Youth Ministry & The Task of Culture Shaping
I've found a new hobby. I have found absolute delight in digging up older books on youth ministry - books from the 70's and 80's. Much of what I find I purchase for a couple of bucks from some obscure website and they're usually shipped from places in the world I can only wish I might one day visit.
Most recently I came across a book by Stephen Jones called, Faith Shaping: Youth and the Experience of Faith (Judson Press, 1987). Some of you may remember it when it came out. Me? Nope. I was a freshman in high school at the time it was released.
Faith Shaping is full of little nuggets that are not only relevant for today but are required for people who work with today's youth. Probably the most helpful morsel of the book for me was chapter 9 on culture shaping. In this chapter, Jones reminds his readers "We will not do justice to adolescents unless we help them consider the shape of their emerging faith in relation to their culture." (P.89)
So, what exactly is the task of culture shaping? I mean, I have some ideas but I'd rather hear from those of you wrestling with similar observances and experiments. How can we move away from our tendencies to manufacture and manipulate? What are the essential aspects of culture shaping? Is it even possible to really allow students to shape their culture or do they need some kind of adult influence to assure that it gets done? Are we (or more specifically, am I) crazy to think that youth workers should rely more on students to shape the emerging culture and less on our own assumptions, preferences and opinions?
When I first began in youth ministry (almost 15 years ago) "peer-to-peer" ministry was the buzzword. The purpose of peer-to-peer ministry was to influence students in order that they might influence their friends. It wasn't an altogether inherently bad idea. After all, isn't this what Jesus did with his disciples? Didn't Jesus find influencers and allow them to do the influencing? Actually, no, this isn't what Jesus did. Jesus called mere fisherman, ordinary people to follow him. He was present with them incarnating himself for the mission of God. Yes, certainly to influence others but not solely limited to influence. Jesus called his disciples to shape the culture and move it toward becoming a Kingdom culture.
Most often youth workers who talked about and built "peer to peer" ministry models functioned with the idea that to influence students meant we had to create consumers who bought what we were selling and who conformed to the culture that we created. The mistake in this concept wasn't the motive to influence or even the call to conform to a culture (that was often mere words and abstractions). The biggest mistake was seeing students as the tool or the agenda and not seeing them as "persons-in-culture" (P.90) who were "not only recipients of culture but also shapers of it." We trusted students enough to bring their friends to our Friday night outreach events but we didn't (generally speaking, of course) trust them enough to allow them to shape the culture through their communal and personal faith -- a faith that "offers the criteria against which to evaluate one's participation in culture and the courage, when necessary, to be countercultural." (P. 90) We called students to live counter culturally, but we didn't trust the students we were supposedly influencing to really shape the culture so we tended to manufacture and manipulate.
I don't really hear the phrase "peer to peer" much anymore. I don't think it is because we've stopped doing youth ministry in that fashion. Nor do I think it is because we've stumbled upon another, better model either. Honestly, I think for many it was one of those things that either "sounded cool at the time" or just never really "worked" so we've abandoned the language. Most youth ministries still operate under the mindset that if I can just influence the right student(s) I can use them to share the message of Jesus with their friends. This doesn't shape the culture it simply and most often temporarily keeps a few of our students interested and engaged.
The trend we commonly understand as 'youth leaving the church' isn't primarily about the churches tendency toward abandonment, a rise in the influence of media or the Internet or the inability to reach a post-literate generation through traditional methods. Rather, it is primarily an issue of doubt and distrust.
We (youth workers) have not believed in and trusted the Holy Spirit's ministry and movements enough among youth to allow youth to be the shapers of their culture. Instead, we've tried to shape the culture ourselves. This tragic mistake has led several decades of youth toward finding ways outside of the church to practice their faith and shape their culture. This is why students are graduating and not coming back. (Note: I just read the galley copy of Andy Root's upcoming book called, Unfiltered Relationships. Look for this book from YS/Zondervan this fall. Andy covers the topics above -- especially that of "influencing students" -- in great detail.)
Youth Min and Learning the Bible’s Story
My predecessor at Barefoot left a pile of book proposals on my desk and today I picked up a small stack of them during a slower moment in the day and began to skim them.
At first glance at, two things surprised me about the proposals. First, the proposals were eerily similar in their content. All of them (probably 6 or so) were about helping students more fully understand the story of God. Of course each of the proposals were different in their approach to help students in that way, but they were all far too analogous. Second, each hopeful author listed as the top reason as the primary need for his or her product on the market as this; students don't know the stories of the Bible.
Is this true in your ministry context - are students ignorant when it comes to the stories in the Bible? Are we in need of more curriculum, etc. that helps students more fully understand the story of God? What is the cause of this reality (actual of perceived)?
