Barefoot Training - Thursday, February 03, 2011
The Hope of Transformation
We plan for formation. We hope for transformation.
At
the end of the day, youth workers must accept that all of our work and
planning is really an attempt to be faithful. Faithful to God’s story,
our faith community’s way of life, and ultimately faithful to God as we
live into our calling to serve youth.
Our
hope is that our youth will encounter God during our conversations, our
prayers, our work projects, our retreats, our summer camps, our mission
trips, and our silly games. We pray and work with the hope that youth
will be transformed in the midst of our life together.
So a faithful way to imagine the trajectory of transformational youth ministry is this…
Transformation
is unpredictable, messy, and sometimes chaotic. The story of God tells us to expect this type of wild and unpredictable work of the Spirit. Jesus tells us not to predict it but learn from God how to discern when it happens.
We need to accept
that we can’t manage or control the work of God’s transforming presence
in the lives of our youth. We are called to practice faithful formation
(read discipleship) and hope for God to transform.
So relax and lean into God’s embrace.
Questions to Consider:
In what ways do youth workers try to manage the work of God?
In what ways do youth workers embrace the transforming work of the Spirit?
By Paul Sheneman
- Trackback Link
-
http://www.noshoesorsocks.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5077&PostID=180225&A=Trackback
- Trackbacks
-
Post has no trackbacks.
Barefoot Training - Friday, January 28, 2011
Faith Development
Why should you care about understanding faith development?
One
of the key roles of a youth worker is to be a spiritual guide for youth
in their faith journeys. How can you guide if you don’t know the path?
The path of faith is not something we can know with absolute certainty,
like hiking a well-worn trail. But the journeys taken by others provide
us insight into some things to expect along the way. So you should care
about faith development if only for the sake of being aware of these
insights for shepherding your youth.
What is faith development?
There
are several ways to define faith and faith development for people. We
begin with the confession of the church that faith is a human response
to God made possible by grace. The three essential aspects of faith are a
person’s trust in God, loving attitude toward God, and loyal actions in
response to God. A simple way to put this is that faith includes a
loving response with our heads, hearts, and hands (the great
commandment). People grow in faith as they encounter God through God’s
story, their network of relationships (people, society, and creation),
and their churches’ ways of life. Thus, faith development is a person’s
growth in the trusting, loving, and loyal response to God through God’s
story, network of relationships, and faith communities’ ways of life.
A Narrative Faith Development Model
If
you have been to our training workshop, then you are familiar with the
model of faith formation we present. Here is a similar model that
incorporates developmental theory in order to expand our view as youth
workers to the reality that faith formation occurs throughout life.
This
model uses story, value, belief, and way of life to hold together
individual and community life in the unfolding narrative of faith. Thus,
like our training model, it is an expression of a narrative faith
development model.
Implications
First,
it is important to note that none of the developmental stages in this
model are independent. Each stage is connected, so the permeability of
the whole faith journey is subject to transformation by the work of God.
So youth workers should always hope in God’s ability to redeem and
restore people.
Second,
it seems that our curriculum for youth should flow out of their
searching for belief or doubt. We should offer learning environments
where teens can openly doubt their faith communities’ teachings and
personal beliefs. The role of the youth worker with this curriculum is
to guide teens in the search for belief in God that is faithful to the
story, coherent to the communities’ way of life, and pertinent to their
story.
Third,
youth workers should learn to discern the stories that teens have
learned to play in their early years. Some of those stories might be the
American dream, materialism, or therapeutic moralistic deism. This will
necessitate our engagement with youth’s families, friends, schools, and
communities.
Finally,
this faith development model implies that youth workers become aware of
the counter-formative practice of the Christian faith. If we are going
to invite teens to re-narrate their lives through the story of God, then
we will need to invite them into practices that embody that narrative.
The Christian practices of prayer, fasting, worship, hospitality, etc.,
are counter-formative practices that give expression to the story of
God.
Questions to Consider:
How does this faith development model inform your understanding of teen faith formation?
What are some other implications of this faith development model for teens?
By Paul Sheneman
- Trackback Link
-
http://www.noshoesorsocks.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5077&PostID=180036&A=Trackback
- Trackbacks
-
Post has no trackbacks.
