Great Conversation over at Slant33!
A couple of friends (Mike King, Scot McKnight and Dave Rahn) have started a wonderful conversation on the mission of God over at www.slant33.com. Check it out HERE!
God is Loud, Part 3- Dan Haugh
A few years ago I met a youth worker from NY named, Dan Haugh at a Youth Specialties convention.
Since that time Dan and I have developed a great friendship. I've been out to Bedford, NY where Dan is the youth pastor at Bedford Community Church, I've shared numerous meals with Dan and have even watched a Notre Dame football game in his living room!
When I announced the God is Loud project via my blog, Dan expressed a real interest in being actively involved. Dan and I have shared a great conversation via email and over the phone regarding the God is Loud ebook and I've really been inspired by a lot of Dan's thinking (so much so that I have contracted him to do print book for Barefoot too!) so a few weeks ago I asked Dan if he would work closely with me on the completion of the project. Dan has taken the reigns and will be facilitating the process via his blog.
For the dozens of you who have emailed and have contributed, no worries, Dan and I will talk and we'll continue to process your thoughts and ideas as we work to complete this book. Be sure to check out Dan's blog HERE in order to stay connected to the progress and completion of the free ebook, God is Loud.
For those of you who haven't yet heard of this project, you can read my earler posts HERE and HERE.
Embodying Justice
I posted some thoughts on the difference between embodying justice and performing just acts over at Slant33.com. Below are my thoughts but be sure to check out Slant33.com for two other perspectives on the same topic!
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To embody something is to personify it or to be an ideal example. Justice is making wrongs right. Hence, to embody justice is to be a living and active illustration of what it means to make right the wrongs of this world. This embodied, consistent justice comes out of who a person is and has become—out of their way or rule of life.
To simply perform a just act is not to consistently embody but rather to occasionally take action. Taking occasional action on behalf of others is morally and spiritually fitting. Dependably embodying justice, though, is more. It is morally and spiritually forming in both self and others.
Dependable embodiment stems from a life of attentiveness, discipline, and selfless practice. And though it may be created through the above description, it is formerly birthed out of a holy love that is wrought by God and God’s grace, showered upon humanity—which, consequently, is passed on through the varied expressions of the one love that began it all. These expressions are performed in the hopes of righting what has been wronged because ultimately, God is a merciful God, and because of that, humanity still has the capability of being a compassionate people.
So the difference between embodying justice and performing a just act is quite simple. Where the question begs, Should I act justly?, there is most often standing a person who performs justice as an occasional act. Where the question begs, What kind of a person will I become if I don’t embody justice?, it is there that the consistent person stands and the morally and spiritually forming habit of righting wrongs takes up residence.
Just acts are morally and spiritually fitting, and the embodiment of justice is morally and spiritually forming. Inside of these truths one can appraise his life and answer the question, Do I embody justice, or do I simply perform acts of justice?
New and Innovative Blog from Barefoot!
I have been swamped! My day job is kicking my butt -- in a good way, of course. So I haven't had the chance to post in a while.
We launched a new blog today with some of my good friends and ministry partners. We hope that this blog becomes a great resource to stretch your thinking and inspire you to engage in meaningful conversation. We are calling it Slant33. The "slant" simply means "perspective" or someones "take" on a particular issue. The 33 is simple too. 3 people, 3 voices. Each week we will post thoughts on various topics from some of youth ministry's leading thinkers and doers. We hope you will join the conversation!
Check out Slant33 here: http://slant33.com/
Check out our list of contributors here: http://slant33.com/contributors.html
Immerse: A Journal of Faith, Life and Youth Ministry
I am thrilled to tell you that Barefoot Ministries will be publishing a new journal for youth workers and all those who work with youth.
We will be releasing a "Preview Issue" in couple of weeks and will launch the new journal in May/June 2010. I am working on this with my good friend and ministry partner, Mike King president and CEO of Youthfront, Inc. Mike will be serving as executive editor of the journal.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Barefoot Ministries Acquires The Journal of Student Ministries
Kansas City, MO - February 1, 2010 - Barefoot Ministries, a company of the Nazarene Publishing House, acquired The Journal of Student Ministries, a magazine for faith-based youth workers, from Student Ministry Partners of Nashville, TN.
Chris Folmsbee, senior manager of Barefoot Ministries, states, "We are extremely excited to add another initiative to our growing collection of innovative tools and resources aimed at helping youth workers guide students into spiritual formation for the mission of God. The acquisition of The Journal of Student Ministries will better help us serve the church by providing robust theological ideas and realistic methodological practices to work alongside all of our other youth worker training and publishing initiatives."
