Over the past few months, we’ve maintained the Barefoot Training Articles as a way to continue the conversation around the training content. With the impending enhancements to the Immerse Journal site, we’ve decided to move the conversation. So for all of those interested in going deeper with our training content and interacting with other youth workers please checkout Immerse Journal.
Barefoot Training Articles
Participating in the Story of God 8
Barefoot Training - Thursday, June 16, 2011
As much as we would like to provide our students with everything they need for the journey in one retreat, one Bible study, or one worship experience, or as much as we would wish to summarize everything for our youth group in one cliché, one scripture verse, or one song, the Story of God paints a very different picture for us. The people of God have always been committed to the whole. In spite of living in a dominant culture of rapid remedies and quick fixes, fast food and instant gratification, we belong to the kingdom-culture, which views life as a journey, comprised of many steps and stages.
The characters with whom we share life and ministry were not women and men who went into a situation briefly and made a big splash, thus solving all the problems and answering all the questions. Instead, they were women and men who were committed to the long haul. They neither gave up when mountain tops of victory disintegrated, nor did they run away when great battles erupted in the valley. They stayed, they persisted, they continued! Why? They knew that the story of God was not something that they must complete in a day, a month, or a year. It was greater than any one single victory; it was stronger than any multitude of defeats. And ultimately, it wasn’t their story anyway--it was God’s!
As narrative God-talkers, we also are committed to the whole. We recognize that no single verse in Scripture will provide the final answer. Instead, we are committed to the full canon of Scripture. Therefore, we allow verse after verse, passage after passage, book after book to dialogue with all of the others. We allow the pleasant and simple passages of Scripture to be read, taught, and explored right alongside the more unpleasant and complex passages. As narrative God-talkers, we are not quick to make one passage fit another, but we allow Bible passages to stand side by side, and thus permit our students to see the whole, not only one piece.
Just as we are committed to the whole of Scripture, we are also committed to the whole of spiritual formation. For individual students, as well as for an entire class, we recognize and celebrate the fact that spiritual development is an ongoing process. It began before we ever stepped into our students’ lives, and it will continue far beyond our immediate ministry with them. Rather than basing all ministry upon what magnificent accomplishments can quickly be achieved, narrative God-talkers view spiritual formation from a much larger perspective. We are committed to providing students with one passage at a time, one song at a time, and one prayer at a time. We know that the God who has called us into his ministry will ultimately bring the many pieces together into a whole--a whole that extends far beyond the years of adolescence.
At the same time, we recognize the significance of every time we get together and “God-talk” with a student, whether it be after school over a soft drink, at a campground for fall retreat, in a home for an afterglow, on Wednesday evening for worship, or around the circle for Bible study. We realize that every word we speak, every song we sing, and every silent symbol we view places one more stitch into the fabric of our students’ spiritual formation.
Like every generation that has come before us, we face the great challenge of passing the faith on to the next generation. How are we to face this challenge with integrity and faithfulness? Our story already tells us how to communicate the truth of the Scriptures: ”Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut. 6:7-9, NRSV).
We face the challenge by being God-talkers, even theologians, who name God in the world of our students! How do we legitimately speak of God? Recognizing the creative power of language, we confidently and creatively articulate this alternative kingdom, this kingdom-culture, in such a way that our students actively participate in the community of God’s people, where they discover their true identity. Perhaps no greater calling is to be found than the calling to be a God-talker as we anticipate the question, “Why are those rocks there?”
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
The characters with whom we share life and ministry were not women and men who went into a situation briefly and made a big splash, thus solving all the problems and answering all the questions. Instead, they were women and men who were committed to the long haul. They neither gave up when mountain tops of victory disintegrated, nor did they run away when great battles erupted in the valley. They stayed, they persisted, they continued! Why? They knew that the story of God was not something that they must complete in a day, a month, or a year. It was greater than any one single victory; it was stronger than any multitude of defeats. And ultimately, it wasn’t their story anyway--it was God’s!
As narrative God-talkers, we also are committed to the whole. We recognize that no single verse in Scripture will provide the final answer. Instead, we are committed to the full canon of Scripture. Therefore, we allow verse after verse, passage after passage, book after book to dialogue with all of the others. We allow the pleasant and simple passages of Scripture to be read, taught, and explored right alongside the more unpleasant and complex passages. As narrative God-talkers, we are not quick to make one passage fit another, but we allow Bible passages to stand side by side, and thus permit our students to see the whole, not only one piece.
Just as we are committed to the whole of Scripture, we are also committed to the whole of spiritual formation. For individual students, as well as for an entire class, we recognize and celebrate the fact that spiritual development is an ongoing process. It began before we ever stepped into our students’ lives, and it will continue far beyond our immediate ministry with them. Rather than basing all ministry upon what magnificent accomplishments can quickly be achieved, narrative God-talkers view spiritual formation from a much larger perspective. We are committed to providing students with one passage at a time, one song at a time, and one prayer at a time. We know that the God who has called us into his ministry will ultimately bring the many pieces together into a whole--a whole that extends far beyond the years of adolescence.
At the same time, we recognize the significance of every time we get together and “God-talk” with a student, whether it be after school over a soft drink, at a campground for fall retreat, in a home for an afterglow, on Wednesday evening for worship, or around the circle for Bible study. We realize that every word we speak, every song we sing, and every silent symbol we view places one more stitch into the fabric of our students’ spiritual formation.
Like every generation that has come before us, we face the great challenge of passing the faith on to the next generation. How are we to face this challenge with integrity and faithfulness? Our story already tells us how to communicate the truth of the Scriptures: ”Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut. 6:7-9, NRSV).
