praxeis journal - issue 2

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE FOR CHILDREN, YOUTH AND MISSION INFORMING CONVERSATION - INSPIRING PRACTICE

ISSUE 2 | AUTUMN.WINTERNOV 14 - APR 15

Faith in transition is a key topic for children and youth work for two reasons. Firstly, and most obviously, the lives of children and young people are marked by a series of transitions which can have profound effects on their lives. Secondly, we should be debating the transitions of Christian faith - the shifting in habits, practices and foundations as new generations move to adulthood and new communities are engaged in mission.

To begin this exploration we are pleased to have a substantive article from Andrew Root examining the theology of adolescence. Andrew Root is one of the clearest thinkers on theology for ministry and mission with children and young people. He has contributed to our MA teaching in the past and it is great to have his continued input to our thinking. Getting to grips with this theology is vital as this journey forms the context for the pastoral and missional work we engage in. These experiences frame the way in which we approach faith and the way in which faith informs identity. Over the last two years CYM has undertaken a comprehensive review of our curriculum. One outcome of this in our postgraduate courses has been to reconsider how well we conceptualise the time of childhood and adolescence. To this end, our new MA provision from 2015 will feature a a new foundation module that explores the kind of ‘critical’ practical theological reflection Root engages in within this article.

In the second article, Andrew Orton shares research on Diaconal ministry in the Methodist Church and how this bridges the space between church and community. This research provides insights into some of the ‘liminal’ spaces into which these ministries seek to make faith known and present. This research has been very helpful to us as we have thought about the differing vocational spaces in children, youth and mission

work. Perhaps Diaconal ministry is what we do? There is much to ponder here as Jo Griffiths explores in her article on the ‘betwixt and between’ identity for professional Christian youth workers. Again this research has been pivotal in helping CYM think through the approach to professional and ministerial formation across the undergraduate and postgraduate degrees we endorse or deliver.

Exploring the role of faith in transition is also crucial if we are to shape our activities to best support and encourage children and young people. Our commentary pieces take this on board. Lucy Moore, who was guest of honour at our recent Awards Day, reflects on the challenge around the transition from childhood to teen-hood and the challenge this poses to the Messy Church movement. Rosie Kersys from Fusion discusses the work they have undertaken to support the transition from school to university and Dan Crouch helps us reflect on the transition from ‘laity to leadership’ when you stay in your hometown and ‘grow into’ a responsibility role.

As ever we want these articles and comments to stimulate an ongoing conversation around children, youth and mission work. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on faith in transition through our blog, facebook or twitter. If there are issues and ideas that you think we should be dealing with please email me at [email protected]. [email protected].

Dr Nick Shepherd, CEO, Institute for Children Youth and Mission

CYM Members:

THE CROSS IN TRANSITION exploring the theology of adolescence // Dr Andrew Root 04

DIACONAL MINISTRIES at the intersection of churches and communities // Dr Andrew Orton

BETWIXT AND BETWEEN professional christian youth worker identity formation // Dr Jo Griffiths

PHILOSOPHY IN YOUTH AND COMMUNITY WORK // MIKE SEAK AND SIMON FROST Reviewed by Robin Barden

TRANSITION FROM LAITY TO LEADERSHIP IN YOUR HOMETOWN by Dan Crouch

THE UNIVERSITY TRANSITION by Rosie Kersys

MESSY TRANSITIONS by Lucy Moore

//ARTICLE

//COMMENTARY

// BOOK REVIEW

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DR ANDREW ROOTASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT LUTHER SEMINARY

4 PRÁXEIS | FAITH IN TRANSITION

What I offer in this article are reflections more fully outlined in a book, called Taking The Cross to Youth Ministry, from a series I authored called “A Theological Journey through Youth Ministry.” The series is four books that pick up on four theological themes (What is theology?; How does the cross form our ministries?; What is the bible in relation to youth ministry?; and How can an eschatological imagination impact our ministry?). I discuss each of these theological perspectives through the fictional narrative of a youth worker named Nadia. In the except below we’re dropped into Nadia’s narrative and how it draws out questions over faith formation in a time of transition and more importantly how we understand this journey from a theological perspective - through reflection on this time of transition and some theological thinking drawn from Christian understanding of the work of the cross.

WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?

Nadia, (the youth pastor), entered the school office and explained that she’d received a phone message asking her to meet Mrs. Stewart and Kari, (a year 13 student in her youth group), at school.

“I’m sorry, they’ve already left.” said the secretary.

“Okay, can you tell me what happened?” Even as the words left her lips, Nadia knew the answer was no, but the confusion of what could be wrong pushed the question from her mouth.

“I’m sorry, that is confidential,” she was told politely, but firmly.

