Page 4 of 4Here is what I learned: Young people are not bored by theology. They are bored by theology that doesn't matter. Theology is the most relevant of all disciplines; it is reflection on what God is doing with us, in human time through the Holy Spirit, as revealed through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ—which is why theological reflection can never be separated from life itself. Theology begins and ends in life's concrete situations, and presenting it as anything else will surely misfire.
Moreover, young people long to be taken seriously. Witness the Invisible Children and Do Hard Things phenomena—both launched by teenagers fed up with pablum offered by schools and churches. These experiences strike a chord with teenagers who long for someone who believes in them enough to challenge them. Unfortunately, most youth are routinely undersold by their churches.
4. Youth ministry as practical theology is not optional. Without theology, we have no language to describe our experience of God, no way to prevent ministry from devolving into social science or social service, no way to point ministry beyond ourselves toward Christ. Of course, we do not need to use academic, technical or polarizing language to ground our practice of youth ministry in theological reflection. Theology simply gives us a vehicle to talk about what matters most. And unless youth ministry deals with the ultimate issues—Why am I and why is God? What is worth living for and what is worth dying for?—it has no place in the church. As C. S. Lewis remarked in God in the Dock, "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."
To approach youth ministry theologically is to help others give it equal footing alongside other forms of ministry. It's to open the eyes of others to see young people's status as human beings, created and loved by God, who have the right to be taken seriously by the church. In solo pastor situations, this means attending to young people as full-fledged participants in the congregation. In multistaff churches, this also means removing the disparity between youth pastors and everyone else.
When I was speaking at a youth ministry training event recently, someone raised a question about prioritizing youth ministry in our present economic crisis, when churches seem to be cutting youth ministry positions to make budget. Tongue in cheek, I remarked, "Who says it has to be the youth minister who gets cut? Why not cut the senior pastor—let volunteers do that job, and keep the youth minister?" The audience laughed, and we continued the discussion, recognizing youth ministry's "down" position in an economy of scarcity. But when I got home, a letter was waiting for me. It was from a woman who had been at the conference. She recalled the joke about cutting the senior pastor's position in order to keep the youth minister, and said: "I just wanted you to know that our congregation here in Minnesota did exactly that. It was clear to us that, to be true to the mission of the church, we had to remain faithful to our commitment to young people. So when it came time to adjust our pastoral staff, we let the senior pastor go, and we kept the youth minister. Today volunteers are doing the preaching and pastoral care, and the youth ministry is a strong presence in our community."
Wow.
Adapted from The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry, by Andrew Root, Kenda Creasy Dean, copyright(c) 2011. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press PO Box 1400 Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com.
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