Barefoot Training - Thursday, January 27, 2011
Formation and Transformation
Formation
and transformation are not two polar opposites in the growth of
persons. In fact, formation and transformation are complimentary
dimensions of life. The two concepts of human development differ only
in the degree of change.
Formation
occurs to some degree whenever a person participates with others in any
domain of activity. So when a teen uses public transportation, they
are formed into the processes and etiquette of riding the bus or train.
Their identity is not meaningfully impacted by the practice but they do
acquire new knowledge, experience new emotions, and practice new
skills.
A
transformational example of formation can be observed in a teen
becoming a gamer. The teen is formed into a gamer as they participate
with their friends in playing video games. They acquire skills and
language that assist them in playing the game and interacting with a
group of gamers. The more they play the games the more they feel
connected to the identity of a gamer.
Finally,
a transformational moment may occur in a teens life. For example, a
teen learns of the realities of human trafficking. The horror of the
issue sends the teen searching for a solution. They find a potential
solution to the injustice and an aha moment occurs which transforms the
way they think, feel, and act. Finally, they move into practicing the
solution which either verifies their new perspective or sends them
searching again (The Transforming Moment).
Questions to Consider:
What stories do you have of the transformation of a teen's faith?
What is an example of formation and transformation in youth ministry?
By Paul Sheneman
- Trackback Link
-
http://www.noshoesorsocks.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5077&PostID=179973&A=Trackback
- Trackbacks
-
Post has no trackbacks.
Barefoot Training - Thursday, January 06, 2011
Participation in God's Mission
God’s mission: A
phrase that gets thrown around a lot in the contemporary church. It
gets tagged to church campaigns for fundraisers. It gets slapped on
promotional items for a missionary support service. It gets thrown out
in conversations on evangelism, discipleship, worship, and social
justice. God’s mission is identified with so many things that it seems meaningless to most youth workers. All of this begs the question, What is God’s mission?
Before we answer that question, let’s lay out what God’s mission is not.
God’s mission is not...
● A missionary in a foreign country.
● A Super Bowl party outreach event.
● A small group ministry.
● A homeless shelter.
● Evangelism.
● The Great Commission.
What is God’s Mission?
First,
God’s mission begins with God. The Triune God was, is, and will be a
sending God. The confession that the Father sent the Son and the Father
and Son sent the Spirit is the confession that God is a sending God.
The
church is reawakening to the realization that we serve a sending God.
The church is learning that the missionary orientation of the church does not have its origin in
the church (i.e., Great Commission). No, the church is a missionary
church because it serves a missionary God who has commissioned the
church to go.
Second,
God’s mission is revealed to humanity in God’s participation in the
world. The ultimate revelation of this participation is in the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus, God’s Messiah. God’s mission in Jesus
to proclaim freedom to the prisoner, recovery of sight to the blind, to
release the oppressed, and to preach good news to the poor reveals the
way of God in the world. The ends that Jesus went to to accomplish the
will of God reveal that the scope of God’s reconciling and redemptive
work is to restore the world to its intended purpose or wholeness.
So What?
When
we get to this point in our training, some people ask, “So what?” Well,
the revelation and foundation of God’s story and our theological
reflection implicate us in God’s mission. We are called to become
participants in God’s mission through the life, death, and resurrection
of Jesus, God’s Messiah. The implication is that we are identified as
Christ followers, or Christians. The implication is also that the church
is to be a missionary church. The youth are to be missionary youth. The
youth ministry is to be focused on a missionary God.
Transformational
youth ministry is oriented toward guiding youth into participation in
God’s mission. That guiding could include practices like serving at a
homeless shelter, evangelism, small group participation, or hosting a
Super Bowl party for friends. As students practice these means of grace,
they begin to lean into God’s mission and are transformed as they
encounter the Triune God, who is working to restore the world to its
intended wholeness.
By Paul Sheneman
- Trackback Link
-
http://www.noshoesorsocks.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5077&PostID=177710&A=Trackback
- Trackbacks
-
Post has no trackbacks.
Barefoot Training - Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Engaging the Whole Family 4:
A Way Forward
In
this series we have used the works of David Elkind, Diana Garland, and
Marjorie Thompson to guide our reflections on discerning the family. We
continue this reflection by turning to the challenges facing the family
and their proposals for a way forward for the church to minister to
families.
The Challenges
Elkind,
a child psychologist, is concerned with the health of children in North
America. He describes three major shifts in the roles of parents,
children, adolescents that correspond to the modern to postmodern shift.
