious actions would have turned the game into a simulation
dealing
with
174 1 - Journal
poverty,
abundance
and
of Youth and Theology
justice
but would
not
have
(Vollli~-1;~umbe!.1;..1QriI20051 __
served
--,
my purpose.
These groups used their imaginations
and what they could find
in their conference or home packs to create good replicas of the prototype.
Reflection
2 - "Models of Youth Ministry"
Application
of this game to understanding
models of youth ministry
grows with each time it is played. For now I will deal only with three key questions
raised primarily by the playing at the London conference:
1. Who designs the model?
2. Who shares in the model making?
3. What materials do you have?
Who designs the model?
A critical
demonstration
first question
model?"
what were the "maker's"
inspiration,
to discuss
is "who
is the
maker
of the
In exploring this question the groups might consider:
aims and purposes
for the model; what was their
what did they hope to achieve; and did they describe what the
"outcome" might look like? Are their aims and purposes clearly stated? The Mockup game makes us more aware that someone somewhere designed and made the
model of youth ministry that now presents itself for the salvific trophy. They
developed their youth ministry model using materials of their cultural context,
their aims and hopes, their personal, national,
experiences.
geographic and denominational
In copying models, we need to be aware of the model maker as much
as the model so that we can more critically discern how well their model might
fit our particular setting.
In the London game I created the model and the conference was surprised
to hear the meaning I had attached to it. It was a representational
model of my
sabbatical where pathways and labyrinths had led me to a deeper understanding
of
the mystery of the Three in One. It was a depiction of the perceived links between
ancient
people and New Age seekers to the loving force of the Holy Spirit.
Naturally no one picked up on this meaning but had attributed meaning or shape
to the model arising out of their assumptions and contributing
experiences.
Some
form is always imposed on the game model because players try to make sense
of what they see so they can share the information
~ __
Journal o(Youth @cCTl"!€oI9gy
in a meaningful way.28
(Vol;ime 4; Number 1; April 200S) -
m
How closely do you identify with the model maker in terms of theology,
gender, educational background, and personality?
who is an effervescent,
energetic
A model created by a designer
group leader, may not work well for an
introverted, quiet one-on-one leader. For many years I struggled with the model of
a perfect youth worker and joked that I couldn't
"I didn't have a beard, nor did I play the guitar."
be a youth worker because
There were no female models
of youth workers for me to copy and so I had to develop my own style though
often it was an uncritical conglomeration
well together.
What
are the biblical,
of a variety of models that did not mesh
theological
and anthropological
assumptions
of the model creator/s and stakeholders and how well do these reflect or link with
the assumptions of the builders in their local setting? Many times a model will fail
because the theological
underpinnings
are not shared by the host and the
developing communities.
This does not mean that one of the theologies is "bad"
but it does mean there will be glitches when the model is overlaid on a different
set of theological understandings.
Builders who are copying models from other
settings must analyze it for its theological understanding
of the participants,
the
nature and mission of the church, and view of the world. Many times in youth
ministry models a lop-sided God is presented; one which is not triune. As I analyze
models
I consider
are mentioned.
how often the Creator
I am also interested
God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit
in what biblical passages are referred
to. Sometimes it seems the synoptic gospels have been lost when Old Testament
and Pauline letters appear to be the only source of inspiration.
Who shares in the model making?
. Who shares in the design, translation and building of the model? In other
words,' who are the designers, observers, runners and builders in your system
or local church? How do we implement new models? When we find a model that
seems to suit our back home situation, we need to consider carefully the strategy
by which we will translate it to those who participate in the building of youth
ministry.
I still remember my first training as a young youth leader. I attended a
small groups training weekend where I became enthused about this new way of
doing youth ministry. However, when I returned to my youth group I encountered
great resistance to the ideas I was proposing.
176
I - Journal
I now realize that my promotion
of Youth and Theology~(VoluII1~_4;"~~~~r1;~Rril200S)
_
,-
of this new model was heard by the others in our group as a criticism of our current
practice.
I was the only one to attend the conference from my youth group and
could not translate the experience of the weekend (fellowship, vision, excitement)
in my limited words. Even my enthusiasm got in the way. I had to retreat from
my wish to convert the whole format of our youth group to this new model and
try small but different ways to connect what I had learned to what we were already
doing. A leader's enthusiasm for new ideas can energize or demoralize those who
work with them depending on the circumstances and history of the back home
situation.
It is helpful if a number of people have been part of the new way of
working.
I remember another conference on evangelism when a number of the
youth group attended. The enthusiasm was catching and the group returned home
fired up to do mission trips to rural Australia.
These ideas were implemented
and a number of successful trips were conducted.
What materials do you have?
What counts as the "material" (people, tradition, biblical and theological
resources, and space) used for translating and building models in a local setting?
If a model includes leaders who have been trained by professional youth workers
and your local setting has one person who is willing to help, how well will this
model work? After the London game one delegate spoke about her work in a poor
country where she tries to replicate American models rich with resources of people,
knowledge, tradition, money and buildings.
She saw more clearly why there was
resistance to and failure of these models in her new location,
despite her
enthusiastic teaching. Having seen the bewildered look on the builders' faces when
she told them to use "crackers" to build the model she now understood the blank
faces of her trainees when she used words that represented materials of experience
and resources that this country did not have. She was returning to consider how
she might develop an indigenous
understandings
model that took account of the traditional
of leadership and power in that country. As she explained to me,
"I work with people who have no materials. They have not been involved
in youth ministry, and have no tools or traditions. I use words to describe
models they have no ideas about.,,29
When copying a model how are all the materials from your local area
used? Does the model you are copying allow for use of these materials or is there
___
Journa(Of Youtlj~anQ.Th~ology (Volume
4; Number 1; April 200S) -
m
an assumption that every location is the same? In some games I give the builders
more material
instructions
than
is needed.
Rarely do they include this material
do not mention this possibility.
if the
However, in a few instances players
have added these extra elements if they seem appropriate.
In one game a youth
worker added a Lego tree because the copy was developing as a house and the tree
seemed to fit.
What do we do with the materials, gifts and resources that are
"left over"? How do we integrate them into a model that is not including them?
Conclusion
Models
are ephemeral
and cannot
represent
reality whatever
that
might be. Certainly the quest for one ultimate youth ministry model is illusive
and in searching vainly for our "Camelot" we end with a cookie cutter copy.
In a post-industrial,
post-modern,
ever more complex world, it is much harder to
simply emulate a given model that has worked well elsewhere. Models are usually
provided
and
adapted
with
little
awareness
of how
and assumptions can interfere with effective transplanting.
adapt
intuitively
but
without
critical
reflection
different
contexts
People are creative and
it is not
always possible
to understand why a model does or does not work in the new situation.
In playing this game I hope to help people be more aware of the factors
that go into the making of a model and its replication and more aware of their local
context so they can determine a better "fit". It is a further hope that they may see
more value in their local youth
ministry
and have the courage to develop
indigenous models for their context. In Australia, transplanted
trees grow better
when they are grafted to native tree stock. This method may help some youth
workers to describe and to analyse the functioning models in their location. When
considering
new models they know better what grafting is possible and what
will wither too quickly.
Dr Christine Gapes was until recently Lecturer in Youth Ministry at
United Theological College, NSW, &: Charles Sturt University, Australia.
She is now a Youth Researcher and Consultant for the Uniting Church
in Australia
NOTES
Carol Lakey Hess. (1997) Caretakers of Our Common House: Women's
Development in Communities of Faith. Abingdon.
2 The Mock-up game was played at the IASYMConference, London, January 4-8,
2005.
3 Macquarie Dictionary (1982) The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd
4 Pete Ward, Sam Adams & Jude Levermore, J. (1994). Youth Work and How To Do
It, Lynx Communications.
5 Malcolm D. Prentis (1977). Fellowship: A History of the Presbyterian Fellowship in
New South Wales 1874-1977. Sydney: Presbyterian Fellowship of Australia in
N.S.W.
6 Sara Little (1997). "Youth Ministry: Historical Reflections near the End of the
Twentieth Century," 1997 Princeton Lectures on Youth Church and Culture,
(www.ptsem. edu/iym/lectures9 7).
7 Bruce R. Joyce, Marsha Weil, & Emily Calhoun (1999). Models of Teaching.
Allyn & Bacon.
8 Maria Harris. (1981) Portrait of Youth Ministry, Paulist Press.
9 Dave Wright and Dixon Kinser (2004). "Post-Relational Youth Ministry:
Beyond Youth Work as We Know It," Youthworker, Sept/ Oct,
http://www.youthspecialities.com/articles/topics
Downloaded Nov 23, 2004,
page 1.
10 William Myers (2004). "Models of Youth Ministry", Theology Today, April.
http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/aprI987/v44-1-churchintheworld.htm
Downloaded November 23,2004, page 2.
11 Mike Yaconelli. (1999) "Youth ministry: A contemplative
approach", Christian
Century, April 21-28, 450-454.
12 Mark H. Senter III, ed., (2001). Four Views of Youth Ministry and the Church:
Inclusive Congregational, Preparatory, Missional, Strategic. Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan.
13 John Roberto (1994). Planning a Youth Ministry, New Rochelle, Don Bosco
Multimedia and Craig Mitchell (ed.) (1997). Comprehensive Approach: Ministry
and Mission with children, young people and families. JBCE.
14 For example, Mark DeVries (2004). Family Based Youth Ministry. Inter Varsity
Press and Merton P. Strommen & Richard A. Hardel (2000). Passing on the Faith:
A Radical New Model for Youth and Family Ministry. Saint Mary's Press.
15 Mark DeVries (2001). "Elephants, Testosterone, and Family-Based Youth
Ministry", Youthworker, May/June.
/ /www.youthspecialties.com/articles/topics/
family /elephants. ph p Downloaded
Nov 17, 2004.