Over the last few years I've deeply engaged in a learning model most commonly referred to as applied or experiential learning. The applied learning model (think: David Kolb) has been around quite a while and it has taken on a variety of different forms. Probably one of the most simplistic ways to describe applied learning is "hands-on" or "practicable" learning. Of course, applied learning is about so much more than just hands-on experiences but at its core it is about creating moments for students to link theory and practice or thinking and doing.
I mention applied learning because I think that so much of the reason behind a statement like, '...students don't know the stories of the Bible" has less to do about the students and more to do with the way youth workers attempt to educate them. Perhaps it is better said, "Youth workers are not helping students to learn the stories of the Bible."
In what ways are you helping students to know the stories of the Bible? Is it the way you are choosing to educate or are the students in your ministry just not getting it? Or are you content with how the students in your ministry are leaning into and living out the story of God?
Among other characteristics, applied learning is about:
- Ongoing assessment of the subject matter and the environment in which the matter is passed on
- Beginning with the learners in mind, rather than the educators
- Facilitating opportunities for guided reflection that leads to the ongoing ability to link ideas with practices
- Facilitating dialogical opportunities that lead to shared or communal learning
- A holistic approach that integrates the subject matter with the daily life of students
- Embracing of a variety of methods that encourage and value different types of learning styles
I'm really curious to know... Do you value applied learning? Are you implementing applied learning methods in your youth ministry? If so, which methods and if not, why not? Do you think that there is any connection between students not knowing the stories of the Bible and the way we educate them? Or is it as simple as just not teaching them the most helpful subject matter?
Youth Ministry and Community
It wasn't until I was nearly half a dozen years into vocational youth ministry that I began to discover that I couldn't will a sense of community. As hard as I worked to create an environment of invitation, generosity, hope, love, hospitality, honesty, shared learning, etc., I discovered that community isn't developed out of a specific strategy or a series of methods regardless of how diligent I was in trying. I grew to learn that authentic community was born out of a collective spirit of unity that is largely born out of sensitivity to and a commitment toward a spirituality driven by numerous virtues, none more important than simplicity and purity. Obviously there are many more virtues that help our students experience what it means to be a true community.
Has anyone else ever tried to just will community? What other virtues might lead to a sense of community? What do our students need from us as their examples and guides to bring about a sense of genuine community? And by genuine community I don't merely mean fellowship, I mean a community of people who, together (inclusive of fellowship), act as the body of Christ, the physical presence of Jesus living out the mission of God.
It might be said that a collective spirit of unity can be created when a community of students and adults, seeking to live by virtues such as simplicity and purity, find an interior peace with God, self, others and the world. This interior peace works to prohibit partiality from raising its ugly head thus keeping favoritism, prejudices, selfishness, etc. from eroding a sense of wholeness within our youth ministries. I contend that true interior peace can only come through a student's trusting relationship with Jesus. It is through this relationship with Jesus that students in our ministries learn to live and love in the way of Jesus; extending an exterior peace meant to be shared with the others and in doing so participate in God's mission to restore the world to its intended wholeness. [Note: All the more important to give our attention to the evangelism of emerging generations. See last weeks post on Youth Ministry and Evangelism HERE].
In what ways does being a healthy community help our evangelism efforts to students? Is my contention correct? Does true peace only come from the freedom found in a relationship with Jesus?
Living the virtue of simplicity regulates the intentions of the soul. Living the virtue of purity regulates the intentions of the heart. Thomas A' Kempis tell us in his enduring work, The Imitation of Christ that. "Simplicity looks to find God and purity finds God and savors Him." In other words, the beauty of simplicity keeps us grounded; it provides the means for us to evaluate our purpose and goals in life helping us to keep our focus and priorities on the mission of God. At the same time, the virtue of purity allows us to draw increasingly closer to God as we live in the interior peace we have found with God through Jesus. As we allow simplicity and purity to regulate our lives, we can't help but think of others.
Helping our students develop practices such as doing the will of another rather than our own, sharing all of our material goods with others, seeking the lowliest places in the community as opposed to the most recognized places and the constant praying of God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven all help to move our communities toward the good and pleasant whiff of unity (think: Psalm 133) that ultimately shapes a community.
Personally, I have found that when my interior life is peace-filled, my exterior life is filled with experiences of extending the invitation of a life with Jesus to all those I come into contact with - stranger, family, friend and so on. I'd love to figure out the best ways in which to help our students find ways to belong to a genuine community and work to extend that sense of community to all that they come into contact with. So what kinds of practical things are you doing to help your student's understand and experience community? In what ways can we better help our students experience community now and into the future? In what ways do our churches play a part in the development of healthy community within our youth ministries?
[SLAP!!] Thanks, I needed that!
"One axiom of leadership I have come to appreciate reads, 'leaders do not inflict pain, they bear it'. In the same manner, leaders do not absorb praise, they re-direct it. The success of any Christian leader lies significantly in their ability to keep this two-fold movement of leadership in balance. Leaders who inflict pain lose trust and dishearten their people. Leaders who absorb praise produce resentment and sacrifice motivation."