Nadia left the school building and called Kari’s mobile, but the call went straight to voicemail. She decided to drive directly over to the Stewarts’ house. As she approached, Nadia could see that people were home. The garage door was open and both Mr. and Mrs. Stewart’s cars were present. What is going on? Nadia thought to herself. It still seemed nearly impossible that Kari would have gotten herself into any kind of trouble, but all the frayed strands of information were beginning to make Nadia believe the situation was serious

Steadying herself, Nadia walked into the kitchen to find Kari and Mrs. Stewart sitting at the table. Nadia approached slowly with apprehension, as if she were nearing a strange dog

“Oh, Nadia,” Mrs. Stewart said, “I’m sorry I called you. But I just didn’t know what to do, and I know how much you mean to Kari.” As her mom said this, Kari gave Nadia a half smile and looked down. She’d never seen Kari this sullen—and only this quiet when Nadia would pray with Kari and her friends.

Nadia pulled out a chair and sat down at the table with Mrs. Stewart and Kari. Mr. Stewart leaned against the kitchen island. All four sat in silence for what felt like several minutes. Finally, Nadia could take no more. She broke the silence, “What is going on? I’m sorry—I came to find you as soon as I received the message, but I have no idea what has happened.” Nadia said.

The silence continued. It wasn’t that they refused to talk; rather, it was as if their words would get stuck before escaping their lips. Mrs. Stewart sighed, and after a few more seconds, Mr. Stewart spoke. “Kari, why don’t you tell her,” he said with a direct tone.

Kari looked down, breathing in and out deeply. Then she said in a whisper, “I was caught cheating.”

“Cheating,” Nadia repeated, both because Kari had confessed so quietly but also because she was relieved. With all the drama preceding Kari’s confession and the difficulty of connecting with the family, Nadia’s imagination had gone other places—pregnancy, drug use, perhaps she’d been assaulted or attacked. Compared to Nadia’s worst fears, Kari’s having cheating seemed like a relatively minor issue.

But she knew it was no small concern for the Stewarts. “Yep,” continued Mr. Stewart. “Cheating. Caught by her teacher using her phone in her maths exam.” As he said this, Nadia could see just how distressed this made all three of them.

“Why did you do it, Kari?” Mr. Stewart fired out, a question he’d been repeating and repeating since leaving work early.

“I told you,” Kari stated with her head down. “My marks were too low and I needed to do well on the mock exam or . . .”

“Or what?” Mrs. Stewart asked, anxiously cajoling her to continue,

“ . . . or I wouldn’t get an A .” Kari had never gotten any other grade than an A - in her whole life!

Kari later told Nadia that she’d been studying incredibly hard for the exam, staying up until 2 a.m. most nights. She said she decided to cheat because she felt desperate. She just wasn’t doing well on the practice tests and she couldn’t stop thinking about university. She kept bringing to mind needing good predicted grades and all the wonderfully nice things that her teachers, her parents, and her friends said about her grades and the potential ahead of her.

“I just got scared! I just—I don’t know, I just couldn’t face not getting an A. I knew it was wrong, I knew it was a bad idea, but my . . . my grade. I was scared of losing everything.”

THE CROSS IN TRANSITION : EXPLORING THE THEOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE 5

Losing everything? Nadia thought to herself. How could Kari get the idea that she’d somehow created a whole life plan when she was only 17? Losing everything? Nadia continued to repeat in her mind.

MADE-UP ADOLESCENCE

Adolescence is a culturally created reality. Two hundred years ago, the idea of an in-between period in which one was no longer a child but not yet an adult simply did not exist. Of course, many of the biological, neurological, and other changes we tend to associate with adolescence were part of the human experience. But adolescence as a unique transitional stage is a relatively modern concept.

But this isn’t to say that adolescence doesn’t exist. In fact it is a powerful societal and biological reality. But adolescence has its birth and perpetuation in culture (Root, 2007). Like so many things we live with today (the nuclear family, capitalism, democracy, mobility) adolescence is a ‘modern’ creation. It arises from modernity’s creations—such as national institutions called schools, a mechanized economy that needed fewer hands, and democratic legislation that outlawed child labor. But also, as a creation of modernity, the concept of adolescence is a carrier of modernity’s worldview. And this is why it is important for youth workers, because this worldview often sets the terms for how we define and treat young people.

The modern age has been about an ideology of progress and improvement. As a creation of modernity, adolescence has been seen as a period of development in which growth, advancement, and preparation are central. Adolescence is understood as the time when individuals seek to improve themselves as they journey toward successful adulthood. It’s believed to be the period in life where the primary goal is to grow—intellectually, spiritually, and biologically—into the person that you will be. Adolescence is the time of life where you’re told to prepare for the rest of your life. “Prepare now for college,” we tell our young people. “Work hard in school so you can get a good job some day.”