16 Dave Wright and Dixon Kinser (2004). "Post-Relational Youth Ministry:
Beyond Youth Work as We Know It," Youthworker, Sept/ Oct,
http://www.youthspecialities.com/articles/topics.
Downloaded Nov 23, 2004,
page 4.
17 For a greater discussion of some of these models, see Tim Neufeld (2002).
"Postmodern Models of Youth Ministry," Direction Fall Vol 31 No 2 194-205.
18 Duncan McLeod (1999). Youth Ministry History / / The Next 100 Years, / /
Wednesday 1st December, http://www.crumbs.org.nzl?print=yes&aid=41
Downloaded Nov 17, 2004, page 1.
1
Journal of YOiitp andj~heQlog)j(Volume
4;
Number
1; April 2005) -
m
19 Peter M. Senge (1993). The Fifth Discipline: Art and Practice of the Learning
Organization. Random House Business Books.
20 Dave Wright and Dixon Kinser "Post-Relational Youth Ministry: Beyond
Youth Work as We Know It," Youthworker, Sept/ Oct,
http://www.youthspecialities.com/articles/topics
Downloaded Nov 23, 2004.
Page 1.
21 As discussed by Chris Argyris & Donald Schon (1992). Theory in Practice:
Increasing Professional Effectiveness. Jossey Bass Wiley.
22 This is discussed further by John Stokes, "Institutional
chaos and personal
stress," in The unconscious at work: individual and organizational stress in the human
services. Hove and New York: Brunner-Routledge, 1994. (reprinted 2003) p.127.
23 Years ago I came across a description of this communication
game by Pat
Baker & Mary Ruth Marshall (1973, 1982) Using Simulation Games. Joint Board
of Christian Education, p. 91. The game is also described in Respond, Volume I,
by Keith 1. Ignatious Oudson Press, 1973). I have used it for analyzing the
communication processes occurring in a local youth ministry setting, but the
game adapts well for the purposes of model making and copying. An instruction
sheet can be found on the open area of the IASYMweb site, though I have
included a brief synopsis in this article.
24 Do not go above 8 in a group. The additional pair may be reflectors who
report their observations of the game in the small group discussion.
25 In reflecting on the game four main questions are asked: What happened?
What did you notice? How did you feel? What were you thinking?
This stage needs about 10 to 15 minutes for participants to explore different
aspects of the game, and for each team member to share their experience and
participation.
26 These are important elements in any simulation game and should not be
reduced particularly if you use this game at a local level. Simulation games are
not only light-hearted fun but may raise very significant issues that leaders need
to hear and deal with carefully.
27 A future article will look at these categories in greater detail.
28 In a different location I have conducted the game, the players .assumed that I
was the model maker and never considered that children may have designed it.
How does our view of the model change when we think children or youth might
have developed it instead of having a model imposed on them? Part of our
answer will depend on our view of children and youth, our understanding of
leadership and the authority of the church.
29 Such comments indicate the importance in allowing time for debriefing the
game. Though it is a light-hearted game, some people may become intensely
engaged with their personal and professional issues. Any simulation that works
well will naturally tap into emotions, beliefs and thoughts, which need time for
expression and resolution. In one of my simulation game encounters I was
forced out of play by the rules of the game, which said that my particular role
muld only operate if others allowed it. I avoided the player who forced me out
of the game (as she played her given role) till we both expressed our discomfort
with the roles we were required to play. Only after this discussion could we
interact with ease. I had judged her according to her "game" role and found she
~gO
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of Youth and Theology (VoIt.;~e-4;J~!!!!!.t~.!1;.bPriL2005)__
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was nothing like it. There must be time for reflection and expression of any
concerns or discoveries.
Other references used in preparation for this article, but not specifically cited are:
Carol Duerksen (2001). Building Together: Developing Your Blueprint for
Congregational Youth Ministry, Scottdale, PA: Faith & Life.
Roland Martinson (1988). Effective Youth Ministry: A Congregational Approach,
Minneapolis, Augsburg.
Kara Powell and Chap Clark (2004). "Beyond the Mechanics: The Power of the
Right Question", Youthworker July/Aug,
http://www.youthspecialities.com/articles/topics/power
/mechanics. ph p?
Downloaded Nov 17,2004.
Lavon Welty (1988). Blueprint for Congregational Youth Ministry. Newton, KS:
Faith & Life.
Practitioner Spotlight on ...Jacob Isaac,
Bangalore, India
Editor's Introduction
Kerygma was founded by Jacob & Sheela Isaac in August 1997. Its aim
is to "permeate the urban society with the Gospel of Christ, using media and
creative arts, and to provide an environment
for spiritual growth and personal
vision." In this practitioner spotlight, Jacob introduces us to some of the complex
and contrasting
fortunes of young people in Bangalore, the urban society they
are seeking to permeate, and outlines some of their strategies to achieve this.
Jacob & his wife Sheela are both graduates from the Union Biblical
Seminary. Prior to Kerygma, they both worked with the Union of Evangelical
Students of India (UESI)overseeing work in the Southern Region of Karnataka from
1991 to 1997. Jacob was particularly involved in leading the Mass Media and the
Magazine Departments of UES!. Now, besides being the Director of Kerygma, Jacob
is also a certified professional behavioural analyst and an EQ coach and is currently
pursuing a Doctorate program in transformational
Graduate
School, Seattle USA (in partnership
leadership at the North West
with South Asia Institute
for
Advanced Christian Studies, Bangalore). The development of Kerygma is also the
story of a personal journey of faith, a story marked by passion and compassion.
Jacob was working with the UESI Karnataka, when Sheela and he were expecting
their second child. However, their baby boy John passed away 36 hours after his
birth due to a heart condition. This time of bereavement though was interrupted
when another "John", a young musician came visiting the Isaacs. Through this
simple encounter, Jacob & Sheela describe how God used their loss and this
encounter
to stir compassion
for young people in need - "John" became the
metaphor for several needy young people, for whom God's heart longed for. Since
this time, they say that many "Johns" have come, stayed and left - refreshed,
nourished & impacted by God's love. In this way, for them, Kerygma is the story
of how a little baby changed the lives of many!
India's Youth: International,
image focussed, in need?
India is "the youngest nation in the world", declared the former Prime
Minister, A.B.Vajpayee as India's youth population (15-25 yrs) touched an all time
182:
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high of 340 million. The challenge for youth ministry though is not just a problem
of scale, but of engagement in a changing context. The world's largest democracy
is often considered fundamental in her religious leanings and caste orientation and
was, until recently, called an underdeveloped
third world country. However, the
scenario today is different. India has cash reserves that have crossed the $100
billion mark. It has become the investment destination of the rich and developed
nations like the USA. She is bursting with multi national business houses setting
up shop on its shores alongside the ever bulging Business Process Outsourcing and
Information Technology Enable Services industries. Thanks in part to these; it now
claims a middle-income
group larger than the population
country where Gobi Manchurian
of the US. India is a
and Paneer Masala Pizza go hand in hand with
the Coke and Pepsi generation. Bangalore is a city where hand pulled rickshaw and
bullock carts flow along streets aside the Toyota Camry and the Honda City.
Has this changed our world? Does development spell signs of woes to come? Do the
540 million youth that we boast of, have an understanding
of life? Is it enough
to do youth ministry like we did it 10 or 20 years ago? Is youth ministry only about
evangelistic rally's that was so popular in the early 60's and 70's? Is it about tracts
being thrust into the hands of passer-by's? Is there something missing? I think so,
and Kerygma is our response to this.
India's
youth
are
changing.
The
present
generation
is
called
the "Liberalization Children", since they belong to the India of the post economic
liberalization period. Against this backdrop it is easy to understand
and goals of these youth.
the mindset
Pragmatism is the new mantra for these worldly wise
value-seekers; free from ideology constraints they exemplify "Hakuna Matata" -live
for today. Not surprisingly for a generation
inspired by a life destination
a consumer goods paradise, self-improvement
is the main agenda, with material
of
goodies the end game! The routes to Nirvana (salvation) are not in the caste system
of their parent generation's but material success - preferably as a doctor or engineer
rather than the same degree of material success as a garage owner or a film maker.
My research leads me to see that underneath
this veneer of material
success, and the pressure to achieve it, there is an incredible about of emotional
pain and discontinuity
among the youth of today.
"I feel very tense before my exams. I beat my brother and hit my mother
if she intervenes. I feel angry with my father for beating me if I do badly
in school.
I feel so worthless."
17 year old Ashok Banarj ee from
Kolkatta.(ref)
"My mom
once yelled at me and said that
a misbehaved
if I continued
to be
child, I could not be her son. I broke the TV set,
the windows in the room and set fire to my books. I have never spoken
to her after that." 12 year old, K]ayaram from Chennai.
These are uncommon
cases, but this research is born out in the reality
of ministry. The young people we connect with express sentiments like those above
and anger is apparent to be bubbling under the surface of many.
Though many parents claim they are "good friends" with their children,
the difference between rhetoric and reality is gaping. Super expectations
from
ambitious parents, peer pressure, low tolerance for peer rejection, working and
often warring parents as soulless icons of nuclear families with more money but
less time for children, lonely sons and daughters left in a day care or with domestic
helps and lack of space to play and vent emotions is a complicated bundle of
factors that contribute to rage. It doesn't help that most adult-child relationship is
based on expectation, instruction and control instead of recognition of a child as a
person. The fury of children is not restricted to homes, school campuses too are
becoming grounds of volatile communication.
humiliating,
the entire
classroom
turns
"If one youngster finds something
hostile
towards
the teacher,"
says
educationist Shyama Chona, Principal of Delhi Public School, R.K.Puram, Delhi.
These emotional
health concerns are matched by significant issues in
physical health. Not quite children, not yet adults, adolescents dominate the India
cityscape. Never before have there been so many teenagers in India and with their
lavish consumerist lifestyles. Never have they had it so good. But statistics trickling
in from Doctors chambers tell a more sombre story. Hip is not healthy; from
obesity to diabetes to depression. One in every six adolescents in the metros is
overweight.
