Contents
Nov/Dec 2004
Finding hope in Kate’s Closet Janice Shaw Crouse reports on a fantastic ministry to former inmates
Renew: A woman’s voice for renewal Ruth A. Burgner celebrates the fifteenth anniversary of the Renew Network
Entrepreneurial faith Kirbyjon Caldwell and Walt Kallestad call for launching bold initiatives
The populist roots of Methodism J. Steven O’Malley reviews Riley B. Case’s book Evangelical and Methodist
Reuniting art and faith Jen Waters explains about an innovative new program at Fuller Seminary
Journaling: Breathing space in the spiritual journey Jan Johnson encourages us to write as a spiritual discipline
James Arminius and Christian freedom George Mitrovich heralds a great father of the faith
COLUMNS
Editorial An episcopal charge to keep
The Next Generation Youth ministry in adolescence
Renew Women’s Network It’s our 15th birthday!
The Great Commission Bridges to transformed lives
From the Heart Season’s greetings
DEPARTMENTS
News Are mainline churches anti-Semitic?
Court rules Fresno church may keep its property
God and man at Harvard: Dinner with Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis
Bishop orders new hearing in lesbian case
Texas church ropes in cowboys at Arena church
Film focus: Hilary Duff raises her voice
Vicar turns fantasy writer
One of the prominent church stereotypes is the wild and crazy youth worker, agelessly young, riotously unpredictable, and hopelessly immature.
Like all stereotypes, it has some basis in truth. But, it doesn't begin to do justice to the thousands of youth ministry volunteers and professionals with whom I have come in contact with throughout my years in youth work. There are full-time youth ministry "lifers" who have been working with kids for twenty to thirty years and there are volunteer "mom and pop" youth leaders who love kids because they love Jesus. Honestly, sometimes when I am around these people, I am absolutely awed and inspired.
Unfortunately, there are other times when I look around at the youth ministry landscape and I begin to wonder if the inmates are running the asylum. That has me concerned.
In the last issue of Good News, we began talking about a disturbing trend that I have come to see in the culture of youth ministry: it is a culture that seems not only to work with adolescents, but wishes to become adolescent. Let's continue to think about how this gets played out.
Living in the moment. I love the fact that our persona as youth workers is often marked by a willingness to be creative and entrepreneurial. Tradition and history can become idolatrous (cf. Matthew 15:2). We all know people in our congregations who are still trying to cling to an empty ritual or to an experience that happened "years ago when I was justified, sanctified, and petrified." That kind of backward look is unhealthy for the Church, and unattractive to our students who seek a faith that is real in the present.
But, as G.K. Chesterton pointed out, "Tradition is the democracy of the dead." Merely outvoting the experiences and ideas of those who have gone before us just because they are dead puts us in a position of dangerous arrogance. When we blow off the voices of history and tradition as un-hip and old, we sound like adolescents who are so unaware of how much we don't know.
It all reminds me of someone who, having never been on a beach before, might describe his first experience of high tide. "Quick, move the town, evacuate the beach, relocate the church! A flood is coming!" I would say, "It's okay, dude. Just sit tight. I've been here on the beach a while, and this tide will go back out, and it will come back in, and it will go back out. If we keep relocating with every tide, we're not going to have much of a foundation."
I am concerned that in our youth ministry culture there is the same kind of adolescent arrogance that thirty years ago led to the maxim, "Never trust anyone over thirty." Today, it's, "Never trust anyone who doesn't define himself as postmodern." Unfortunately, that kind of narrow chronological and ideological landscape leaves us vulnerable to momentary fads and fashions.
The current youth ministry culture seems more inclined to action than reflection. One of the reasons I love teenagers is they demonstrate a capacity for passion and action that sometimes gets drained and stifled by adulthood. I love that willingness to "go for it." The downside is that sometimes that adolescent mind-set leads kids to "go" before they figure out what "it" is.
I admire the fact that the youth ministry culture is predisposed to action. We don't have much of an appetite for theoretical discussions and position papers. Our survival as youth workers is based on our ability to go with the flow and think on our feet. That makes for an environment of excitement and adventure. But, I'm concerned that sometimes, with our predisposition to action, we demonstrate an adolescent disinterest in things that are very important, but do not happen to be very exciting or interesting.
For example, in a recent breakfast meeting with some other youth workers, one of my friends at the table commented, "I hate systematic theology. I just think it's a waste of time." I was a little taken aback. That's like a middle school kid saying, "Why do we need to take these stupid math classes? I know how to add. And besides, I'm going to start my own skateboard company when I grow up."
Maybe one of the reasons we in youth ministry don't attribute more value to systematic theology is that we aren't systematic theologians and we don't know much about it. We're like monkeys in the cockpit throwing out dials and knobs because they aren't edible. The problem is that those gauges and switches of systematic theology come in handy when trying to set the course or land the plane. In the current youth ministry culture-the books we read, the conventions we attend, the realm in which we do our professional work-we rarely hear the voice of trained, studied theologians. And even though it won't help us with this week's retreat, or next week's outreach event, and-oh yeah, it's not very "edgy"-that voice might help us to better stay on course.
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