Barefoot Training Articles

Moving the Conversation

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:59:00 GMT

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.

By Paul Sheneman

Participating in the Story of God 8

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:58:00 GMT

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.

Participating in the Story of God 7

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:57:00 GMT

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.

Living An Alternative Story for Extended Adolescence

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:24:00 GMT

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.

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.

A Conversation Partner on the Way Forward

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]

An Exercise For Youth Workers

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.

Conclusion

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

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:54:00 GMT

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.

Response to the Poetic Echo

Tue, 24 May 2011 20:50:00 GMT

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

Participating in the Story of God 5

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:53:00 GMT

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.

Participating in the Story of God 4

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:52:00 GMT

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.

Radicalism in Youth Ministry

Sat, 14 May 2011 02:46:00 GMT

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

Emotionalism in Youth Ministry

Wed, 18 May 2011 15:29:00 GMT

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

Participating in the Story of God 3

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:52:00 GMT

At the heart of being a narrative God-talker is the understanding that this language we use ultimately speaks of another world, even another culture. As the writer to the Hebrews (chapter 11) clearly understood, we also embrace the reality that we are “strangers and foreigners on the earth.” While we reside in this world, our “citizenship” belongs to another kingdom. We live within kingdom-culture, and every time we engage in ministry with our students, they are becoming accepted into that kingdom-culture.

Under the legitimate name of evangelism, we can all too easily succumb to the temptation to “package” the Kingdom of God in the language and values of our society’s dominant culture. However, kingdom-culture is not simply a survival tactic for living in our dominant culture, but rather, it is a whole other way of being. That is why we boldly call our young people to find their identity, their values, their language, their priorities, even their very existence within this unique alternative kingdom.

At the same time, narrative God-talkers recognize that living in kingdom-culture is not a matter of alienating or even withdrawing ourselves from the world in which we live. Indeed, Jesus himself did not pray that His followers be removed from the dominant culture, but that we be protected from its evil power (John 17.15). Discovering our true identity and very existence within the alternative world of the Kingdom of God, the people of God then step back into the world and dominant culture. However, we step into that world with “Kingdom lenses.” Life in the dominant culture, with all of its relationships, decisions, and dreams is then viewed from the perspective of the Kingdom.

By Tim Green

This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.

5 Important Roles in Youth Ministry

Mon, 09 May 2011 14:56:00 GMT

One key area of any community is the roles that people play. In youth ministry many youth leaders must come to grips with the reality that they cannot fill every role. What we need to realize is that every person in our community, from volunteer leader to new student, plays a unique role or set of roles.

Roles may be formal like the small group leader or they may be informal like a motivator during an activity. Either way, it is helpful to get an imagination for who is playing what roles in order to encourage talents and gifts.

5 Important Roles in Youth Ministry*
Consumer: One who looks for and uses lessons, activities, events and social connections.

Creator: One who creates, shares, improves the lessons and leads or fuels discussions.

Connector: One who helps others to understand and get connected to others and activities.

Carrier: One who takes the groups way of life to other groups through various forms of communication (personal relationships, media, technology, etc.)

Caretaker: One who cares for the needs of the group (remembers B-days, visits those who are sick, counsels those who have a conflict, etc.)

Calling Youth through Roles

As you think about each person involved in your community and the roles that they have played and continue to play, the next step is to think about how you can encourage their gifts and talents through these roles. As youth and youth leaders get connected to their gifts and talents in meaningful ways they will be able to get a sense of purpose or calling. They will be more likely to see the value of their participation in the life of a community of Jesus followers and so form an identity in Christ.

What other roles exist in youth ministry?

How can we encourage youth to use their gifts and talents?

By Paul Sheneman
*Adaptation of Key Social Learning Roles

Participating in the Story of God 2

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:48:00 GMT

Throughout our history, the people of God have understood and appreciated the powerful nature of language, whether spoken, sung, or non-verbal. As a culture that spans all ethnic, racial, and gender groups, kingdom-culture has always had a peculiar language—a language of grace rather than achievement, hope rather than despair, wholeness rather than brokenness, and self-giving love rather than self-serving power. This language seldom “fits” into the dominant world culture; rather it stands in sharp contrast to that culture.

Because words and symbols have an amazingly creative power, narrative God-talkers carefully choose meaningful ways to speak about God to students. The words we speak shape a world in which students will find their identity and will eventually view all of life. Therefore, we select words that are deliberate and purposeful. Because we understand the powerful and creative nature of words, the language we use in messages, songs, Bible studies, and counseling sessions is always purposeful and consistent with what it means to be kingdom-culture people.

