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Reflecting on How the John Pipers Could Better Serve the Rob Bells And the Church

March 9, 2011 by 4 Comments

On John Piper
Years ago, John Piper was an important voice in my life. Alongside of figures like Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, Richard Foster and Chuck Colson, I thought books like A Hunger For God and the Pleasure of God were quite excellent. The years following, I became a bit more annoyed with the Piperclones than with the pastor himself. There is only so many times you can hear a sentence begin with, “John Piper says …”. Not his fault but in these recent years, I admit that I have become quite confused with his behavior (to put it politely). And then last weekend, if we ever needed to see what a church version of an attempted “pre-emptive strike” looked like, Dr. Piper gave us one.

I can handle the type of drama that came with his sparring with NT Wright. It was whispered through the blogosphere that he was upset that Tim Keller invited the good bishop to Redeemer and that’s ok too. As a post-conservative, I can respect his convictions on theological and political issues. My problem is more as a young brother in the Lord in not only how he deals with his differences but also how his thousands follow him and what that does to us as a Church.

I am in no position to point my finger at a man like John Piper, I regard him as a spiritual father, but this type of nonsense really has to stop. And what I mean specifically is this one-man watchgroup against what he feels is liberalism and heresy.

It seems from where I sit in my corner of the internet, that Dr. Piper cannot wait for certain people to fail like NT Wright, anyone in the emerging church conversation namely Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt and many others. And we should remember that it was people like Doug Pagitt who posted on their blogs to pray for Dr. Piper during the sabbatical he was taking because to paraphrase, he was being consumed in the pride wars he was fighting were starting to affect his home and soul.

I’ll tell you this, if Dr. Piper was ever caught in a scandal, I have no doubt that it would be the Brian McLarens, the Jay Bakkers, the Tony Jones types that would be among those that would say, “Hey it sucks but he’s a brother and we stand by him …”

This is partially why it’s so odd to me that he would be so trite and worse, dismissive, with Rob Bell. I believe people like John Piper to love Christ and have a genuine concern for the church and the world in general. But judging from his use of social media from the past few years, I would say that he is lurking in the bushes waiting for anyone he has pre-determined as “liberal” so he can pop out with his stones and say, “Haha, I told you to sin no more, now suffer the consequences of your rebellion.”

Please, Dr. Piper wrote a fantastic book that I handed out to high school graduates for years entitled, Don’t Waste Your Life, is there not some irony here? And if he’s sitting in his office thinking “Come on people, I was just joking around”, then he really needs to learn how to effectively use social media. Does Bethlehem Baptist not have a youth pastor that can help him out?

I know some will think I am naive for saying this but since I hold out hope for a united church, I offer this. I think it’s the John Pipers that can be a great help to the Rob Bells. Years from now Bell will get old, perhaps even trade in his cool eye wear for bifocals. It’s the Pipers that can be of assistance there. People like him should consider offer genuine friendship and assistance to the next generation of evangelicals and he should include those outside his theological tradition. We are one church, serving one Lord. Though it seems extremely unlikely for such a thing to happen, I cannot help but think that not only is it possible, but it should actually happen.

Second, because of the following of pastors like John Piper, this is a church issue. The Piper appreciators and the Bell appreciators need to converse. As someone (sorry I cannot remember who) on Twitter pointed out that this is very similar to the Apollos, Cephas, Paul “I follow” issue that the Corinth church was tripped up in. The declining evangelical church would be wise to break down the walls of sectism (among some other walls), unite under the banner of Christ, then dialogue while serving the world and worshiping our God. Again, I know it sounds naive but at least admit, it is very Pauline.

On Justin Taylor and the Gospel Coalition
First, I’d like to be among what I assume would be the many to suggest that they change their name to something a bit less militant sounding? Second, I’m sure Justin is a cool guy and there’s some good content on his blog but it could use some diversity though. A Rob Bell type would really only help the conversation, not hurt it. Third, I appreciated the updates to the original post but perhaps a bit of humility could have been demonstrated as well. A line like, “Perhaps these words were a bit strong for not having read the book yet so I extend my apologies. Universalism is a dangerous idea and I am passionately against it but perhaps I hasted my judgement on Bell and his book.” Is that realistic for us as Christians? It will be interesting to the how/what post will sound if/when Justin reviews Love Wins.. I would advise an edifying brotherly discussion over a disuniting theological rivals tone.