Parenting in modernity was focused on intuition and technique in
postmodernity. The view of the child changed from innocence in
modernity to competence in postmodernity. The view of adolescents
changed from immature in modernity to sophisticated in postmodernity.
Elkind concludes that these shifts led to an imbalance of stress upon
children and adolescents which he calls the “new morbidity” of youth (98-152).
Garland,
a Christian social worker, is primarily concerned about the faith of
families. She is informed by Craig Dykstra’s work in faith practices
when she engages the particular stories of families. She finds that the
challenges facing the faith practices of families are busy schedules,
lack of training of parents, lack of knowledge of Scripture, competing
values within a family, and different levels of personal faith in the
family (127-198).
Thompson
suggests one of the main obstacles to the faith development of families
is the church. She writes, “What I am suggesting is the communal
church and the domestic church need to recapture a vision of the
Christian family as a sacred community. This will require an awareness
of the ‘sacred’ in the ‘secular,’ of God in the flesh of human life (20-21).”
A Modest Proposal
Elkind,
Garland, and Thompson all suggest a way forward for the family and I
believe that youth and family pastors can find a generous and faithful
way forward in their collective proposals. In bullet points here are
some suggested movements forward....
- Elkind
suggests a concept called the “vital family.” The vital family values
include emotional ties of committed love (a movement beyond intimate
love and mutual engagement), authentic parenting (blend of parenting out
of intuition and technique), interdependence (blend of autonomy and
togetherness) and a balance of unilateral and mutual authority.
- Elkind
suggests a reinvention of adulthood. This reinvention includes parents
appropriately exercising authority and sharing space with children and
adolescents. This space sharing includes the development of safe
environments for children to grow in competence and teens to grow in
sophistication.
- Garland
and Thompson suggest that the local church is integral in teaching
families the practice of faith. They call for the church to see their
role as learning community for families of faith.
- Garland suggests the informal teaching moments for faith in families are found in the dark moments of death and conflict.
I find hope in these suggestions. I believe that God can choose the local church
in these days to lead families forward into God’s mission. By God’s
grace, the church can practice space sharing with youth in our corporate
worship. In humility, the church has the opportunity to publicly seek
Christian ways of resolving the conflict as a way to train families. We
can learn together what it means to seek God in the dark moments of
life. We can practice the values of the vital family through Christian
faith practices. We can provide space for families to learn and serve
together. We can extend the call to all families to enter into God’s
saving embrace in Christ as a way forward for their family.
More Resources:
http://www.baylor.edu/social_work/cfcm/
http://practicingourfaith.org/
http://ekklesiaproject.org/
By: Paul Sheneman
- Trackback Link
-
http://www.noshoesorsocks.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5077&PostID=176238&A=Trackback
- Trackbacks
-
Post has no trackbacks.
Barefoot Training - Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Engaging the Whole Family 3: What is the Family?
The
value of defining the family for our contemporary content is that it
gives us orientation in our engagement. If we can’t name the thing that
we encounter, how can we have a meaningful experience? We have a word
for God that has some meaning, and that concept seems a lot more complex
than family.
So
tell me, what is the family? I want to know because, for the life of
me, I can’t find one definition that does justice to the multiple
realities of family that I experience. For example, I’ve seen heads of
households be single, biological parents, biological grandparents with
single parents, two biological parents, two legal parents with no
biological relation, one legal parent with no biological relation, two
legal parents who are also the biological uncle and aunt, and the list
could go on. And then try to account for sibling relationships, and I
almost want to give up on ever finding a definition.
But what if we moved away from a sociological or structural definition? What if we tried a theological definition?
Here is my stab at it:
Family – a
supportive and formative group of people, connected through a common
biological lineage or covenant, who are meant to learn and practice the
worship of God through their relationships with God, each other, and the
world.
Does
that definition sound familiar? I hope so because the definition is
derived from a definition of the church. And here is my bias in favor of
this definition. I think the church is called to be the family of faith
for the world.
I
also think the definition helps youth and family ministers imagine that
the goal of families is to become “little churches,” in the words of
Jonathan Edwards. And the concept of families becoming little churches
corresponds to Diana Garland’s sociological research of more than 100
families. Her research revealed faith practices as an essential element
of family life. As a complement to that research, Marjorie Thompson’s
book argues that spiritual formation naturally happens in families in
both positive and negative ways. Therefore, we can conclude that
families are going to worship something. It is the role of the church to
be the family of faith that invite them into the worship of God.