As specific words and phrases are often repeated, they become signs of our connectedness to God and to each other when we gather and reminders of our identity when we scatter. Therefore, we deliberately develop a vocabulary in which we communicate and celebrate who we are. As we come together, we frequently join our voices in the well-known kingdom prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, and we recite commonly-known ancient confessions. By doing this, we recall who we are as well as the connectedness we share with each other and with those who came before us.

Rather than a vocabulary of exclusiveness that keeps outsiders on the outside, the very nature of the language we use invites others to become active participants as well. Prayers, confessions, phrases of identification, and songs are never intended to be secret, hidden “code words” for insiders. Instead, our words and actions are always carried out so that new members might readily be accepted into the kingdom-culture. At the same time, however, the people of God do not refrain from the unique language of the kingdom under the guise of inclusiveness. Simply adapting the language and symbols of the dominant culture at the expense of kingdom-culture compromises the uniqueness of this Kingdom. For the people of God, kingdom-culture never becomes overshadowed and hidden by the language, symbols, priorities, and values of the dominant culture in which we live.

Just as we recognize the creative power of spoken language, the people of God have also understood and celebrated the power of non-verbal communication. Whether it be a pile of stones, a stained-glass window, a cross, or a poster, the people of God have always sought creatively to place non-verbal symbols in front of their young, anticipating those teaching moments when the question is raised, “What do those mean?” Rather than being forms of alienation or keeping “outsiders” out, these symbols have always been understood as forms of invitation and incorporation.

As we can see, narrative God-talkers are keenly aware of the central role of language in ministry. We recognize that the words we speak, the songs we sing, and the symbols we use do not merely testify to what God has done sometime in the past; they also point forward to a world, a kingdom-culture, in which we are called to live. Certainly, testimonies of what God has done lead us to anticipate what God will do. Through their words, teachers, Bible study leaders, mentors, parents, youth workers, and pastors accept the great privilege and responsibility of participating in God’s ongoing activity of creating a Kingdom in which we reside.

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 1

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:47:00 GMT

Pointing to the large pile of stones gathered near the river, a young teen asks her grandmother, “Why are those rocks there?” Having waited for that very question to be asked, the teen’s trusted mentor answers, “It’s an amazing story--one that I heard over and over again as I was growing up. Many years ago, our ancestors were slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. . . .” The grandmother continues by recounting the way in which God called a leader, plagues struck the Egyptians, waters were divided, manna was provided, and a covenant was made.
In another corner of the village, several persons have gathered around the evening fire, singing songs and recounting the amazing exploits and sincere faith of ancestors such as Deborah, Gideon, Hannah, and David. Some around the fire have heard these stories dozens of times. For others in the circle, this night is one of initiation as they hear of events and experiences that will define their identity and shape their character for the remainder of their lives.
The conversation between the young teen and her grandmother, as well as the dialogue around the community campfire, is a snapshot of what the people of God have been doing for thousands of years. Throughout our history, the faith, like a baton in a relay race, has been passed on from one generation to the next. Recounting what God has done in the life of His community, the people of God have creatively invited the next generation to become active participants in God’s ongoing activity, whether it be through piling stones, telling stories, singing songs, preaching sermons, writing letters, or celebrating central events around a meal. They faithfully carried out the ancient task given to subsequent generations: “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).
Now, thousands of years later, we face the same challenge that all generations before us have faced: how are we to pass the ancient faith to the next generation? Increasingly, since the days of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, we have all too easily become satisfied with reducing the work of God to a list of points or propositions that can then be applied to life. Like a winepress, we tend to “squeeze the juice” out of biblical stories, songs, and letters, reduce them to a set of “how-to’s” or “applicable points.” We then give those reductions to our students as simple ways to make it through another week. The problem is that nothing is left of the story, the song, or the letter. As result, God’s past and present activity becomes distant and foreign to our lives. Scripture becomes nothing more than a “how to” manual or a rule book, and the Church is perceived as an antiquated way of dealing with life or an overbearing authority figure.
Likewise, our students are never challenged to think about their faith within the story, the song, or the letter; everything is done for them. As a result, the life of faith can quickly become a mindless and heartless following of points rather than a transformed way of thinking and being in the world.
Furthermore, even when biblical truths are applied to the dominant culture in which we live, that dominant culture often continues to determine our priorities. We may provide our students with a few biblical steps for surviving in the real world and offer lifestyles to guarantee eternal life, but our own identity and the identities of our students continue to be shaped by the dominant culture. The Kingdom of God as it is depicted in Scripture and the subsequent history of the Church becomes nothing more than a foreign object to observe rather than a home in which to live.
One of our greatest challenges is to rediscover and practice the manner in which our ancestors have consistently communicated the faith and talked about God. Our spiritual ancestors challenge us to do something other than give our students spiritual how-to’s. We must speak of an alternative world within which to live, a lens through which life can be seen and understood, and an identity that will shape character and lifestyle.
How might we face the challenge that confronts us? The Story of God and his people has already provided an answer to that very question. Piece by piece, stories, songs, sermons, letters, creeds, holidays, and sacraments, all belonging to a counter-kingdom, the Kingdom of God, are consistently and deliberately handed to the next generation. Out of those numerous pieces is constructed an alternative world in which our students can find their identity and their character.
More than simply telling numerous disconnected stories, we recognize that for the people of God there exists one grand narrative, beginning with the earliest chapters of the Bible and extending through the history of the Christian Church down to the present day. It is a mega-story with a grand plot: God is reconciling the world to himself through His people. In more recent years, such an approach to ministry that calls persons to find their identity within the grand Story of God has been given the name narrative. Although the name may be a recent development, the method of inviting subsequent generations to participate in the mega-story of God, to discover their identity within that story, and to develop a character in light of that identity has deep roots in Scripture and Christian tradition. Such an approach to ministry and discipleship has been the distinctive way in which the people of God have talked about God. We might call this way of talking about God narrative theology.
As teachers, mentors, parents, and youth workers, what would it mean for us to practice ministry as “narrative God-talkers?” What would it mean for us to understand our own identity as being narrative theologians? Certainly, all of us who talk about God, His nature, His activity among us, and His will for our lives, whether it be in messages, Bible studies, or counseling sessions, are God-talkers (theologians). The question for us is never “Are we theologians?” Rather, as persons whose primary responsibility is to speak about God and name His activity in the lives of students, the question is “What type of theologians are we?” As we step into the world of narrative, let us explore what it would mean for us to practice youth ministry as narrative God-talkers.