We face the challenge by being God-talkers, even theologians, who name God in the world of our students! How do we legitimately speak of God? Recognizing the creative power of language, we confidently and creatively articulate this alternative kingdom, this kingdom-culture, in such a way that our students actively participate in the community of God’s people, where they discover their true identity. Perhaps no greater calling is to be found than the calling to be a God-talker as we anticipate the question, “Why are those rocks there?”
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
Participating in the Story of God 7
Barefoot Training - Thursday, June 09, 2011
As identity is shaped, character and lifestyle emerge. From the preface to the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20.2) to the outset of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5.1-16), the people of God have consistently recognized that our way of living is the direct result of who we are. And who we are is always the direct result of what God has graciously caused us to be. As narrative God-talkers, we do not seek to moralize or heap disconnected rules upon students. Rather, by inviting students to see themselves and others within the Story of God, we provide the setting where authentic character and ethic can develop and grow. As a result, lifestyle becomes a genuine fruit of identity. The life of holiness is then viewed not as what makes our students holy, but as the result of God’s gracious, mind-transforming work in their lives. The answer to the question, “What are we to do?” emerges out of the answer to the question, “Who are we?” As a result, when students confront new moral dilemmas or situations, the kingdom-identity being shaped in their lives will inform their decisions.
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
Living An Alternative Story for Extended Adolescence
Barefoot Training - Wednesday, June 08, 2011
The old push back. Someone gives you a nudge and you nudge right back.
I enjoy a good intellectual push back. An intellectual push back helps us gain insight by looking at a situation from a new perspective. It also allows for a more robust dialogue and hopefully a more faithful engagement with the world. So I welcomed Mark Oestreicher’s (Marko) recent article This is Your Brain On Adolescence: A Push Back on Accepted Views of Underdeveloped Brains in the latest issue of Immerse Journal.
I suggest that you read Marko’s article in order to get the nuance of his push back. I won’t try to interpret it hear because it won’t do justice to the article.
Extended Adolescence is Real but Doesn’t Have to Be
Extended adolescence or emerging adulthood is a description of what is some believe to be a distinct developmental stage for people in their twenties. Some practicioners in psychology are attempting to describe the unique tasks that are emerging among the current generation of twenty-somethings who are delaying marriage, career choices, and other choices associated with adulthood.
A few years ago I relocated to Kansas City from rural Ohio. For some who are in more metropolitan areas they will read that and think not much of a change. But there are significant cultural differences between a blue collar rural township (not big enough to be a town) and a metropolitan area. The transition was full of surprises not the least being the realization that extended adolescence was a real phenomenon.
In the community that I came from most youth that I knew where working part-time before the age of 16 or just after. If they didn’t work for wages they had to work on the family farm. So when I encountered extended adolescence or emerging adulthood for the first time I was pissed. There was a group of twenty-somethings who had grown up in the church that I attend in Kansas City. They seemed more interested in playing video games then being adults. They seemed happy to just coast through life on their parents dime and when I asked them about their calling to serve the Lord they responded with blank stares like the pre-teens in my previous faith community.
Now I’ve grown in the few years that I’ve been a part of their life. I’ve seen a couple of them make the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Some are taking their calling as Christ followers as central to their identity and they have accomplished the developmental tasks of adolescence.
My experience makes me believe that extended adolescence doesn’t have to be real. Despite what those writing on emerging adulthood as a new developmental stage might say I believe that this cultural norm isn’t and doesn’t have to always be as it is.
And one of the big issues for me regarding emerging adulthood is the impending social changes that will ensue if it is accepted as a norm. If the historical development of adolescence is any indication of what will happen with extended adolescence then I don’t want any part of it. Colleges will have to start offering 10 year undergraduate degrees to allow 20 year olds time to explore their interests more. The government will have to provide more money to the corporate world for the transitional period of emerging adults to adapt to corporate life. New laws will have to be created to take into special consideration the unique needs of a 28 year old as distinguished from a 33 year old. These imaginative social changes reflect much of the educational, corporate and legal changes that emerged after the acceptance of adolescence as normative. Again, I don’t think this is healthy for a society nor developing persons.
The Way Forward
Whether you agree with Marko’s push back or not, he proposes a way forward that I believe is a type of via media that all youth workers can find some agreement. Marko suggests that we live in the tension between the reality of the cultural norm of extended adolescence and the hope that it doesn’t always have to be normative. Marko explains that to live in these two tensions requires that youth workers both practice being with youth who experience extended adolescence as normative and practice guiding youth into adulthood.
Here are a list of things Marko is doing to live in the tensions of the norm of extended adolescence and being countercultural.
I just finished reading the book Consuming Youth before I read Marko’s article. They would wholeheartedly agree with Marko’s push back that extended adolescences doesn’t have to exist. They would hold that emerging adulthood is a cultural phenomenon and not a distinct psychological and physiological developmental stage.
They suggest that one way the church can respond is by being a community that focuses on vocation for youth and young adults much like Marko’s suggested countercultural actions. They suggest the church promote three destinations for youth’s participation in Christian community.
I suggest taking these tensions and possible ways forward to parents, families, teenagers and young adults in our communities. Let’s get those implicated in this conversation to respond and allow them to create the change in our faith communities and local communities. You can pass around the article for a read but here is another suggestion…
Join Marko and giving a little push back to the cultural norm of extended adolescence. God has given us all we need through Christ active in the community of believers. The church can be an alternative culture that allows, encourages, and guides youth to transition into adulthood in the faith. Let’s embrace our calling and promote a way forward for teens and young adults.
By Paul Sheneman
[1] John Berard, James Penner, and Rick Bartlett, Consuming Youth: Leading Teens Through Consumer Culture (Zondervan, 2010), 71.
[2] Ibid., 73.