In youth ministry we tend to follow these same ideologies that have been attached to adolescence. But we’ve failed to examine them critically from a theological perspective, asking how these very ideologies of modernity set terms for our perspectives and practices in youth ministry. To what extent are we more loyal to these ideologies provided by cultural anthropology and the modern understanding of what it means to be human rather than to a theological view? Surely, many of us use our theological anthropology in expressing the negative elements of adolescent humanity (young people are prone to deep human sinfulness), but when it comes to the positive we tend to adapt cultural interpretations.

This may be the reason so few young people are invited into leadership—or even vital participation—in church communities. After all, the ideologies of modernity have told us adolescents are “works in progress”; they are preparing, so they belong in age-specific ghettos called schools. So the church, in turn, perpetuates the same thinking by providing youth rooms—holding chambers where attention is given to growth, advancement, and preparation.

If we are rooted in the ideologies of modernity, we youth workers believe our job is to help young people grow in their faith, advance in spiritual maturity, and prepare for a lifelong commitment to Jesus and the church. Youth ministry often evaluates its success on this basis. We ask ourselves, or youth ministry gurus ask audiences of youth workers: “How is your ministry helping kids grow, advance, and prepare to have a vital, mature, and powerful faith?”

And so we in youth ministry mount the treadmill of progress, seeking to push, cajole, or persuade young people to advance in their faith. We assume that if young people are willing to work hard to improve their sports skills, then they should seek to improve in their faith. If they are seeking to advance academically then they should likewise seek to advance in knowledge of the Bible; if they are intent on preparing for exams then they should prepare also for a life-long commitment to Jesus. (You can see in these assumptions the middle-class biases—or some might say the captivity—of youth ministry. The more youth ministry’s anthropology is tied to the ideologies of modernity, the less able it is to imagine itself beyond the cultural commitment to progress).

Of course, Paul’s epistles speak clearly and frequently about growth, advancement, and preparation. Paul pleads with the young churches to prepare to run the race, to grow in understanding, and to advance in faithfulness to the gospel. In this sense Paul sounds much like the modern youth worker. But we’ve viewed these assertions about growth through the ideological lens of modernity, (an ideology Paul did NOT share), ignoring the fact that Paul’s call to grow in faith is indelibly linked with his understanding of the foolishness of the cross and the backwardness of the gospel.

Through the lens of modernity, we view growth, advancement, and preparation as steps on the escalator to strength and power. And, because we think of adolescence as a time to mount the escalator, we youth pastors seek to infuse this escalation toward strength and power with a godly perspective. We accept the cultural view that adolescence is a time to grow, advance, and prepare, so youth ministry becomes a religious add-on, like adding power windows and iPod capacity to your new car. Youth ministry tries to positively influence this escalator ride in a godly direction.


But Paul’s understanding of growth does not involve increasing in strength and power, for his Lord chooses a cross over a throne. The new reality that Paul proclaims is one that moves on the rails of weakness and suffering. For Paul, growth, advancement, and preparation are transformed by the cross. We grow toward lowliness (self-outpouring— kenosis), advance toward the self-giving of Christ, and prepare not for worldly success but for humility. For Paul, it is in these seemingly backward ways that we participate in God’s action, that we are given eyes to see God’s new reality. Paul implores his young churches to see what is real, to see the new reality that breaks forth from the cracks of brokenness, and to live lives that are bent toward this new reality. They do this by choosing love through weakness, rather than by the power of growth, advancement, and preparation. For Paul, if there is anything like growth, advancement, and preparation, it is bound in the act of God—and God acts to take on suffering and death for the sake of love.

The question youth ministry must face is whether the outward signs of religious participation that young people such as Keri display are true measure of adolescent faith commitment? Or is she simply more willing and able (again here comes the middle-class bias of youth ministry) to assimilate to a religious concept of the ideologies of growth, advancement, and progress? I think of Vicky, a secondary school student I once knew who had spent five years in foster care. She always dressed in black and frequently used very colorful language. Few would have picked her as a deeply devoted follower of Jesus (certainly no one at the church). But when she was asked to share her story and wrestle to find God in it, she began by speaking of her fierce commitment to search for God in all that was broken in her life.

By the same accord, we’re often shocked when kids like Kari, go off to university or college and supposedly “lose their faith” or participate in college life in ways we’d never have imagined when they were in our youth groups. Are such 180-degree turns in behavior due to kids losing their faith? Or is the faith we often encourage in them constructed on modernity’s ideologies—ideologies that turn on young people in college, pulling the rug out from under them? Or, to say it another way, has adolescent faith in youth ministry been built more on modernity’s assumptions, so that when these assumptions are thrust into doubt, the ground of their faith crumbles?

Because we have swallowed a cultural anthropology that defines the adolescent as someone who is growing, advancing, and preparing, I think we often fall into this unhelpful view of faith. Although we might assume that this anthropology is foundational and fundamental, it is actually fully cultural, and gives little attention to our person in light of the action of God. I believe we need

a refined anthropology, a deeper understanding of who adolescents are….to be continued.

