Barefoot Training - Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Jon Wasson takes aim at the ideal of radicalism in youth ministry in his recent article for Immerse Journal, “Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship: Reframing the Language of Radicalism in Adolescent Contexts.” Jon, via Bonhoeffer, is concerned with the rhetoric of radicalism and the ideology of radicalism in youth ministry because it shifts the orientation of discipleship away from Christ. I value Jon’s contribution to the theological practice of youth ministry and took it up in my own reflections and engagement with youth.
Personal Reflections
My first impression upon reading Jon’s article was doubt. I wondered if Jon just created a straw man here. The reason for such a reaction was that I haven’t knowingly been part of a youth ministry that used the explicit language of radical as Jon presented. So I started searching for how pervasive this rhetoric is in the youth ministry blogosphere and on church websites. After about 30 minutes of searching, I was sold on Jon’s characterization.
Upon further reflection, I believe I too was exposed to a certain ideology by my faith community. My rural, conservative and fundamentalist introduction into the body of Christ exposed me to a super-Christian ideology that reflects some of the characteristics of Jon’s radicalism.
I was 17 and listening to a teenage girl talk about her extreme act of trusting God. In a small, country church, she explained how she hadn’t thought it was possible for God to provide the money for her to go to Guatemala. She shared stories of tribal-like people groups being converted to faith in Jesus by simple Sunday school lessons. She painted a picture of the impossible situation of giving up a whole summer, spending a lot of weekends in preparation, praying daily for unknown people and finally seeing God transform lives by the power of the proclaimed Word. Having recently been converted to faith in Jesus Christ, her story quickly became my image of being a radical Christian.
That rural community of believers taught me that the point of the Christian life was to move hundreds of miles away from home and make a huge impact in a foreign land for Christ. The entry point into that way of life was short-term missions. If you chose not to go on a short-term mission trip, then you were choosing to live a common Christian life. The role of the common Christian life was to support the super-Christians in other lands through money and prayer. And to ensure that we had effective prayers, we were to rigidly keep the rules of holy living found in our literal reading of the Scriptures and our community’s rules for Christian living.
This type of ideology is what Jon writes against. Jon asserts that “what student ministry has done with its abuse of radical terminology” is to create “an ideal social dream for students instead of calling them to encounter the living Christ.” This critique follows his reading of Bonhoffer’s ideology of Christian brotherhood. And ultimately, the critique is that to set up any “end other than the person of Christ is to create an ideal as an ultimate reality.”
What Jon’s critical theological reading of youth ministry reveals for me is that youth workers both explicitly and implicitly adopt ideologies in order to communicate the gospel in relevant ways. This is nothing new for the church, though. My personal reflection mirrors much of what I found out there in terms of radicalism in youth ministry. The foreign missionary was my community’s image of radical Christianity. It was communicated as a life of total self-sacrifice for God, extreme focus on the gospel in every aspect of life and overflowing with the miraculous, transformative presence of God in the world. For others, it may be radicalism or another ideology that has taken the place of Christ as the ultimate reality.
The radical idea (pun intended) that Jon puts forth is that we marry our idea of radical with a particular concept of ordinary. The ordinary radical in Jon’s proposal is his way of saying a disciple of Jesus Christ. The true disciple carries the cross each and every day. In other words, Jon wants us to stop modifying Christian and embrace the gospel as a call to death.
From Deconstruction to Construction
So what?
That’s the question I ask in my head when someone deconstructs something. What I’m typically asking myself is, So what am I supposed to do about this? The following are two practical movements following Jon’s critique of radicalism in youth ministry.
Evaluate
Let’s begin exploring the reality of our use of radicalism in youth ministry. The pitfalls Jon points out serve as a great rubric in order to engage in the process of discovery.
1. Do we make radicalism the end of Christian transformation?
This is a big-picture question, and we have a lot of places in youth ministry where we can subtly paint this picture. In our preaching and teaching times, we can communicate that the ultimate goal of the work of God in our lives is for us to become radical. This typically comes when we illustrate the ideal Christian teen living out radical faith. We don’t always communicate that what we mean by “radical faith” is simply Christian faith.