By Tim Green

This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.

Why Wasn’t I told of Mama Bears Sooner?

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:23:00 GMT

Read “Mama Bears,” by Jen Bradbury, from the March/April edition of Immerse Journal

I was just out of college and confident that I knew more than any person in the local church about all things God. Full of arrogance and testosterone, I jumped headfirst into the solo youth ministry gig. I made the necessary changes to programming to reflect a more relevant youth ministry model. I flexed my intellectual prowess in my theologically rich yet entertaining sermons. I used the perfect mix of sarcasm and empathy to connect with students and give patented Christian life lessons. I was on track to be rookie youth pastor of the year until I encountered a mama bear.

In my desire to open youth to all the “important” experiences of faith, I inadvertently began scheduling multiple events a month. I didn’t see any problem with doubling up in a month, since students were going to learn about service and evangelism. I quickly became aware of the issue(s) it causes when one mother came to me and told me her daughter would not be attending the second event that month.

Innocently, I asked, “Why?”

“It’s a little much for her to participate in two events this month,” she respectfully replied.

In my overconfident and slightly sarcastic way, I replied, “So two events is too much to ask a person to follow Jesus. I can see that.”

I’ll admit those were not the best choice of words, nor was it the best tone of voice. But I was the youth pastor with a college degree, and I knew more than anyone in the local church about all things God. Right?

Well, that respectful mother let me have it. She didn’t stop with my rude and sarcastic comment. She systematically picked apart the paradigm by which I was building my whole youth ministry. From the relevant programming to my patented Christian life lessons, she tore me to pieces. She left me wondering if I was even following Jesus.

I’m glad Jen Bradbury had such a great experience with a mama bear. Her experience reveals in a redeeming way the need for mama bears. And she is correct that we should hope and pray for more of them in our churches.

For those who experience or have experienced a mama bear in a less than positive way, let me just say that they are still needed. My experience led me to rethink several aspects of my relationship with God and others. It also led me to begin the difficult but necessary process of engaging parents and including their voices in the development of youth ministry. It was a much-needed learning experience, even if it was not wanted at the time.

So thanks, Jen, for letting us know about mama bears. I just wish you had told me sooner.

By Paul Sheneman