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.
- 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.
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Barefoot Training - Tuesday, May 10, 2011
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
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Barefoot Training - Thursday, March 24, 2011
What
is theology? I can see the blank stares of teenagers in my mind as I
ask that question. The ones I’ve asked typically don’t understand the
question, and few have heard the word theology prior to it. But for me—and I hope for them one day—I understand that theology is remembering and telling meaningful stories.
I
was taught that the nature of religion was humanity’s search for God. I
was also taught that God is the matter of ultimate concern. (Gotta love
Paul Tillich!) And theology is our sorting through the gods in order to find a true God. But how do we sort through the gods? We sort through them in our storied reflection on our experience of those gods.
Take
Vinnie—name slightly changed to slightly protect his identity—as an
example of a teenager telling a meaningful story. He retold several
accounts of his lucrative lawn-mowing business. He proudly pulled his
wad of cash from his pocket and smiled as peers gawked at the spoils of
his toil. He talked about working hard in order to get what you want. He
identified himself as a shrewd business person. The money he earned
provided him praise from others, attention from peers, and the power to
buy.
To
Vinnie, making money through manual labor was meaningful. His stories
revealed that it was a matter of ultimate concern for him. He told his
stories with an absence of the God revealed in Scripture, expressing his
belief of God to be just a god.
His identity flowed from what he created by the work of his hand, so he
believed humans to be autonomous individuals who create their own
fortunes or demises. He believed those who worked hard were blessed and
those who didn’t were cursed.
Vinnie
experienced the god of working for money. That god made sense to him
and quickly became his God. So he talked about his God in meaningful
ways.
Theology
is remembering and telling meaningful stories. Sometimes teens share
stories of their experiences of the God and Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Sometimes teens share stories of their experiences of the gods
of fame, money, sexuality, pragmatism, etc. The key for youth workers is
to listen and shepherd teens through their meaningful stories in order
to point out the God who is.
By Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Thursday, March 17, 2011
Ahh
yes, theology. It’s the eight-letter word good Christians are taught
not to use. Sure, some of those questionable people talk about it in the
dark corners of the foyer. And there is the occasional legalistic guy
who harps on it in small group. But every true Christian knows that what
we need is less talk about God and more relationship with God, and I…half-heartedly agree.
In
school, I was taught to distinguish between stated theology and
grassroots theology. Stated theology is what is in the books, on the
websites, and spoken about in polished lectures. Grassroots
theology—or, what I like to refer to as everyday theology—is
what actually gets lived out, prayed, and talked about. Both are
important in the church, but as a youth worker, my main concern is to
promote and guide everyday theology.
One
way I attempt to promote everyday theology in youth ministry is to ask
simple theological questions. Just recently, I asked a small group of
high school students, “What does it mean to share God with a friend
(i.e., evangelism)? Don’t we believe God is everywhere and so God is
already in your friend’s life (i.e., omnipresence)?” We had some
conversation about those questions, and they agreed that sharing God
happens when we help people become aware that the God of Scripture is
present in their lives.
I
asked them, “What difference has knowing that God is present in your
life meant?” One teen told a story of how knowing that a powerful God is
looking out for him is a comforting thought and makes him happy.
Another teen told a story of how God has given him purpose to live life.
He acknowledged that living for selfish things like money and fame
didn’t make sense to him. Still another shared a story about how she
feels free, knowing Jesus forgave her. She went on to tell us how that
freedom allows her to love her friends.
Then
I said, “This is the gospel of God’s presence that you have to share
with your friends. The Bible might say a lot more then what you just
shared tonight, but none of that has the significance that your story of
God has for your friends.”
In
other words, their stories are their everyday theology of the
redemptive work of God. Their stories might not be theologically precise
in the halls of the academy, but they are theologically honest.
Everyday
theology is the starting point for theological education and spiritual
formation. Youth workers need to value and honor everyday theology in
order to promote the growth of students in their knowledge and wisdom in
the Lord.