REFINED THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

No doubt there is something biological about the period of adolescence. The organism is unfolding. But instead of seeing this unfolding period as a time of development toward growth, advancement, and preparation, I think it is better to see adolescence as a time where what is true throughout the life span is newly reflected upon. Specifically, adolescents are as those newly conscious of their struggle between possibility and nothingness. Adolescents are aware that there is so much possibility for their existence, for their future, but this possibility is always near nothingness, always struggling with nonbeing. Love and hate, joy and sorrow, excitement and depression are so close because in adolescence our existential ontological state is at the surface. It is exposed, for in adolescence we are now able to reflect fully upon our very selves, yet have not learned how to ignore or hide from this struggle between possibility and nothingness as we often do later in life (Loder, 1998).

So often for adolescents everything feels like life or death. A breakup after a two-week romance, a bad grade, a nasty look from someone—all signal that while your life is spread out before you, your very being walks the thin line between possibility and nothingness. This may be the best explanation for the supposed weird behavior of adolescents. It is not that they are in the (crazy) period of stress and storm (that G. Stanley Hall spoke of) in which we ghettoize them in schools and motivate them to grow, advance, and prepare. Rather it may be that this weird behavior, the great highs and devastating lows so characteristic of adolescence, is a truthful reflection of the ontological states of all of us. For every one of us, hope and despair are so close, life and death so near. As the theologian John Douglas Hall puts this, “Becoming is suffering. One must ‘suffer’ one’s becoming . . . from childhood to adolescence” (1986, p. 65). We may be doing a great disservice to ourselves by caging teenagers in preparatory youth rooms, for we may need their perspective at the center of our church life to clear our own dulled eyes to see what is true: We are all in a struggle between possibility and nothingness, a struggle that those in adolescence often experience with heightened awareness.

This may be a better way of understanding what Kari is experiencing. Sitting in her bedroom, Kari can feel the threat of what a bad grade might mean. It is accompanied by a feeling of oblivion. She is living the struggle between possibility and nothingness. People have so often said how smart she is and, therefore, how much possibility lies before her. But the very thought of any grade less than an A seems to puncture this possibility with nothingness. So she acts contrary to her


own values in order to protect herself from the threat of what feels like nonbeing. It doesn’t matter that she knows better, that her religion has given her knowledge of right and wrong. She is up against something deeper than right and wrong; she is confronting the chasm between possibility and nothingness.

Her given perspective of right and wrong is easily discarded in the heavy downpour of the threat of nothingness. She believes that an A—even an A attained by cheating—upholds her being and keeps her secure in possibility, whereas a B+ hums a dirge of nothingness she cannot stand to hear. Next to her possibility, a B+ is a terrifying thought, for its loss of academic standing, scholarships, and accolades sings of nonbeing.

Jessica’s situation at the youth conference, (where a young man in line flippantly called her fat), might also be better understood through this anthropological perspective. Jessica knows better than to care so deeply about her body image; she knows she is much more than what people think of her body. But when some unknown guy in line calls her fat, it strikes at the nothingness that her very being is always fighting against. She knows it shouldn’t matter, but she cannot help herself. This stranger’s comment clouds her possibility, by injecting nothingness into it. Like most adolescents, Jessica teeters between possibility and nothingness—and the boy’s words push her over the edge into nothingness. No wonder she is upset.

Back in their hotel room, Mattie, (Jessica’s friend), admits that she too knows better than to obsess about her body, but does nevertheless. It is certainly true that this perceived need to have a certain body type is the product of culture (and I would argue it feeds off a culture of growth, advancement, and preparation). It is also true that the way Jessica and Mattie hear the boy’s comment is conditioned by cultural realities; Jessica

thinks she might be fat, that the boy’s comment might be true, because of cultural assertions about beauty. But the comment has such power because it confronts her at the most fundamental of levels: the ontological level of the struggle between possibility and nothingness. She may know better then to care about this cultural assertion about her body, but this cultural assertion is tied to her ontological anthropological state. In her head, she knows the shape of her body doesn’t matter; but the cultural assertions have spoken more fully to her being, promising possibility (if she is skinny) and threatening nothingness (if she is not).

In youth ministry we too often try to provide young people with religious knowledge, asking young people to choose this knowledge over the assertions of the surrounding culture. Then we judge our ministries by how well our young people are growing, advancing, and preparing to commit themselves to this knowledge. But up against the struggle between possibility and nothingness, such knowledge is of little help, because the cultural assertions have often wrapped themselves around the young person’s ontological state. And when our young people give in to the pull of the dominant culture, we find ourselves saying things like, “If only they knew more about the faith or believed it enough!”

