so, what does youth ministry actually do?

I started out my theological training 6 years ago with the sole intention of being the worlds greatest youth pastor. OK, so theological training has a way of taking ideas like becoming the “greatest”anything out of you, which is a good thing. Theological training also opened up the world for me, and over the years my eyes was opened to know that there is more to ministry than youth, and more to following Jesus than ministry.

I still remained involved with youth camps all through my studies, but since June 2007 I’m back into youth ministry. The challenges has changed since I was at school, or maybe all the years of theology just opened my eyes to a world more complex than I thought, opened my eyes to all the kids who don’t care for what we youth ministers are doing. But OK, I’ve been back for a year, and I’m slowly starting to find my feet again, I think.

I found this quote a few days ago in a book I use frequently when planning camps, well, actually I use it much less nowadays, because I practically know it by heart by now. But I printed this quote in 2005 and pasted it into the front of the book:

I look back over my years in ministry and ask what has actually helped people change and deepen spiritually: (1) youth retreats, (2) short-term mission trips, (3) some small groups (I say some – others were a waste of time), (4) many one-to-one relationships, (5) getting people involved leading something or serving somewhere.

It’s from A New Kind of Christian, p122. Maybe I need to do some checks more ofter, to see how much of my time I spend on these activities, and how much on keeping kids busy.

Must add though, I just got back from an AMAZING conversation with one of the young leaders in our congregation. She is roundabout 15, and we talked theology, I explained the worldview of Biblical writers, the process in which the Bible came into being, how it was canonized, and most importantly how I see Jesus. Great conversation, she is currently reading The Secret Message of Jesus. Remember the post of a few days ago? Well, I think today might have been part of the reaction to it.

A question: What books would you recommend for high school kids? I’ve been realizing lately that most books I read I’m either not comfortable with, or I fear they are too complicated. Blue Like Jazz is a good idea, but what else?

theology in youth cirricula

I’ve heard the arguments about curricula in Sunday school and youth programs over and over again. Honestly, I’m not very interested in them, and usually I just get myself out of them with the sharpwitted (or maybe not so much) comment that a good teacher or leader with a bad Sunday school book will still have a great group, while, for a bad youth leader you can give any book or material you like, and the group would still fail. OK, I’m aware that there might be exceptions to this, but you get the point.

But still, I’ve been thinking about what we are supposed to do in our youth groups lately. The two sides of the argument is usually: (1) should we address issues from the context of our youth, or (2) should we teach theology. In our church this usually mean an argument between: “we should address topics like friends, parents, drugs, drinking etc”, and “we should teach the teachings and dogmas of the church, the creeds and the Bible”. A compromised is then often found by saying that we should teach the Bible stories to kids, and address life issued with teens. And obviously you always have the smart people who claim that you should do both.

In a number of conversations with young people I’ve been shocked the past months by the total lack of theology in our young kids. They don’t have the tools to articulate their faith in God, neither to make God part of everyday life. When they talk about faith it’s usually by using slogans learned from some guru, or otherwise with words like “sin”, “faith”, “convert” etc of which they have no idea what it means. They fall for creationism, crazy ideas about demonology, and every charismatic revivalist preacher that’s new to the block. Now, don’t get me wrong. This is beautiful young Christians I’m talking about. People I trust to be leaders at camps, and who even sometimes give me hope for the church. But I fear for their faith when crisis strikes, and I fear that their lives will become compartmentalized, because they don’t know how to integrate faith and life, something which a good doze of theology might have helped with.

So, where common logic taught us not to discuss theology with kids, because it might just rock the boat, or because it’s not cool, and they aren’t interested, I’m becoming more and more convinced that we need to discuss theology, deep deep theology! with our youth. We need to help them to think about faith, give them tools to integrate faith with everyday life. Gavin again brought this thought into my head, reminding me of the fact that our society have become so outcomes based that we forgot that we need to learn because we can. And really, oughtn’t the task of the church be to help young people grow in faith, and not just survive the next party or relationship? Also the chapter titled The Theology, Stupid! in Tony Jones’ The New Christians brought along some thoughts on the neccesity of this.

Maybe one difference between what I’m saying and the traditional Sunday School programs is that I’m not talking about the recitation of creeds and learning of one-liner Bible verses, but of helping young people think about their faith. To use the title from a book of Wentzel van Huyssteen, theology is a critical reasoning of our faith, and I believe that in our society today we need to help our kids in this quest.

Dialogue in Preaching

In the Reformed tradition we talk about the dialogical nature of the liturgy. God speak, the congregation speak, and the preacher speak, sometimes on behalf of the congregation, sometimes on behalf of God. In practice, only the preacher speak, doing a monologue, and the congregation sometimes get a chance so say what the preacher want them to say.