Questions to Consider:
What is your definition of family?
What do you think about the above definition of family?
What do we do with this definition of family?
By: Paul Sheneman
- Trackback Link
-
http://www.noshoesorsocks.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5077&PostID=175839&A=Trackback
- Trackbacks
-
Post has no trackbacks.
Barefoot Training - Monday, December 20, 2010
Engaging the Whole Family 2: Nuclear Family
Let’s
get this bit o’ info out of the way. The nuclear family is depicted as
two parents bonded together in a love-based marriage with biological
children. The nuclear family is also referred to as the “domestic
family.” Some even refer to the nuclear family as the “traditional
family,” as though it has been the longest-enduring family structure in
history. And some even hold up the nuclear family as the goal of
Christian relationships.
However,
the nuclear family is not the longest-enduring family structure, and it
is most certainly not the family structure throughout biblical history.
In fact, it has only been in the last 200 years that the “traditional”
family has emerged. In regards to the love-based marriage, Stephanie
Coontz writes, “It took more than 150 years to establish the love-based,
male breadwinner marriage as the dominant model in North America and
Western Europe. It took less than 25 years to dismantle it (247).”
What’s
the point of all this talk about the nuclear family? The point is that
it is not biblical to hold up the nuclear family as the goal of
Christian relationships for youth and families. Diana Garland argues
that nuclear family terms like parent, child, brother, and sister
are used in Scripture but not to limit familial relations to the
nuclear family. Instead, they are terms God’s people use to relate to
others across social and cultural boundaries of family units. Naomi and
Ruth are a great example of this use of the language. Jesus is another
great example when he points to his family being a community of God’s
people (Mark 3:33-35).
David
Elkin’s work reveals that there has been a major shift in the structure
of the family that corresponds to the shift from the modern period to
the postmodern period. He suggests that the best way to describe the
family unit in the postmodern context is “permeable.” This type of
family structure is neither good nor bad—it is simply contextual.
Marjorie
Thompson takes us one step further and suggests that we embrace all
family structures in the life of the church. She argues that all
families are called to learn the way of God from the church. She adds
that it is the church’s responsibility to teach families how to practice
the means of grace that are common to it (acceptance, encouragement,
loving challenge, forgiveness, reconciliation, and hospitality) in
Christian ways.
A
transformational approach to youth ministry will engage all family
structures as being a place where God can work and transform all members
into Christ followers. In this approach we must not slip into the habit
of offering one family structure as the biblical solution to family
challenges.
By: Paul Sheneman
- Trackback Link
-
http://www.noshoesorsocks.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5077&PostID=175838&A=Trackback
- Trackbacks
-
Post has no trackbacks.
Barefoot Training - Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Connected to the Whole Church
With the advent of the contemporary youth ministry model over 30
years ago in North America came the warning that youth
workers ought not forget the rest of the local church in reaching and
teaching youth. Rather than heeding this word the professionalization
of youth ministry saw the rise of more sophisticated ways for youth
workers to say one thing and do the opposite. Two things that continue
to hinder youth workers from connecting teens to the entire local church
are professionalism and public education’s formative effect on human
development.
The
professional nature of youth ministry has continued to increase the
split between discipleship of youth and the discipleship of local
churches. The unique language, artifacts, and culture of the
professional youth worker hinders potential youth workers from engaging
youth because they fear not being equipped. Thus the rise of national
and regional youth worker training organizations who seek to equip
volunteer youth workers to engage in the specialized area of youth
discipleship. All too frequently, these training organizations equipped
youth workers with models and techniques that increased the divide
between youth discipleship and their local church discipleship.
I
may be talking myself out of a job but I think that what is needed are
local church leaders who integrate youth into the discipleship of the
whole church. This will definitely mean greater communication between
all age specific pastors and the lead pastor. It may include some
staple youth ministry activities (fall retreat, mission trip) fading
away. It would certainly mean that training would need to be a local
and grass roots activity rather than national or regional.