But such cultural assertions are not confronted best through knowledge that leads to preparation, growth, and advancement. Rather, the way to confront these cultural assertions is through the foolishness of the cross. It is to seek for God within the struggle of possibility and nothingness, to search for God at the ontological level. It is not to tell Kari, Jessica, and Mattie that they know better than to think or act like that, but to admit with them that they are struggling between possibility and nothingness—and it is a struggle of life and death. It is to acknowledge with them that they are


stuck, and to seek God with them from that very place.

God is found at the place of the struggle between possibility and nothingness, because the God that Paul proclaims to the Corinthians is a God who bears the cross. In Godself, God struggles for new possibility through nothingness, and through nothingness the new reality is born. This is what Jesus means when he says that whoever wants to be his disciples must take up their cross and follow him (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). He doesn’t mean we must do difficult things, like running three miles at a seven-minute pace, or resisting the temptation to gossip or eat too much chocolate. We so often implicitly or explicitly communicate to young people that “taking up your cross” means being really committed, so they will do things that are costly and really try to make themselves into something. Rather, what Jesus means is that we must seek him where he can be found, on the cross, at the site of our own crosses, those places where we struggle between possibility and nothingness.

Paul believes that God acts from the cross—from death, weakness, and suffering. This means God moves at the deepest level, the level our very humanity rests on, the level of life and death, of possibility and nothingness. Paul’s own great breakthrough, which transformed him from Saul to Paul (Acts 9), brought him up against just such a reality. Saul had no patience for the new movement of the Way, because he believed no Messiah could be crucified. No real Messiah would be weak and suffer. But encountering God in the light that blinded him and the voice that called out to him, Saul is changed into Paul, the one who chose to confess only Christ and him crucified. Paul’s “conversion” was his coming to see the cross as the place of God’s action—action at the most fundamental level of our existence, at the level of life and death, of possibility and nothingness.

If youth ministry is about participation in the action of God, then youth ministry is not about knowledge that leads to growth, advancement, and preparation (even for heaven). Instead, it is about encountering God at the cross, where God takes on nothingness, and from nothingness brings forth new life, new possibility, an all-new reality. This is why Paul says we must die (confront

nothingness) in order to live (have possibility)—because to live is to die in Christ, and thereby allow Christ to live in us.

Entering into these places of pain, loss, grief, and struggle is more than just therapeutic. Paul reminds us that these are the places where the new reality is breaking in. The new breaks in through the cracks of suffering, yearning, and loss, for the new reality is a reality of love, a love that is strong by being weak. In different ways Keri and Kari are seeking for God even as they doubt God. They stand in Bethel, in the place where Jacob wrestled with God from the core of his very being (Genesis 32). Yet Kari has not been liberated to hold a faith like Jacob where wrestling with the cracking of nothingness in their fragile possibility of their very selves is allowed – is seen as progress.

An understanding of young people as those newly conscious of our common human struggle with possibility and nothingness drives us closer to Paul’s proclamation of the cross and the new reality that it brings forth through the resurrection. It changes the way we think of faith. It allows us to free our conceptions of adolescent faith from the grip of modernity’s ideologies. Faith isn’t defined as the ability to assimilate religious knowledge. Rather, faith from the place of the foolishness of the cross is trusting in a new reality. It is trusting that, up against our own experiences of impossibility, God is moving to bring forth the new. Faith is to see and admit our impossibility, our stuckness, and through it to trust that God in the cross of Christ is acting to bring forth a new creation in you and in all that is. They yearn for the new. Like the father in Mark 9, in the face of nothingness and impossibility, they are willing to cry out, “I believe, help my unbelief.” So often we in youth ministry depict faith as a burden we ask young people to carry. We cajole and plead with young people to have faith, to assimilate the proper knowledge that will allow them to live a religious life. But from the place of the cross, the place of our ontological struggle between possibility and nothingness, faith is an invitation to hope in honest wrestling with our impossibilities. Faith is a willingness to hope in God’s new reality, to hope that through and within our experiences of nothingness, God is bringing forth life.

DR ANDREW ROOT

Andrew Root is the Olson Baalson Associate Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary. He is most recently the author of Christopraxis: A Practical Theology of the Cross (Fortress, 2014) and Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker (Baker, 2014). Andy has worked in congregations, parachurch ministries, and social service programs. He lives in St. Paul with his wife Kara, two children, Owen and Maisy, and their two dogs. When not reading, writing, or teaching, Andy spends far too much time watching TV and movies.

REFERENCES:Hall, D. J. (1986). God & human suffering : an exercise in the theology of the cross. Minneapolis: Ausburg Pub. House.Loder, J. E. (1998). The logic of the spirit : human development in theological perspective. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.Root, A. (2007). Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From strategy of influence to a theology of incarnation. Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP.