I enjoy a good intellectual push back. An intellectual push back helps us gain insight by looking at a situation from a new perspective. It also allows for a more robust dialogue and hopefully a more faithful engagement with the world. So I welcomed Mark Oestreicher’s (Marko) recent article This is Your Brain On Adolescence: A Push Back on Accepted Views of Underdeveloped Brains in the latest issue of Immerse Journal.
I suggest that you read Marko’s article in order to get the nuance of his push back. I won’t try to interpret it hear because it won’t do justice to the article.
Extended Adolescence is Real but Doesn’t Have to Be
Extended adolescence or emerging adulthood is a description of what is some believe to be a distinct developmental stage for people in their twenties. Some practicioners in psychology are attempting to describe the unique tasks that are emerging among the current generation of twenty-somethings who are delaying marriage, career choices, and other choices associated with adulthood.
A few years ago I relocated to Kansas City from rural Ohio. For some who are in more metropolitan areas they will read that and think not much of a change. But there are significant cultural differences between a blue collar rural township (not big enough to be a town) and a metropolitan area. The transition was full of surprises not the least being the realization that extended adolescence was a real phenomenon.
In the community that I came from most youth that I knew where working part-time before the age of 16 or just after. If they didn’t work for wages they had to work on the family farm. So when I encountered extended adolescence or emerging adulthood for the first time I was pissed. There was a group of twenty-somethings who had grown up in the church that I attend in Kansas City. They seemed more interested in playing video games then being adults. They seemed happy to just coast through life on their parents dime and when I asked them about their calling to serve the Lord they responded with blank stares like the pre-teens in my previous faith community.
Now I’ve grown in the few years that I’ve been a part of their life. I’ve seen a couple of them make the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Some are taking their calling as Christ followers as central to their identity and they have accomplished the developmental tasks of adolescence.
My experience makes me believe that extended adolescence doesn’t have to be real. Despite what those writing on emerging adulthood as a new developmental stage might say I believe that this cultural norm isn’t and doesn’t have to always be as it is.
And one of the big issues for me regarding emerging adulthood is the impending social changes that will ensue if it is accepted as a norm. If the historical development of adolescence is any indication of what will happen with extended adolescence then I don’t want any part of it. Colleges will have to start offering 10 year undergraduate degrees to allow 20 year olds time to explore their interests more. The government will have to provide more money to the corporate world for the transitional period of emerging adults to adapt to corporate life. New laws will have to be created to take into special consideration the unique needs of a 28 year old as distinguished from a 33 year old. These imaginative social changes reflect much of the educational, corporate and legal changes that emerged after the acceptance of adolescence as normative. Again, I don’t think this is healthy for a society nor developing persons.
The Way Forward
Whether you agree with Marko’s push back or not, he proposes a way forward that I believe is a type of via media that all youth workers can find some agreement. Marko suggests that we live in the tension between the reality of the cultural norm of extended adolescence and the hope that it doesn’t always have to be normative. Marko explains that to live in these two tensions requires that youth workers both practice being with youth who experience extended adolescence as normative and practice guiding youth into adulthood.
Here are a list of things Marko is doing to live in the tensions of the norm of extended adolescence and being countercultural.
- Learn about emerging adulthood and the challenges facing teenage development
- Allow space in the church for teens to interrupt programs and to have a lack of impulse control.
- Create opportunities for teens to make decisions and allow space for those decisions to be both good and bad.
- Move away from treating teens like children (infantilization) and treat them like teenagers who are moving toward adulthood.
- Promote and create opportunities for meaningful relationships between teenagers and adults.
I just finished reading the book Consuming Youth before I read Marko’s article. They would wholeheartedly agree with Marko’s push back that extended adolescences doesn’t have to exist. They would hold that emerging adulthood is a cultural phenomenon and not a distinct psychological and physiological developmental stage.
They suggest that one way the church can respond is by being a community that focuses on vocation for youth and young adults much like Marko’s suggested countercultural actions. They suggest the church promote three destinations for youth’s participation in Christian community.
- Youth Independence: commitment to youth independence and the right to theological vocation, joyful service, and good accommodation within our faith community.
- Youth Influence: genuine opportunity for youth influence and participation in the community at large.
- Youth Resource: youth commitment, creativity, and critical thinking are viewed as resources[1]
I suggest taking these tensions and possible ways forward to parents, families, teenagers and young adults in our communities. Let’s get those implicated in this conversation to respond and allow them to create the change in our faith communities and local communities. You can pass around the article for a read but here is another suggestion…
- Send a link out to a TED talk to all involved in the youth ministry within your local church[2]http://www.ted.com/talks/kiran_bir_sethi_teaches_kids_to_take_charge.html
- Invite them to have a conversation about their view and your faith community’s view of teenagers and young adults.
- Present Marko’s tensions and three destinations for youth presented above as suggestions on a way forward.
- Challenge them to brainstorm ways that your faith community can guide teens and young adults into adulthood with faith.
- Allow all of them to implement the change in your local church.
Join Marko and giving a little push back to the cultural norm of extended adolescence. God has given us all we need through Christ active in the community of believers. The church can be an alternative culture that allows, encourages, and guides youth to transition into adulthood in the faith. Let’s embrace our calling and promote a way forward for teens and young adults.
By Paul Sheneman
[1] John Berard, James Penner, and Rick Bartlett, Consuming Youth: Leading Teens Through Consumer Culture (Zondervan, 2010), 71.
[2] Ibid., 73.
Participating in the Story of God 6
Barefoot Training - Thursday, June 02, 2011
As we participate in kingdom-culture and as we discover our connectedness to persons across all space and time, all of life begins to be viewed against the backdrop of this Kingdom. Particularly, our very identity is transformed as we see ourselves in light of the kingdom community in which we live.
