We've just had a big youth ministry training day with Doug Fields from Saddleback in California and about 450 youth leaders and youth workers/pastors from a range of denominations. He was hosted by our synod's youth ministry centre which is conggregation-based. Doug is the author of Purpose-Driven Youth Ministry (PPDM) and has lots of stuff at Simply Youth Ministry. I know you've heard of him.
The organisers did a great job. Doug is a great communicatior - warm, engaging, funny, appropriately self-deprecating, wise. He had the group in the palm of his hand in a good way.
I realised how much PPDM builds on US youth ministry frameworks that have gone before (Harris, Roberto, Robbins, Kimball). That's not a bad thing at all. The reaction of the audience showed me how many people have not heard such basic and important stuff explained so well (or at all). Full credit to Doug for that.
It's an excellent "come to us" approach which is different from the "cultural incarnational" GO approach which has characterised some UK and Australian youth ministry. AND YET, larger churches are able to cultivate sub-cultures, or rather, are able if they choose to engage with sub-cultures because of the greater variety of people in their membership. I am delighted that this approach was articulated so well, and realise that in recent times we have had so little of the GO approach. Sub-cultural youth work (drawing from the UK) has been strong in the Australian 'secular' youth work field but much less so in the church youth work field, with some notable exceptions.
Now I'll comment a bit. This is not out of disrespect for Doug who I thought did very well indeed. BUT...
It bothers me when a speaker doesnt recognise or respect that people come from different denominations/traditions which have some important theological strengths and differences and at least acknowledge that. For my Lutheran and Catholic friends, and for some in my tradition, baptism needs to be acknowledged and taken seriously (I'm not talking about "believers" baptism). This is not a language issue, it's a belief issue, and to not acknowledge this suggests that you assume that such issues are minor, which may be true, but it depends on your perspective.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that.
- for some, 'conversion' is an event and for some a 'process' (either experientially and theologically). Models or approaches that don't acknowedge this are a problem for me.
- some people see non-Christians as 'godless' and some see God as active in all people's lives. It would be good to acknowledge that. Can non-Christians "worship"? I would say that they can and do wonder at the mystery of Creation and an "other" who is bigger. broader and in a sense better than them - and sometimes or often in ways that are more genuine than some of my worship times in church. Are all unchurched people lacking faith or an experience of God? Not in my experience.
- those churches who baptise children treat them either as Christian or as potentially-Christian. They usually don't treat them as heathens, non-Christians or whatever term you use. Big issues here but they need to be recognised, not purpose-driven over.
- when did "evangelicals" forget about JUSTICE as part of the gospel. It was strong in the UK churches and in the African-American churches, but in the 'white' American and Australian 'evangelical' churches it's a dirty word. I suspect simply because it somehow got aligned with liberalism. To equate justice with service/ministry is to limit God's action to my one-to-one caring, and also to ignore systemic evil. (Am I telling you anything you don't know? I doubt it. So why didn't it get a mention today?)
anyway, I found the day helpful in thinking through where my head is at in youth ministry and what we'll be teaching in a few weeks time.
Doug had a guy with him who is originally from Perth and now in the US who does a lot of design stuff for them.
Here's his website. i liked the look of a lot of it, although he is overly fond of "DEVICE" (its a font). I am too but now I'll have to stop.
Unfortunately I didnt get to talk to him as he was also staffing the book/resource stall. Nor did I even have my wallet with me, and based on the website, the resources were about half price on the day!
Anyway, go and visit. three free images for starters.
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