I don’t have a problem with high-liturgy services, and especially like participatory liturgical expressions more and more. So what I’m writing is not really about liturgy, but only about the act of preaching. Preaching, more than any other part of our church tradition, has been only monologue. We attempt to bring in some dialogue into our informal church service, but usually it’s only the kids who take part. Now, it’s an amazing way to make the kids part of the service, but it’s actually just an add-on, and not really a dialogue starting.

Dialogue is not an easy thing. I’ve had many thoughts in this in the past (see posts on the round-table church here or here), but more and more I realize that the utopian ideal of having 57 people coming together in a round table conversation and everyone sharing an equal amount is just that, utopian. More than that, I don’t neccesarily think that the “postmodern” which we like to talk about neccesarily want to always say something, sometimes listening is OK. I’m learning this more and more from friends who I consider natural experts on a postmodern worldview.

But still I get this very uncomfortable feeling when doing another monologue, another sermon. Yes, good things happen, I sometimes get good feedback, and yes, sometimes (as one of the people on our church council said the other night) people actually do what we preachers say. But for me it’s personal, I simply can’t get this nagging feeling that I don’t like doing a monologue out of my system.

Last night Tiaan visited, and myself, Tiaan, and my flatmate again started talking about various possibilities or having some kind of discussion (we don’t really like the idea of starting churches currently) going between 20/30-something people. This resulted in this group being created. So again I started thinking about my monologue discomfort.

Suddenly I had this revelation, not yet sure whether it was one of foolishness or wisdom, or maybe the logical result of past experiences. Abvout two weeks ago by collegue and friend, Roelf, came in to visit us at our 17-20 year old youth discussion group. We were talking about what our task is on earth, and in a very natural way, myself and Roelf started discussing this. The group of young people listened to our discussion, and when Roelf left we continued the conversation.

Maybe this would be a good preaching style. Never having one person preach alone. Always use two or more, and let them have a dialogue which can serve as base for large-group conversations if you’d like. These two people would plan there sermon together, but not as a little drama, simply talking about the issue at hand, maybe putting some ideas on paper which they would consider important. By asking each other questions, and responding to each other, and adding to each other, they would introduce a topic in a conversation style, a style I think I’ll be much more comfortable with than the monologue we are used to.

Have anyone tried this? Could this work for preaching?

Another idea I had a few weeks ago, and which would hopefulle be used somewhere next term, is to get some people together for coffee before a sermon. Talk about the topic, explain the idea, formulate some questions, and at the end make a 5 minute video conversation where some of these questions and thoughts are talked through in dialogue. Then use this as a started in church.

justice in Kameeldrif and my “test” sermon

Didn’t get round to blogging this so far this week. Not exactly sure why. In our church, as I believe churches worldwide might be doing, by the end of our theological education you have a sermon which have to be delivered as a kind of “test” sermon. In all honestly, I think it’s a very stupid idea. I’m preaching on a near-to-weekly basis at the moment, and now I have to do this one service which is supposed to be the ultimate test!

Mine will be this coming Sunday, and you are invited. I’ll be preaching from 1 Kings 21:1-16. It’s the story of how Jezebel killed Naboth, the guy with vineyard. We preach from a lectionary, so my text was pre-determined. However, the context is not pre-determined, which make it somewhat difficult.

Crime is continuing in Kameeldrif and the surrounding area where our congregants live. Woman get raped, men killed, children are traumatized. We’ve been having a lot of meetings on this in the past weeks, meeting with the police and other role players in the community. Last week a number of us shaved our hair in response to violent crimes and got the front-page of the Beeld, as well as articles in a number of other papers (see Beeld). Our congregations also launched an “action plan” against crime (see our congregation blog. Both these links will take you to Afrikaans pages). No, we are not going to start play Rambo (as my one colleague like to remind us), but we are searching for the role of the church within all this.

In this context, I must preach about Jezebel killing Naboth. I’m not comfortable preaching that the criminals will be trailed by God. I don’t see how that will help, and I’, not exactly sure whether that is always the message of the Bible. No, I would rather like to look at why Jezebel was wrong.

You see, within her own context, in her own country, her actions would have seemed normal. But in Israel it was absolutely unacceptable. The prophetic tradition, of which Elia was a part, had a very strong sense of justice, and I think understanding something of the Old Testament concept of justice can help us in understanding how wrong Jezebel and Ahab was within the eyes of Elia.

For the people of the Old Testament, justice was more than just somebody getting punished for a crime, which is what I sometimes feel we have made justice. No, justice meant working for a just society. A society where everyone had their share. A society where those who suffer was helped.