On Rob Bell soon …

Filed Under: Christianity, Reflective, The Church

Come see the new Invisible Children movie Tony next Wednesday

March 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Our youth group has been involved in Invisible Children for the past few years. In addition to hosting screenings at our church, in their schools, creating School for Schools campaigns, this tragic issue of trafficked and abducted children forced to become child soldiers has been on our hearts.

Next Wednesday (March 16th, 7:30p), we are hosting the new Invisible Children film, Tony at our church (141 W Grand Ave. Montvale, NJ). If you have never seen an IC film, consider coming, they are well-made documentaries that have an incredible soul to them.

The event is free and there will be tshirts and dvds for sale to help support the cause. Hope you can make it and hope you bring a friend.

You can learn more on their website – www.invisiblechildren.com

 

Filed Under: human trafficking, Missional, Student Ministry

Recapping The Rob Bell Controversy

March 8, 2011 by 10 Comments

Primary Audience – To those of you who keep saying, “What’s going on with this whole …?”
Secondary Audience – Evangelicals.

A few of my friends have asked for my thoughts on the Rob Bell controversy.  Like so many, I too have a lot of thoughts and to be honest, though this last week was pretty drama-crazy, I think there’s a lot of good to see here.

But before I post those and because everything is contextual (and spiritual :), this is the recap from where I sit.

On the Saturday (2/25) before the Grammy’s Rob Bell released this video to promote his new book to be released March 15th Love Wins. Here’s the book description from the publisher Harper One: In Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, Bell addresses one of the most controversial issues of faith–the afterlife–arguing that a loving God would never sentence human souls to eternal suffering. With searing insight, Bell puts hell on trial, and hismessage is decidedly optimistic–eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts right now. And ultimately, Love Wins.

Sunday night, (Feb. 26), John Piper, Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist, author, etc. made this tweet and included a link to Justin Taylor’s post.

No joke, #Rob Bell was a twitter trend alongside on Grammys, James  Franco and Justin Bieber.

 

Justin Taylor blogs for the Gospel Coalition. This post, entitled “Rob Bell, Universalist?” was clicked thousands of times and went viral.

Thousands of tweets, FB status updates, blog posts, and conversations ensued.

Among the best posts I read were Scot McKnights “Waiting for Rob Bell Part 1″ and “Part 2″.  I think it’s also worth noting that Relevant Magazine used McKnight’s posts for their blog.  Also, in Part 1, Scot includes a brief overview of how his college students generally see ideas of the afterlife/universalism.  As a youth pastor, just this mention was of great interest to me.

Jason Boyett had an excellent post, “Thoughts About Rob Bell, John Piper, and Justin Taylor”

Tony Jones offered his two cents and asked if Bell was the Jason Bourne of Evangelism in “What’s Up With Rob Bell?”

My friend Evan made some excellent points in his post, “Rob Bell – The Belle of the Universalist Ball”

Last week the NY Times had an article … on the front page.

My thoughts? I hope to express them Christianly (as so many actually have) throughout the week. Last week I was really irritated with the backlash from those that hadn’t read the book.

My wife and I are also going to go see Bell in NYC. Join us – Here is the ticket link and if you don’t live in the area or unable to attend, it will be streamed here.

Filed Under: Christianity, Reflective, The Church, Theology

My Review of Matthew Paul Turner’s Churched

March 5, 2011 by 1 Comment

I had the opportunity to review Churched for the Blogging for Books program by Multnomah Books.  I think I’m supposed to say that I am not required to write a positive endorsement, only an honest one.  Faithful readers should know that by now, new readers, beware :)

As a fan of MPT and his blog Jesus Needs New PR, I’m not sure what took me this long to read Churched. It’s a pretty fast read, I finished it in a night.
Here are my thoughts:

It is legitimately funny. Matthew is not only a fantastic story-teller but also has an excellent sense of humor that you can tell has been refined over his years on teen-retreats in a church van.

