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youTheology is a Saint Paul School of Theology Pan-Methodist program that is preparing leaders, deepening faith, providing youth ministry resources, and giving opportunities for loving and serving God and others with high school students and youth workers.
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Jesus Christ
One of the most difficult things I’ve ever experienced in my four decades of youth ministry was to serve as a Pallbearer for the funeral of one of a 13-year-old boy in my youth group. Paul was the victim of repeated bullying by a large group of peers that tragically left Paul with the mistaken conclusion that his reality was too unbearable and he chose to end his own life. This happened nearly 30 years ago. Unfortunately, bullying has gotten much worse in the last ten years.
Right now the movie documentary Bully, along with several highly publicized cases involving tragic results because of bullying among teenagers, has created a heightened awareness of the frightening dynamic of this issue in our culture.
Working with adolescents, we regularly hear stories of young people who everyday have to deal with being bullied. Everyday, hundreds of thousands of young people have to deal with the fear of attending school where they know they will be bullied. It’s estimated that an average of more than 150,000 young people stay home from school everyday to avoid being bullied. Most of the time this occurs without parents being aware that it’s happening to their child.
Bullying involves acts of repetitive negative behavior of a person or persons toward another person or persons that is aggressive and intimidating in nature. Bullying can take the forms of emotional, verbal, and/or physical abuse. Bullying can be a one-on-one issue but most often it involves a collaborative group engaged in peer abuse directed at one or more individuals.
Research reveals that young people who are regularly bullied face an increased risk of mental health issues. Depression, anxiety, lack of motivation, despair, helplessness, and suicidal thoughts prevail among those who are dealing with being perpetually bullied. In addition to thinking about harming themselves, some begin to fanaticize about hurting their tormenters. According to a report by the Secret Service, two-thirds of students who participated in school shootings were victims of bullying at school that had reached the level of self-described “torment.”
Mona O’Moore of the Anti-Bullying Centre at Trinity College in Dublin, has written, "There is a growing body of research which indicates that individuals, whether child or adult, who are persistently subjected to abusive behavior are at risk of stress related illness which can sometimes lead to suicide."
In addition to aggressive and physical actions that intimidate and harm the victims of bullying there are new forms of bullying that have emerged through social media. This type of Cyber-bullying attempts to socially isolate the victim by spreading rumors, name calling, threatening, criticizing, manipulating, ostracizing, etc. through a variety of social medias, including Facebook, Twitter, and whatever new social media tools emerged last week, along with those that will surface this week.
According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, One in five teenagers are harassed regularly online. Almost one-half of all teenagers have experienced some form of online harassment. More than one-third (37%) of teens admit to using social networking sites to victimize and harass their peers.
Before we, as adults, rest in the idea that we have moved beyond the ability to bully, let me suggest that we may not engage in the overt bullying actions of adolescents but we must ask ourselves if we have not just adopted more sophisticated forms of bullying – gossip, character assassination, ostracizing, sabotaging, and exclusionary behavior toward others.
When Jesus was asked what it means to truly be his follower he says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself” Luke 10:27. He then tells one of the best-known stories called the parable of the Good Samaritan in order to explain and explore the heart of what it means to be a genuine follower of Christ. In this parable Jesus commends the man who comes to the rescue and takes care of a victim of extreme bullying. We must stand up for those who are being bullied. Christians must speak up. We have to take action concerning this issue
What is Youthfront doing about this issue?
What can parents do?
I believe that we have a window of opportunity created by this movie Bully and the media’s attention on this issue to double down our effort to radically alter the reality of bullying in our culture. This, I believe is something that the followers of Jesus and God’s church must passionately engage in. We must do this for our kids.
Resources The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, www.cpyu.org Wikipedia
Catie Madderom credits her years at Youthfront for teaching her the power of community. When you listen to her talk, you’ll hear her say that word “community” again and again as she describes her history with the ministry - and how it has impacted her spiritually. Take a look!