The kingdom-story begins to shape us. Stories of our origins, our struggles, our victories, and our future begin to mold every aspect of who we are. Rather than measuring our identity according to the yardstick that the dominant culture uses, we increasingly see ourselves in relationship to this Kingdom. Kingdom priorities begin to inform our decisions. Kingdom values begin to shape our relationships. And kingdom hopes begin to mold our dreams.
Narrative God-talkers recognize that the formation of a student’s identity itself is at stake. The language that we are using, the kingdom-culture that we are demonstrating, and the community that we are a part of will provide the backdrop against which our students will come to understand who they are. No doubt, just as the people of God have always had ongoing competition, so will we. The industries and media of our dominant culture have a great deal at stake in shaping the identity of our students. However, we are called to the same boldness and integrity that the people of God have always demonstrated in speaking of another kingdom. Without apology, narrative God-talkers speak of a whole other way of being in this world.
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
The kingdom-story begins to shape us. Stories of our origins, our struggles, our victories, and our future begin to mold every aspect of who we are. Rather than measuring our identity according to the yardstick that the dominant culture uses, we increasingly see ourselves in relationship to this Kingdom. Kingdom priorities begin to inform our decisions. Kingdom values begin to shape our relationships. And kingdom hopes begin to mold our dreams.
Narrative God-talkers recognize that the formation of a student’s identity itself is at stake. The language that we are using, the kingdom-culture that we are demonstrating, and the community that we are a part of will provide the backdrop against which our students will come to understand who they are. No doubt, just as the people of God have always had ongoing competition, so will we. The industries and media of our dominant culture have a great deal at stake in shaping the identity of our students. However, we are called to the same boldness and integrity that the people of God have always demonstrated in speaking of another kingdom. Without apology, narrative God-talkers speak of a whole other way of being in this world.
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
Response to the Poetic Echo
Barefoot Training - Tuesday, May 31, 2011
When I was a teenager, my dad and I sat in the woods for hours hunting. Those long hours of silence and whispered conversations reaped less food for our family than they did memorable times with my father. He often talked about beauty and the sense of amazement he felt being in the forest. Our conversations led me to accept that there was a greater reality than I could name at work in our world.
That same sense of wonder and amazement resonates in “The Poetic Echo,” by Jeremy Steele. Jeremy narrates his continuous encounter with God through poetry and science. He puts to words the reality of the thoroughness of God in God’s creation that is helpful both for youth worker and youth.
Jeremy suggests that the church’s practice of youth ministry include training youth “to live in the awareness that we cannot escape the presence of God.” Leaning into a theological conviction born from practical theological reflection, he articulates a doctrine of general revelation that emphasizes the graciousness of God’s self-disclosure to all in and through creation and the humanities. He contrasts this with the articulation of mountaintop events or programs in the church that are depended on for the self-disclosure of the divine.
We need to teach youth that God can be found both in the eventfulness of life and in the ordinary. I come from a tradition that has had on ongoing dialogue regarding the event versus process in the growth of faith. The conclusion I have come to is that it is not an either/or but a both/and reality. There is a whole process of preparation that opens people up to an experience of the divine in the movement toward an event like camp. There is also the reality that the thoroughness of God in God’s creation is a reality that awaits us each and every day.
Let’s find a way to embrace events in the lives of youth and in the lives of our faith communities in such a way that we prepare for new encounters with God as we daily encounter God. Let us emphasize ordinary faith practices in our preparation. Let’s expect God to show up during the event. Then let’s move out from the event, continuing to emphasize ordinary faith practices that sustain our relation to God.
Let’s also practice the sacredness of all of life with youth. From our daily conversations with them to our stories of encountering God, let’s share stories of how God continually reveals himself to us. Let’s become aware of the divide between the secular and sacred that still exists in the North American context and work to counter that assumption with youth.
In the end, I agree with Jeremy that God is everywhere. May the Spirit awaken us to this reality.
By Paul Sheneman
That same sense of wonder and amazement resonates in “The Poetic Echo,” by Jeremy Steele. Jeremy narrates his continuous encounter with God through poetry and science. He puts to words the reality of the thoroughness of God in God’s creation that is helpful both for youth worker and youth.
Jeremy suggests that the church’s practice of youth ministry include training youth “to live in the awareness that we cannot escape the presence of God.” Leaning into a theological conviction born from practical theological reflection, he articulates a doctrine of general revelation that emphasizes the graciousness of God’s self-disclosure to all in and through creation and the humanities. He contrasts this with the articulation of mountaintop events or programs in the church that are depended on for the self-disclosure of the divine.
We need to teach youth that God can be found both in the eventfulness of life and in the ordinary. I come from a tradition that has had on ongoing dialogue regarding the event versus process in the growth of faith. The conclusion I have come to is that it is not an either/or but a both/and reality. There is a whole process of preparation that opens people up to an experience of the divine in the movement toward an event like camp. There is also the reality that the thoroughness of God in God’s creation is a reality that awaits us each and every day.
Let’s find a way to embrace events in the lives of youth and in the lives of our faith communities in such a way that we prepare for new encounters with God as we daily encounter God. Let us emphasize ordinary faith practices in our preparation. Let’s expect God to show up during the event. Then let’s move out from the event, continuing to emphasize ordinary faith practices that sustain our relation to God.
Let’s also practice the sacredness of all of life with youth. From our daily conversations with them to our stories of encountering God, let’s share stories of how God continually reveals himself to us. Let’s become aware of the divide between the secular and sacred that still exists in the North American context and work to counter that assumption with youth.
In the end, I agree with Jeremy that God is everywhere. May the Spirit awaken us to this reality.