When we are searching for the role of the church in a time like this, then this understanding of justice might help. Yes, we need to find crime. Organized crime is breaking down a just society, and needs to stop. But as church we do more. We also fight the poverty which lead to a violent society. The rich-poor gap which lead to a violent society. We fight against the perception that this is black against white, which it is not.

As a congregation we will be supporting the initiative to put numbers on our plots, because this is a serious problem, the police and ambulances cannot find the plots in the night. But as a congregation we must also go beyond the fight against crime, and change a society which cause crime…

Well, if you’d like to attend church with us on Sunday, attend this test I’m supposed to go through, you’re welcome. Church will start at 9:00, and I’ll be preaching in the church hall.

heaven, earth, the kingdom of God and our youth

Although there is a lot to write about South Africa today, and although I might do that later, and might even add some of it into this post, this post is dedicated to the youth at our church. We had a great conversation on Sunday evening on what faith is about, and they asked that we continue the conversation on the coming Sunday. I promised them that I’ll blog some thoughts on this tonight, they promised to formulate some questions for a further discussion on Sunday. So this is for you guys and girls, but if anyone want to add something, feel free.

Basically the question we are asking is what we are called for, what is the core of our message? Is the Christian message primarily that we are called to get out of this world into heaven and not hell, and that in this life our task is simply to get our ticket out? Or is the Christian message primarily that we are called into this world, to change and transform this world? Many of you usually reading this blog might have read tons of books on the topic, but to explain this in one page is quite difficult, so please help and add in the comments where you think something is needed.

The centre of the preaching of Jesus, almost all scholars of the New Testament would agree, is the “kingdom of God”. If I were to use this term generally in our Afrikaner society it would be interpreted as “heaven”, and “heaven” would be a place, usually a physical place, outside this world. However, when Jesus use the word, it seems to refer to something else. Mark says he talk about the kingdom being “near” (Mark 1:14-15), that it comes where people start living what Jesus preached (Mark 4). According to Matthew and Luke Jesus teach them to pray for the kingdom to come on earth, as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:5-15 and Luke 11:2-4). As a famous New Testament scholar is known to say: “heaven is OK, it’s earth where the problems are”, and it’s earth where we are called to live, and let the kingdom come by living in the way of Jesus.

In the academic field of theology the word eschatology is sometimes used when we are talking about these things. Eschatology is about where we find hope. Different ways of understanding this is possible, and it would seem like we find different ways in the Bible as well. In the synoptic gospels the hope came with Jesus, and it keeps on appearing as we follow in the way of Jesus. Some other New Testament writers also talk about hope as something which lie in the future, as something which would come from God in future.

I like the way David Bosch talked about an “already” and a “not-yet” understanding. Hope is already here, and we bring hope to this world today. This is what we are called for. But out human hands will not bring the new kingdom, a kingdom where things work differently, where is work as if it would if God were king. We also believe that God is making this kingdom a reality. That it will not-yet be a reality until God break into this world in a way which we struggle understand. This we believe.

The long and the short is that our calling is towards this world, that we are bringing hope to this world, but that we also find hope in the fact that God is busy bringing hope into the world, breaking into this world form the future, bringing the kingdom of God about.

Well, I hope I’ve given you some food for thought. You asked for some texts to read, how about looking at those I referred to. I think we might look at the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15 and Luke 11:2-4) on Sunday evening at SPACE (a conversation group, a safe SPACE to talk and ask questions and grow together, for the 17 year olds and upwards in our congregation), and I have a short video that I would like to show you. Bring your questions and thoughts along, and let’s have a discussion on this extremely important question.

And for the other readers of the blog. If you’ve read this far, thanx. You are welcome to take part by leaving a comment with your thoughts. At our group we are well aware that there are different opinions and understandings of things, and in our search for the way of Jesus we welcome other thoughts.

the public church and violent crimes – what is our role?

I’m currently a student in Public Theology. Can’t say I know a great deal about it, but I do think about it from time to time at least. Public Theology ask the question what the public role of the church and/or theology is in society. I guess Public Theology do not ask the question if the church and/or theology has a public role, maybe it do ask whether the role lies with the church, theology, or with individual Christian.

Our community is currently experiencing a lot of violence. Well, you might say that all of South Africa is experiencing this, but in our case it seems a littlebit worse that usual. When a friend asked my earlier when the last attack was, I started laughing… it was last night. This morning we buried someone who was shot last week. I know of another attack that happened on Friday, not someone in the congregation. And I could go on and on, and I probably don’t even know about everything.

So, how do the church react in a situation like this? Now, I guess a very common approach would be simply to not think about it in this way. Simply going on, preaching about the love of God, maybe being available if someone need some counseling, but generally leaving things for the politicians and the police. When we do start thinking about this, there is a number of appraoches. Should the church be actively involved with crime? Whould we promote something like neighbourhood watch programs from the pulpit? Should we give our facilities to be used in self-defence training? For information sessions? What is the role of the church?