We also paint the big picture in the art and images in our worship spaces. Specifically, I think of those youth rooms that are plastered with blockbuster movies that communicate the message of radicalism. Comic book movies, the underdog sports icons, the passionate acts of redemption—all communicate that what we are called to is extreme acts of witness and not the ordinary acts of witness in the world.
2. Do we create positions of power through our use of radicalism in youth ministry?
This point for me is about inside and outside language within the Christian narrative. I first encountered it when a person taught me to distinguish between “real Christians” and “cultural Christians.” What the person meant was well meaning, but what I learned was that some believers are on the inside with Jesus and some are on the outside.
Messed up, right?
This is what a power structure does. It gives one part of the community—radical Christians—the ability to dictate what following Jesus is about to another part of the community—non-radical Christians.
3. Do we exploit students in our language of radicalism?
We can do this in our personal counseling of youth or in our invitations to make decisions about life and faith with youth. We can make statements that play on adolescents’ developmental and cultural impulse for risk taking. We can pump them up with high-energy activities and games then ask them to make radical commitments of faith.
Discover
Engage students with the whole concept of radical in order to discern if they have received radicalism rather than the gospel of Jesus.
Click here to download a lesson guide to explore radicalism with your students.
Youth workers need to explore the critiques that Jon’s article proposes. This is not to assert that Jon has entirely figured out the issue of radicalism but rather to suggest that we need to discern whether we are staying faithful to Jesus in our life together. It is in exploring the economy of our life with youth that I hope will reveal ways we can grow in our faithfulness to Jesus Christ.
By Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Tuesday, May 10, 2011
One key area of any community is the roles that people play. In youth ministry many youth leaders must come to grips with the reality that they cannot fill every role. What we need to realize is that every person in our community, from volunteer leader to new student, plays a unique role or set of roles.
Roles may be formal like the small group leader or they may be informal like a motivator during an activity. Either way, it is helpful to get an imagination for who is playing what roles in order to encourage talents and gifts.
5 Important Roles in Youth Ministry*
Consumer: One who looks for and uses lessons, activities, events and social connections.
Creator: One who creates, shares, improves the lessons and leads or fuels discussions.
Connector: One who helps others to understand and get connected to others and activities.
Carrier: One who takes the groups way of life to other groups through various forms of communication (personal relationships, media, technology, etc.)
Caretaker: One who cares for the needs of the group (remembers B-days, visits those who are sick, counsels those who have a conflict, etc.)
Calling Youth through Roles
As you think about each person involved in your community and the roles that they have played and continue to play, the next step is to think about how you can encourage their gifts and talents through these roles. As youth and youth leaders get connected to their gifts and talents in meaningful ways they will be able to get a sense of purpose or calling. They will be more likely to see the value of their participation in the life of a community of Jesus followers and so form an identity in Christ.
What other roles exist in youth ministry?
How can we encourage youth to use their gifts and talents?
By Paul Sheneman
*Adaptation of Key Social Learning Roles
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Barefoot Training - Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Read “Mama Bears,” by Jen Bradbury, from the March/April edition of Immerse Journal
I was just out of college and confident that I knew more than any person in the local church about all things God. Full of arrogance and testosterone, I jumped headfirst into the solo youth ministry gig. I made the necessary changes to programming to reflect a more relevant youth ministry model. I flexed my intellectual prowess in my theologically rich yet entertaining sermons. I used the perfect mix of sarcasm and empathy to connect with students and give patented Christian life lessons. I was on track to be rookie youth pastor of the year until I encountered a mama bear.
In my desire to open youth to all the “important” experiences of faith, I inadvertently began scheduling multiple events a month. I didn’t see any problem with doubling up in a month, since students were going to learn about service and evangelism. I quickly became aware of the issue(s) it causes when one mother came to me and told me her daughter would not be attending the second event that month.
Innocently, I asked, “Why?”
“It’s a little much for her to participate in two events this month,” she respectfully replied.
In my overconfident and slightly sarcastic way, I replied, “So two events is too much to ask a person to follow Jesus. I can see that.”
I’ll admit those were not the best choice of words, nor was it the best tone of voice. But I was the youth pastor with a college degree, and I knew more than anyone in the local church about all things God. Right?
