Wed 13 Dec 2006
Another Way, Part Two
Posted by tom cottar under theology
The second speaker in the symposium was Johnny Derouen, Youth Ministry prof at SWBTS…
Perhaps I missed it, but I'm not sure Dr. D addressed the same questions as the others. But that's fine. What Johnny talked about was very timely and appropriate. And I think we all needed to hear it. I know I did. The bold type below are his statements; the italics are my interpretation and application. Aplogies to Johnny if I heard something other than what he said… 
1. Youth Pastors need to pursue purity. Purity and holiness are job one. When sin controls your life, you lose the ability to hear God's voice. Your walk is affected. Your marriage is affected. And your ministry is sabotaged. Jesus said, "blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt. 5:3) In other words, the poor in spirit know they are bankrupt without His grace and holiness. Our knowledge is poop, and our righteousness is as filthy rags (Is 64:6). It's not enough. The right stuff doesn't matter if your personal walk with God is jacked.
2. There is no call to prayer. We don't teach our parents/youth/workers to get on their face before God and cry out in prayer…and we don't do it ourselves. 1 Chron 7:14—you pray and God will heal. Start by praying on our faces/knees for God to move. Be reminded that our wisdom is not enough.
3. We need the parents to be the main discipler of students. Parent ministry is NOT having a parent meeting. It is informing/encouraging/training them to build disciples of their children. That may not be the job of the youth minister only, but perhaps the senior pastor, children's pastor and/or the education minister. Design creative ministries to reach unchurched families and spiritual orphans.
4. Equipping youth workers to train other parents…even unchurched ones.
5. Equip students. Teach them theology so they can change the world, teach them to love God with their mind, soul, strength, and equip them for missions/service, and teach them spiritual disciplines.
6. No involvement in the church body. Back in the day, when a child became 12 years old they were considered to be an adult …IN THE CHURCH…not 'the church of the future'. Give them responsibilities and involvement in areas outside your student ministry.
7. No plan for discipleship. What should our youth know when they graduate? Juniors and Seniors should be at a point where they are passing discipleship down to younger students/adults. Discipleship is a lifelong process…balance your ministry.
Thoughts before Part Three??
2 Responses to “ Another Way, Part Two ”
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December 15th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Hmmm.
1. I don’t really have a problem with the spiritualized and metaphorical use of the Beatitudes, per se. However, I’ve become increasingly sensitive to the tendency of the wealthy (most of us in this country) to over-spiritualize them in order to make them less threatening. They are less some high-minded spiritual ideal and more accurately a description of those in the crowds listening to Jesus to whom he was proclaiming the gates of the kingdom were open. Look at the Beatitudes in light of the rest of the sermon and in light of Mary’s Magnificat.
Nor am I convinced our charge is to seek purity and holiness. It seems to me that’s exactly what the Pharisees were doing and with a great deal of sincerity. But the people to whom Jesus was speaking and who he was welcoming into the Kingdom were mostly “the people of the land”, and that was not a compliment in the culture of his time.
It seems we’re to seek Jesus, to love God with all our everything by following Jesus, becoming his apprentice, thus leading to transformation. Certainly we should actively pursue spiritual formation, but that only makes sense as a Christian in the context of following Jesus, studying at his feet, and living as his apprentices in life.
That’s probably clear as mud, but it’s the best I could come up. There is a very real disconnect today in any sort of meaningful spiritual formation in the church. But I don’t think it’s from a shortage of individuals pursuing some idea of purity or holiness.
2. Prayer? I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer lately. Everyone these days in our circles talks about it. Very few do it consistently. I agree with the many who are pointing out that we desperately need to recover the discipline and usage of set prayers to shape and form our lives. Within that setting, if we pursue it as we ought, extemperaneous prayer has traditionally grown to fill lives. Without it, for many people, prayer becomes something much discussed and rarely done. Or at least that’s my observation.
3. Parents are the main “disciplers” of their children, whatever it may be they are teaching them. And I thought we were all “spiritual orphans” before God adopted us into his family? Or am I missing a point here?
4. Well, I think that’s a big one. People still assume some instinctual knowledge about parenting and it just ain’t there. Once upon time people mostly had lots of contact with large extended families from whom they had lots of support and help to learn to be responsible adults and parents. Those days are mostly passed and there isn’t much in its place. The church could be a family community that fills that gap, but usually it isn’t even close.
5. Preach it brother!
At least, I’m with the statement wholeheartedly on teaching each other to love God with all you are, your neighbor as yourself, and each other as Jesus loved us. And the spiritual disciplines which help us become the sort of people who naturally respond in the manner Jesus describes. I’m less certain about “theology” because that’s a tricky word which can be used in many different ways. Explore together the “deep truths of the faith”? Sure. Rote catechization of evangelical dogma? Not so interested …
6. Again, the devil is in the details. I agree in principle, but how? Churches like ours seem so fragmented and segmented at all levels, not just with the students. It seems like something would need to happen to break that down throughout the community. I guess I’m not seeing some part of the picture.
7. We don’t like the word for some reason, but this one basically asks what our catechism for students might be. What would we want a typical student heading off to college to know about the faith? And do we have any typical students?
How do we even decide what we would like them to know? I mean corporately, not individually.
I think it sounds more negative than I intended. Mostly I think they are decent ideas. But I don’t see how to bridge the gap from the world we have to the one envisioned in the ideas.
December 19th, 2006 at 6:56 am
I was just listening to a Dallas Willard lecture to church staff at Baylor a few years ago and he wrapped up in a single sentence the central idea I was chasing in point one about pursuing purity and holiness.
That’s how we avoid the righteousness of the scribes and the pharisees.