For nearly a decade, Barefoot Ministries has served hundreds of churches, a variety of denominational affiliates and ministry organizations throughout North America by providing books, magazines, media, training events, curriculum and web-based ministry solutions.
Smitty Wheeler, president of Faith-Based Media Group and the former executive director of the Journal of Student Ministries, noted, "This past summer we made the decision that The Journal of Student Ministries needed to team up with a larger ministry partner that not only shared our vision of empowering and equipping youth leaders but had the experience and expertise to take us to the next level. We are excited that Barefoot Ministries shares our vision, and all of us associated with The Journal of Student Ministries believe that Barefoot is the perfect fit in helping us better serve our readers' needs and in ultimately growing the kingdom."
Faith-Based Media Group will continue to coordinate the advertising sales efforts, and Managing Editor Tim Baker will remain in his current role of coordinating the content and serving the journal's authors. Mike King, president of Youthfront, Inc., a Kansas City-based non-for-profit youth ministry organization, and author of the acclaimed Presence-Centered Youth Ministry (Intervarsity, 2006), will be the new executive editor of The Journal of Student Ministries, which will now be called Immerse: A Journal of Faith, Life and Youth Ministry. King stated, "I'm really excited about working alongside Chris Folmsbee and the Barefoot Ministries team to explore new and fresh expressions for training, equipping and resourcing youth workers for the changing landscape of North American youth ministry theology, philosophy and practice."
"We realize that the success of a print magazine or journal in today's shifting economic and cultural times is a challenge, to say the least. However, we feel confident that an innovative format to both the print side and to the website, coupled with a fresh voice calling youth workers toward missional thought and practice, will help us emerge as a journal that youth workers feel the absolute need to engage with and contribute to," says Folmsbee.
For advertising information, contact Smitty Wheeler of Faith-Based Media at smitty@faithbasedmediagroup.com or by calling 615-261-8048. For more information on Barefoot's acquisition of The Journal of Student Ministries, contact Audra Marvin, Operations Coordinator, at acmarvin@barefootministries.com or by calling 1-866-355-9933.
Micro-Learning next week!
We only have a few spots left for next week's Micro-Learning Training event at our Barefoot offices. You can go HERE to register and to learn more about this event. We are partnering with our friends over at Youthfront to bring this event to Kansas City youth workers for FREE (lunch is also free)!
Let’s write a book together! (part, 2)
A few weeks ago I sent out an invitation to help me write a book. I am hoping to post the first part of the book later this week so if you'd like to comment/contribute to the book's first part now is your chance!
Please read my previous post and jump in and help out. Thanks to the dozens of you who have already commented or sent me your thoughts via email.
Contingent Dimensions, Part 2
I’ve spent a couple days this past week in Louisville, KY. I was hanging out with nearly 200 youth workers from around North America. I used the time and conversations to test a fair bit of my more recent thinking related to faith formation of adolescents with a handful of the youth workers who were in attendance.
From my conversations, I’ve affirmed my thinking (although it was a relatively small sampling) that one of the most overlooked areas of guiding students into spiritual formation for the mission of God is the invitation and call to join a community of people who are on the way.
Often, those of us who work with youth are not deliberate about calling and inspiring students into spiritual formation for the mission of God. We are often very deliberate about telling them what to do, who to be, what to look like and how to live... but shouldn't the very beginning of the journey be a simple, authentic and meaningful invitation to be a part of a faith community that is on the way?
The invitation I am referring to isn't simply the words, "please join us" as much as it is the communal spirit of hospitality and generosity in which the invitation is extended. In addition, the invitation is not just to attend or be a part of but in a much deeper and connective way it is an invitation to participate in the formation of others.
I think this is where we often are confused between a group of people who meet regularly and talk about God and a community of people who regularly help others live in the intended ways of God. A group of individuals that is not dependent upon one another for formation is simply an assembly of many. A faith community, on the other hand, recognizes the role and participation of others in the shaping of the lives that comprise the community -- an interdependent body of one, a family.
We are not our own in two ways -- (1) We are God's and (2) we belong to a people, a community, and a family. A skimpy invitation to be an individual who represents a group or assembly is clearly different than a stout invitation to participate in the shaping of others lives through genuine community. We need to invite adolescents into a community of people on the way, not a mere assembly of people.