A quote from, "Becoming a Leader of No Reputation" by R. Scott Rodin, Journal of Religious Leadership/ Vol. 1, No 2 (Fall 2002), pp. 105-119
Download article here: http://www.vocf.net/uploaded_project/Becoming_a_Leader_of_No_Reputation.pdf
Chasing Francis by Ian Cron
Around the office at Youthfront there are a few legendary stories of people who have either been on staff or have merely stopped in a time or two over the years for a meeting or an inspirational talk or to partner in an event, say a prayer, etc.
I think most of the stories I hear about from days of old, obviously long before I joined the staff, are more myth than legend. Probably not unlike most organizations who typically remember the past as more profound than it may have actually been.
One person in particular, Ian Cron is one of those stories. There is no doubt in my mind, he's a legend for sure. I heard stories about Ian since the day I arrived. Often in a conversation Ian's name will come up and someone will undoubtedly refer to his participation in one of our weekend retreats we hold at our South Camp called, Altar. Apparently Ian just ripped it up one day speaking about divergent paths of leadership, creativity and holiness. I was not there but that is what I have repeatedly heard.
For months I have wanted to read Ian's book called, Chasing Francis: A Pilgrims Tale. I finally stole one from my co-worker Dustin's bookshelf. It is a fiction book about a pastor (named Chase Falston) who is 'struggling' with his faith and his role as pastor in his church. One day, after speaking with a mother who had just lost her daughter, this pastor gets real with his congregation and is ultimately asked to take a mandatory leave of absence. The rest of the book is about Chase Falston on a pilgrimage of "chasing Francis of Assisi" to regain his faith.
I know I am late to the party on this one (published in 2006), but if you haven't read Chasing Francis, you might need to put it near the top of your stack. It is a masterful work that takes actual events of Francis' life, real places and a unbelievable compelling story that is weaved together to move your soul, at lease mine. Here are a few of the nuggets that have really helped me deeply reflect.
"...a pilgrimage is a way of praying with your feet. You go on a pilgrimage because there's something missing inside your soul, and the only way you can find it is to go to sacred places, places where God makes himself known to others. In sacred places, something gets done that you've been unable to do for yourself." (page 42)
"Sarcasm is confusing to the pure of heart." (page 63)
"Francis had no new theory to offer, but an old practice -- the practice of Jesus Christ." (page 47)
I strongly encourage you to find a copy of Chasing Francis: A Pilgrims Tale and take it in. Perhaps you'll find yourself somewhere in the story as I have done at several different points. Perhaps you'll find freedom, as I have found. You might even find that this book is more for you than "your friend who needs some encouragement these days."
Hope
Gina, my wife, was given the gift of a subscription to Weavings: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life some time ago. When the bi-monthly issues arrive in the mail each time I am quick to snatch them up as if they were a gift to me.
It usually takes me at least a month or so to read through all of the articles. The articles are written with an obvious concern for guiding readers to a place of personal reflection and deep thought.
Recently, I've developed the habit of looking first for the poetry sprinkled throughout the journal -- even before I read the articles. About every 6-8 pages or so there is usually a great piece to make me think, wonder and reflect.
The March/April 2009 issue is no exception... The piece below is called, Hope and it is written by Victoria Safford (Weavings: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life, March/April 2009 Volume XXIV, Number 2, page 19).
"Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of hope--not the prudent gates of Optimism, which are somewhat narrower; nor the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense; nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness, which creak and shrill and angry hinges (people cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through); nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of "Everything Is Gonna Be All Right." But a different, sometimes lonely place, of truth-telling about your own soul first of all and its condition, the place of resistance and defiance, from which you see the world both as it is and as it could be, as it will be; the place from which you glimpse not only struggle but joy in the struggle. And we stand there, beckoning and calling, telling people what we're seeing, asking them what they see."
The Cow Of No Color
I came across a book I think many of you might find helpful. It is called, The Cow Of No Color: Riddle Stories and Justice Tales from Around the World.
As far as I can tell, it is a fairly obscure book (Amazon rankings don't always mean a book is or isn't obscure -- #423,247 as of right now). It is a simple book really, but it isn't an easy book. In fact, the riddles and stories are quite thought provoking and very challenging. Each story in the book sent me through a mixed range of emotions and led me into deep thought.
(Artwork from HERE)
I think it might provide you and your students with similar experiences. Not to mention, I am quite sure it will get your students talking about issues of love, compassion, forgiveness, greed, peace, burden, ethics, equality, etc.
Here is an excerpt from the back cover of the book...