Second, it’s therapeutic. You cannot help but feel comforted by the similarities of your own family, church, and inner monologue.

Third, there is a warning contained here for all of us pastors, church leaders, parents – these kids we have now eventually get older, acquire book deals and do a tell-all as if they were a politician’s girlfriend. Ask the Lord to help you bring your A-game everyday.

Lastly, based on this, there are two types of people who should read it: Christians raised in fundamentalist churches (especially in the 80’s and 90’s) and parents who raised their children in these types of churches. The book is marketed to the former, but I think it would be extremely interesting for Boomer parents to read what was going in our heads throughout those years. I kept thinking, I bet a lot parents have no idea that this is how so many of us felt. It is written with enough humor and exaggeration that I think it’s very possible for it not get overly personal. Just a thought.

MPT does a great job in not preaching at all in this book – it’s all in the dialogue and the sarcasm. He creates these caricatures (please let them be caricatures) that reminded me of what Matt Groening did with his own family and upbringing when he created the Simpsons (yes, the concept of the Simpsons is based on a true story).

Perhaps the most insightful thing I can say about the book is this – the greatest thing fundamentalism did for kids like us, is that our existing faith is evidence of the Holy Spirit. There are thousands of us who were raised in this no long hair, no tattoo, no secular music message of Christianity and crawled out the other end of the CCM sewer, found Jesus and raised our hands like freed people in the Lord Shawshank Redemption style.

Again, it’s a fun read, hope you check it out.

Filed Under: Book Reviews

O Lord, Give Me Half The Faith of an Ecclesia Church-Planting Cubs Fan

March 4, 2011 by 6 Comments

Last week I was given the opportunity to attend the Ecclesia Conference in DC and it was an excellent time. For those unfamiliar with the “Ecclesia”, it’s basically a network of missionally minded churches across the country. Now, my church is not a part of Ecclesia, but my interest is more in the people and the conversations in it and that seems to be ok. Here are a few of my observations as somewhat of an outsider.

Having attended my share of conferences over the years, each gathering has a “feel” to it. This being my second time at this gathering, there were a few things I had my eye on. Of course there are the cliched jokes that we all love, it’s a room full of macbooks, moleskins, and manbags. Further, we all hate cheesy aliteration but cannot help using it from time to time either. Cool eye wear? Check. Cool jeans? Yep, not a pair of khaki’s in the house. Some of these people not only adopt kids but adopt parents – yep. In this room, it makes more sense to pay more for your XLR than your car. Most of this stuff is simply true of people in their 20’s and 30’s but you know you are not at a Southern Baptist gathering because there are tattoos, women, and amillennialists. I’m telling you, it’s a pretty cool group of people.

They are also a very welcoming group. While that is typically true of most church leader groups, if you know anything about twenty-thirty something, educated, post-evangelical, radical church planters, many of whom had difficult church congregant/pastoral experiences (catch my breath), well, you’re a bit surprised that it’s such a friendly place. As a bit of an outsider, it feels like everyone here knows everyone else. Some of these pastors and leaders have been meeting together (multiple times) for years and you can tell by the number of inside jokes (and some you know because of the social media world).

It’s a very sharp, intelligent, well-read room. Many I spoke to are/were a part of the emerging church conversation. I would assume that everyone would say that New Kind of Christian was an important book for them. So much more could be said here but I’ll leave it with, it seems that many of us in the missional church conversation have roots in the emergent/emerging church conversation.

Like I said, it’s a sharp and intelligent room so you don’t ask a question like, “Have you read any Dallas Willard?” You will get a polite answer like, “Well, sure, he was our speaker here last year and a number of us have read his books over the years …”. The question that an Ecclesist wants to ponder is more like, “What do you think Dallas Willard is thinking about right now?” “Well, JR (there are like 8 JR’s, so you never really know which one is being referred to) was just talking to him because Dallas had just update his secret Tumbler and he said Dallas has been wrestling with the idea of …”.