The first dimension of adolescent faith formation is indeed the invitation and call to join a community of people who are on the way. Subsequently, people who work with adolescents must be able to recognize the difference between an invitation into a group and an invitation into a faith community. An invitation into the first is really, in the end, about "self". An invitation into the latter is really, in the end, about "others" and this is why the invitation is key.
Key Factors of an Invitation into Community:
1. The invitation must be compelling -- irresistible and imperative. Inviting adolescents into a faith community that is bigger than they are and has a collective dream to change the world by participating with God to restore the world to its intended wholeness. Who wants to completely disorient and reorient their life for a lame cause or no cause at all?
2. The invitation must be recurring. Inviting adolescents into a faith community must be something that occurs more than "every now and then". Our faith communities must commit to a variety of ways of inviting others to explore what it means to live in and live out the mission of God, giving adolescents the chance to decide how they do or don't want to participate.
3. The invitation must be bigger than us. The ongoing invitation to adolescents to participate in the faith community needs to be about more than the spiritual discovery and growth of any one particular person. The invitation must also be one that reveals the desire to live out beyond the walls of the faith community and live amidst the needs of others.
4. The invitation must be about process and progress. We'll think on and talk about this more as the weeks go by but to the invitee, faith formation must be about the process and the progress that takes place within the process. Some are happy to engage the process to be a part of a body, a family, but the progress of an ongoing conversion is often not part of the original call or invitation.
Some thoughts to reflect on:
• In what ways am I (are we) inviting adolescents into a faith community?
• Do I (we) invite students into a group or a community? Could my (our) faith community recognize the difference?
• In what ways and I (are we) helping adolescents understand process and progress?
Pray for a friend…
A really good friend of mine named Dan Haugh, a youth pastor in Bedford, NY, returned with his youth group from Haiti just 24 hours before the devastating earthquake. You can read an article about it HERE. He is headed back to find ways to help. Please pray for him as he does what he can to bring God's hope and healing.
Contingent Dimensions of Adolescent Faith Formation
The last couple years I've been thinking deeply about the spiritual formation of adolescents for the mission of God. I've always understood the spiritual formation of adolescents to be important, of course. However, it really wasn't until I had a decade or so of experience shepherding adolescents and through consistent consideration of my own spiritual discovery and growth that I really began to understand what spiritual formation is and how to help myself and others live into it.
I certainly don't have it figured out by any stretch of the imagination. I do feel, however, that I have some unfinished ideas on what's essential to the process and progress of our spiritual development.
With the help of others, I've put together some training workshops that are designed to inform, inspire, challenge and equip youth workers as they guide students into spiritual formation. We've had a ton of fun and learned a lot as we have facilitated the workshops in dozens and dozens of cities throughout North America.
I've also written a book called, Story, Signs and Sacred Rhythms that is intended to give a theological yet intentionally practical overview of a narrative approach to youth ministry --an approach profoundly rooted in the Story and mission of God. The time spent writing (actually more so the reading, interviewing, having other people a lot smarter than me speak into the book, etc.) has also helped me better understand the process and progress of faith formation.
Along the way I have come to the conclusion that there are several key and what I describe as "contingent" dimensions in the faith formation of adolescents. I am not only referring to an overarching model or an in depth framework (click HERE for more on the approach in my new book). I am also referring to the implicit and explicit fundamentals of spiritual formation. You know what I mean, where the rubber meets the road kind of stuff.
Of course, I don't think anyone can effectively help shape the faith of others without an overarching model or in depth and guiding framework. However, I also know that in order to be truly effective in our efforts of shepherding we can't merely work in the “bigness” of models and frameworks. Eventually, we must dig down into the earth of it all and discover the specific matter that a soul can’t grow without.
Over the next few days and weeks I will be writing several posts on what I believe are some of the contingent dimensions of faith formation, specifically in the lives of adolescents. I invite you to participate in helping me to establish a more robust collection of particulars that will help all of us. I invite you to comment here or post my thoughts along with your thoughts on your blog for others to comment. Below is a table that illustrates my present plan for sharing my thoughts. Of course, this may change as we converse about it together. Obviously, I plan to bring context and meaning to each of these future posts as we go along. NOTE: The table below, by itself, most likely will not help you understand what I am getting at.
Also, you will notice that I have arranged the posts into three main areas of focus – Associating, Assimilating and Actualizing. While I think these labels are helpful, don’t get hung up on the words. Instead, work to contextualize the words I use to develop your own categories.
One more thing -- I think it is imperative that we work through these posts with our own spiritual discovery and growth in mind, not just the adolescents and others that we shepherd. You can’t give away what you don’t own.
I am looking forward to the conversation!