By Paul Sheneman
Participating in the Story of God 5
Barefoot Training - Thursday, May 26, 2011
As students become active participants in something larger than themselves, they will soon discover that they have become part of a group of people that extends far beyond themselves. They have become a part of a community. Having abandoned the spectator stands where individualism runs rampant, students step onto a stage and into a story where deciding whether or not to share life with other characters is not even an option. No monologues occur on this stage! Community is essential. Narrative God-talkers particularly appreciate the need for authentic community formation. From programs that are planned to messages that are given, from songs that are sung to ministry opportunities that are provided, our language and actions will reflect the central conviction that God has always been creating and continues to create a people, not isolated superheroes! The language of I, me, and my will give way to the language of we, us, and our. Certainly, the place of the individual is not rejected, but it is viewed in relationship to the entire body (1 Corinthians 12.27). Students will come to see themselves in relation to the grand community to which they belong.
Throughout the history of the people of God, this authentic community has consisted of both peers and mentors. A youth ministry that invites students to participate in kingdom life will seek to connect them to both peers and mentors. On the one hand, persons who share common joys, fears, dreams, and disappointments will have the opportunity to celebrate, grieve, pray, learn, and dream together. Gatherings of celebration, worship, study, and accountability will intentionally connect students to their peers.
On the other hand, trusted and experienced persons who can “point to the stones” and describe their meaning have always been invaluable members of the people of God. These persons are no less significant today. We can and should provide opportunities for students to share life with women and men who witness to the faithfulness of God in the joys, fears, dreams, and disappointments of their journeys.
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
Throughout the history of the people of God, this authentic community has consisted of both peers and mentors. A youth ministry that invites students to participate in kingdom life will seek to connect them to both peers and mentors. On the one hand, persons who share common joys, fears, dreams, and disappointments will have the opportunity to celebrate, grieve, pray, learn, and dream together. Gatherings of celebration, worship, study, and accountability will intentionally connect students to their peers.
On the other hand, trusted and experienced persons who can “point to the stones” and describe their meaning have always been invaluable members of the people of God. These persons are no less significant today. We can and should provide opportunities for students to share life with women and men who witness to the faithfulness of God in the joys, fears, dreams, and disappointments of their journeys.
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
Participating in the Story of God 4
Barefoot Training - Thursday, May 19, 2011
After we discover that we are citizens of this alternative world, this kingdom-culture, we will come to realize that we are not merely observers of an ancient event; we are participants in a present event. A narrative God-talker will invite students to come down from the “spectator’s balcony” and to step onto the stage, thereby becoming a part of the great drama itself. As a student finds herself living within kingdom-culture, she will recognize that she is a participant in something much larger than herself. She is presently a part of the great drama of God!
Such participation provides a sense of connectedness, not only to other persons who are presently citizens of this kingdom, but also to all of those persons who have come before and to all of those who will follow. Students come to recognize and celebrate that they have been caught up in something that extends in time far beyond themselves. This kingdom is not simply a new fad that has recently dropped out of the sky. Therefore, rather than rejecting tradition, students celebrate that their very identities are found within the greater context of that tradition. They are intricately connected to what has come before!
Not only does such participation provide connectedness to persons of other times, it also provides connectedness to persons of other locations. Rather than being suspicious of other ethnic, racial, or language groups, our students celebrate their differences within a kingdom that knows no ethnic, racial, language, or gender boundaries. We are connected around the globe!
One of the most consistent ways in which the people of God have celebrated and made visible their participation in kingdom-culture is by marking time in a unique way. From our earliest ancestors, we have lived our lives according to special days, seasons, and times. Our Hebrew ancestors marked time according to God’s great acts at the Red Sea (Passover and Unleavened Bread), at Mount Sinai (Festival of Weeks/Pentecost), and in the Wilderness (Festival of Tabernacles). Early on, our Christian ancestors began to mark time according to the events in the life of Jesus. All we have ever known as the people of God is to mark time according to the great activities of God in the life of His people. One tool to help us with marking this time is the Christian calendar.
As our young people are encouraged to order their lives according to time as shown by the Christian calendar, they increasingly come to understand the meaning of participation in Christ. Kingdom-culture is heard, seen, felt, tasted, and known as they creatively participate in the great events of the anticipation, birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, the call to active participation not only provides connectedness to other persons across space and time, but ultimately it provides connectedness to what God himself has been and is doing. Being caught up “in Christ,” the people of God come to recognize, appreciate, and celebrate that we are literally participants in the ministry and work of God on earth. Rather than a student discovering her own ministry, she comes to discover her unique place within the ministry of Jesus Christ as He continues to carry out His work in the world. Rather than God simply coming into the individual student, the individual student realizes and celebrates that she is being caught up in Christ himself and in the ministry of Christ.
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
Such participation provides a sense of connectedness, not only to other persons who are presently citizens of this kingdom, but also to all of those persons who have come before and to all of those who will follow. Students come to recognize and celebrate that they have been caught up in something that extends in time far beyond themselves. This kingdom is not simply a new fad that has recently dropped out of the sky. Therefore, rather than rejecting tradition, students celebrate that their very identities are found within the greater context of that tradition. They are intricately connected to what has come before!
Not only does such participation provide connectedness to persons of other times, it also provides connectedness to persons of other locations. Rather than being suspicious of other ethnic, racial, or language groups, our students celebrate their differences within a kingdom that knows no ethnic, racial, language, or gender boundaries. We are connected around the globe!
One of the most consistent ways in which the people of God have celebrated and made visible their participation in kingdom-culture is by marking time in a unique way. From our earliest ancestors, we have lived our lives according to special days, seasons, and times. Our Hebrew ancestors marked time according to God’s great acts at the Red Sea (Passover and Unleavened Bread), at Mount Sinai (Festival of Weeks/Pentecost), and in the Wilderness (Festival of Tabernacles). Early on, our Christian ancestors began to mark time according to the events in the life of Jesus. All we have ever known as the people of God is to mark time according to the great activities of God in the life of His people. One tool to help us with marking this time is the Christian calendar.