Questions to Consider:
What is more important in youth ministry—stated or everyday theology?
How do you teach theology in youth ministry?
Where is your starting point for teaching theology?
By Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Tuesday, February 22, 2011
“Then
a brilliant college professor taught me...that each of us are
mini-trinities, we’re three-in-ones—minds, spirits and bodies all
wrapped into one being (Mark 12:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:23).”
-Laurin Makohon, “The Journey to Becoming More.” Immerse Journal Jan/Feb 2011 issue.
We are a unity of head, heart, and hands.
This
revelation of our humanity led Laurin Makohon on a personal journey to
engage the fullness of life that God created us to live. What we catch a
glimpse of in Laurin’s story is a picture of what youth ministry and
youth’s lives can be.
After
reading Laurin’s article, I began to imagine how my students are
already experiencing the fullness of the life of faith described in
Laurin’s story. They already encounter God through their minds,
feelings, and actions because the Holy Spirit is always present in their
lives. And I thought, What would it look like if I did a qualitative assessment of my students through this lens?
A
qualitative assessment in this instance gleans stories of how teens
encounter God through their heads, hearts, and hands in order to discern
their awareness of God’s activity and the impact that it has made on
their lives of faith. If you have been following the Barefoot Training
articles, then you know my definition for faith. With this definition I came up with two questions for each of the three dimensions of our humanity.
I
encourage you to ask your students these simple questions in small
groups or in casual conversations. It will open up the exploration of
the fullness of the lives of faith God has in store for them.
If you are looking to go deeper with your assessment and connect it to spiritual growth, then check out this article, by Mark Maddix.
By Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Thursday, February 03, 2011
The Hope of Transformation
We plan for formation. We hope for transformation.
At
the end of the day, youth workers must accept that all of our work and
planning is really an attempt to be faithful. Faithful to God’s story,
our faith community’s way of life, and ultimately faithful to God as we
live into our calling to serve youth.
Our
hope is that our youth will encounter God during our conversations, our
prayers, our work projects, our retreats, our summer camps, our mission
trips, and our silly games. We pray and work with the hope that youth
will be transformed in the midst of our life together.
So a faithful way to imagine the trajectory of transformational youth ministry is this…
Transformation
is unpredictable, messy, and sometimes chaotic. The story of God tells us to expect this type of wild and unpredictable work of the Spirit. Jesus tells us not to predict it but learn from God how to discern when it happens.
We need to accept
that we can’t manage or control the work of God’s transforming presence
in the lives of our youth. We are called to practice faithful formation
(read discipleship) and hope for God to transform.
So relax and lean into God’s embrace.
Questions to Consider:
In what ways do youth workers try to manage the work of God?
In what ways do youth workers embrace the transforming work of the Spirit?
By Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Friday, January 28, 2011
Faith Development
Why should you care about understanding faith development?
One
of the key roles of a youth worker is to be a spiritual guide for youth
in their faith journeys. How can you guide if you don’t know the path?
The path of faith is not something we can know with absolute certainty,
like hiking a well-worn trail. But the journeys taken by others provide
us insight into some things to expect along the way. So you should care
about faith development if only for the sake of being aware of these
insights for shepherding your youth.
What is faith development?
There
are several ways to define faith and faith development for people. We
begin with the confession of the church that faith is a human response
to God made possible by grace. The three essential aspects of faith are a
person’s trust in God, loving attitude toward God, and loyal actions in
response to God. A simple way to put this is that faith includes a
loving response with our heads, hearts, and hands (the great
commandment). People grow in faith as they encounter God through God’s
story, their network of relationships (people, society, and creation),
and their churches’ ways of life. Thus, faith development is a person’s
growth in the trusting, loving, and loyal response to God through God’s
story, network of relationships, and faith communities’ ways of life.
