5 ‘Dangerous’ Things
June 11th, 2008
I am a fan of Gever Tulley. Gever is a brilliant guy. He is a computer scientist by trade but is the founder of The Tinkering School, a summer program that helps kids build the things that they think about and dream up.
I first learned about Gever Tulley through TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. If you are not familiar with TED you should go HERE and intake as much as you possibly can.
Gever has a about a 10 minute presentation called, 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do. You can watch it HERE.
The 5 dangerous things that Gever puts forward (he is actually writing a book of 50) are to let our kids:
1. Play with fire
2. Own a pocket knife
3. Throw a spear
4. Deconstruct appliances
5. Break the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
5.5 Drive a car
Despite the provocative title, the talk is really about safety. Essentially, Gever is saying that if we eliminate everything “dangerous” from the life of our kids then the first time they come into contact with dangerous things they will undoubtedly hurt themselves.
If we are walking with our kids, however, through the experience of such dangerous things then we can help them be creative, confident and aware of and adapt to the environment around them.
I contend that the same is true for those of us helping students grow into a deeper relationship with Jesus. I think we can take Gever’s assertions and draw principles to the spiritual formation of adolescents. That being, if we don’t ever let our students (and our own children) do “dangerous” things within the realm(s) of faith, we aren’t helping them with a real sense of “know-a-bility” — what they come to know through shared experience.
So, here are five dangerous things I suggest we should let our students do (feel free to comment and add to the list!) Like Gever, I really have 6 but I think that 4 and 4.5 go hand in hand…
1. Dance with doubt
2. Discover truth for themselves
3. Disengage from reality every now and then
4. Dispatch their story, not someone elses
4.5 Determine their own future
5. Deconstruct what they are told, see and come to “know”
Over the next few days I will be breaking down each of these 5 ‘dangerous’ things we should let our kids do. In the meantime, I would encourage you to join TED and, at the least, watch the presentation by Gever Tulley. You can view it HERE.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:35 am
[…] Danger? Absolutely! Chris is on to something over at a New Kind of Youth Ministry. I highly recommend you read this post. This is exactly what we need to be doing in youth ministry. Now, if I could only find a way to help the churched students in my youth ministry to realize that its okay to do these things it would be absolutely wonderful. […]
June 11th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Chris, thanks for the heads up on this video. Great stuff bro. I look forward to interacting with your 6 points.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
brilliant. absolutely brilliant.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Wow - looking forward to seeing how your thoughts will unfold over the next few days in regards to your list. I can see another book arising from this..
June 12th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
dan-
yeah, it’ll be fun to hear your thoughts…
how is everything out at gables?
chris
June 12th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
matt-
hot sure i have thought through it enough for a book yet. looking forward to interacting with you on the ideas and thoughts.
chris
June 13th, 2008 at 8:56 am
pretty good list chris…
the first three are REALLY strong… I think they provide some danger and are helpful reminders, no challenges to us who want to see adolescents and young adults take ownership of their faith and the bride of Christ.
very cool.
I think 4 is exceptional challenge - not sure it is dangerous, though!! (and 4.5 is definitely part of 4… - our stories lead us into our future whether we believe it or not).
5. Is cool - I would love to hear more about this - I am awaiting your unfolding of this.
Excellent stuff. I think 7 or so real good DANGEROUS kind of things would be a helpful challenge/application for youth pastors to think about.
Thanks Chris.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:11 am
thanks doug.
4 and 4.5 aren’t dangerous to you. perhaps because you are already helping students do that very thing — live their own story.
on the other side of it, however, reside the folks who are forcing their students (and children) to be who they (the enforcers) want them to be rather than letting God into the picture at all.
for some folks, it’s very dangerous to let students live out their own story and step into their own future. they (the enforcer) might not admit it, but I think the emotional, spiritual, social manipulation that can prevent students from living out their own story happens all the time. just thinking…
June 13th, 2008 at 9:52 am
I get it…
Thanks - that makes a ton of sense… so now I hear you - yeah, that could be perceived as dangerous in the “assembly line approach - this is what Christians do, kinda way.”
So what do you think can I steal this and blog along side you - both of us putting a post out on these 5 dangerous ideas… putting our individual and personal (maybe demented) slant on it?
June 13th, 2008 at 11:19 am
doug-
yeah, let’s do it. let’s blog it together. the more the merrier!
i’d love to be along side a “scriber”
June 14th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
[…] I have decided to hold off on posting my follow up thoughts to the “Five Dangerous Things” post (click HERE) for a couple more days. Reason being, I have decided to include Doug Jones over at Perigrinatio to post along side of my thoughts hopefully giving our fellow readers more to think about. […]
June 16th, 2008 at 7:03 am
[…] In his words (you can read the whole post here): So, here are five dangerous things I suggest we should let our students do (feel free to comment and add to the list!) Like Gever, I really have 6 but I think that 4 and 4.5 go hand in hand… […]