![\"ChrisFolmsbee.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/imgs\/ChrisFolmsbee.jpg\")
<\/span>I\u2019ve found a new hobby.\u00a0 I have found absolute delight in digging up\nolder books on youth ministry \u2013 books from the 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s.\u00a0 Much of
\nwhat I find I purchase for a couple of bucks from some obscure website
\nand they\u2019re usually shipped from places in the world I can only wish I
\nmight one day visit.
\u00a0
\nMost recently I came across a book by Stephen Jones called, Faith
\nShaping: Youth and the Experience of Faith<\/i> (Judson Press, 1987).\u00a0 Some
\nof you may remember it when it came out.\u00a0 Me?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 I was a freshman
\nin high school at the time it was released.<\/p>\n
Faith Shaping<\/i> is full of little nuggets that are not only relevant for
\ntoday but are required for people who work with today\u2019s youth.\u00a0
\nProbably the most helpful morsel of the book for me was chapter 9 on
\nculture shaping.\u00a0 In this chapter, Jones reminds his readers \u201cWe will
\nnot do justice to adolescents unless we help them consider the shape of
\ntheir emerging faith in relation to their culture.\u201d (P.89)<\/p>\n
So, what exactly is the task of culture shaping?\u00a0 I mean, I have
\nsome ideas but I\u2019d rather hear from those of you wrestling with similar
\nobservances and experiments.\u00a0 How can we move away from our tendencies
\nto manufacture and manipulate?\u00a0 What are the essential aspects of
\nculture shaping?\u00a0 Is it even possible to really allow students to shape
\ntheir culture or do they need some kind of adult influence to assure
\nthat it gets done?\u00a0\u00a0 Are we (or more specifically, am I) crazy to think
\nthat youth workers should rely more on students to shape the emerging
\nculture and less on our own assumptions, preferences and opinions?\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
When I first began in youth ministry (almost 15 years ago) \u201cpeer-to-peer\u201d ministry was the buzzword.\u00a0 The purpose of peer-to-peer ministry was to influence students in order that they might influence their friends. It wasn\u2019t an altogether inherently bad idea.\u00a0 After all, isn\u2019t this what Jesus did with his disciples?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t Jesus find influencers and allow them to do the influencing? Actually, no, this isn\u2019t what Jesus did.\u00a0 Jesus called mere fisherman, ordinary people to follow him.\u00a0 He was present with them incarnating himself for the mission of God.\u00a0 Yes, certainly to influence others but not solely limited to influence.\u00a0 Jesus called his disciples to shape the culture and move it toward becoming a Kingdom culture.
\u00a0
Most often youth workers who talked about and built \u201cpeer to peer\u201d ministry models functioned with the idea that to influence students meant we had to create consumers who bought what we were selling and who conformed to the culture that we created.\u00a0 The mistake in this concept wasn\u2019t the motive to influence or even the call to conform to a culture (that was often mere words and abstractions).\u00a0 The biggest mistake was seeing students as the tool or the agenda and not seeing them as \u201cpersons-in-culture\u201d (P.90) who were \u201cnot only recipients of culture but also shapers of it.\u201d\u00a0 We trusted students enough to bring their friends to our Friday night outreach events but we didn\u2019t (generally speaking, of course) trust them enough to allow them to shape the culture through their communal and personal faith \u2014 a faith that \u201coffers the criteria against which to evaluate one\u2019s participation in culture and the courage, when necessary, to be countercultural.\u201d (P. 90) We called students to live counter culturally, but we didn\u2019t trust the students we were supposedly influencing to really shape the culture so we tended to manufacture and manipulate.
\u00a0
I don\u2019t really hear the phrase \u201cpeer to peer\u201d much anymore.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it is because we\u2019ve stopped doing youth ministry in that fashion.\u00a0 Nor do I think it is because we\u2019ve stumbled upon another, better model either.\u00a0 Honestly, I think for many it was one of those things that either \u201csounded cool at the time\u201d or just never really \u201cworked\u201d so we\u2019ve abandoned the language.\u00a0 Most youth ministries still operate under the mindset that if I can just influence the right student(s) I can use them to share the message of Jesus with their friends.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t shape the culture it simply and most often temporarily keeps a few of our students interested and engaged. \u00a0
The trend we commonly understand as \u2018youth leaving the church\u2019 isn\u2019t primarily about the churches tendency toward abandonment, a rise in the influence of media or the Internet or the inability to reach a post-literate generation through traditional methods.\u00a0 Rather, it is primarily an issue of doubt and distrust.\u00a0<\/b> <\/p>\n
We (youth workers) have not believed in and trusted the Holy Spirit\u2019s ministry and movements enough among youth to allow youth to be the shapers of their culture.\u00a0 Instead, we\u2019ve tried to shape the culture ourselves.\u00a0 This tragic mistake has led several decades of youth toward finding ways outside of the church to practice their faith and shape their culture.\u00a0 This is why students are graduating and not coming back.\u00a0 (Note: I just read the galley copy of Andy Root\u2019s upcoming book called, Unfiltered Relationships<\/i>.\u00a0 Look for this book from YS\/Zondervan this fall.\u00a0 Andy covers the topics above \u2014 especially that of \u201cinfluencing students\u201d \u2014 in great detail.)<\/p>\n
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I am so grateful Chris Folmsbee is writing this weekly column for us about youth ministry. We need more focus on the next generation\u2026 so here goes\u2026 Let\u2019s hear your response. I\u2019ve found a new hobby.\u00a0 I have found absolute delight in digging up older books on youth ministry \u2013 books from the 70\u2019s and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[540],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-youth-ministry"],"yoast_head":"\n