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Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture - Chapter Two: There's Something Happenin' Here

Walt Mueller's Supplemental Resources for Chapter 2

Recognizing the Mission Field Under Our Noses
Gerard Kelly's Retrofuture
Paul Borthwick's Cross-cultural Outreach:
A Missiological Perspective on Youth Ministry

George Barna's Teens Change Their Tune Regarding Self and Church

Three Crucial Steps for the Crosscultural Missionary
Jerram Barrs' The Heart of Evangelism
MisLinks Contextualization Page
L'Abri and Francis Shaeffer
Jerry Solomon's What is a Worldview?

1. Know them Individually
> Knowing their unique personality and abilities (nature)
> Knowing their lifetime of experiences (nurture)

Important questions to ask:
a. What is unique and special about their personality?
b. What makes them get up in the morning?
c. What do they value?
d. What are their interests?
e. How do they make decisions?
f. What skills do they possess?
g. What is their socioeconomic background?
h. What is their ethnic/racial heritage?
i. What is their religious background?
j. Is there anything unique about their physical, mental or emotional condition?
k. Where do they live?
l. What is their gender?
m. Who or what is the authority in their life?
n. What have they experienced in their home?
o. What major events have shaped their life, both positively and negatively?
p. What are their hopes, fears, dreams, and plans for the future?

2. Know them Developmentally
3. Know their Changing Cultural Context

James Sire: "A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being."

Comment A "When it becomes obvious they aren't responding to our efforts, we lament the fact that they have turned a deaf ear to the church. But is that really the case? I don't think so. More often than not, their ambivalence to the church is rooted in the fact they can't hear anything we're saying. Because we haven't taken the time to know them and their world, they don't hear or understand any of it. They're not deaf - we're dumb. In the end, we've done an injustice to people whom Christ loves and for whom he died." (p.53)

This quote really resonated with me! It's not an issue of the world being death to who Jesus is - it's our inability to properly represent him that leaves the world with a negative image of God and the church. This illustrates why effective communication is vital to the transltation of the gospel into culture.

How are we able to communicate more effectively to today's youth cultures?

Steve

1 comment:

Steve Bussey said...

Hi Josh,

Nice comments. How do you think cross-cultural ministry would look in a rural setting? This culture would obviously require a different strategy to typical urban plans, but how so?

Rural marginal youth have less resources than urban marginal youth... Yet, as you have mentioned in class, they have access to a ton of cultural products which serve as cultural capital which makes the saavy connoisseurs of the media. For example, those who are into hip hop would end up embracing a pseudo urban/rural hybrid version of hip hop.

Has anyone found any books/ websites/ resources on this particular sub-culture?

Steve