Well, that respectful mother let me have it. She didn’t stop with my rude and sarcastic comment. She systematically picked apart the paradigm by which I was building my whole youth ministry. From the relevant programming to my patented Christian life lessons, she tore me to pieces. She left me wondering if I was even following Jesus.
I’m glad Jen Bradbury had such a great experience with a mama bear. Her experience reveals in a redeeming way the need for mama bears. And she is correct that we should hope and pray for more of them in our churches.
For those who experience or have experienced a mama bear in a less than positive way, let me just say that they are still needed. My experience led me to rethink several aspects of my relationship with God and others. It also led me to begin the difficult but necessary process of engaging parents and including their voices in the development of youth ministry. It was a much-needed learning experience, even if it was not wanted at the time.
So thanks, Jen, for letting us know about mama bears. I just wish you had told me sooner.
By Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Thursday, March 24, 2011
What
is theology? I can see the blank stares of teenagers in my mind as I
ask that question. The ones I’ve asked typically don’t understand the
question, and few have heard the word theology prior to it. But for me—and I hope for them one day—I understand that theology is remembering and telling meaningful stories.
I
was taught that the nature of religion was humanity’s search for God. I
was also taught that God is the matter of ultimate concern. (Gotta love
Paul Tillich!) And theology is our sorting through the gods in order to find a true God. But how do we sort through the gods? We sort through them in our storied reflection on our experience of those gods.
Take
Vinnie—name slightly changed to slightly protect his identity—as an
example of a teenager telling a meaningful story. He retold several
accounts of his lucrative lawn-mowing business. He proudly pulled his
wad of cash from his pocket and smiled as peers gawked at the spoils of
his toil. He talked about working hard in order to get what you want. He
identified himself as a shrewd business person. The money he earned
provided him praise from others, attention from peers, and the power to
buy.
To
Vinnie, making money through manual labor was meaningful. His stories
revealed that it was a matter of ultimate concern for him. He told his
stories with an absence of the God revealed in Scripture, expressing his
belief of God to be just a god.
His identity flowed from what he created by the work of his hand, so he
believed humans to be autonomous individuals who create their own
fortunes or demises. He believed those who worked hard were blessed and
those who didn’t were cursed.
Vinnie
experienced the god of working for money. That god made sense to him
and quickly became his God. So he talked about his God in meaningful
ways.
Theology
is remembering and telling meaningful stories. Sometimes teens share
stories of their experiences of the God and Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Sometimes teens share stories of their experiences of the gods
of fame, money, sexuality, pragmatism, etc. The key for youth workers is
to listen and shepherd teens through their meaningful stories in order
to point out the God who is.
By Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Tuesday, February 22, 2011
“Then
a brilliant college professor taught me...that each of us are
mini-trinities, we’re three-in-ones—minds, spirits and bodies all
wrapped into one being (Mark 12:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:23).”
-Laurin Makohon, “The Journey to Becoming More.” Immerse Journal Jan/Feb 2011 issue.
We are a unity of head, heart, and hands.
This
revelation of our humanity led Laurin Makohon on a personal journey to
engage the fullness of life that God created us to live. What we catch a
glimpse of in Laurin’s story is a picture of what youth ministry and
youth’s lives can be.
After
reading Laurin’s article, I began to imagine how my students are
already experiencing the fullness of the life of faith described in
Laurin’s story. They already encounter God through their minds,
feelings, and actions because the Holy Spirit is always present in their
lives. And I thought, What would it look like if I did a qualitative assessment of my students through this lens?
A
qualitative assessment in this instance gleans stories of how teens
encounter God through their heads, hearts, and hands in order to discern
their awareness of God’s activity and the impact that it has made on
their lives of faith. If you have been following the Barefoot Training
articles, then you know my definition for faith. With this definition I came up with two questions for each of the three dimensions of our humanity.
I
encourage you to ask your students these simple questions in small
groups or in casual conversations. It will open up the exploration of
the fullness of the lives of faith God has in store for them.
If you are looking to go deeper with your assessment and connect it to spiritual growth, then check out this article, by Mark Maddix.
By Paul Sheneman
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Barefoot Training - Friday, February 11, 2011
A phrase that gets repeated throughout the Barefoot Training manuals is, “The story of God as the context…” We explain that the story of God is the context for our
participation in God’s mission, theology, calling, and identity. What we
don’t make explicit in the training is the definition of context in relation to youth ministry.