But they are not condescending either. This took me a while to figure out because I simply thought that they were better at being polite but this year it dawned on me – These pastors don’t have enough people or power in their church to be condescending. In some ways, I don’t really fit in this group. I admit, I can be condescending but even more, I’m not bivocational, I don’t design websites, my church doesn’t meet in a bar, and no matter how hard I try, I don’t look like Topher Grace, not even an Egyptian version of “Eric”. My church has a youth ministry, I’m one of the youth pastors, we even have a budget.

This year’s theme was spiritual formation. If you want to read on what what actually spoken about, I recommend these reflections:
Scott Emery’s, Eric Phillips, especially loved this one by Dave Kludt, the summary of tweets,
and keep an eye out on the Ecclesia site for when they post the mp3’s. A summary of tweets. http://lcfva.com/2011/02/formative-tweets-from-the-ecclesia-national-gathering-2011/

This year, I came late (though I enjoyed what I heard from Todd Hunter, found Marykate Morse’s leadership seminars to be fantastic, and loved the panel discussions from the many that shared) and I left a little early, so driving home, I reflected more on the conversations and relational elements I enjoyed those 36 hours I was there.

After some reflection, I think the greatest element that I am walking away with is that many in this gathering are very faith-led. Perhaps it’s their seminary training from Fuller, Talbot, Tibet, or it could be their collective choice in MLB teams. Which brings me to my point, “Is there anyone out there in American Christendom who has more faith than a married with children, bivocational, missional, church planter who cheers for the Cubs??? My prayer this Lent is that the Lord would give me half the faith of these people. Amen.

Filed Under: Conferences/Events, Reflective

Reflecting on My Experience Leading an Adult Sunday School on the Faith of Teenagers

March 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Primary Audience – Youth workers and those interested in youth ministry.

Last month I had the privilege of leading an adult Sunday School class that I entitled, “The Faith of the American Teenager”. I’m grateful to say this four week class for parents went pretty well. I have always known that a youth pastor my age cannot teach a class on parenting but I was hoping that I would be credible in sharing on the faith of a teenager. Relying on the research from the National Youth and Religion conducted by Christian Smith and Melinda Denton was the key for me. From the research, Smith and Denton released a book called Soul Searching, and from that book, there is Kenda Creasy Dean’s contribution called, Almost Christian. It was Kenda’s book that I had based much of the Sunday School content on.

Here’s what I learned:

Being in youth ministry for a few years truly helps in providing enough anecdotes to make a class like this a bit more personal. When the research says, “The average teen sees God as a cosmic butler”, you probably have a few stories helping to unpackage that. As the class went on, I found that I needed more stories than I realized to help communicate the findings of the research.

Don’t make the class a commercial for youth ministry. If you understand the research by Smith and Denton, you’ll know you can’t because parents are the key to a student’s spiritual formation; the youth ministry is to serve as a support to the home. Namely in nurturing a Christ-centered teen community that equips, challenges and inspires the Christian faith.

Allow people to see your passion and your thoughtfulness concerning the faith of their children and the youth ministry you are called to serve in.  As we all know there are a lot of stereotypes concerning the youth pastor position, allowing parents to see you “in action”, helps them understand a little more about you and your ministry.

Presenting research in this type of a setting allows for questions, push-back, discussion that you as the youth pastor do not need to defend or take personally. I truly felt like an ally to our church families.

The use of disclaimers is helpful in talking about other people’s children. Research and commentary tells a big-picture story. Just about every week, I offered the reminder that not all of this is necessarily true of their own child. In fact, for many of our families, they represented the highly committed statistics (evidenced by them being at the Sunday School class).