I served as Editor for the Youthfront Book Shorts Series published by Barefoot Publications. The title I'm featuring today is Leslie Snyder's No Easy Answers: The Shared Role of Parents and the Church in the Spiritual Formation of Teens.
I first met Leslie Snyder in Seminary. I quickly labeled her as the fanatical advocate for parents who have kids in youth ministry. This turned out to be an accurate label. Leslie is passionate and deeply committed to help parents in our churches be more involved in the Christian Formation of their children.
Leslie eats, drinks, sleeps and dreams about ways to serve parents of young people. She insists that youth workers must be more aware of the family context of the young people they minister to. Leslie’s voice joins the growing chorus of voices articulating the importance of Christian Formation of young people needing the involvement of the entire church community. She describes ways that youth workers can become guides, facilitators, pastors and leaders for the movement toward creating a broader faith community engaged in passing the faith onto our emerging generations. For Leslie, investing in parents of teenagers is an essential aspect of nurturing a more holistic faith community for our youth to be spiritually developed.
Leslie gives youth workers practical ideas for helping parents of the youth you minister to and how this will broaden you ability to disciple them. One of the biggest challenges we face in the church today is to help our churches really live for and love Jesus, and for our congregations to be deeply committed to Christian formation. It’s no wonder our young people don’t take their faith serious when they haven’t seen this modeled by the adults in our churches. Leslie makes the case that we have to look at his issue holistically and in doing so we can make a difference.
*The cool thing about this book short series is the fact that they are downloadable and can be reproduced by youth workers to engage in conversation with their volunteer staff for the purpose of training and shaping the ethos of the youth ministry of a church.
I have been speaking and thinking a lot lately on a theology of place, space and time. I believe a theologically robust and intentional focus on being rooted in a particular place for a long period of time is essential for nurturing a community engaged in Christian practice.
It seems like I'm saying things that which resonnnate deeply to people but seems challenging to embrace in our hyper-mobile culture.
This has become my argument;
STAY where you're from, if you haven't, STAY where you are, if you can't, at least live like you are staying where you are for the rest of your life.
Last week I had the privilege of giving two lectures at the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary and next week I will be speaking on this subject at the Children, Youth and New Kind of Christianity Conference in Washington, D.C.
It's not too late to register for the conference in Washington. Here are what a few people are saying about the conference;
“This event sets the bar high: it’s got passion, purpose, and a line-up of theological luminaries who rarely share the same stage. What brings it all together is a shared core conviction: if we’re going to be the church Christ calls us to be, we’re going to need to take young people as seriously as Jesus does.”
-Kenda Creasy Dean, Professor of Youth, Church and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, Author of Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church
“What I like about [CYNKC] is that the fine folks throwing this party are trying to figure out how we approach spirituality with young people in a post-flannelgraph-Sunday-School world.”
-Shane Claiborne, activist, author, and founding member of The Simple Way
“A new generation needs to emerge that has a passionate vision for making the Kingdom of God a reality in this world. Children, Youth, and a New Kind of Christianity is a major attempt to foster that generation. It promises to give hope to a church and a world that need renewal.”
-Tony Campolo, PhD, Eastern University, St. Davids , Pennsylvania
CED775 — Innovations: Cultivating Youth Spirituality in Experiential Environments
Mike King/Summer 2012
June 25-29 at Youthfront Camp and online 7/2-7/30
Catalog Description
Explorations into the contemporary spiritual lives of youth afford youth ministers an opportunity to develop new and innovative approaches to spiritual formation both for and with adolescents. This course explores one such approach to youth spirituality and youth spiritual formation through intensive settings such as retreats, pilgrimages, short term missions and camp ministries. The course utilizes one of the more innovative approaches to youth formation occurring through YouthFront a national youth ministry resource with specialized camp ministries just south of Kansas City. http://www.youthfront.com/directions This course allows participants the opportunity to explore the spiritual lives of youth, engage in formation practices with youth alongside recreational settings, and imagine the possibilities of similar ministry approaches in their own contexts.