We had a meeting tonight with people in the congregation who has been touched by violent crimes and who are starting to think about an appropriate reaction from the church. One guy sitting there has skills in training people in self-defence (not as in hand-to-hand combat type of thing, more in being aware, what to look for, what to keep in mind to keep yourself safe) at one point told the pastor, when he asked, after we’ve talked a lot about neighbourhood watch, training people, raising awareness etc, “what the church should do”: “These things we have been talking about, this is the church doing it, because all of it is being done by the people in the church”.

There is something to say for this I think. And in spite of all the nice theories of what the role of the church should be, hoe the Public Church should function etc, we need to notice that people within the church are doing things, and they are doing it as Christians, and in all of this we are writing a Public Theology for our local congregation.

But the question kept on nagging at me: What should be destinctive about the church? Now, I think pasifism is a great ideal, and I more and more like the alternative community idea (Tony Jones blogged on Hauerwas a while ago, might wanna take a look at that), but within this broken world, I think sometimes the church maybe cannot but take part in fighting crime on a day to day basis. But there must be something more.

The something more has, I think, to do with how we see the big picture. If our only task is chasing criminals, then, as a church, we’ve already lost. If a display of power is neccesary, for example through having more patrols or neighbourhood watch programs, then the church, as not only an alternative community, but as part of a suffering community together with many who are not in church, should take part, I think. But what about the big picture? Are we also pointing the way to a community where neighbourhood watch programs isn’t neccesary? Where it’s not neccesary to think about violent crimes? Where our kids do not need to lie awake at night worrying that they might be next? Are we actively working to create this type of community? To not only fight reactively against crime, not even only to proactively prevent crime, important as this might be, but to work for a different society.

When youth become our conscience

In our denomination we have a week of services around Pentecost. Every evening we get together, and usually there is a theme running through, so this gives pastors some room to run through something in a short space of time. Also, it’s quite common to get someone from another congregation to preach for the week. We had ours this week, a week late, to accommodate the guy we got to preach for the week.

Every second Thursday we have a youth night. Nothing fancy, nothing grand, just a place where youth between 13 and 16 get together, sometimes play games, sometimes read Bible, sometimes watch a video, socialize and where I can build relationships with them.

When this clashed with our Pentecost service this week I decided to arrange that the youth join the service. Did I think that they would find this the most amazing thing ever to happen at church? No. I actually knew that they wouldn’t really like attending church. But if we do things parallel, then I’m actually saying to them that church is for old people, and not really for you. Something which is the exact opposite of what we would say in our congregation.

So we entered the service. About 15 of 20 kids, into a church with another 80 people or so. First we sang some hymns, and in great discomfort we sat there, kind of mumbling together, I tried singing, tried saying to them: “this is OK, you can sing”. Then a looong sermon started, about how we neglected our pneumatology and should make more of the holy spirit in the Reformed tradition, or something like that. First three girls walked out, then another two guys.

I’ve been using the reviewing methods of Roger Greenaway for a number of years now. In reviewing we would say that a bad experience become a positive learning experience when reviewed well. So I decided to scrap the program for the rest of the evening, and review the church service. What came out was the usual, discomfort in church, church being for old people (although they did say they are very positive about our informal service on a Sunday morning). Looking at something like Four Views on Youth Minstry, which I’ve read a number of years ago, they would actually go for something like a “church-within-a-church” model. Where youth go to a separate ministry, and at some point move over to the “real church”.

But sitting in that service on Thursday, noticing their discomfort, I suddenly realised that these people are our conscience. They are the conscience of the church. If we take them out, we can just continue playing a number of songs on the organ, while no one really experience anything, or like singing when it feels like your singing alone. We can keep on with long sermons that only a few insiders can understand. We can just continue doing church the way we do church, because everyone that is sitting their is trained that “this is how things are supposed to be”. But when our young people start attending in their masses, we need to ask the question: “Why are we doing this?”.

Because they do not know our church conventions that well, they won’t do things just because this is how it’s supposed to be done, they ask stupid questions which the rest of us know we are not supposed to ask. Malan Nelthought me this valuable truth in my first year, saying that: “When we take the kids out of the church, the rest of the church is losing out, not the kids”. I wonder what the preacher thought when the kids started walking out of his sermon? Did they address his conscience, or only madden him? What about the rest of the congregation?

I do think this is the more difficult approach to youth ministry. Because now the whole church need to start thinking youth, the “family” need to start thinking “teenager”, instead of just getting the “baby sitter youth worker” to keep their kids happy. But we need this. If you lose our kids out of the church, the church will lose.