Allow for discussion. There are so many different types of people/parents. Some can lead a company and not a home – some can do both and then some. Allow for their voices to be heard. Our last Sunday, we broke up into discussion groups and allowed the parents to respond to the 11 Findings of the Research (found in the appendix of Almost Christian)

I was encouraged by the positive feedback. But I admit, I was a bit surprised that quite a few of our students had a lot of good things to say about the parents taking the class. Some felt very validated that they were the subject and others shared stories of resulting conversations with their parents. They convinced me to present a condensed version of what I shared with their parents. I’m interested in seeing how they respond to what was shared on their behalf but I believe most will find it very helpful.

The need to do this more often, maybe quarterly? I drafted a few ideas like “Teens and Social Media”, “Teens Dealing with Stress” and “Teens and Love”. Feel free to chime in if you have thoughts for other needed discussions.

Filed Under: Student Ministry, The Church

A Quick Endorsement of Kevin Belmonte’s The Quotable Chesterton

February 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

As part of the Blogger program BookSneeze, I was excited to pick up The Quotable Chesterton by Kevin Belmonte. In some ways, he’s like a Bob Dylan, everyone quotes him, but he’s not as listened to/read like he should be.

GK Chesterton was a theologian that we, evangelicals should be reading more of. We don’t for a number of reasons. One is that he isn’t the easiest to read. Two, is that we have hidden him under CS Lewis (who loved and quoted Chesterton extensively). He said, “Chesteron had more sense than all the other moderns put together”.

It’s this realization that Kevin Belmonte offers The Quotable Chesterton. He writes in the intro that Chesterton was quite the star in the early 20th Century. The Times tracked his life and writing throughout his career, even putting his death on Page 1 back in 1936. George Bernard Shaw considered him a “colossal genius”, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway found ways of including his writing in their books like The Man Who Was Thursday and Into Three-Day Blow.

Everyone took notice of his faith, including the New York Times that wrote this of his legacy, “Mr. Chesterton talks about God because God is the most interesting subject for conversation that there is.”  His most popular book Orthodoxy, is considered among the greatest of Christian classics.

Here are a few of the shorter quotes that I enjoyed from:

“Christianity is always out of fashion because it is always sane; and all fashions are mild insanities.”

“He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative.”

“Without education, we are in a horrible danger and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.”

“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”

Being a book on quotes, it’s not exactly reading, but more of a resource or in my case, a devotional (like Proverbs). It’s in this way that books like these are of value. So if you are “C.S. Lewised Out” or in need of some “new old ideas”, or better, want to begin reading an often-overlooked brilliant literary and theological mind, pick up The Quotable Chesterton: The Wit and Wisdom of G..K. Chesterton by Kevin Belmonte.

Filed Under: Book Reviews

My Review on Scot McKnight’s One.Life

February 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

As a fan of Scot McKnight, I was excited to read his new book One.Life Here’s the official synopsis from Zondervan:
In One.Life, Scot McKnight offers a manifesto of Christian faith that beckons readers out of the rut of religious rituals to the high places of Christian living. What does it look like to follow Jesus? Find out what it means to embrace the vision of God’s kingdom in a way that awakens your finest dreams and shapes your entire life.

It’s for everyone but who will really like it are … College Age/Young Adult students. Though anyone can read this book, Scot is in “reflecting outside the classroom” mode using examples of college age and young adult students.  It will be appropriate enough for some senior higher students to enjoy and older readers who appreciate newer perspectives will like it too. Further, if you have been “raised in the Church” and feel either confused or disenchanted about what the Christian faith is about, this book is an excellent telling of what you may have missed/not given.

For those of you to busy to read a lot … This is a fast read written in a popular level by a legitimate Christian scholar. For all the times you wished the academics would get out of their ivory towers, McKnight has not only left that a long time ago, but now he’s knocking on your door. Seriously, this is an easy and excellent read.

What I really liked about it … I like how people like Scot talk about Jesus and how he articulates the Kingdom. It’s among my favorite subjects but what makes this book different from perhaps an NT Wright book is that it’s even more accessible to readers.

My favorite chapters were probably …

Imagined.Life -I appreciated what Scot says about Jesus’ use of parables, empty religion, and Kingdom life. Last line of chapter is great – “A Christian, then, is one who follows Jesus, devotes his or her One.Life to the Kingdom vision, and uses her or his imagination to see what God can do in this world. This imagination is nothing other than kingdom imagination shaped by Jesus’ parables.”