DR ANDREW ORTONLECTURER AT DURHAM UNIVERSITY

AT THE INTERSECTION OF CHURCHES AND COMMUNITIES


DIACONAL MINISTRIES : AT THE INTERSECTION OF CHURCHES AND COMMUNITIES

INTRODUCTION

Forms of diaconal ministry are being renewed in diverse ways across many denominations, as churches explore how this ministry can help them serve others in ways that are relevant to the current context (Diakonia World Federation, 1998; Clark, 2005; Orton, 2013). An important reason for this renewal is the way that these diaconal ministries forge improved connections between churches and wider society, whilst also empowering others to get more involved in making these connections (e.g. see also Renewed Diaconate Working Party of the House of Bishops, 2001). This understanding of diaconal ministry builds on Biblical scholarship that recognises a range of meanings and usages of diakonia and its derivatives, traditionally understood as humble service, but latterly extended to also include notions of ambassadorial representation (Collins, 2002; Gooder, 2006). However, the position of this ministry at the intersections between churches and wider communities can be controversial. Indeed, this position embodies many of the debates and controversies represented in the historical development of missiology (e.g. see Bosch, 1991) in the contemporary context, as this article begins to explore.

This article draws on research that explored these issues through the perspectives of deacons in the Methodist Church in Britain. This research included wide-ranging observations and interviews over a two-year period between 2009 and 2011. Deacons in the Methodist Church in Britain are ordained to a full time, stipendiary, itinerant form of ministry that witnesses through serving others (Methodist Church In Britain, 2004). In working at the intersections between churches and wider communities, deacons were involved in a wide range of different settings, working with a diverse range of people and seeking to create connections between them. These included ministering in hospitals, prisons, housing estates, night shelters, churches and schools, for example, and working with young people, bereaved mothers, public officials, asylum seekers, those dependent on drugs or alcohol, those suffering from dementia, and those perceived to be disconnected from churches and/or wider communities.

Much of this diversity had arisen as a result of deacons seeking to respond flexibly with their varied individual gifts to changing opportunities within particular contexts. The Methodist Church in Britain has sought to match these gifts to the needs of particular places by moving and placing deacons through its ‘stationing’ process. Deacons emphasised the inherent creativity required of their ministry, as they sought to reflect critically on traditional understandings of the ways that churches engaged with wider communities, and develop innovative activities to improve these.

However, this diversity and creativity of deacons’

ministries within liminal spaces between churches and wider communities had also meant that deacons often encountered misunderstandings of their role and contribution. Furthermore, deacons often found it difficult to describe what their ministries shared in common. They preferred instead to demonstrate what their ministry was about through modelling it, showing it through who they were and examples they could share. Indeed, their ministry involved a complex weaving together of what they sought to do, how they went about doing it, the connections and relationships formed, who they were, and what they offered through their ministry.

MAKING CONNECTIONS...WITHIN AND BETWEEN CHURCHES AND WIDER COMMUNITIES, ESPECIALLY WITH THOSE ...WHO ARE MARGINALISED AND EXCLUDED Deacons frequently saw a key purpose of their ministry as making connections between the diverse groups of people with whom they were involved, both inside

and outside churches. By being involved across multiple communities, and often working with those on the margins of all of them, deacons were frequently

involved in representing one group to another. This provided deacons with important opportunities to build bridges between them. However, deacons often questioned simplistic views about whether building bridges between churches and wider communities would necessarily lead to increased attendance at existing Sunday church services. Instead, deacons often saw their ministry as being more preparatory,

helping to lay the groundwork for relationships with God, or working with a more holistic sense of healing for those involved.

They also recognised that by bringing the needs of those on the edge in various ways to churches, their role could irritate and stimulate changes in churches. From all of these elements, ‘fresh expressions of church’ (Fresh Expressions, 2014) sometimes emerged, growing out of the relationships formed.

Deacons also frequently found themselves connecting together those that were isolated within churches (such as by visiting those who have become housebound). They also got involved in bringing others together outside churches, such as by linking various agencies working on common issues together within local communities.

MAKING CONNECTIONS...BETWEEN MISSIONAL PRESENCE, SERVICE, DISCERNMENT, WITNESS AND ENABLING OTHERS

Deacons saw their ministry as contributing towards the wider mission and ministry of the whole Church. They

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did this by linking together aspects of presence, service, discernment, witness and enabling others.

MISSIONAL PRESENCE involved deacons actively making themselves available to others. They did this by coming alongside people wherever they were, being with them, listening and building relationships. This often involved creating times and spaces where people could linger to form relationships, a process which takes considerable time. Deacons recognised that they were able to do this only because the Church had freed them up from other responsibilities, and were grateful for this. Many recognised that their presence enabled them to show solidarity with those in difficult situations, and represent the Church in this solidarity.

MISSIONAL SERVICE involved deacons asking ‘What does it mean to be a servant in this place?’ and then doing it, showing love by responding to needs. Deacons saw this as central to their work. It was important for them to reflect critically on how to do this is ways that were consistent with Jesus’ example.