Public
education is one of the key reasons that youth ministry emerged as an
activity of the church. We are not going to see this cultural activity
end anytime soon but we must practice ways of being in the church that
counters its formative effect on our view of humans. A powerful
assumption that the public education system has formed in many North
Americans is that people learn better in age specific groups. One
counter practice many youth workers are beginning to implement are
intergenerational activities and learning. Thus the rise of mentoring,
intergenerational small groups, and family service project within local
churches.
These
are great steps in counter practices yet we have still not tapped into
the greatest counter practice, communion. The gathering of the whole
body of Christ in all of its diversity at the table is a powerful
counter practice to age specific formation. The action of communion
forms in us the reality that being together in our diversity is the
greatest crucible for learning.
A
youth worker that seeks to connect youth discipleship to the whole
church must address these two challenges. It will take prayer, trust,
creativity, and hope that God will work even in the midst of such
powerful cultural forces.
How are you connecting youth to the whole life of your church?
By Paul Sheneman
- Trackback Link
-
http://www.noshoesorsocks.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5077&PostID=171531&A=Trackback
- Trackbacks
-
Post has no trackbacks.
Barefoot Training - Monday, November 08, 2010
Chaotic and Messy
Change
can be managed but transformation can only be embraced. Several youth
workers opt for manageable change because the alternative is too
unpredictable and messy. A recent story from my youth ministry will
illustrate this point.
We
have been managing a discipline challenge with new youth joining our
community. The heart of the discipline issue is a lack of patience,
forgiveness, and trust within the whole group, adults included. This
all came to a head during some group activities.
We
were playing a game that called for the group to form two teams. I
explained the game and we started into it. Some people seemed confused
about the rules and others began yelling at those who were confused.
The yelling moved to one team taunting the other team. I was shocked
at how behaviors degraded and a competitive environment was spawned.
I
thought that I should take charge and manage the environment but I also
sensed that maybe God had something in store for all of us in light of
the current discipline challenge. So not only did I not step in to
diffuse the situation but I amped up the competitive rhetoric.
As
we transitioned into the next activity, the two teams where at each
other’s throats. The whole thing could have spiraled out of control
with a dehumanizing comment or physical confrontation but I sensed God
had control of the situation. So we pressed ahead and all the ugliness
of our groups lack of patience, forgiveness, and trust presented itself.
We ended the activities with one team chanting their victories at the
defeated team.
We
then moved into a time of debriefing. Keeping the comments at the
level of the whole team, we explored how the teams interacted and how
teams worked together. The teens and adults were honest and open. They
confessed their short comings and their disappointments. Then we
explored how our actions were like or dislike the character of Jesus.
It
clicked with all of them. The big issue that all of us are facing is
how unlike Jesus we are with one another. All of a sudden the comments
became much more humble and forgiving. Teens encouraged those they had
just trash talked minutes ago. Adults asked for forgiveness and teens
extended it to them. Patience was given by all as each person talked
about their experience of the chaotic activities.
Could
I have managed things better? Maybe, but I honestly believe that had I
attempted to manage the situation in an authoritarian manner that our
whole group would have missed out on a transformational moment. We
would not have recognized that each of our actions contributes to the
creation of a toxic environment.
Transformation
comes through the chaotic and messy moments of life. It is wild and
unmanageable. So when it comes we must simply embrace it and hope God
will bring good out of it. If we choose to manage then we must settle
for change.
By Paul Sheneman
- Trackback Link
-
http://www.noshoesorsocks.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5077&PostID=170609&A=Trackback
- Trackbacks
-
Post has no trackbacks.
Barefoot Training - Wednesday, November 03, 2010
- Trackback Link
-
http://www.noshoesorsocks.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5077&PostID=170078&A=Trackback
- Trackbacks
-
Post has no trackbacks.
Comments
guaranteed 500 dollar payday loan ,(co), http://earnonlinecashinindia79196.paydayloansl243.com new payday loans uk, bpANlOqdbTD,
instant cash loans ,16428, http://quickinstantcashloansadvance.co.uk cash advance, //_^,
same day loans ,b (, http://fastpaydayloanssuk.co.uk payday loans uk, 91119,
instant loans ,:-#|, http://quickfastonlineloans.com payday loans no credit check, >:*),
payday loans ,uczrOS, http://paydayloans0.co.uk paydayloans, 44446,
online payday loans ,82825, http://ppaydayloans.ca payday loans ottawa, 98643,
pay day loans ,(X^(*, http://paydayloanss.ca payday loans ontario, }:^#),