Two in five Delhi students
have high cholesterol
and diabetes is
common.
One in three teens has bad eyesight. One in five children has stress
related emotional disorders. Indian teenagers are susceptible to a range of diseases;
the implications are graver because a slew of studies show that many adult ailments
have their roots in adolescence. The problem is literally growing. The overweight
teenager is a very visible phenomenon
and adolescent obesity is like an epidemic.
Materialism is at the root of India's urban youth cultures, but in India
there are additional complexities. Take, Mehta for example. His seven-month-old
Nokia 3650 - his fifth handset in four years - already feels outdated. He switches
between cars to use for work and weekend getaways. He is waiting for the current
loan to be cleared so that he could go for a luxury sedan .. .Is Mehta a spoilt brat
living off his father's money? A senior corporate executive living well on his hard
earned salary? Or a business man who has just struck a big deal? No! He is none
of the above. He is a 23 year-old assistant manager at the local coffee chain,
he is an MBA, single, and living with his parents. In Indian culture this means that
his entire monthly
salary is his pocket money. Young people just out of college,
or some still in college, can earn between
10,000 to 25,000 "rupees a month
(roughly $250 to $650 USD). Youth like Mehta represent a class of consumers that
a management
of contemporary
consultancy
firm calls the "Impatient Aspirers". This classification
Indian consumers demonstrates
The first is the phenomena
younger
in their
consumption
two new trends.
of downageing. People of all ages are getting
pattern,
as Vikram Raizada, vice chairman,
marketing MTV Networks describes:
"Youth is today a celebrated phenomenon with Indians of all ages trying to live
like them."
The second trend is a fall in the age at which people buy certain products
or services. For instance the average age at which urban Indians buy a home has
fallen from the mid-40's to mid-30's in the past ten years. This is a natural outcome
of more money in the pockets of the young, the ease of purchase on credit and
profusion of choices. It also though represents "an increased attitude to indulge
today rather than defer for tomorrow", as technology
executive Arvind Singhal
puts it.
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16urnal of Youth and'TheQlogy
(VQlume 4i Number Ii April 2005) -
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India is getting younger but its children are getting older - faster. The rapid
invasion of technology
into the urban Indian household
in the 1990's may have
left grown up's at a loss, but it has made children feeI quite in control. "Children
are no longer pestering parents. They are getting invited to take part in purchase
decisions".
There already are four children-specific
Network, Nickelodeon
kids channel.
and Splash.
channels
in Pogo, Cartoon
Now, UTV and Sony are launching
Disney is planning
one more channel.
their own
It is estimated
that kids
influence 30 per cent of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) purchase decisions.
Advertisers are jumping into the fray to influence the children.
One of the most popular television shows that took India by storm was the
channel
V star selection
contest
held across five cities. It is the closest Indian
television got to putting up what is understood
the significance
participants.
as a reality show. More than that
of the show lies in the euphoria
In every city, the production
ecstatic girls - some even skipping
it has whipped
up among the
team was greeted by hundreds
their examinations
for the audition
of wildly
- each
anxious to get a break on television as a pop star. In a way the show reflects the
priorities that drive India's urban youth today - to be seen and known, show off as
role models for other youngsters
and above all, form part of the nation's nebulous
glamour brigade. It is as though everyone wants to turn in to a 'veejay' overnight.
V]'s are the role models for today's youth. Their body language, dressing
style, accents, all point to a total irreverence
to values Indian culture stood for.
They are proud to be wacky and have an often self-expressed desire to challenge the
status quo:
"Veejaysproject an individuality, personality and style; they reflect the spirit and
attitude of the times and lend their own physical edge to the channels mix."
Natasha Malhotra, MTV's Vice President for production
and marketing.
"As a channel that connects with the young we, are very conscious of the role we
play for our audience ... The audience is often in the formative years of their lives,
a phase when their own individuality is emerging. And many a times, they
emotionally connect and depend on us for a fresh perspective on life. "V] Sharma
Yet do these gods of the new age, and their technological priests, actually
provide such emotional connections and perspectives more than that drawn from
the devotion of the devout Hindu or Muslim or for that matter a traditional
Christian. My research suggests not. Data suggests that nearly all suicides in our
country are below the age group of 30. Is it not safe to conclude the obvious; that
young people's quest for happiness through the material gains of the world is not
satisfied. This story is but one example:
I was seven. We had just shifted from the cosmopolitan city of Mumbai to the
small replica of a town called Balasore in Orissa. Shifting to a new town and
starting all over was hard, especially because I did not like the place. To top it,
lessons in the new school never made sense to me. Life SUCKED big time.
So much so that once having been caught talking in class and given an
imposition to repeat a math sum for ten times, I thought I had enough oflife and
decided to kill myself with a large kitchen knife that night. I though that suicide
was the only way out.
Suicide is an issue that threatens to destroy the sanity of the Indian youth
populace.
Many cities are reeling under
the pressure of urbanization
and
the resultant effects of it. Underlying this is the quest for meaning to life that the
non-Christian
populace has failed to acknowledge. In a country where everyone
has a personal deity or a carved figure they call 'god' how can we penetrate with
the gospel, the power of God unto salvation.
Kerygma in the Indian Context
The heart of Kerygma ministries is a desire to engage in holistic mission.
This to me has been an answer to a long search in trying to understand the essence
of evangelism.
I have been disappointed
with both
the common
form of
evangelism that asks for hands to be 'put up to be saved' as well as with well
meaning
'social-work-Christians'
who didn't
seem too concerned
about the
spiritual depravation of man. Holistic mission is, for me, best defined by John Stott;
"authentic mission is a comprehensive activity that embraces evangelism and social
action, and refuses them to be divorced. "
When we as the church divorce these two aspects then Pluralism, new age,
the self-help philosophy of Pandit Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, youth therapy programs,
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laughter clubs and stress management
program usurp the role of lighting young
people's paths, as the church as a beacon of hope becomes ever more dim. Yet,
most ministries in India still cling onto traditional forms of outreach and ministry
do very to impact a nation fast becoming a centre of knowledge and business.
There is an urgent need for churches to address these issues and lead the way. There
is a need to revisit the Word of God and to make the gospel relevant to the youth
masses which comprises of 54% of the Indian populace. This is how we are
attempting to grapple with this challenge ...
Kerygma has a meeting point for youngsters called the Coffee House.
he Coffee House is hangout
for young people and is open through the week.
It boasts an ambience that makes any new comer feel at home: comfortable bean
bags to sink into, an aquarium to soothe the senses, a dart board to shoot at,
caroms and other games to play, a mini library, TV and CD's. Coffee House also
provides guitar lessons for budding
opportunity
& interested
musicians and f course the
to buy yourself a hot or cold coffee supplemented with an occasional
snack! The Coffee House is a safe and non-threatening
environment
for youth to
come together for more than coffee, yet we see it as fulfilling various purposes.
Firstly it enables us to build bridges of friendship to young people, secondly it gives
them access to programmes
to maximize their potential
and thirdly it creates
an opportunity to impact them with the Gospel of Christ.
Young people may not walk in to a church but many may walk into
a coffee house. Whilst much interaction is informal and spontaneous, we also seek
to develop small groups called Kerygma Coffee Talk. This opens avenues for
the youth to bond together in groups over a cup of coffee and talk about topics
that will otherwise not be discussed. These groups meet in student dormitories and
in homes of an interested parent or volunteer who have the heart to open their
homes to the youth in their neighbourhood.
The Coffee House has the ambience
of a recreation centre but it also houses counselling facilities that one can slip into
if there
is a need
'Thanks
4 Listening'
without
feeling
programme
the
stigma
of supportive
of seeing
counselling
a shrink.
Our
is also backed
up by a tele-counselling service. These are our ways of providing support for the
emotionally vulnerable and damaged young people we meet.
Connected to the Coffee House is a 'pre-evangelistic' news magazine called
Kerygma Coffee Beanz. As I travel to different cities in India and even to countries
outside India, I have noticed that people have a huge appetite for reading material.
So publishers print all kinds of material from news to sleaze purely with a business
motive. I believe that Christian publications need to gather talent and sink into
this market to publish newsmagazines of high quality, with good clean content
that appeal to the youth market. Kerygma's experiment with Coffee Beanz reminds
us that it is not impossible task to achieve. Good networking and coordination can
even provide the youth writing opportunities. The city is impacted and the youth
learn to shoulder responsibilities.
Kerygma doesn't just rely on young people coming to us. Through our
Footprints programme we are also active in going to young people. 'Where the
rubber meets the road' is our slogan for this area of work - getting out and involved
in young people's lives. Connecting the good news of the Christian faith to the
issues they experience is essentiali it is where the rubber hits the road. As I think
ahead to the future of youth ministry in India, there are several areas that I feel will
help this cause. These are:
• Orientate Indian youth ministry to the community as much as the church,
providing
• Life skills and Vocational training
• Supporting teachers and parents as 'emotional carers'
• Counselling services
• 'De-professional' youth ministry and encourage professionals
to be youth ministers
• Enable more people to be involved with ministering to India's 300
million youth
• Provide an incarnational
presence in India's changing contexts
The World Health Organization supports the provision of 'life skills' that
help young people cope with the various issues that they may encounter in life.
As a result, schools and colleges are open to this kind of training since it will
enhance their credibility and reputation in society. When a youth worker visits
these institutions
to conduct such programmes, there is opportunity
to befriend
students, build a strong rapport and influence them. Youth workers could also fulfil
___
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lournal:of1Youtli.(lJl(flheology~(volume
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further roles in the school environment, such as counsellors or vocational trainers.