MISSIONAL DISCERNMENT involved deacons in ‘interpreting where God is in every situation’, seeking to spot where God was active and then get involved. This often involved deacons in ‘joining up the dots’: seeing a bigger picture of potential opportunities and then connecting these together.

MISSIONAL WITNESS involved communicating the Gospel in diverse ways, in words as well as actions, ‘sharing and talking about Jesus’ and ‘trying to be Christ in the world’.

ENCOURAGING, ENABLING AND EQUIPPING others to get involved in forms of diaconal ministry was central to deacons’ understandings of what a deacon’s ministry

was about. Hence, it was important to recognise that whilst deacons do diaconal ministry (and indeed provide a particular focus for it), this doesn’t mean that all diaconal ministry is done by deacons.

Deacons’ examples of good practice frequently involved forming creative links between these different aspects of their ministry. Their challenges and dilemmas were also often rooted in the ways that these different aspects interacted together, and in their decisions about how best to make these links. For example, deacons often reflected on what the underlying purposes of their presence might be, and how to

discern when it was ethically appropriate to talk about God when offering unconditional service. In many examples given, a remarkable and transformative ‘ripple effect’ occurred, comparable to Morisy’s (2004) concept of ‘cascades of grace’: by ‘just’ being present and offering gracious acts of unconditional service in Christ’s name, people often responded in ways that saw the Gospel spread.

WHY ‘WHO DEACONS ARE’ WAS CENTRAL TO THEIR ABILITY TO MAKE THESE CONNECTIONS

Deacons repeatedly emphasised that ‘who they were’ was at least as important as ‘anything that they did’. They were able to weave together connections between different groups by maintaining their own integrity whilst moving between these groups. They modelled within themselves how the wider Church could be involved in wider society and how the voices of the marginalised could reshape the Church. By

making these links with a Church mandate to do so, they represented how Christians might get involved in responding to difficult social issues and engage more effectively with those who are marginalised. In doing this, they sought to bring others to get involved alongside them, having shown some ways in which this might be done. To make these links, deacons often had to reflect on how they presented themselves. Debates over issues such as what clothes they should wear in particular contexts were common. These symbolised the ways they constantly asked themselves ‘What sort of deacon do I need to be in this situation?’ in order to make these connections.

Deacons found themselves having to constantly move between communities, adjusting the ways they presented themselves to make themselves approachable

in different circumstances. They recognised that church members often didn’t see a lot of the work they did with others. In addition, there was an ever-present risk that

in engaging with those ‘on the edge’, deacons found themselves ‘out on a limb’, operating in an isolated way without support. Maintaining deacons’ connections with

worshipping church communities was crucial, both to prevent them from becoming isolated and to help support the sustainability of the links they established.

WORKING WITH OTHERS

Deacons’ ability to work with a wide range of others both within the Church and within the wider community was central to their ability to successfully form these connections. However, the transitional nature of their role as they moved between different groups in order to connect them together meant that they were sometimes perceived as “treading on others’ toes”, especially when their role was not well understood. This had the potential to result in conflict unless deacons managed and explained their role carefully. Approaches to explaining how their role was distinctive exacerbated these problems, as those things that they described as distinctive to their role were precisely the things that they also said they were seeking to enable and encourage others to become involved in.


DIACONAL MINISTRIES : AT THE INTERSECTION OF CHURCHES AND COMMUNITIES

To resolve this tension, it was crucial to recognise the difference between the general call of all Christians to diaconal ministry that included all the elements above and the specific call of deacons to ordained diaconal ministry. The specific call of deacons as ordained ministers was to be a focus for this ministry, providing leadership in it, whilst supporting each other through their common commitment to belonging to the Methodist Diaconal Order.

Questions about the relationship between ordination, receiving a stipend, being itinerant, and being a recognised representative of the Church further complicated these debates. They raised wider questions about how the Church understands ordination and the contributions of lay people in complementary ways without disempowering each other. However, these debates often got obscured by higher profile debates about the respective ordained roles of presbyters and deacons. These debates were further complicated by the way that these roles had developed historically, not least because the current Methodist Diaconal Order had evolved from the Wesley Deaconess Order. The gendered way in which deaconesses had historically received less favourable treatment (Staton, 2001), and the continued questions that deacons received from congregations about when they would become ‘proper ministers’, also continued to impact on contemporary understandings of deacons’ roles.

However, at its best, deacons’ ministries transformed these difficult, in-between, ambiguous, and even sometimes marginalised positions that they found

themselves in as a result of the nature of their ministry. By being constantly in these liminal, transitional spaces between different communities, different roles, and different understandings of ministry, they had the potential to constructively challenge insular communities and historical patterns where these had begun to obstruct participation in God’s mission by creating new relationships and links. The significant mutual support and collective spirituality of the Methodist Diaconal Order helped to sustain them as they moved between these spaces, roles and communities, especially when they sometimes felt as if they didn’t quite belong in any of them due to this constantly-moving role.