A Narrative Faith Development Model
If
you have been to our training workshop, then you are familiar with the
model of faith formation we present. Here is a similar model that
incorporates developmental theory in order to expand our view as youth
workers to the reality that faith formation occurs throughout life.
This
model uses story, value, belief, and way of life to hold together
individual and community life in the unfolding narrative of faith. Thus,
like our training model, it is an expression of a narrative faith
development model.
Implications
First,
it is important to note that none of the developmental stages in this
model are independent. Each stage is connected, so the permeability of
the whole faith journey is subject to transformation by the work of God.
So youth workers should always hope in God’s ability to redeem and
restore people.
Second,
it seems that our curriculum for youth should flow out of their
searching for belief or doubt. We should offer learning environments
where teens can openly doubt their faith communities’ teachings and
personal beliefs. The role of the youth worker with this curriculum is
to guide teens in the search for belief in God that is faithful to the
story, coherent to the communities’ way of life, and pertinent to their
story.
Third,
youth workers should learn to discern the stories that teens have
learned to play in their early years. Some of those stories might be the
American dream, materialism, or therapeutic moralistic deism. This will
necessitate our engagement with youth’s families, friends, schools, and
communities.
Finally,
this faith development model implies that youth workers become aware of
the counter-formative practice of the Christian faith. If we are going
to invite teens to re-narrate their lives through the story of God, then
we will need to invite them into practices that embody that narrative.
The Christian practices of prayer, fasting, worship, hospitality, etc.,
are counter-formative practices that give expression to the story of
God.
Questions to Consider:
How does this faith development model inform your understanding of teen faith formation?
What are some other implications of this faith development model for teens?
By Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Thursday, January 27, 2011
Formation and Transformation
Formation
and transformation are not two polar opposites in the growth of
persons. In fact, formation and transformation are complimentary
dimensions of life. The two concepts of human development differ only
in the degree of change.
Formation
occurs to some degree whenever a person participates with others in any
domain of activity. So when a teen uses public transportation, they
are formed into the processes and etiquette of riding the bus or train.
Their identity is not meaningfully impacted by the practice but they do
acquire new knowledge, experience new emotions, and practice new
skills.
A
transformational example of formation can be observed in a teen
becoming a gamer. The teen is formed into a gamer as they participate
with their friends in playing video games. They acquire skills and
language that assist them in playing the game and interacting with a
group of gamers. The more they play the games the more they feel
connected to the identity of a gamer.
Finally,
a transformational moment may occur in a teens life. For example, a
teen learns of the realities of human trafficking. The horror of the
issue sends the teen searching for a solution. They find a potential
solution to the injustice and an aha moment occurs which transforms the
way they think, feel, and act. Finally, they move into practicing the
solution which either verifies their new perspective or sends them
searching again (The Transforming Moment).
Questions to Consider:
What stories do you have of the transformation of a teen's faith?
What is an example of formation and transformation in youth ministry?
By Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Engaging the Whole Family 4:
A Way Forward
In
this series we have used the works of David Elkind, Diana Garland, and
Marjorie Thompson to guide our reflections on discerning the family. We
continue this reflection by turning to the challenges facing the family
and their proposals for a way forward for the church to minister to
families.
The Challenges
Elkind,
a child psychologist, is concerned with the health of children in North
America. He describes three major shifts in the roles of parents,
children, adolescents that correspond to the modern to postmodern shift.
Parenting in modernity was focused on intuition and technique in
postmodernity. The view of the child changed from innocence in
modernity to competence in postmodernity. The view of adolescents
changed from immature in modernity to sophisticated in postmodernity.
Elkind concludes that these shifts led to an imbalance of stress upon
children and adolescents which he calls the “new morbidity” of youth (98-152).
Garland,
a Christian social worker, is primarily concerned about the faith of
families. She is informed by Craig Dykstra’s work in faith practices
when she engages the particular stories of families. She finds that the
challenges facing the faith practices of families are busy schedules,
lack of training of parents, lack of knowledge of Scripture, competing
values within a family, and different levels of personal faith in the
family (127-198).