I also liked what he said about sex. Not bad for a Christian college prof. Using  many different sources like writer Laura Sessions Stepp who says, “A girl can tuck a Trojan in her purse on Saturday night, but there is no such device to protect her heart”. The brief section on sex and science was not only thoughtful but reminded me how few Christian writers like to mention science in this way. Lastly there’s some direct and practical advice, “It is impossible to engage in the hookup culture without damaging your brain’s innate desire for healthy, faithful, emotional bonding.”

Truly like the Eternal.Life chapter that focused on the afterlife, heaven and hell. It’s impossible to compare it to Wright’s Surprised By Hope (it’s not only half the size but a different type of book altogether) but those like me who have loved that book will appreciate much of what Scot says here. There was a part of me that wanted him to go further but what I really liked was the revealing of his inner monologue. It’s precisely the lack of this with so many other scholars/pastors who insist on certain parts of the after-life (as though they have been there) that puts off the Gen-Xers and Millennials.

—-

As I mentioned in the beginning, I’m a fan of Scot’s, have enjoyed his blog over the years and loved one of his more popular books The Jesus Creed. Again, One.Life is aimed to young minds and among the many wise words offered, his pastoral heart really emerges here. Those college students in his classes, his audiences, and here, his readers, are in great hands – I highly recommend One.Life.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Reflective

Youth Ministry and the Future of the Church Part 6

February 18, 2011 by 3 Comments

Primary Audience – Local Context
Secondary Audience – Fellow youthworkers and Kingdombuilders

This is probably my last post in the “Youth Ministry and the Future of the Church” series for a while but I have enjoyed putting these thoughts out and have especially appreciated my local context friends expressing their thoughts (and at the very least … reading! – Seriously thanks). Be warned, I’ve tried to not be too provocative on these but I am finishing this post while listening to the new Radiohead album (really good).

Had I finished this series without the mention of the word “Missional”, it would only be a matter of days that someone from my beloved seminary would have contacted me for failure to apply practical objectives. But even with that lurking threat, ;) I sincerely believe that youth ministry will need to evolve and become more missional.

Before we dive in to that, a brief recap – My hope is that we will always support parents in the raising of young followers of a more Biblical Jesus with theological integrity. I hope we always provide opportunities for worship, community, learning and serving. Ultimately, I hope that the church will strengthen for the sake of the Kingdom.

That said, there’s only so much parents and youth workers can do for students, and there are some things that a student must see and do for themselves. At some point, students need to read the Bible for themselves and not just be taught about it. At some point, students must pray for themselves and not just be prayed for. And at some point, students must participate in mission and not just be the object of it.

It’s been my experience that if you want to convince a student to become less self-absorbed, you need to show them the physical/emotional/spiritual poverty of others. It’s among the reasons we believe in short-term missions and trying to create a sustainable and more consistent missional culture. This has been among the better aspects of our ministry.

To be completely honest though, I join the many who have always been concerned with the virtues of the short-term missions experience. Looking back on the last five years however, I think our response to the concern has been part of what has made these opportunities helpful. We tell students that they need to share their summer with others. We tell them to be faithful with the opportunities provided on the mission trip and to allow their hearts to be broken. We tell them later, that they can’t care for the homeless in New Orleans or the HIV patient in the Bahamas and curse their mother under their breath and ignore the socially marginalized in their school. In leaving our zip code, God has taught us a great deal about the people in it.

Now “being missional” is more than participational, it’s formational and communal as well. But among our problems is that our youth ministries are limited by the participational aspects of joining in service in the Kingdom.

We use a fair amount of sending language in our youth ministry. We even have students who say things like, “I am salt and light on my team/group/band.” That’s a great starting point for a young Christian and my hope is that we serve our community as individuals, families, and as a local church. To do this, I think a few aspects are needed.

