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1Feb, 2011

A Dangerous Thing

Posted by Scott

the-future If you are a long time reader of the blog, you already know that I hold both Mark Oestricher and Kenda Creasy Dean in high esteem. So, when they pair up for any moment, you know I’m paying attention and likely inviting you to do the same.

Marko has been running a series where he asks folks to complete this sentence: “The future of youth ministry…” (worth reading all those links!) Here’s Kenda’s response, which Marko suggests “just might be the best two paragraphs ever written on youth ministry” and I ain’t disagreeing…

Teenagers know, better than we do, that when we ask them to be Christians, we are asking them to do a very dangerous thing. The only way out is to adopt a “safe” version of Christianity


(which might not be Christian at all) that helps them become good, nice people instead of people who love others sacrificially. But as we know, good and nice “Christianity” seldom lasts past high school, since teenagers quickly learn that people can be perfectly good and nice without Jesus anywhere in the picture.

So I think in the future, youth ministry will try to re-weird-ify Christianity, highlighting Jesus’ radical actions and peculiar self-giving love, in an effort to resist the American church’s habit of trying to tame the gospel into a middle class bedtime story. If Christianity is dangerous, then we need to act like it. Teenagers aren’t afraid of risk, but they want to know that Jesus is worth it. Young people are going to demand that we, the church, be who we say we are–people who obviously follow Jesus, which makes us “weird” in a culture based on self-actualization and self-fulfillment–or they’re just not going to bother with us at all.

Not to harp on a constant theme on this blog….  But, re-weird-ifying Christianity can not be a solo sport. It’s lovely to set ourselves up as individual role models in this game…  but we must be working to transform our communities so that “we, (as) the church, (can) be who we say we are–people who obviously follow Jesus.”  Our work must be, as much, if not more, with adults to bring about such a culture change.

Your comments (agree? disagree? how shall we go about this…?) are welcomed! <image source>

7 Comments »

  1. Scott,

    Good article, what Kenda says is true, but it’s not just about re-weird-ifying Christianity as it is about connecting students to adult Christian role model willing to invest in them. These adults need to be re-weird-ify themselves because they are going to be the proof that it’s worth it. If we can’t connect students to healthy relationships it the pictures we paint will only have so much influence. But the balance of re-weird-ifying and authentic relationships needs to be constantly examined. Thanks for writing on this.

    Comment by Chris Wesley — Tuesday, February 1, 2011 @ 10:18 am

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  3. This is excellent. We in youth ministry have known for ages that we have a moving and ever evolving target. But the suggestion of re-wierdifying is really inspiring. I work on High School Campus Ministry, which needs to be examined as well. I could only imagine what my principal would think if I get weirder for Christ than I already am.

    I say the more weird and radical the better. That’s who the saint were.

    Comment by Joe Malinowski — Tuesday, February 1, 2011 @ 11:15 am

  4. I totally agree with the need to target adults in this re-weird-ifying. The one question I have is, are we as youth ministers the ones who are supposed to be targeting adults? (I am currently moving that direction, but still have reservations about whether I ought to be doing adult ministry as a paid “youth” minister.)

    Comment by Sudo Nymh — Tuesday, February 1, 2011 @ 9:07 pm

  5. I was told once by a guy that if he had his way in youth ministry, he would go into a parish and minister directly to parents for over a year before he would being his “Youth Ministry”. I don’t know if I would go that far, but if we read Renewing the Vision, you will find that the family is the first community in which the Lord gathers us, and we all know the John paul 2 statement “this is what is needed: A church that is not afraid to require much AFTER HAVING GIVEN MUCH…

    I think this is right on….

    Comment by John Gencarelli — Thursday, February 3, 2011 @ 5:07 pm

  6. It reminds me of a talk by Louie Giglio from the Passion movement when he unpacked 2 Cor 5:13 “If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.” He was saying that College students want a life altering world shaping vision but they want to drop the weird “christianese”.

    I think youth ministry has to have a counter cultural vision for the world, but it can’t be so culturally weird that people dismiss the Gospel because of the package it comes in. If people reject the Gospel because it is too hard well that is a different story.

    Comment by Mark McDonald — Thursday, February 3, 2011 @ 8:20 pm

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