Two men are traveling through the desert. One of them carries a flask filled with water. The desert stretches out before them. Both men know that the closest oasis is a hunred miles away. They also know there is only enough water to keep one man alive until he can reach the watering hole. If the owner of the flask keeps the water for himself, he will reach the oasis with the spring water. If he gives the flask to his companion, he friend will live and he will die. If they share the water, both will die. (The Cow of No Color, by Jaffe and Zeitlin.)
Who should drink the water?
Youthfront South (& West)
The last two weeks have been exhilarating! They have also been very exhausting -- all of us who work with youth this time of year (or any other time of year really) find ourselves quickly consumed by the work and we are left tired hoping to recover sometime before the fall.
Two weeks ago we hosted Merge at our South camp and this past week we hosted about 250 high school students from Lee's Summit, MO, a suburb of Kansas City. In an effort to accomplish their vision to bring restoration to their community, about half a dozen youth pastors from Lee's Summit bought out a week at our camp to strategically inspire, equip and challenge their students to live deeper and lean further into God's story. It was amazing...
At Youthfront we are longing for more of these types of relationships with youth pastors. We love to see students gathering at our camps from the same community, brought by a network of concerned and committed youth workers. We love knowing that students are coming from the same geographical area to experience God together and that they'll go 'home' with one another as well.
There is no scientific data to prove that this is a stronger use of our camp and a more effective outcome of the environments of spiritual transformation we yield to the spirit to create and sustain -- but I believe it is. It just has to be.
As a result of that belief, at Youthfront we are becoming more intentional about linking up with youth workers in our region first -- and ultimately throughout North America. We do this through our training initiatives, our camps and other events -- all of which are most effective when connected to a youth worker and their faith community.
We are passionately positioning ourselves as an organization that's using it's camp(s) as a gathering place for thousands of youth workers and students from the same area and faith community to come together to experience God is new and amazing ways -- a place of expedition and experience where communities come from and go back to the place where they can be most effective extending God's love and restoration to their worlds.
While marketing our camps directly to students might prove to be better financially, we don't believe it is necessarily better for the Kingdom. In the coming months and years, we'll continue to be intentional about serving and working directly with youth workers to bring youth into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
5 ‘Dangerous’ Things, Part 3
Similarly to allowing students to doubt (part 2 of this series), we ought also to allow students to discover truth on their own. I am not saying that we allow them to discover their own truth. Rather, I am saying that we allow them to come into truth via their own understanding and practice. I contend we are far better off in the shepherding of our students if we allow them to believe that something is true in their own time and through their own unearthing and articulation of the particular truth.
Truth is not something that can be understood and practiced simply by passing on what we have come to know through words alone. I mean, how have we ‘come to know’ what we do? Was it simply because someone told us that a particular thought or concept IS true and so we believed them? C’mon. There is no way have you come to the place you are with God right now in this present moment because someone convinced you that something was true simply by using words. Language (words that give meaning) is very important in the process of discovering truth but it is not THE process. The process of practice, reflection, observation making, abstract correlating and tested experience all come together to help students ‘come to know’ what is true. (i.e. Kolb, Experiential Learning).
Therefore, the environments that we create and sustain become essential. Without an effective environment or a collection of various environments we are simply left to assume that just words that define ideas and concepts about God help students ‘come to know’ what is true. So, as youth workers, we are not solely the passer on of truths as we are environmentalists that help create a culture where truths can be unearthed and applied. We, as youth workers (parents, coaches, teachers, etc), are key to the entire unearthing truth process but our role ought not to be the carrier of what is “right” as much as it ought to be the designer in which the truth that we have come to know might also come to be known by others.
The inevitable question I get asked when I talk about this is always something like… “So… then… what constitutes an effective environment?” My answer is usually something like this… “I think there are three critical elements of an effective environment. The three elements are time, space and content.”
Time -- moments to discover God and instances to punctuate the time.
Space -- freedom and breathing room to discover God in the time the individual feels is exact.
Content – the substance or the material used to help the individual do the things I have already stated are important. Things like practice, reflection observation making, abstract correlating and testing by experience.
(BTW- I am not sure where I got those three elements. I can’t remember if it was one particular author or seminar speaker or who but they are something I have been using as a template for a while now.)
My premise (for those of you who are confused by these ramblings on) is quite simple. Here it is… Don’t tell students what is true and expect them to just live it (truth) out. On the contrary, guide or shepherd your students into environments comprised of time, space and content that allow them to ‘come to know’ what is true through their own understanding and practice. Be and environmentalist as much as you are an evangelist.
On Facts and Reason
"Facts and reason alone do not stand a chance against a story because both depend on story for their power. It is naive to think one has arrived at one's views and values solely through unbiased consideration of objective data. Data are never objective because they are always gathered by story-breathing human subjects. All facts are inert and useless until they have been interpreted, integrated into this narrative or that."
From Daniel Taylor's "Tell Me a Story: The Life-Shaping Power of Our Stories" (Bog Walk Press, Page 80)