As our young people are encouraged to order their lives according to time as shown by the Christian calendar, they increasingly come to understand the meaning of participation in Christ. Kingdom-culture is heard, seen, felt, tasted, and known as they creatively participate in the great events of the anticipation, birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, the call to active participation not only provides connectedness to other persons across space and time, but ultimately it provides connectedness to what God himself has been and is doing. Being caught up “in Christ,” the people of God come to recognize, appreciate, and celebrate that we are literally participants in the ministry and work of God on earth. Rather than a student discovering her own ministry, she comes to discover her unique place within the ministry of Jesus Christ as He continues to carry out His work in the world. Rather than God simply coming into the individual student, the individual student realizes and celebrates that she is being caught up in Christ himself and in the ministry of Christ.
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
Emotionalism in Youth Ministry
Barefoot Training - Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Great article (Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship by Jon Wasson in Immerse Journal) and great thoughts. What I have also found linked with radicalism is emotionalism; that somehow the level of emotion that one experiences in their worship, prayer, testimonies, etc, is an accurate gauge of our discipleship and growth as believers.
I speak as one who was quite susceptible to this as a teenager in the youth ministry. Discipleship was about who generated the greatest emotional response to a sermon, music set, at a retreat, an alter call, and so on. One particular night I remember my youth pastor challenging us during a time of corporate confession around a fire to "not hold back and be real before Jesus." As students began to share, I was well aware of my sin and didn't want to 'hide my sin from Jesus.' So, as a 17 year old teenager I shamefully admitted to everyone my battle with lust in front of a group that consisted partially of 12 year old girls. While I believed I was being obedient at the time, I look back at the whole experience and cringe, even though what I shared was definitely the most 'radical.'
Fast forward several years and I find myself as a youth minister. My first year at my church, we attended 'Acquire the Fire' because "that is what our youth group did every year before you became our youth pastor." With the help of smoke machines, loud bands, and youth speakers who can tell gripping stories, ATF has mastered the skill of evoking an emotional response from teenagers. And just like all highs, it is and was just a matter of time until the crash. My church no longer attends ATF. Every once in awhile a parent or student will come up to me and ask why we don't go anymore or why other churches go and we don't. While my response obviously varies depending on who is doing the asking, my most common response is, "Because discipleship is a marathon... It is a daily decision and a daily directing of our paths toward Christ and in general, I believe ATF suggests something different."
Up until just a year or so ago, I experienced quite a bit of guilt and shame when I would compare our student ministry with that of the one I was a part of during my teenage years. I remember the emotion filled testimonies... I remember worshiping with my peers... I remember some great retreats that we went on together. Honestly, I don't see that as much with the youth ministry at my current church. However, what I have begun to see is something that has less highs and lows and something that appears to be more true and lasting. I have concluded that emotion/emotional response is not something to be avoided, however, it must not be abused in order to evoke an emotional response, which is manipulation.
By Jay McPherson
Radicalism in Youth Ministry
Barefoot Training - Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Jon Wasson takes aim at the ideal of radicalism in youth ministry in his recent article for Immerse Journal, “Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship: Reframing the Language of Radicalism in Adolescent Contexts.” Jon, via Bonhoeffer, is concerned with the rhetoric of radicalism and the ideology of radicalism in youth ministry because it shifts the orientation of discipleship away from Christ. I value Jon’s contribution to the theological practice of youth ministry and took it up in my own reflections and engagement with youth.
Personal Reflections
My first impression upon reading Jon’s article was doubt. I wondered if Jon just created a straw man here. The reason for such a reaction was that I haven’t knowingly been part of a youth ministry that used the explicit language of radical as Jon presented. So I started searching for how pervasive this rhetoric is in the youth ministry blogosphere and on church websites. After about 30 minutes of searching, I was sold on Jon’s characterization.
Upon further reflection, I believe I too was exposed to a certain ideology by my faith community. My rural, conservative and fundamentalist introduction into the body of Christ exposed me to a super-Christian ideology that reflects some of the characteristics of Jon’s radicalism.
I was 17 and listening to a teenage girl talk about her extreme act of trusting God. In a small, country church, she explained how she hadn’t thought it was possible for God to provide the money for her to go to Guatemala. She shared stories of tribal-like people groups being converted to faith in Jesus by simple Sunday school lessons. She painted a picture of the impossible situation of giving up a whole summer, spending a lot of weekends in preparation, praying daily for unknown people and finally seeing God transform lives by the power of the proclaimed Word. Having recently been converted to faith in Jesus Christ, her story quickly became my image of being a radical Christian.
That rural community of believers taught me that the point of the Christian life was to move hundreds of miles away from home and make a huge impact in a foreign land for Christ. The entry point into that way of life was short-term missions. If you chose not to go on a short-term mission trip, then you were choosing to live a common Christian life. The role of the common Christian life was to support the super-Christians in other lands through money and prayer. And to ensure that we had effective prayers, we were to rigidly keep the rules of holy living found in our literal reading of the Scriptures and our community’s rules for Christian living.
This type of ideology is what Jon writes against. Jon asserts that “what student ministry has done with its abuse of radical terminology” is to create “an ideal social dream for students instead of calling them to encounter the living Christ.” This critique follows his reading of Bonhoffer’s ideology of Christian brotherhood. And ultimately, the critique is that to set up any “end other than the person of Christ is to create an ideal as an ultimate reality.”
What Jon’s critical theological reading of youth ministry reveals for me is that youth workers both explicitly and implicitly adopt ideologies in order to communicate the gospel in relevant ways. This is nothing new for the church, though. My personal reflection mirrors much of what I found out there in terms of radicalism in youth ministry. The foreign missionary was my community’s image of radical Christianity. It was communicated as a life of total self-sacrifice for God, extreme focus on the gospel in every aspect of life and overflowing with the miraculous, transformative presence of God in the world. For others, it may be radicalism or another ideology that has taken the place of Christ as the ultimate reality.