There is much that can be learnt from diaconal ministries such as those of deacons about how to embody the Gospel in the messy, fractured relationships we find in communities, churches and even ministry. Those involved in other ministries that include diaconal elements, such as youth ministry, will no doubt recognise many parallels in debates over their own position and role. As McRae (2009) argues in her study of deacons in the Uniting Church in Australia, this does not mean that deacons or any other role have a monopoly on mission; instead, by engaging together faithfully in God’s mission, especially in a decentred way with those who have been marginalised, we learn more about what it is to be a relational Church.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION on the findings from this research that are summarised here, including links to the book and related journal articles that have been published, some of which are free to download in electronic format, please see HERE and HERE.

This article has been adapted from an executive summary of the research, for which copyright is retained by the author. An extended version which includes further analysis and quotations from deacons concerning the points raised in this article can be downloaded from HERE.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This research was funded by the Methodist Church in Britain. The research was led by Dr Andrew Orton of the School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University and the Wesley Study Centre, in collaboration with the Methodist Diaconal Order. Further details about the Methodist Diaconal Order can be found HERE.

REFERENCES:Bosch, D. J. (1991) Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, New York: Orbis Books.

Clark, D. (2005) Breaking the Mould of Christendom: Kingdom Community, Diaconal Church and the Liberation of the Laity, Peterborough: Epworth.

Collins, J. N. (2002) Deacons and the Church: Making Connections Between Old and New, Leominster: Gracewing.

Diakonia World Federation Executive Committee (1998) Diaconal Reflections: How We Experience Our Diaconal Calling in Our Diversity, available at: www.diakonia-world.org/files/theologiepapier98english.pdf . (Accessed 6th August 2014).

Fresh Expressions (2014) Fresh Expressions: The Guide, available at www.freshexpressions.org.uk/guide (Accessed 6th August 2014).

Gooder, P. (2006) 'Diakonia in the New Testament: A Dialogue with John N. Collins', Ecclesiology, 3 (1), 33-56.

McRae, A. (2009) De-Centred Ministry: A Diaconal View of Mission and Church, DMin thesis, Melbourne College of Divinity, available at: http://repository.mcd.edu.au/4/1/Alison_McRae_Thesis._copy_1_pdf.pdf (Accessed 6th August 2014).

Methodist Church in Britain (2004) ‘What Is a Deacon?’, available at: http://www.methodist.org.uk/media/879666/dev-perwhat-is-a-deacon-2004-15062012.pdf (Accessed 6th August 2014).

Morisy, A. (2004) Journeying Out: A New Approach to Christian Mission, London: Continuum.

Orton, A. (2013) ‘The Diverse and Contested Diaconate: Why Understanding this Ministry is Crucial to the Future of the Church’, International Journal of Practical Theology 16(2): 260-284.

Renewed Diaconate Working Party of the House of Bishops (2001) For Such a Time as This: A Renewed Diaconate in the Church of England, London: Church House Publishing.

Staton, M. W. (2001) The Development of Diaconal Ministry in the Methodist Church: A Historical and Theological Study, PhD thesis, University of Leeds.

DR ANDREW ORTON Andrew has a professional background in community and youth work as practitioner, manager, trustee and consultant. He has worked with a wide range of organisations in voluntary, public and faith-based sectors in these roles and through his research.

13

DR JO GRIFFITHSCENTRE DIRECTOR, CAMBRIDGE CYM


BETWIXT AND BETWEEN : PROFESSIONAL CHRISTIAN YOUTH WORKER IDENTITY FORMATION

A BRIEF HISTORY

The roots of youth work, both secular and Christian, are firmly planted within the Christian philanthropist era of the 19th-century. Social justice and Christian witness were key motivating factors. A voluntaristic ethos underpinned effective practice, not least within evangelical youth work projects. This expression of work/ministry focused primarily on the middle- to upper classes in reaction to early philanthropic work, which had primarily focused on the poor. The onset of both World Wars changed the landscape of work amongst young people. A sense of moral panic mobilised successive Governments to form policies aimed at influencing young men especially. They looked to voluntary organisations for knowledge and skills, and provided funding to develop the work. In this manner, the relationship between voluntary organizations and the State developed until the Albermarle Report (1960). The Report provided a blueprint for the State funded Youth Service. As a result, professional training for youth workers was put into motion. One by-product of that was the impact on youth work provision within the Christian sector, which became a more discrete, volunteer-led, practice.

A shift in the voluntaristic mindset occurred in the years leading up to the late-1990s. During that time, churches began to employ full-time youth workers. Unlike their State-salaried counterparts, they were mostly unqualified young people who possessed a charismatic personality alongside a willingness to work 60 to 80 hours per week ‘for the sake of the Kingdom of God’. As such, these workers rarely lasted more than two years in post. