The father of experiential education, John Dewey, presented the world with his most concise and compelling vision of what experiential education could be in his classic, Experience and Education in 1938. It has some valuable lessons for those of us who work in the area of children, youth and family ministry. Dewey was writing to […]
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Emmanuel! God is with us, in the vocations of our youth! Vocation is the most critical issues youth ministry faces today. If we cannot help young people listen for and discern God’s call in their lives, then they will find little reason to stay engaged in the community of faith. When we claim that God […]
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22% of children in the USA under the age of 18 are living in poverty. Yet, when I hear the Church talking about young people I don’t hear us talking about poverty rates. I only hear us talking about post-confirmation retention rates. Isn’t this a little short-sighted? Where are the boundaries or limits to our […]
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Mission without relationship is colonialism. Ministry without relationship is patronizing. I’ve been guilty of both many times. I was new to ministry and had developed a complex chart depicting the leadership structure that my ministry would take including youth committee members, small group leaders, peer ministers, drivers, etc. I shared this with my father, a […]
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Kenda Creasy Dean’s Almost Christian has gotten a lot of attention in the past year and I am glad. I was beginning to think that we (as a Church) had glossed over the findings of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) too quickly. Kenda offers us an antidote to the Moralistic Therapeutic Deism […]
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“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) How do […]
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If your goal is to simply socialize youth into the church and its routines, then you do not need to read any further. Good luck with that. However, if your goal is to invite young people into a life of discipleship, then it is critical that we start seeing ministry as discernment and not as […]
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I believe the primary task (or practice) of youth ministry today is the hermeneutical task, or interpretation. This is the first practice of the anti-model presented in an earlier post. Youth ministers often find ourselves in the role of interpreter – interpreting youth culture for adults, interpreting adult culture for youth, interpreting church tradition for […]
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Upon being hired at Augsburg College, I was intent on establishing Augsburg College as THE place to study and train for youth ministry in urban settings. It made complete sense given Augsburg’s unique location and the diversity of its student body. Over time, I have come to a place where I do not think the […]
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