The radical idea (pun intended) that Jon puts forth is that we marry our idea of radical with a particular concept of ordinary. The ordinary radical in Jon’s proposal is his way of saying a disciple of Jesus Christ. The true disciple carries the cross each and every day. In other words, Jon wants us to stop modifying Christian and embrace the gospel as a call to death.
From Deconstruction to Construction
So what?
That’s the question I ask in my head when someone deconstructs something. What I’m typically asking myself is, So what am I supposed to do about this? The following are two practical movements following Jon’s critique of radicalism in youth ministry.
Evaluate
Let’s begin exploring the reality of our use of radicalism in youth ministry. The pitfalls Jon points out serve as a great rubric in order to engage in the process of discovery.
1. Do we make radicalism the end of Christian transformation?
This is a big-picture question, and we have a lot of places in youth ministry where we can subtly paint this picture. In our preaching and teaching times, we can communicate that the ultimate goal of the work of God in our lives is for us to become radical. This typically comes when we illustrate the ideal Christian teen living out radical faith. We don’t always communicate that what we mean by “radical faith” is simply Christian faith.
We also paint the big picture in the art and images in our worship spaces. Specifically, I think of those youth rooms that are plastered with blockbuster movies that communicate the message of radicalism. Comic book movies, the underdog sports icons, the passionate acts of redemption—all communicate that what we are called to is extreme acts of witness and not the ordinary acts of witness in the world.
2. Do we create positions of power through our use of radicalism in youth ministry?
This point for me is about inside and outside language within the Christian narrative. I first encountered it when a person taught me to distinguish between “real Christians” and “cultural Christians.” What the person meant was well meaning, but what I learned was that some believers are on the inside with Jesus and some are on the outside.
Messed up, right?
This is what a power structure does. It gives one part of the community—radical Christians—the ability to dictate what following Jesus is about to another part of the community—non-radical Christians.
3. Do we exploit students in our language of radicalism?
We can do this in our personal counseling of youth or in our invitations to make decisions about life and faith with youth. We can make statements that play on adolescents’ developmental and cultural impulse for risk taking. We can pump them up with high-energy activities and games then ask them to make radical commitments of faith.
Discover
Engage students with the whole concept of radical in order to discern if they have received radicalism rather than the gospel of Jesus.
Click here to download a lesson guide to explore radicalism with your students.
Youth workers need to explore the critiques that Jon’s article proposes. This is not to assert that Jon has entirely figured out the issue of radicalism but rather to suggest that we need to discern whether we are staying faithful to Jesus in our life together. It is in exploring the economy of our life with youth that I hope will reveal ways we can grow in our faithfulness to Jesus Christ.
By Paul Sheneman
Personal Reflections
My first impression upon reading Jon’s article was doubt. I wondered if Jon just created a straw man here. The reason for such a reaction was that I haven’t knowingly been part of a youth ministry that used the explicit language of radical as Jon presented. So I started searching for how pervasive this rhetoric is in the youth ministry blogosphere and on church websites. After about 30 minutes of searching, I was sold on Jon’s characterization.
Upon further reflection, I believe I too was exposed to a certain ideology by my faith community. My rural, conservative and fundamentalist introduction into the body of Christ exposed me to a super-Christian ideology that reflects some of the characteristics of Jon’s radicalism.
I was 17 and listening to a teenage girl talk about her extreme act of trusting God. In a small, country church, she explained how she hadn’t thought it was possible for God to provide the money for her to go to Guatemala. She shared stories of tribal-like people groups being converted to faith in Jesus by simple Sunday school lessons. She painted a picture of the impossible situation of giving up a whole summer, spending a lot of weekends in preparation, praying daily for unknown people and finally seeing God transform lives by the power of the proclaimed Word. Having recently been converted to faith in Jesus Christ, her story quickly became my image of being a radical Christian.
That rural community of believers taught me that the point of the Christian life was to move hundreds of miles away from home and make a huge impact in a foreign land for Christ. The entry point into that way of life was short-term missions. If you chose not to go on a short-term mission trip, then you were choosing to live a common Christian life. The role of the common Christian life was to support the super-Christians in other lands through money and prayer. And to ensure that we had effective prayers, we were to rigidly keep the rules of holy living found in our literal reading of the Scriptures and our community’s rules for Christian living.
This type of ideology is what Jon writes against. Jon asserts that “what student ministry has done with its abuse of radical terminology” is to create “an ideal social dream for students instead of calling them to encounter the living Christ.” This critique follows his reading of Bonhoffer’s ideology of Christian brotherhood. And ultimately, the critique is that to set up any “end other than the person of Christ is to create an ideal as an ultimate reality.”
What Jon’s critical theological reading of youth ministry reveals for me is that youth workers both explicitly and implicitly adopt ideologies in order to communicate the gospel in relevant ways. This is nothing new for the church, though. My personal reflection mirrors much of what I found out there in terms of radicalism in youth ministry. The foreign missionary was my community’s image of radical Christianity. It was communicated as a life of total self-sacrifice for God, extreme focus on the gospel in every aspect of life and overflowing with the miraculous, transformative presence of God in the world. For others, it may be radicalism or another ideology that has taken the place of Christ as the ultimate reality.
The radical idea (pun intended) that Jon puts forth is that we marry our idea of radical with a particular concept of ordinary. The ordinary radical in Jon’s proposal is his way of saying a disciple of Jesus Christ. The true disciple carries the cross each and every day. In other words, Jon wants us to stop modifying Christian and embrace the gospel as a call to death.