One we need to be missional church-wide. Like many things, it must be part of our culture to serve and not just a “hobby” that the students do.

Two, we need to confront and dismiss the consumer culture that exists in many of our suburban churches. There’s a lot written about that on this blog and so many other places but consumer culture is suffocating us.

Third we need a new metrics of measurements. I know of some larger churches that are doing great things, some not so much. I know a few mid/small being very faithful and powerful and many not so much. Large/Small expired a long time ago, it’s about fruit, power, transformational difference. Instead of “How many are attending this week?” It needs to be more like, “How many new are coming in this year? How many are being sent out? What are they doing/saying/thinking/worshipping in here/out there?” etc. What is the fruit of our discipleship from our homes/churches?”

Finally, and I know how general this sounds, we must collectively pursue the mission of the Kingdom in the way Jesus modeled – liberation, provision, healing, sacrifice, forgiveness, redemption, all in the name of God’s love.

In the ministry I am serving in, we have had some amazing moments, some terrible ones, mediocre seasons and some real beautiful ones too. We are praying that we are on the Spirit-led road in being a strong church following Jesus. I truly believe that what we are doing today not only matters for now but for the evangelical church 30, 40, 50 years from now. Thoughts?

Filed Under: Missional, Student Ministry, The Church

Youth Ministry and the Future of the Church Part 5

February 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Primary Audience – Local Context
Secondary Audience – Fellow youthworkers and Kingdombuilders

In the previous post, I made the case that we need to present a more Biblically responsible vision of Jesus. In this post I want to insist on the second part of that – youth ministry needs to go deeper theologically.

Also in my previous post I am aware that I came across strongly towards my church upbringing. My intention is certainly not to offend anyone, especially those that served in this way. That said, if the goal of youth ministry is to train disciples in the way of Jesus, I think it’s appropriate to say that we haven’t always been faithful and effective with that great responsibility.

It was in college that I really sensed the lack of theology from our church upbringings. Ironically it was at Liberty University that I discovered the anti-intellectualism of evangelical culture. Resolved in my hope of equipping students theologically, during my first few years in youth ministry I kept hearing, “What are you talking about? and “Why does this matter?” Every so often parents would approach and say, “My kid likes you and all but I think you’re talking above his/her head” and “My kid doesn’t like you and you’re talking over his/her head.” To some extent, I would try to respond with better teaching, speak more clearly, slower, less “Christianese”, and tried to be more interesting. Then one day I heard a student say, “Wow, lately his messages have sucked.” (Among the lessons were – You can’t win but be Spirit-led, be faithful and be better for the sake of the Kingdom.)

Now, I”ll save describing how/what I changed for a different post but basically my teaching style is aimed at two audiences, “The church brat” and “the newbie” (At least that’s how I plot in my mind) but I am convinced that we need to offer our academically-geared, post-Dawson’s Creek, sophisticated suburbanite student some deeper Christian teaching. I know that not each of our students are AP and Ivy League bound and some have trouble focusing and such, I get that. But when focused, students can really engage in what is being taught (especially if you can tell a story), the God-sized world of youth ministry is profound.

It is no surprise that this need was one of the attractions to the emerging church discussion. I remember hearing Tony Jones at a YS Conference in 2003 saying, “We need youth ministries with theological robustness.” We’ve heard him and others say that or similar countless times (for more check out youth pastor Dan Haugh talk about the need for better theology in youth ministry here).

In case you are coming into this series a bit late, please remember that a deeper theological emphasis is only part of what we need in youth ministry today. But to have this, we need a number of things. Among them are:

1. Youth workers who love theology and are trained/in training to teach it.
A. Seminary training is helpful.
B. Solutions for the many that can not/don’t want to go to seminary.
C. Training for the countless volunteers that are vital to youth ministry
2. A church culture that values theology for the sake of glorifying God (and committed to not break fellowship over “proper doctrine”).
A. This comes not only from the church leadership (pastors/elders) but must also be from our homes.
B. More books/training resources similar to Mike King and Chris Folsmbe.

Filed Under: Student Ministry, The Church