The course includes an intensive, one week, situated learning experience at YouthFront South exploring youth spirituality while engaging youth and youth leaders on the journey. Special fee required for staying at the camp (required for all students). For more information contact NTS or Dr. Dean Blevins, director of the MACFD program.
We have created an opportunity for you and your family to step away from the demands of youth ministry and into the strong and loving arms of God. Our hope is that this holy rest will restore your soul and help prepare you for another season of fruitful ministry.
We have carved three days out of the schedule at Youthfront Camp South for vocational youth workers and their families. We set these days aside for you in hopes of providing a place and time for you and your family to get away, laugh and have fun together. While there will be things for you to do, there won't be a program to keep up with. You will have the space and time to do whatever it is you feel like doing.
It is our privilege to offer this unique and refreshing retreat at the lowest cost possible. Some of the expenses have been underwritten by generous sponsors. If you are able to contribute toward the expense of this retreat, please designate after filling out the reservation form. However, please do NOT let a lack of funds keep you from joining us.
This retreat will feature Ian Cron. Richard Rohr says, “Ian Cron has the gift of making his human journey a parable for all of our journeys." Shane Claiborne adds, "Ian Cron has a ton to teach the world. And he’s gentle as he does it." His latest book, Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me: A Memoir…Of Sorts was chosen as a featured title in the prestigious Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program. Ian has a passion for life with Jesus and a heart for youth workers. We are thrilled that Ian has agreed to be with us.
Immerse Journal is consistently probing, providing a place for dialogue, asking questions, raising issues and always encouraging the reader to sit in the complexity, tension and ambiguities of the realities of our lives as ministers. Start 2012 out right by subscribing to the Journal changing the landscape of North American Youth Ministry.
Going Deeper With The Complexities of Adolescents Spiritual Formation
By: Brock Morgan
When I first started in youth ministry, I really thought bigger was better. I thought true success was about big events, big growth, with a big movement. Granted, I did grow up in the '80s, when parachute pants were the norm. Walking into my high school youth group room as a 15-year-old was like going onto the set of the MTV show Remote Control (google it if you don't know what that is). Our youth group's name was Battle Zone, and it was all set up with smog machines running and Steve Taylor singing "Meltdown" in the background. This was what being a Christian teenager was all about for me. When I went into youth ministry as a leader, these were the images I had of youth ministry.
I remember being a youth pastor in L.A. in the mid '90s and drawing large amounts of students to our mid-week programs. I was still operating out of an old model of youth ministry. As a result, we were definitely light on substance. Honestly, you can only do attraction-based youth ministry for so long. Shallow ministry, as we all know, does attract students, but it does very little to nurture spiritual growth and development, and it doesn't effectively engage students in the faith journey.
Grant Wood's article in the July/August 2011 issue of Immerse, "The Complexities of Adolescent Spiritual Formation," resonated with me. The first thing that jumped out about the article is that Grant is no longer a youth worker.
I served as Editor for the Youthfront Book Shorts Series published by Barefoot Publications. The title I'm featuring today is Jamie Roach's Awake. In this book short, Jamie Roach invites the reader into an awareness that God is calling all of us into deeper dependence on the Holy Spirit and a richer relationship with Jesus Christ.
Jamie Roach is a rare youth worker who has spent a quarter of a century ministering to young people without succumbing to the gimmicks of youth ministry past or present. Jamie has engaged in youth ministry out of the depths of his deep and abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. Jamie has increasingly embraced his growing role as a pastor and spiritual guide to youth workers.
Jamie is not only passionately committed to his own spiritual formation but also to the spiritual formation of hundreds of others who find themselves in his sphere of influence. Read this and you will be reminded of the importance of classic Christian practices that will awaken you to the significance of a rich and full life with God.
*The cool thing about this book short series is the fact that they are downloadable and can be reproduced by youth workers to engage in conversation with their volunteer staff for the purpose of training and shaping the ethos of the youth ministry of a church.
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Alan E. Lewis: Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday
Kenda Creasy Dean: Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church
Dirk Hayhurst: The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran
Philip Sheldrake: Spaces for the Sacred: Place, Memory, and Identity
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