From Deconstruction to Construction
So what?
That’s the question I ask in my head when someone deconstructs something. What I’m typically asking myself is, So what am I supposed to do about this? The following are two practical movements following Jon’s critique of radicalism in youth ministry.
Evaluate
Let’s begin exploring the reality of our use of radicalism in youth ministry. The pitfalls Jon points out serve as a great rubric in order to engage in the process of discovery.
1. Do we make radicalism the end of Christian transformation?
This is a big-picture question, and we have a lot of places in youth ministry where we can subtly paint this picture. In our preaching and teaching times, we can communicate that the ultimate goal of the work of God in our lives is for us to become radical. This typically comes when we illustrate the ideal Christian teen living out radical faith. We don’t always communicate that what we mean by “radical faith” is simply Christian faith.
We also paint the big picture in the art and images in our worship spaces. Specifically, I think of those youth rooms that are plastered with blockbuster movies that communicate the message of radicalism. Comic book movies, the underdog sports icons, the passionate acts of redemption—all communicate that what we are called to is extreme acts of witness and not the ordinary acts of witness in the world.
2. Do we create positions of power through our use of radicalism in youth ministry?
This point for me is about inside and outside language within the Christian narrative. I first encountered it when a person taught me to distinguish between “real Christians” and “cultural Christians.” What the person meant was well meaning, but what I learned was that some believers are on the inside with Jesus and some are on the outside.
Messed up, right?
This is what a power structure does. It gives one part of the community—radical Christians—the ability to dictate what following Jesus is about to another part of the community—non-radical Christians.
3. Do we exploit students in our language of radicalism?
We can do this in our personal counseling of youth or in our invitations to make decisions about life and faith with youth. We can make statements that play on adolescents’ developmental and cultural impulse for risk taking. We can pump them up with high-energy activities and games then ask them to make radical commitments of faith.
Discover
Engage students with the whole concept of radical in order to discern if they have received radicalism rather than the gospel of Jesus.
Click here to download a lesson guide to explore radicalism with your students.
Youth workers need to explore the critiques that Jon’s article proposes. This is not to assert that Jon has entirely figured out the issue of radicalism but rather to suggest that we need to discern whether we are staying faithful to Jesus in our life together. It is in exploring the economy of our life with youth that I hope will reveal ways we can grow in our faithfulness to Jesus Christ.
By Paul Sheneman
Archive
Subscribe to Barefoot Training Articles by Email
Tags
student ministry youth worker training NYWC christian education youth culture barefoot ministries faith formation missional youth ministry youth worker Immerse christian formation small group Family youth formation formation teen culture youth ministry U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey youth pastor Pew Research small group leader missional community narrative youth ministry youth ministry training youth workers training barefoot training
We encourage you to explore our workshops and find out how you can join or host a training in your community.
Read what we've been thinking lately
Barefoot Training is designed to inspire, challenge, and equip you to guide your students into Christian formation for the mission of God. Each training experience offers an interactive environment where you are able to design, create, and nurture a biblically based, Christ-centered youth ministry in your church and community.
Comments
what are pay day loans ,GbXmEWDy, http://paydayloansnohassle0543.paydayloansl243.com i have multiple payday loans, :-o,
cash advances fast cash advances ,72852, http://noteletrackpaydayloans614483.paydayloansl243.com we need money for food, MlHZgXTIwMfVNJc,
comments on internet payday jobs ,81490, http://actualpaydayloanlenders08139.paydayloansl243.com payday payroll services orange ca, 60852,
cash loans ,:-(, http://quickinstantcashloansadvance.co.uk quick cash, 61695,
quick payday loans ,30213, http://quickinstantcashloansadvance.co.uk quick payday loans, <(^.^)>,
quick loans ,|:-{)~, http://quickinstantcashloansadvance.co.uk quick cash loans, T_T,
quick payday loans ,:*-(, http://quickinstantcashloansadvance.co.uk instant cash loans, |:-),
payday loans uk ,jBUDFtK, http://fastpaydayloanssuk.co.uk uk payday loans, *<<<<+,
same day loans ,YOrHVtOfjYc, http://fastpaydayloanssuk.co.uk short term loans, >:-),
fast loans ,/* *, http://fastpaydayloanssuk.co.uk fast loans, 95519,
instant payday loans ,8<:-), http://fastpaydayloanssuk.co.uk fast payday loans, rtAKjMyP,
loans online ,<<>,=.,]-, http://quickfastonlineloans.com online loans, :-<>
no credit check loans ,27908, http://quickfastonlineloans.com quick loans, gZRHCXLoIOqRn,
online loans ,22423, http://quickfastonlineloans.com direct payday lenders, gpuHEnxv,
same day loans ,OlbBVXOgCKV, http://quickfastonlineloans.com direct payday lenders, 64926,
payday loans online ,:@), http://paydayloans0.co.uk payday loan, (-_-),
payday loans online ,NzVHEck, http://paydayloans0.co.uk paydayloans, ><(((">,
payday loans ottawa ,;), http://ppaydayloans.ca payday loans canada, :-S,
pay day loans ,:-%, http://ppaydayloans.ca online loans, *:o),
loans ,(8>/--<, http://ppaydayloans.ca pay day loans, *:o),
payday loans online ,pGokWFzXGPolZzz, http://paydayloans0.co.uk payday loans online, (-:,
payday loans edmonton ,:), http://ppaydayloans.ca payday loans online, ;->,
pay day loans ,26065, http://paydayloanss.ca pay day loans, 17607,
payday loans ,9053, http://paydayloanss.ca paydayloans, 8-|,
bad credit loans ,26168, http://paydayloanss.ca payday loans canada, 94363,
payday loans ottawa ,16079, http://paydayloanss.ca online loans, 8:^),