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 - Friday, February 11, 2011
A phrase that gets repeated throughout the Barefoot Training manuals is, “The story of God as the context…” We explain that the story of God is the context for our
participation in God’s mission, theology, calling, and identity. What we
don’t make explicit in the training is the definition of context in relation to youth ministry.
Context
has two primary definitions. First, it is the components of a discourse
that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning (Merriam-Webster).
We typically encounter this definition when we are preparing to teach
on the Scriptures. We study the parable of the prodigal son in the
context of the entire chapter in which it appears; in the context of the
entire gospel of Luke; and the context of the entire Bible in order to
understand its meaning. Context also means the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs (Merriam-Webster).
We practice this definition when we try to understand the circumstances
surrounding a teenager jumping out of a tree and breaking an arm.
The
second definition is what we refer to when we talk about youth
ministry. We are attempting to tell a true story that will embrace the
interrelated conditions in which youth ministry exists. The
circumstances—or setting—of contemporary youth ministry could be
narrated in many ways. We could talk about all the social circumstances
leading up to the emergence of contemporary youth ministry. Or we could
describe the psychological circumstances that necessitate contemporary
youth ministry. But these stories would be incomplete and would ignore
some of the interrelated conditions in which youth ministry exists.
Our
conviction is that youth ministry—as an activity of the church—is best
understood in the context of God’s story. The story of God embraces all
of life (social, psychological, historical, cultural, etc.), starting
before creation and projected out in hope to the new creation. We also
believe that the story of God gives meaning and direction for youth
ministry. In God’s story, we find the reason for caring for youth,
performing and proclaiming the good news of Jesus, playing games
together, crying together, calling youth to serve others in Jesus’ name,
etc. Outside of the story of God, these activities lose their context
and meaning.
Next
week we will dig into the relationship between story and people. For
now, I wonder how you describe the circumstances for youth ministry?
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 - Thursday, January 13, 2011
This
is the final post in the Essential Traits of Transformational Youth
Ministry series. It is fitting to end the series with Jesus since he is
the champion and perfecter of our transformation.
Jesus is Lord
At
the heart of transformational youth ministry is the desire to
faithfully practice the way of Jesus. In other words, the confession Jesus is Lord has implications on the way of life for communities of young people.
Service - Diakonia
First,
faithful practice of the way of Jesus implies that youth ministry leads
communities of young people into living out lives of service. These
lives of service are revealed to be incarnational, which means they meet
people where they are. Service in the way of Jesus will always point
people toward God and God’s kingdom. Finally, Jesus’ life of service
calls us to serve those who are our enemies.
Worship - Liturgia
Second,
to confess Jesus as Lord implies that communities of youth will worship
God. Worship in the way of Jesus flows in and through all the
activities of life. Thus, young people will be guided into offering all
their actions, thoughts, and emotions to God for his glory.
Fellowship - Koinonia
Fellowship
in the way of Jesus is more than pizza, dodge ball, and swimming. It is
a full commitment to being open and vulnerable to others for the sake
of loving God and others, like Jesus. Youth ministries stereotypically
practice camaraderie well. Our commitment as youth workers must be to
continue to journey toward fellowship in the way of Jesus.
Teaching - Didache
Teaching
in Jesus’ life flowed from a commitment to Scripture, community, and
the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was committed to teaching about
God’s participation, revealed both within the writings of Israel and in
the contemporary life of the Jewish people. Finally, there was an
authority in his teaching that was unlike the other teachers of his day.
The church has known this same authority when it has accepted the
guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Proclamation - Kerygma
Finally,
youth ministry in the way of Jesus will proclaim the gospel of God in
Jesus. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God being present in his life and
actions. We are to continue that proclamation to a world that yearns
for the peace and healing of God’s kingdom. Our communities of young
people need to be able to articulate the message clearly.
Questions to Consider
What other implications does the confession Jesus is Lord have for youth ministry?
How do you incorporate the life of Jesus into the practices of youth ministry?
By Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Tuesday, January 11, 2011
“As
in all generations religious education takes place within the trends
and the vision of the times. Even when education or the church ignores
such trends, they have their effect, for such trends are woven into the
everyday customs and practices of all people in a myriad of ways.” -Donald E. Miller
Missional. Missionary God. Missional Church.
You
can say what you want about the importance or value of the missional
conversation in the last 20 years but one thing that you can’t ignore is
the formative effect the trend has had on the church. The books,
groups, trainings, conferences, courses, and media created
with the term “missional” is incredible. Therefore, instead of
ignoring the trend, youth workers will do well to engage the
conversation to see what worth it has for young people.
In the current issue of Immerse Journal, Alan Roxburgh has an article, Can the West Be Converted?,
which sets forth the core challenge of the missional conversation. He
writes, “The worst thing we can do to our youth is bore them with
questions of how to make the church work or which styles and types of
church are worth their attention…There is far, far more at stake than
these frivolous diversions.” Roxburgh claims that the challenge of the
missionary God is nothing less than the remaking of culture.
Read the article here.
Wow!
The remaking of culture is a huge challenge. It is a scary challenge.
To be quite honest I have my doubts and fears that it can be
accomplished. However, instead of ignoring this challenge, I think that
it is important that youth workers, myself included, engage this
challenge. Therefore, I created a discussion guide to go along with the
article with the hopes that it will foster local conversations.
Free Discussion Guide
I
created the guide to be used in youth ministry team meetings but I
think that it can be used with a network of youth leaders. If you don't have either one of those then consider me a part of your youth worker network and email or comment with your thoughts.
Peace be with you.
Resources to Go Deeper with the Article:
Missional Church
Celtic Christianity
Celtic Daily Prayer
A Walk Through the Bible - a narrative of the missionary God
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 - Monday, December 20, 2010
Engaging the Whole Family 2: Nuclear Family
Let’s
get this bit o’ info out of the way. The nuclear family is depicted as
two parents bonded together in a love-based marriage with biological
children. The nuclear family is also referred to as the “domestic
family.” Some even refer to the nuclear family as the “traditional
family,” as though it has been the longest-enduring family structure in
history. And some even hold up the nuclear family as the goal of
Christian relationships.
However,
the nuclear family is not the longest-enduring family structure, and it
is most certainly not the family structure throughout biblical history.
In fact, it has only been in the last 200 years that the “traditional”
family has emerged. In regards to the love-based marriage, Stephanie
Coontz writes, “It took more than 150 years to establish the love-based,
male breadwinner marriage as the dominant model in North America and
Western Europe. It took less than 25 years to dismantle it (247).”
What’s
the point of all this talk about the nuclear family? The point is that
it is not biblical to hold up the nuclear family as the goal of
Christian relationships for youth and families. Diana Garland argues
that nuclear family terms like parent, child, brother, and sister
are used in Scripture but not to limit familial relations to the
nuclear family. Instead, they are terms God’s people use to relate to
others across social and cultural boundaries of family units. Naomi and
Ruth are a great example of this use of the language. Jesus is another
great example when he points to his family being a community of God’s
people (Mark 3:33-35).
David
Elkin’s work reveals that there has been a major shift in the structure
of the family that corresponds to the shift from the modern period to
the postmodern period. He suggests that the best way to describe the
family unit in the postmodern context is “permeable.” This type of
family structure is neither good nor bad—it is simply contextual.
Marjorie
Thompson takes us one step further and suggests that we embrace all
family structures in the life of the church. She argues that all
families are called to learn the way of God from the church. She adds
that it is the church’s responsibility to teach families how to practice
the means of grace that are common to it (acceptance, encouragement,
loving challenge, forgiveness, reconciliation, and hospitality) in
Christian ways.
A
transformational approach to youth ministry will engage all family
structures as being a place where God can work and transform all members
into Christ followers. In this approach we must not slip into the habit
of offering one family structure as the biblical solution to family
challenges.
By: Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Thursday, December 09, 2010
Engaging the Whole Family
Reality TV is often an amusing form of entertainment. We sit back and are entertained by the shock factor of Wife Swap,
where contradictory family value systems collide in quite amusing ways.
Then there was the Osbourne family, who for a short period, appeased
the guilt of many families with their previously unimaginable level of
dysfunction. Finally there is the hard nosed quasi-Mary Poppins from
Great Britain, Jo Frost (a.k.a. Supernanny), that will put little kids
on the “naughty step” in order to right the wrongs of poor parenting in
the United States. And though laughter is what usually flows from these
shows, there is an eery feeling that these “reality” programs feel more
like a mirror of the North American family then a sensationalized
depiction.
In
the midst of such depictions of family in the entertainment media,youth
and family ministers are left wondering, “What is the family? What
happened to it? How can we engage the whole family in Christ-like
ways?”
I want to suggest three resources that can help you wrestle through these questions.
- David Elkind, Ties That Stress: The New Family Imbalance
- Diana Garland, Sacred Stories of Ordinary Families
- Marjorie J. Thompson, Family the Forming Center: A Vision of the Role of Family in Spiritual Formation
Over
the next two weeks we will engage some of the insights of each of these
works as we continue to seek meaningful ways to engage the whole family
as God’s story-formed people.
Questions to Consider:
How do you define the family?
What are the central challenges facing families today?
What resources have helped shape your engagement with families?
By: Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Friday, December 03, 2010
Engaging the Whole Biblical Narrative
Have you ever had a teen ask, “What’s the first part of the Bible about?”
It
happened to me when I was teaching on Jesus’ parable of the kingdom.
One of the teens had brought a friend. The friend had an inquisitive
look on her face during most of the lesson. At the end she eagerly
raised her hand. When she had every person’s attention, the friend
enthusiastically waved the paperback Bible back and forth by the spine
and asked, “Where is the story of Jesus? What part of this is about
Jesus?”
An eager volunteer college student quickly chirped, “It’s all about Jesus.”
To which the friend replied with great disappointment in her voice, “So I have to read the whole thing to find out about Jesus.”
Another
kindhearted volunteer replied, “Not at all. Here, just read this part.”
And he proceeded to point out the gospel of John.
In
amazement, she responded by holding the portion from Genesis to Luke in
her hand and began waving it back and forth in the air and asked,
“What’s this part about then?”
During
our training, we find that youth workers agree with both of the
volunteers’ perspectives. They eagerly agree that the whole Bible,
Genesis to Revelation, is about Jesus. But if we push them to answer
which parts of the Bible are essential, youth workers choose the gospels.
Transformational
youth ministry poses another question that reveals the necessity of
engaging the whole biblical narrative. The question is, “Why is Jesus so
important?” This is not just an apologetic question but also a
hermeneutics question. More to the point it, is what the friend in my
youth ministry wanted to know. She recognized the great importance of
Jesus in our lesson, and she was searching for a way to get an answer
to, “Why Jesus?”
We
must confess that neither the gospels nor the New Testament alone have a
big enough answer. First, the New Testament authors are drawing from an
inspired imagination of the Old Testament. So we can’t hope to begin to
understand their messages without the rest of Scripture. Second, it is
the dramatic story from creation to new creation that gives the
ground-shaking, cosmic picture of God’s mission in Jesus’ life, death,
and resurrection. If we stick to just teaching the New Testament, then
we will be giving teens a smaller answer to, “Why is Jesus so
important?”
Youth
workers have begun to recognize the necessity of engaging the whole
narrative. Some of the practices emerging are following the lectionary,
chronological Bible storytelling, teaching series on the meta-narrative
of the Bible, and reading narrative Bibles as a youth group. All of
these are hopeful signs that the whole narrative of the Bible is being
valued in youth ministry.
Questions to Consider:
How do you incorporate the whole Bible into youth ministry?
What practices for engaging the whole narrative would you add to the list?
By: Paul Sheneman
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