Context
has two primary definitions. First, it is the components of a discourse
that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning (Merriam-Webster).
We typically encounter this definition when we are preparing to teach
on the Scriptures. We study the parable of the prodigal son in the
context of the entire chapter in which it appears; in the context of the
entire gospel of Luke; and the context of the entire Bible in order to
understand its meaning. Context also means the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs (Merriam-Webster).
We practice this definition when we try to understand the circumstances
surrounding a teenager jumping out of a tree and breaking an arm.
The
second definition is what we refer to when we talk about youth
ministry. We are attempting to tell a true story that will embrace the
interrelated conditions in which youth ministry exists. The
circumstances—or setting—of contemporary youth ministry could be
narrated in many ways. We could talk about all the social circumstances
leading up to the emergence of contemporary youth ministry. Or we could
describe the psychological circumstances that necessitate contemporary
youth ministry. But these stories would be incomplete and would ignore
some of the interrelated conditions in which youth ministry exists.
Our
conviction is that youth ministry—as an activity of the church—is best
understood in the context of God’s story. The story of God embraces all
of life (social, psychological, historical, cultural, etc.), starting
before creation and projected out in hope to the new creation. We also
believe that the story of God gives meaning and direction for youth
ministry. In God’s story, we find the reason for caring for youth,
performing and proclaiming the good news of Jesus, playing games
together, crying together, calling youth to serve others in Jesus’ name,
etc. Outside of the story of God, these activities lose their context
and meaning.
Next
week we will dig into the relationship between story and people. For
now, I wonder how you describe the circumstances for youth ministry?
By Paul Sheneman
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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
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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
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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
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Barefoot Training - Friday, December 03, 2010
Engaging the Whole Biblical Narrative
Have you ever had a teen ask, “What’s the first part of the Bible about?”
It
happened to me when I was teaching on Jesus’ parable of the kingdom.
One of the teens had brought a friend. The friend had an inquisitive
look on her face during most of the lesson. At the end she eagerly
raised her hand. When she had every person’s attention, the friend
enthusiastically waved the paperback Bible back and forth by the spine
and asked, “Where is the story of Jesus? What part of this is about
Jesus?”
An eager volunteer college student quickly chirped, “It’s all about Jesus.”
To which the friend replied with great disappointment in her voice, “So I have to read the whole thing to find out about Jesus.”
Another
kindhearted volunteer replied, “Not at all. Here, just read this part.”
And he proceeded to point out the gospel of John.
In
amazement, she responded by holding the portion from Genesis to Luke in
her hand and began waving it back and forth in the air and asked,
“What’s this part about then?”
During
our training, we find that youth workers agree with both of the
volunteers’ perspectives. They eagerly agree that the whole Bible,
Genesis to Revelation, is about Jesus. But if we push them to answer
which parts of the Bible are essential, youth workers choose the gospels.
Transformational
youth ministry poses another question that reveals the necessity of
engaging the whole biblical narrative. The question is, “Why is Jesus so
important?” This is not just an apologetic question but also a
hermeneutics question. More to the point it, is what the friend in my
youth ministry wanted to know. She recognized the great importance of
Jesus in our lesson, and she was searching for a way to get an answer
to, “Why Jesus?”
We
must confess that neither the gospels nor the New Testament alone have a
big enough answer. First, the New Testament authors are drawing from an
inspired imagination of the Old Testament. So we can’t hope to begin to
understand their messages without the rest of Scripture. Second, it is
the dramatic story from creation to new creation that gives the
ground-shaking, cosmic picture of God’s mission in Jesus’ life, death,
and resurrection. If we stick to just teaching the New Testament, then
we will be giving teens a smaller answer to, “Why is Jesus so
important?”
Youth
workers have begun to recognize the necessity of engaging the whole
narrative. Some of the practices emerging are following the lectionary,
chronological Bible storytelling, teaching series on the meta-narrative
of the Bible, and reading narrative Bibles as a youth group. All of
these are hopeful signs that the whole narrative of the Bible is being
valued in youth ministry.
Questions to Consider:
How do you incorporate the whole Bible into youth ministry?
What practices for engaging the whole narrative would you add to the list?
By: Paul Sheneman
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