Thompson
suggests one of the main obstacles to the faith development of families
is the church. She writes, “What I am suggesting is the communal
church and the domestic church need to recapture a vision of the
Christian family as a sacred community. This will require an awareness
of the ‘sacred’ in the ‘secular,’ of God in the flesh of human life (20-21).”
A Modest Proposal
Elkind,
Garland, and Thompson all suggest a way forward for the family and I
believe that youth and family pastors can find a generous and faithful
way forward in their collective proposals. In bullet points here are
some suggested movements forward....
- Elkind
suggests a concept called the “vital family.” The vital family values
include emotional ties of committed love (a movement beyond intimate
love and mutual engagement), authentic parenting (blend of parenting out
of intuition and technique), interdependence (blend of autonomy and
togetherness) and a balance of unilateral and mutual authority.
- Elkind
suggests a reinvention of adulthood. This reinvention includes parents
appropriately exercising authority and sharing space with children and
adolescents. This space sharing includes the development of safe
environments for children to grow in competence and teens to grow in
sophistication.
- Garland
and Thompson suggest that the local church is integral in teaching
families the practice of faith. They call for the church to see their
role as learning community for families of faith.
- Garland suggests the informal teaching moments for faith in families are found in the dark moments of death and conflict.
I find hope in these suggestions. I believe that God can choose the local church
in these days to lead families forward into God’s mission. By God’s
grace, the church can practice space sharing with youth in our corporate
worship. In humility, the church has the opportunity to publicly seek
Christian ways of resolving the conflict as a way to train families. We
can learn together what it means to seek God in the dark moments of
life. We can practice the values of the vital family through Christian
faith practices. We can provide space for families to learn and serve
together. We can extend the call to all families to enter into God’s
saving embrace in Christ as a way forward for their family.
More Resources:
http://www.baylor.edu/social_work/cfcm/
http://practicingourfaith.org/
http://ekklesiaproject.org/
By: Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Engaging the Whole Family 3: What is the Family?
The
value of defining the family for our contemporary content is that it
gives us orientation in our engagement. If we can’t name the thing that
we encounter, how can we have a meaningful experience? We have a word
for God that has some meaning, and that concept seems a lot more complex
than family.
So
tell me, what is the family? I want to know because, for the life of
me, I can’t find one definition that does justice to the multiple
realities of family that I experience. For example, I’ve seen heads of
households be single, biological parents, biological grandparents with
single parents, two biological parents, two legal parents with no
biological relation, one legal parent with no biological relation, two
legal parents who are also the biological uncle and aunt, and the list
could go on. And then try to account for sibling relationships, and I
almost want to give up on ever finding a definition.
But what if we moved away from a sociological or structural definition? What if we tried a theological definition?
Here is my stab at it:
Family – a
supportive and formative group of people, connected through a common
biological lineage or covenant, who are meant to learn and practice the
worship of God through their relationships with God, each other, and the
world.
Does
that definition sound familiar? I hope so because the definition is
derived from a definition of the church. And here is my bias in favor of
this definition. I think the church is called to be the family of faith
for the world.
I
also think the definition helps youth and family ministers imagine that
the goal of families is to become “little churches,” in the words of
Jonathan Edwards. And the concept of families becoming little churches
corresponds to Diana Garland’s sociological research of more than 100
families. Her research revealed faith practices as an essential element
of family life. As a complement to that research, Marjorie Thompson’s
book argues that spiritual formation naturally happens in families in
both positive and negative ways. Therefore, we can conclude that
families are going to worship something. It is the role of the church to
be the family of faith that invite them into the worship of God.
Questions to Consider:
What is your definition of family?
What do you think about the above definition of family?
What do we do with this definition of family?
By: Paul Sheneman
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