In a world fast moving towards mechanization,
these changes particularly
the reaction of the youth towards
in the rural and semi-urban
sectors is often one
of frustration and despair. Can they get on this silicon highway? To help affect this
situation, I think it is important
for youth agencies and ministries to develop
programs that can impart vocational guidance and training. This will provide
the skills that these youth need and thus a way of earning their livelihood,
which can in turn reduce poverty, unemployment
elements
in the society. This commitment
and the rise of anti-social
will help link the church
with
the institutions in the locality thereby helping develop a network that will increase
the impact of the church.
However, with the current turmoil amongst students increasing by the day
in various institutions,
there is a dearth for good counsellors. Existing counsellor
services are viewed as 'medical professionals', which minimises the incidence and
frequency of student visits. Moreover, the student and counsellor ratio is very high
and it is quite impossible for institutions to help all the needy children effectively
through specialised counselling. One way to cope with this need is to train parents
to be emotional cushions for children. After all, biblically speaking, the onus for
primary care should perhaps fall on parents. When a child is going through anger
or frustration, the parent needs to be equipped to understand
the problem and
provide a listening ear to the child. The child is then able to minimize the
frustration levels and thereby avoid any kind of mishap or incidences that may
occur outside the home, causing concern to those around. Through equipping
youth workers to train parents to better handle their children's emotion, we invest
in the
emotional
an opportunity
health
of our young
and
also provide
youth
workers
to be involved with the parents directly. When we take a look
at the counselling centres outside schools, their location and image seldom lure
young people to even take a second look, let alone muster up the courage to visit.
If the church are able to set up counselling centres across the city, with the help
of a network across the city between youth ministries, we will be able to collectively
attract more youth who are in need than we would try to achieve in a lifetime.
These types of youth work though require a re-think on how we train
and support youth workers. The church has limited the scope of youth ministry
190;/ - Journal
of Youth and Theology (yolU~~.1;NllBi12~r
1;~2rilt200Sj
:;1
to 'professional youth workers', by this I mean those who are trained at Bible
Colleges and have some sort of youth ministry experience. While professionalism
is good, I see the need to widen the scope of youth ministry especially in countries
like India where the population of youth is large. Therefore, I propose that we take
a look at the role that can be played by those who already have responsibilities that
enable them to interact with the millions of youth - professors in various colleges,
journalists of leading English dailies, music teachers, IT trainers, sports coaches,
language or technical call centres trainer and hundreds of other roles in the service
industry. Today, these are the people with the largest reach into Indian youth
culture. They interact with youth on a daily basis and have more opportunities
to
impact this generation than all the youth workers put together. We need to impart
youth ministry skills to those in these professions and commission them to go into
the world and make disciples ...
While our youth ministry
should be planned
and properly executed,
and can have influence through creative projects such Coffee House, I look forward
to an Indian youth ministry that is full of surprises. I live in a country with millions
of youth. Programmes are good but are limited in their reach and impact. What we
need is for more and more believers, immaterial of their background or orientation
to be incamational leaders permeating the gospel of Jesus Christ in whatever ways
possible in their little world or sphere of influence. It is important that they are able
to live out their lives amongst the people and bring about changes in the society.
Youth ministry cannot be confined to a certain time or place, it is an ongoing
process, it is dynamic in nature, it happens when you least expect it. When you
look at the state of readiness of the armed forces in protecting
their country,
we need to see the parallel and expect the Lord out pour out the harvest when
we least expect it to happen.
For more information on Kerygma see www.kerygma.jasminecorp.net
References for statistics and quotations available on request
,--_~.lournarof
YoutlLan4"[heQ!ogy(Vol\.lme 4; Number
1; April 200S) -
I 911
BOOK REVIEWS
Hurt: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers
by Chap Clark. Baker Academic, 2004. 236 pages.
Chap Clark, a leading voice in youth ministry, decided to listen to the
voices of young people by entering their world.
Leaving his office at Fuller
Theological Seminary he became a substitute teacher at an achievement-oriented
California high school. This book grows out of that experience.
What Clark hears confirms his worst suspicions: U.S. society has changed
dramatkally
in the past thirty
especially mid-adolescents,
years, making
it much
to find their bearings.
harder
for youth,
Youth are hurt because
"society has systemically abandoned" them (38).
"Abandoned" is the book's mantra.
It refers to parents and other adults
who are not there for teenagers. Whether due to divorce, emotional immaturity or
other reasons, adults are gone-off
to work, off to play, out to lunch.
consistent with his thesis that "the defining issue" is abandonment,
To stay
Clark expands
the meaning of the word considerably, applying it also to adults who are involved
in teenagers' lives, but in overbearing or otherwise harmful ways (prototypically
evident in the Little League sports father who tells his son to win or walk home).
Since at least the 1960s there has been rife discussion about the world of
youth-about
how they are "doing" and how "things" are for them-and
conversation
is framed in such vague terms.
often the
Logically there are three options:
things have gotten worse, stayed the same, or gotten better; and in the literature
one can find capable proponents of all three positions. In taking the first position,
Clark offers fervent rejoinders to the Pollyanna and "Plus ~a change ... " camps. But
his book contributes most helpfully to the cause of youth ministry when he is most
intent
on bringing
his knowledge to focus on concrete issues, such as the
emergence of mid-adolescence as a distinct developmental period, or the formation
of youth "clusters" as an alternative family and basis for an alternative morality.
I2IJ - Journal
of Youth and Theology
(Volu~e <~umlJ.eUu~p_ri_1_20_0~S~)
__
~
While the book's interest to youth ministers may be manifold, explicit talk
of church work occurs only in a five-page appendix at the end, since Clark intends
his readership to include those who do not share his "religious worldview." He tells
us the book is the first in a series on "youth, family, and culture," and clearly
the connections between those three things occupy his mind in this volume.
In the first section, Clark recaps the view that adolescence as we know
it was invented by Western culture in the last hundred years. However, he argues,
we really don't know it of late. Adolescence has not only become more prolonged,
it has become much more traumatic
and tumultuous,
more hurtful to many
teenagers and more opaque to most adults. Because "family" has been redefined,
and families have been fractured, and the extended family has all but disappeared,
youth
have been forced to create a more intricate
subculture
to survive,
which Clark calls "the world beneath."
Clark draws a lot of conclusions from his one-year study of one high
school, and though he is not the first to state them he does so as well as anyone.
In the book's second and best section, Clark takes a thematic approach, depicting
in short but good chapters
some features of adolescent
life: peers, school,
family, sports, sex, busyness and stress, ethics and morality, and the party scene.
This section is organized and written in a way that could promote energetic class
discussions, whether in college, seminary or even church settings.
In the third and final section, entitled "where do we go from here?,"
he draws out prescriptive implications.
The sort of "strategies" he names-
"those who serve adolescents must work together"; "those who serve adolescents
must understand
youth and provide boundaries"-may
inspire some or sound
insipid to others. Regarding his exhortations, I for one was a bit sorry Clark did not
step into the pulpit he claimed to abdicate at the start. As it is, the book sometimes
sounds preachy, but he does not have a Christian text to work from.
Readers of Hurt who know Patricia Hersch's pioneering A Tribe Apart
(Ballantine Books, 1999) will inevitably compare the two, especially as Clark readily
acknowledges her influence. I find his account much less vivid than hers. Whereas
Hersch captures the psychological drama of particular students' lives, Clark aims
___
,Journal at YQuth.'l~c:ClIie6Iogy(volume
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Number 1; April 200S)
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931
more at a general framework, which is helpful, though often his theory is simply
a summary of trends. Further, since "the major ethnographic elements of the study
took place in early January and late June" (of 2001 and 2002), we surmise that
Clark spent much less time inside a school than Hersch did.
In a final appendix he defends his research methods as a "participantobserver."
To protect confidentiality,
"not one story or narrative presented
is
recorded precisely as fact," and to avoid being intrusive not one thing was recorded
or written down until he got home at night.
With that caveat I will relate this
quotation from a high school student, for it epitomizes the hurt of which the book
speaks:
"My parents divorced when I was seven years old. I live in two houses, switching
every two days. My parents get mad at me when I need to go to the other house
because I forgot something.
I get so angry because no one ever asked me
if I wanted to live in two houses. No one ever asked me if it was okay with me
having to keep track of which house my schoolbooks are at. No one ever asked
me if I wanted to split my life in two!"
Clark listens carefully to such voices and helps adults to hear them
more wisely.
Russell Haitch, Bethany Theological
Seminary, USA
*******
Practidng
Passionate
Theology!
A conversational review of Kenda Creasey-Dean (2004) Practicing Passion:
Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church (Grand Rapids: Michigan)
Pete Ward and Kenda Creasy-Dean
The aim of this review is to provide a thorough assessment of the text in
question, much as the other reviews in this section fulfil, but with opportunity to
probe a response from the author in critical areas of interest or contestation (ed).
Review by Pete Ward
Practicing Passion is quite simply the most important
on youth
book written
ministry in the last twenty years. Dean has produced
a complex,
nuanced, and above all coherent, theology of the Church and young people. This
means that she is the first of us on the block with a weighty and serious attempt to
locate youth ministry within the wider theological and ecclesial debates. For this
reason alone she deserves respect and very few things will be written about
a theology of youth over the next few years which do not take account of her work.
The theoretical basis for Practicing Passion emerges from four key themes;
identity, passion, practices and union with Christ.
throughout
These themes are woven
the book into a powerful argument for the renewal of the Church's
work with young people.
Identity
Drawing heavily upon
the work of the developmental
psychologist
Erik Erikson, Dean presents young people as in the process of seeking identity
resolution.
This is the particular task of young people.
'Without a coherent identity adolescents feel constantly at risk of disintegrating,
of becoming non-existent - literally being a nobody. They intuit that this
disparate self is "Not Right!
The 'postmodern
'11
(p16)
young person',
or drawing upon Elkind, a 'patchwork
the self into a coherent
sustainable
says Dean represents a fragmented,
self.' (p61, p62)
identity
Instead of integrating
and moving towards 'maturity,'
•...•.
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adolescence
themselves
is extended
together.'
and young people are no longer required to 'pull
Yet many fail to make it and they 'fall apart.'
(p61)
Adolescent development is therefore problematised by Dean, with the result that
a particular take on the psychology of youth forms the starting point for her
theology of salvation.
The central dilemma of adolescence, identity resolution, she says, depends
upon the identification
with a self-giving other.
In the absence of such figures
young people are left to fixate on the false images of contemporary
culture.
In contrast she argues that the Christian vision of identity is that it is located in
Christ. (p13S)
Following Moltmann,
Christian
identity is understood
as an
'identification with the crucified Christ.' (p16) This identification finds its origins
in God's initiative since it is God's identification with us in the Incarnation which
has transformed the human situation.
'This divine-human identification is the work of salvation, in which humanity
is "justified" or made right, re-centred by Jesus who restores us through acts
of witness that proclaim his life, death and resurrection until he comes again.'
(p16)
Salvation is presented
in relation
to notions
of identity
resolution.
Thus justification becomes re-centring and sin or the human disorder becomes
identity
fragmentation
This psycho-theological
and evil the temptation
of contemporary
culture.
language continues in relation to the doctrine of God.
Dean uses Trinitarian notions of perichoresis or mutual indwelling to develop
the idea of identity resolution.
The different persons of the Trinity are held in
their unity through passionate relation.
to humanity.
From here they 'ecstatically' reach out
Viewed through the, 'perichoretic lens, she says, the adolescents
"plural selves" cohere around the cross.
Passion
Practicing Passion makes a direct link between the passion of young
people and the passion of Christ.
Passion is seen as self-giving love and this
inevitably relates suffering. (p4)
'Love always involves suffering on behalf of the beloved, desire longs for what lies
painfully out of reach.' (p4)
196i
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it,
I
Passion reveals our deep desire for the other and the human inclination
to 'construct a self in relation to the other.' (pSSff) Passion in this sense, says Dean
is evident in the lives of young people in some abundance
(pS6).
It is also
to be seen in the self-giving of God in the suffering Christ endures on the cross.
Yet the mainstream American Church seems to have turned its back on passion
as the key t.o making the link between young people and the faith. (p4) In the
place of the sanitised faith of the Church we should reverse this trend and seek out
a way to connect
the passion of God with young people who are seeking
a resolution of their fragmenting identity.
'The suffering passion of Christ inspires a life of passion for Christ, by which the
disordered passions (or desires or appetites) of being human become realigned
with holy passion (a self giving love) of God. , (p20)
The God-given self lies beneath
a 'humanly
constructed'
ego.
When
we 'die to self' we die to this 'grasping ego' and we are able to 'give ourselves over'
to the love of God, which is made evident to us in the suffering of Christ. (p20)
Young people are reaching
out for love, but they are surrounded
by love
which disappoints and lets them down. When the young person reaches out for
the love which is beyond all loves then, 'passion unites lesser commitments of the
self and weaves the shards of identity into something approaching an integrated
whole.' (p21)
Practice
Practices are acts of witness. (p21)
Practices include prayer and preaching
They are embodied belief.
and Christian
(p2S)
service but they find
their culmination in the worship of the Church and in particular in the Eucharist.
(p21, p139)
Practices in this sense can be seen as a living expression of the
Christian faith held in the life of the Church. The historic practices of the Church
are theological in that they speak of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
As they do this they set down patterns for relationship with God (plS2).
'In practices that imitate the Passion of Christ, God incorporates youth
into Jesus' own Passion; his desires become their desires and his story becomes
their story.'
(pS 1)
The practices of the Church therefore,
as they speak of the passion
of Christ, join young people to God. This is transformative of ego and of identity.
(p63) These practices are located in the body of Christ, his Church.
As such the
Church also acts in a transformative way, enveloping the young person thus Dean
presents practice as taking place in the context of being encircled and surrounded
by Christ's body. (pl3S) The practices of the Church however only provide
a framework for belief. They should not be seen as offering the substance of faith.
Yet the paradox is that Christ chooses to indwell these human actions and meets
us through them.
(pISO)
Union with Christ
The life of faith is centred on the practices of faith.
as a result must develop a sustained engagement
Youth ministry
with these historic practices.
Through the practices young people first learn to imitate Christ. They then move
on to a deeper intrinsic identification
with Christ.
Finally they move towards
'Union with Christ.' (pI63) This notion of being joined or Union with Christ gives
mystical energy to Dean's theological vision.
Critical of the WWJD generation
she speaks not of imitation
but
of participation in Christ and Union with him. (p47) Salvation is not a decision
for Christ it is something which takes place in the life, death, and resurrection of
Christ and in our being joined to him. (p44) In this way his passion is imprinted
on our passion and our identity is remade in relation to his. (p20)
is spoken of as incorporation
Passion
into the life of God. (pSI) This union with Christ
is embodied in the enveloping of the life of the Church. So Dean's treatment
of Christian practice effectively links the life of the Church to ideas of Union
with Christ and provides a way of firmly located youth ministry in the body _
the Church. (pl3S)
Reading Practicing Passion it is apparent that alongside these four key
themes Dean has also constructed three main enemies or targets for her theology.
The first of the enemies, ironically perhaps is the Church itself; to be exact the
mainstream
Liberal Protestant Churches.
Located at Princeton Seminary these
Churches must be Dean's main audience in her daily work and she is nothing if not
critical. They have tamed the passion of young people (p4). At the enlightenment
198
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Liberal Churches took a 'wrong turn', she argues, and as a result they have become
very inhospitable to the passionate faith of young people. (p8) The second enemy
is youth ministry.
Dean is very critical of the programme
and games tradition
of ministry which has held sway in the US for the last twenty or thirty years.
She reserves a particular vitriol for games which ridicule and humiliate young
people. High-energy events and cool leaders may have their place but they can also
serve to dislocate young people from the ongoing
life of the Church.
(p168)
The vision of a serious and holy practice is set alongside these examples as a more
authentic
and a more ecclesial approach
to work with young people.
Yet the real enemy in Practicing Passion is contemporary
Throughout
contemporary
(p168)
culture.
the book Dean is equally deeply critical of the effect that
media and popular culture have upon young people. As a parent she
can already see the 'greedy teeth marks' of consumer culture in the life of her son
Brendon.
(pxii)
our young
These are the, 'other Gods' who are threatening
people.
into a 'lobotomised
Consumer
culture
threatens
to numb
and circling
young
people
silence.' (p6) The global culture closes young people down
from their natural search for ecstasy and spirituality.
(pUQ)
'Today's media drenched popular culture tutors postmodern youth in a theology
of passion not derived from the Church but from the doctrines of the market
place.' (p127)
The culture of image and rhythm encourages a sensual spirituality and this
spirituality sells. (p127)
These, according to Dean, are the false gods who join
sexuality and spirituality in a media soaked mix.
Questions for Dean
Practicing
Passion is an accomplished
theology
where contemporary
themes are woven together with a healthy regard for the traditions of a historic
faith yet it leaves me a little uneasy.
So I have three questions I want to put
to Dean.
Question One: Theology and Psychology
Practicing Passion is theologically
The reliance on notions of participation
firmly within
____
sophisticated
and above all robust.
and Union with Christ sets Dean's work
a long line of Reformed and Patristic thought
,lQurnal of South
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4;
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1;
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April 200S)
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991
Similarly the location of a sense of what it means to be human within Trinitarian
theology
thought
and the concept
in this field.
of perichoresis
Yet throughout
accords with much
this theological
contemporary
foundation
there runs
a stream which emerges from a particular view of adolescent psychology. I am not
a psychologist yet I suspect that fragmentation
and postmodern notions of identity
need not necessarily be interpreted with such apocalyptic doom. For instance the
notion of the reflexive self might offer a place for a conscious, knowing social
construction of identity. If this is the case I might prefer to speak of the Holy Spirit
working with the individual as they construct their 'knowing self.'
If the idea
of practice holds together the idea of agency with divine activity the same might
be true of the postmodern
self.
This links to the issues which are raised by the use of psychology within
a soteriology. When the work of Christ is linked so closely to notions of identity
we clearly have a vivid and useful theology, yet at the same time such a move
is questionable and is surely something of a Trojan horse. When theological terms
wch as justification and sin and salvation are re-expressed in psychological terms
they are inevitably altered and in my view limited somewhat. How does she defend
this move?
Question Two: The Evil in Contemporary Society
Clearly her treatment
of contemporary
culture
is vulnerable
to the
accusation of dualism. What I mean by dualism here is that in treating 'out there'
as evil and 'in here' as sacred it limits the work of God in culture and in the world.
The discussion of contemporary
aspects of the postmodern
media, communications
technology
and other
are dismissive to say the least. To treat contemporary
culture as a place filled with false gods who are out to destroy young people is most
unhelpful, in my view, not least because we all have to live our life in, with, and
through this contemporary media world. Retreat is not an option only faithfulness
within a consumer culture - if we are told this is intrinsically evil then our only
option is retreat into the religious sanctuary.
Surely this was not the intended
message of the book?
I suspect that we are closer to the truth when we look at the many
occasions
where
Dean
draws upon
contemporary
culture,
especially
film
to illustrate her work. In which case, she clearly can see something of God and
something of worth in aspects of contemporary culture! If this is the case why junk
in such vivid terms this same world? I think on one level this is a rhetorical device,
but on another level I think 'resistance' to culture, Hollywood, the postmodern etc
has become a default setting for many Christian commentators.
What I mean
by this is that without thinking too deeply we locate ourselves and what we are for
in relation to this 'bad.' The more 'bad' this other can be made out to be the better
our 'good' can seem. The more powerful the 'bad' the more our solution is needed.
So is Dean serious in these attacks on contemporary
media?
Question Three: Mission
Here we come to what I feel is the most important
Dean's book.
contextualising
When we turn our backs on contemporary
issue arising from
culture we miss the
imperative, which I believe, is essential for contemporary
youth
ministry and for the wider issues related to ecclesiology. What I mean by this is
that it is my firm believe that we need to seek out the ways that God is already at
work in the lives of young people, particularly young people who are outside of the
life of the Church and we should pay particular attention
to the culture they
inhabit, make use of and create. When we see the movement of the Spirit among
these young people we follow a~d with them we build Church.
If contemporary
culture is inhabited by false child eating gods then all we can do is rescue young
people out of this danger. Combine this implication with the advocacy of Church
based practices then despite all that is admirable about Practicing Passion it does
appear to be an argument for a kind of stasis.
Maybe I am being unfair, because Dean does argue against much that
is wrong in the present day Church, but it is what she does not say that leaves me
uneasy. Particularly what she does not say in terms of new forms of worship, new
patterns of Church life, and the way that culture brings about an imperative for
change and so on. The reason I ask this is not one of fashion in youth ministry
terms it is because of mission.
My feeling is that change
is demanded by a new missiological context.
these mission and culture issues - why not?
in the Church
Dean however hardly touches upon
This silence is also odd in a sense
because the notion of the historic practices of the faith and the importance
of
tradition has actually been at the heart of much of the discussion within emerging
Church circles and also within the Charismatic
Church,
at least in the UK.
So my final question is why did Dean fail to articulate a more radical ecclesiology
and identify with the emerging movement in the US?
Reply - Kenda Creasy-Dean
For the most part, Pete Ward's concerns about Practicing Passion are
concerns I share. He is a generous critic, and he gets to the heart of things swiftly
and without apology. Ward notes that, while arguing that the church must reclaim
a theology of passion if we hope to lay claim to young people, I have constructed
three "enemies or targets" to criticize. I suppose I have, although I did not intend
to make them enemies.
is right.
In fact, I am very much one of my "enemies," if Ward
Mainstream "liberal" Protestantism
For example, Ward notes that my first target is the mainline Protestant
church. (I use the designation "mainline" or "mainstream" instead of Ward's term
"liberal" since, in the U.S., the terms "liberal" and "conservative" have largely lost
their descriptive power for churches. Mainstream Protestant churches in the U.S.
share similar cultural histories and social habits-they
are mainstream in the sense
that they were once the dominant religious form in the U.S., wielding substantial
social power-but their theological orientations
are more diverse than the term
"liberal" implies.)
Although it is tempting to blame the Enlightenment
for the various
theological "wrong turns" that led to our passionless present, deep down most
of us-even
at our most "postmodern"-want
Enlightenment's
philosophical
to hang onto a many of the
gains for the church.
The discipline of critical
thinking, the value of individual human beings, the radical emphasis on human
experience all gained legitimacy during the Enlightenment.
Of course, modern
rationality had its effect on the way the church dealt with passion; but in terms
of losing its significance in theology, it would be more accurate to blame those
strands of twentieth century theology that converted the church (and I'll stick to
the mainline Protestant church, since this is what! know best, and it's not prudent
to generalize) into a therapeutic organization, and reduced salvation to "meeting
needs"-this
week, with the proper sermon, next week, with the proper breakfast
cereal-which, as far as I can tell, have little to do with the suffering love of God
on the cross of Jesus Christ.
This is why, as an active member of the United Methodist clergy, I see
myself in the throes of a family squabble, not an all-out attack. I am not interested
in naming enemies, but I am very interested in naming the elephant in the roomnamely, our rampant denial of our own Christology-instead
the Protestant mainstream affably benign.
of dodging it to keep
In fact, ministry is messy, theology all
the more so, and mainline Protestants, starting with Methodists, have substantial
resources for robust youth ministry, beginning
with the necessary foundations
for a theology of passion. John Wesley was nothing if not an apostle of passion,
and his ministry began while he was a student, with other students.
said, like other mainstream Protestant denominations
That being
in the U.S., Methodists are a
still coming to terms with our loss of moral and social sway in the culture, not to
mention our loss of young people in the pews. So while I am deeply indebted and
devoted to my mainstream Protestant tradition, I also believe many of our wounds
are self-inflicted, and love requires honesty.
Youth ministry
I am also one of my own enemies if Ward is correct that my second target
is youth ministry itself. I had intended my tone to be more of confession than
vitriol, since obviously I am involved in youth ministry and I continually have to
repent of doing it badly. The enemy I intended to target was bad youth ministry,
not youth
ministry
as a field.
accommodated
ministry,
uncontextualized
ministry-any
Thin
dislocated
ministry,
weak ministry,
culturally-
ministry,
reductionistic
ministry,
of those ministries
I will happily disown, but
of course I don't think youth ministry is inherently any of these things.
It is true that, in the U.S., the term "youth
ministry"
is sometimes
associated with these ridiculous forms of ministry to the extent that many devoted
Christian leaders try to distance themselves from it. Seminarians and pastors often
do not want to "lower" themselves to youth ministry-which
to do with the low status youth-serving
may have something
professions hold generally in the U.S.,
but it also is the result of youth ministry's long history of substituting educational
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programs, therapy sessions, social services, entertainment
or childcare for ministry.
Anyone who can tell the difference knows that, when we make such substitutions,
we have abandoned our posts as spiritual guides and offered substandard facsimiles
of what others in our society do better.
For the most part, bad youth ministry
includes any or all of these things cloaked in a Bible verse, which has about as
much of a chance transforming lives as a man in a bat suit. Good youth ministry
is simply good ministry, with a particular flock that happens to include a lot
of lambs. The sooner we stop distinguishing between the two, the better.
Contemporary media and popular culture
Finally, I am my own enemy
contemporary
media and popular culture.
if, as Ward believes, I have vilified
While I would like to think that Ward
and I end up in a similar place on the subject of human culture} we approach
the subject from different angles. I am less of an immanantist
than Ward; while
I am quite confident that God uses material culture to mediate divine revelation,
I am far less confident that culture possesses an incarnational
this revelation, typically mediated
through purchased goods.
through
human
quality apart from
relationships
So, Ward is accurate to note a certain two-headedness
rather than
in my thinking
about the passion of faith and the passions of culture. On the one hand, there are
cultural forces (starting with bone-deep individualism and a market economy) that
absolutely undermine an ethos of self-giving love, or passion (as I have defined it),
which God calls Christians to enact and embody in our world. Left unchecked and
unnoticed,
such forces spirit our teenagers away on wings that are anything but
holy. To avoid naming and qualifying them all, I often simply resorted to the terms
"culture,"
"consumer
the argument.
culture,"
or "media culture"-which
Still} there is also an undeniable
all fail to nuance
"otherness" of God that cannot
be denied; we are called to be a people "set apart," holy, in the world but not
of the world.
I see this as more than a Greek dualism that crept into Scripture; in Jesus
Christ} God is up to something entirely new, utterly different, than what we can
conceive apart from Christ. So it is no surprise that a habitus of sacrificial lovewhich is the sanctified upshot of a theology of passion-would
run completely
111041 - Journal of Youth andT4eologyjv()i~in~j;t:'T~mber li.~R_ri_12_0_0_5) _
counter
to the self-actualization
mantra
of Western, consumerist
ideologies.
Because our fundamental personhood is always given by Christ, the psychological
danger of "losing oneself" in Christian service is never an issue-as
long as the
service is authentically grounded in the self-giving love of God (Le., the life, death,
and resurrection of Christ), and not in a human impulse to be noticed or needed.
On the other hand, since I very much enjoy pop culture (and I am
immersed in it as a scholar, a pastor, and a parent), I had hoped my use of cultural
references
would
operationalize
two theological
assumptions
that
inform
my teaching. My first assumption is that God gives us permission "baptize" images
and artefacts from the indigenous culture if it will help us better communicate
the story of God.
As I understand
it, this was Jesus' strategy with the parables
(which he told while skewering the dominant religious culture of Jerusalem), Paul's
strategy at the Areopagus (where he claimed the "unknown
Augustine's
to
strategy
cheerfully
in On Christian
"plunder
culture-culturally
from
the
Doctrine
god" for Christ),
(where he urged
Egyptians"-Le.,
take
preachers
from
pagan
relevant images that might be useful for preaching the gospel).
As a teacher, my hope is that by employing cultural artefacts and casting my
argument in contemporary
terms, I will demonstrate
how youth ministers may
acknowledge cultural context without being captured by it.
The other assumption I want to convey however, is more important to me,
and that is the assumption that God works through material culture in all forms.
Indeed, God seems biased toward this form of self-disclosure. The concrete nature
of adolescent thinking
(despite their newly acquired formal operational
skills)
makes God's self-disclosure in material contexts extremely powerful for youth
ministry. Christ's body and blood are revealed in bread and wine; the resurrection
is embodied in the ritual of the baptismal waters. The church has always assumed
that, under the proper circumstances,
communicate
humanly
crafted artefacts can faithfully
God's presence, and therefore used oil, food, ashes, architecture,
song, dance, paintings, pottery, fire, flowers, and so on to confess and proclaim the
gospel. While I am not an immanantist-I
believe God exists apart from creation,
and that the Creator and the created are distinct for reasons of relationshipI do believe that everything God creates bears something of the divine image,
and God is free to use that creation for whatever purpose God has in mind.
____
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The word culture-which
we usually take to mean all socially-transmitted
products of human work and thought-comes
the land."
from the Latin word for "tilling
This suggests that, at root, culture represents a human
effort to
cooperate with God for the purpose of growing things: well-prepared soil makes it
more likely that sun and water will reach the seed, which is divinely appointed to
grow under decent conditions.
Apart from a catechized imagination,
"finding
Christ in culture" is quite unlikely; God's chosen community for revelation is the
church.
At the same time, the purpose
imaginations
of catechesis
is to form faithful
to notice God's imprint in culture, all of culture, including film,
digital communication,
forces like individualism and consumerism, and even the
global economy. Just because these "products of human work and thought
II
can be
co-opted by sin does not mean God is absent from them. But eyes of -faith are just
that: eyes that can ~ee, in spite of sin, the imago Dei in the world.
Lives of self-giving love inevitably challenge cultural forces that have
been co-opted by ambition,
selfishness, and greed-which
conspire to quash
the sacrificial impulse that would un-mask their sinfulness.
The Questions
Having identified these targets of the text, Ward leaves three questions
about the basic assumptions behind Practicing Passion:
Question One: Theology and Psychology.
First, Ward cautions against baptizing a certain view of identity formation,
namely one that deifies the idea of an integrated core to the self (and, conversely,
assumes that fragmentation
undesirable).
and postmodern identities, such as the plural self, are
As Ward notes,
to say that
identity
formation
leads to a
psychologized form of salvation is a reductionist's soteriology. I agree, which is one
reason I rely heavily on the theology of Jurgen Moltmann, who offers the most
sweeping interpretation
of the divine passion that I have found.
discussion of ego development lies another theologian-practical
E. Loder (The Logic of the Spirit Uossey-Bass,
Beneath my
theologian James
1998]), whose nuanced view of ego
development took into account the nothingness (lithe Void") that lies between the
God-given self and the humanly-constructed
ego. Loder's view of the relationship
between psychology and theology in ego construction is significant in that it posits
/1061 - Journal of Youth and Theology
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a role for sin and redemption, which developmental
theory lacks. While I want
to draw as many connections between the gospel and human science as possibleany decent practical theological
method
requires this-my
intent
not that that youth ministry should reduce its understanding
psychological
categories,
but that
human
sciences often
is to show,
of humanity
implicitly,
to
usually
accidentally, reveal a theological dimension of human existence.
And what about postmodern
theories of identity formation? I suppose
the honest thing to say is that I simply have not yet found one that seems to
adequately explain the postmodern teenagers who hang out in my kitchen.
The
need for an integrated core to one's being-which
seems to me is a theological,
more than a psychological, phenomenon-remains
compelling to me, based on
Scripture as well as psychology (we are baptized into one body [I Cor. 12:13]; we are
called to identify with the one Christ [Rom. 6:2]; the Godhead is Three in One,
etc.). The point is not that unity trumps plurality, but that God encompasses both,
meaning that human beings created in God's image have the capacity for unity in
diversity-as
long as our diversity clings to the crucified Christ, who makes us one.
Clearly, teenagers have to come to terms with the fractured nature
of postmodern experience, but multiplicity without a "core story" is random chaos:
atoms without a nucleus, particles without an orbit, experiences without meaning,
faith without significance. Is there a "postmodern" way to address this? Probably.
But postmodern or not, an anchorless self is a promiscuous self, a self that mimics
rather than identifies, and therefore cannot "own," integrate, or even articulate
one's selfhood. A self defined by its location at the foot of the cross, on the other
hand, has a place to come home to, regardless of the number of forays made
into the shifting geography of postmodern culture.
Question Two: The Evil in Contemporary Society
Ward's second question underscores a dualism that he believes can be read
into Practicing Passion's "dismissive" view of culture. Ward finds it possible to read
Practicing
Passion
and
conclude
that
"out
there"
is evil and
"in here"
(in the church) is sacred, which limits the work of God in culture and in the world.
This was not at all the impression I wanted to leave, as I have already noted, so let
me repent of the rhetoric that leaves it. Every argument has its ghosts, however,
____
Journal of
YQ!i'th '!.pd~TJ1eology (Volume
4; Number 1; April 200S) -
1107\
and readers usually can find them.
One of the ghosts haunting
my discussion
of culture is my frank fear that the sinful ideologies that have co-opted much
of human culture have also co-opted the church-which
actually helps co-opted culture convert youth
means that the church
to these corrupting
ideologies,
primarily by doing nothing to challenge them.
To cite one example:
While consumerism
shamelessly converts young
people into buyers (have you noticed the number of toys and computer games
predicated on shopping as a social practice?), the congregation where I worship is
positively allergic to the language of conversion, preferring far more passive modes
of socialization.
The problem, of course, is that socialization alone lacks the radical
disjuncture of Christ's in breaking into the world. It gives teenagers the impression
that they can be good consumers
(people defined by self-fulfilment) and good
Christians (people who practice self-giving love) simultaneously.
While I am glad
to leave the business of converting young people to Jesus, Christians are not called
to quietism either. Faith in Jesus Christ does not mean leaving all the work to Him.
The promise I make every time we baptize a child is to hold up my end of the
bargain.
For I am called to till the soil, to cooperate with God in the ways that
make it more likely that sun and water will reach this young person, whom God
has divinely appointed to grow.
A Question for Pete Ward: Mission and Youth Ministry
It is the third question Ward raises about Practicing Passion that leads
me to ask a question in return.
as the most important
Both Ward and I see the question of mission
issue arising from my book-and,
I should add, from
his books as well. And it is here that I differ most from Ward.
In my view, ministry and mission are very much the same thing; mission
is the purpose of ministry, the purpose of the Church, and it is not some optional
task or model of ministry
designed to help us move outside our own ranks.
If mission means, literally, "the act of sending," then ministry-which
a Latin word for "serving"-is
comes from
in the service of mission. What is absent from these
etymologies is the sense that either mission or ministry functions to bring people
"in" to the church;
from the church.
11081 - Journal
rather, the focus is on going out, making disciples, being sent
In this view, the church represents a compass point, an origin,
of Youth and Theology(V()I':l.me~;Nu_mb~;~R_ri_l_20_0_5,)
_
a home base for God's work in the world, not a fence for dividing those who are
"in" from those who are "out." To conceive of mission as bringing people from the
"outside in" reinforces the "sacred is in here, profane is out there" stereotype
(which Ward himself says he wants to eliminate).
justification
at the expense of sanctification-or,
It also risks focusing on
practically
speaking, making
young people "targets" of mission instead of participants in it.
But God's mission is much, much larger than this.
is the Passion of Christ, which accomplished
The mission of God
the salvation of the world-and
whenever we practice passion, we participate in that mission. The rescue, in other
words, has already been accomplished by God. Our job is not to save teenagers
from child-eating
gods but to expose these gods as frauds, to laugh at their
pretence, to unmask the feeble power of self-fulfilment with a single life-changing
act of self-giving love.
That's why the last section of Practicing Passion describes every practice
of the church, from worship to witness, as a missional practice:
it is sacramental
in that it is a means of grace, an act of witness to the Passion of Christ, an activity
that re-members (puts together again, or anamnesis, brings to mind again) the
self-giving love of Christ, and enacts it once again for the church and for the world.
This is our raison d'etre. Missionaries are people "sent" by God across boundaries
as witnesses to Christ.
Fundamentally,
the imitation of Christ means identifying
with (taking part in) the mission of God. The early church viewed Jesus Christ as
the
archetypal
missionary-the
One sent
by God across
every boundary
imaginable, life and death, space and time, to bring God's salvation into the world.
In other
words, mission
is more than
geography.
Mission is ecclesiology;
it is why we do what we do, and why we are who we are. So, in principle,
I cheer Ward when he says:
1/
It is my firm belief that we need to seek out the ways that God is already at work
in the lives of young people, particularly young people who are outside of the life
of the Church, and we should pay particular attention to the culture they inhabit,
make use 0(; and create. When we see the movement of the Spirit among these
young people we follow, and with them we build Church"
Yet do these words also imply that God is particularly at work in the lives
of young people outside the life of the Church?
Certainly God is at work in every
____ '"_Journal ofYouth~nd T.h~9Iogy(Volu"me
4; Number 1; April 200S) -
1109\
young
person,
though
I tend
to believe that young
people who are part
of the church have an equally prophetic voice with those who are not part of it.
In fact, my Methodist
formation
assumes that God works preveniently
in all
people, young, old, in the church, beyond the church, which makes the geography
of mission (inside-out, outside-in) somewhat hard to pinpoint.
Just because God
can be heard at the mall does not mean God is mute in the church-and
versa-no
matter how dysfunctional
vice
the church, and no matter how raucous
the mall, may be.
The issue is not whether God is present in human experience-God
always present-but
is
whether we have cleaned the wax out of our ears, the spots off
our lenses, the distractions from our lives sufficiently to perceive God's presence.
The mall does not sell the kind of practices that afford holy perception.
work of the Christian community,
This is the
which for two thousand years has been the
world's witness to God's passion, shaping people into disciples with very low-tech
methods
called Christian practices- human
activities that imitate Christ, bear
witness to God's life and death on the cross, and form us into people who carry
divine grace into the world. No one would recognize God at the mall, or anywhere
else, if it weren't for catechized imaginations who know the voice of the holy when
they hear it.
So for me, the essence of mission-and
the purpose of ministry-is
to help
open young people's eyes to what Christ is already up to in their lives, immersing
them in practices that remove obstacles from their paths, reduce the static in their
airwaves, clear away the specks in their vision, so that they can recognize Christ on
the loose, and so they will allow themselves to be combustible before God's holy
fire. Are we removing obstacles so that the Holy Spirit may rush, unimpeded, into
the youth and the church that loves them-or are we throwing logs in their path?
The historic practices of the Christian community allow anything but stasis, which
Ward rightfully fears.
Practices are blades of grass, endlessly lithe, rooted but
flexible enough to bend according to the dictates of time and place, which is why
communion
in the Divine Liturgy and communi.on
around
a campfire at a
Presbyterian retreat centre are still recognizable as the Eucharist, despite two
thousand years of adaptation and innovation.
11101 - Journal
The miracle of Christian practices
of Youth and Theology(Vol~me.1;~~l11berJ:;AI,,-=)r=il-=2
••.
00_S...,).
•••.•
is that, after all this time, we still recognize them, for they still proclaim the story
of God; they still enact the Passion of Christ.
So let me reassure Ward that the historic practices of the Christian
community are precisely the vehicles that can take youth ministry into the "new
missiological context"
that both he and I want to address.
Practices do not
foreclose on new patterns of church life; they invite it. Ministry facilitates sacred
encounters, and whether those sacred encounters are made possible by ramping
up the passion of traditional
liturgies, returning
to the "grass roots" practices
of the early church, or engaging young adults in the postmodern
(rather than consumption)
of worship really does not matter.
"production"
Ministry never
reduces to a matter of style. Young people, frankly, do not care how they meet God;
but they do care that they meet God, and that the God they meet knows
and loves them authentically.
embodied encounter
Christian practices, variously expressed, are the
with the God who loves them enough to die for them.
They are the church's expressions of the self-giving love of Christ that till the soil,
and nudge us in the direction of a passionate faith. My question to Pete Ward is:
what could possibly be more missional than that?
Dr Pete Ward is Senior Lecturer in Youth Ministry and Theological
Education at King's College, London, UK
Rev Dr Kenda Creasy-Dean is Associate Professor of Youth, Church and
Culture, Princeton Theological
Seminary
*******
___
Iournalj)f Youth andjlieology
(Volume 4; Number 1; April 200S) -
11111
Teaching That Makes a Difference: How to teach for holistic growth,
by Dan Lambert, Grand Rapids (MI): Youth Specialties (Academic), 2004, 223 pp.
Hardcover
I am assuming that this book is aimed squarely at the US youth ministry
market, so it is with some nervousness that I offer this review as an outsider.
However, despite being based in the UK, in recent years I have avidly snapped up
any title offered by the Youth Specialties Academic imprint. Mainly out of a sheer
desperation
for quality material offering critical and thoughtful
assessment of
youth ministry. However, this book would not have satisfied this hunger for me
personally, but it does maintain the quality and thoughtfulness
of other titles in
this range. Its self disclosed target audience is the practitioner, and the volunteer
youth minister especially (p 9) teaching. In view of this I think Lambert has made a
valiant effort to provide an 'academic'
view of pedagogic practice for youth
ministry accessible to non-academic practitioners. This is no small undertaking as
those who teach in seminaries or colleges; or experienced practitioners and support
workers will no doubt agree. To my mind the central dilemma in a work like this is
summarised by the mantra 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'! It is hard to
contain wide ranging theoretical themes such as 'adolescent development' (chapter
2), 'cultural
exegesis' (chapter 3), learning
styles (chapter 4) and curriculum
planning (chapter 5) into a concise text such as this. To then graft practical 'tips
and techniques' that perhaps the intended readers are more inclined to desire also
risks reducing this theory to the bits of an instruction manual only read if pressing
play doesn't work! These concerns with the content and shape of the book are as
much points for debate on how we engage with the voluntary sector of youth
ministry as with this book in particular. How do we provide texts that do not
patronise and disappoint, whilst not overwhelming and confusing? However, there
are a couple of points of discomfort I have on Lambert's positions. Before getting
to these though I would like to stress what I see as some of the strengths of this text.
The 'teaching' that Lambert is concerning himself with is that of church
based education and formation. A strong thrust of Lambert's concept of holistic
teaching is to shift the metaphor of practice for the volunteer youth minister from
'teacher'
to 'coach'
(p.19-20) and make the task of teaching youth personal.
Personal in focussing on individual young people with a variety of backgrounds,
111Z1 - Journal of Youth and Theology (Vo~p;~-1;~;1be£Ui Ap'__c__ri1_2~OO~S~)"
~
experiences and learning styles and personal in stressing the priority that volunteer
Sunday school teachers and youth ministry helpers should place on their own
faith; and sharing this faith as the basis of their teaching (p. 21-22). The Sunday
school teacher is still a model that operates in a wide number of church settings it is good to see this gently and helpfully challenged.
Not condemned
but
challenged to re-envisage its potential for impacting the lives of young people. In
this context I think the overall balance of the book could produce a step in the
right direction
for improving
(www.teachingyouth.com)
this practice. It is accompanied
by a web site
which promises to support those who are trying to
implement the theory and strategies in the book. The strongest section of theory,
in my opinion, is that on learning styles (chapter 4). Like all the theory sections it
provides a mere snapshot of models and approaches, but it is well grounded and
directed towards practical application. The chapter on curriculum (chapter 5) is
also well balanced and the barrage of ideas for how to teach (chapters 6 - 7) should
provide ample food for thought for the Christian teacher willing to invest time in
preparation,
experimentation
and evaluation (chapter 8). These are all valuable
insights to share with volunteer teachers, so what am I uncomfortable about?
I have two principle concerns. In chapters 2 and 3 Lambert establishes the
context of the task of teaching youth by, as the sub-title for each chapter describes,
'a very brief survey of adolescent development' (p. 35) and 'doing cultural exegesis'
(p. 57). Whilst Lambert effectively states that adolescence is a phase of life that is
clearly socially constructed
(p.37-38) he opts to treat the hallmarks of western
construction of adolescence as a "reality that we need to learn about" (p. 38). Thus
the following pages offer a classical discourse of adolescence
- biologically
deterministic and universalised notions of developmental norms. There are many
critiques to understanding
youth through the discourse of adolescence (cfWyn,
J.
and R. D. White (1997). Rethinking Youth. London, Sage). Such an approach, in my
view, runs the risk of re-enforcing essentialised positions on how young people
develop against which young people can become measured.
To be fair to
of contemporary
Lambert,
developmental
he
does
provide
an
accurate
summary
models. For example, he debunks the extremism
of adolescence as a time of 'storm and stress' (p,41), suggests that you don't have
to 'buy fully into' Eric Erikson's theories to appreciate the delicate task of identity
I.
Journal of Youth:i"'rl,fflieology
(Volume 4; Number 1; April 200S) -
1113\
formation (p. 46) and intimates that whilst Fowler's faith development models are
helpful
they
aren't
flawless (p.50). I wonder
established theories and their contemporary
though,
if condensing
these
corrections into such a small chapter
could leave someone not familiar with the field a little confused. As a result,
my main concern
development
is that
readers would gravitate to seeing young
through the shorthand
people's
of the very concrete lists of developmental
'norms' in table 2.1 and 2.2 (p. 52-53). The chapter on cultural exegesis is similarly
light and, whilst I appreciate the skills Lambert is encouraging, it runs the risk of
'problematising'
contemporary
adolescent cultures - accentuating
the negative aspects of our
culture. I am also nervous of the term 'cultural exegesis'. I must
admit, before this year's IASYM conference I hadn't really come across the term.
However, if we are serious in our intention
to 'read culture'
there are some
significant academic approaches from cultural and media studies that should be at
the very least considered in a theory section like this. Perhaps it would be more
helpful to use some models of theological
of encouraging
practitioners
reflection to achieve the intention
to be more contextual
in understanding
the task
of teaching young people.
In conclusion, the challenge of providing an entry level text into Christian
Educational
theory
and practice
is significant.
Selecting what to leave out
is as difficult as choosing which areas to focus on. It is a positive move that Lambert
and Youth Specialties have attempted
this. Teaching that Makes a Difference will
be a helpful text to the volunteer practitioner
for themselves,
who is hungry for some teaching
as long as the readers heed the advice that Lambert leaves
on the final page;
"now that you have finished reading this book, don't think you have learned
everything you need about teaching. Far from it. Keep learning about teaching."
(p.215)
The book should translate
easily from the US context,
but at times
is wedded to the church and cultural situation in that nation. As an 'academic' text
it could be useful in first year degree or intern programmes, but does not have
the depth to more than an introductory
read.
Nick Shepherd, London, UK
11141 - Journal of Youth and Theolqgy}v()lume
4iNllmber li~p'~ri~r
2••.•
0.•.
0~S)~
_
IASYM Information
The International
Association
the development
of professional
•
for the Study of Youth Ministry
aims to promote
youth ministry by doing at least the following:
Providing an international
network of interaction,
information
and resources
•
Publishing
an academic journal (two editions per year)
•
Raising the standard and awareness of youth ministry
as a professional
and academic discipline
•
Promoting
inter-disciplinary
•
Organising conferences
(an international
on the study of youth ministry
conference
January. National conferences
in participating
research into youth ministry
is held in Oxford, England every second
are organised by members
countries)
•
Hosting an email discussion list for members
•
Raising funds to sponsor those who may not be able to afford
to participate
in the activities of the Association.
There are two types of members:
•
Personal Membership is open to all those individuals
demonstrate
an involvement
who can
in the study, research or teaching
of youth ministry.
•
Affiliate Membership is open to all academic institutions,
especially those with youth ministry and youth work courses.
Members receive the following benefits:
•
A copy of the Association Journal of Youth and Theology
•
Access to the member's section of the Association website which
includes many on-line resources
•
Access to the member's only email discussion forum and on-line
archives of discussion topics
•
Preferential rates and bookings for the bi-annual
Conference
on Youth Ministry
•
Alignment
with the only international,
professional,
academic
Youth Ministry body in existence in the world at the moment.
Journal of YoutH anB.:.t[eology",(y"olugl;:4i Number Ii April 2005)
-
11151
The cost of membership
is US$50 for personal members and US$ 100 for affiliate
members.
However, in order to ensure that the relative value of different world
currencies
is taken into account,
of north America.
subsidies are available for people living outside
The table below lists the various subsidies available.
Personal
Affiliate
Zone 1
UK, Eurozone and Europe
US$40
Zone 2
Northern America (USA, Canada)
US$ 50
US$ 100
Zone 3
Africa'& South America
US$15
US$ 25
Zone 4
Russia, Asian subcontinent,
US$ 15
US$ 25
US$ 35
US$ 60
US$ 75
Pakistan and Indonesia
Zone.5
Middle E,ist & Pacific rim, Aus & NZ
A further discount
of 50% is allowed for students.
These are the minimum
fees
payable, although we encourage everyone to pay us much of the full fee as possible,
so we can make these subsidies available to more people around the world.
To apply for membership,
fill out the form at http://www.iasym.org.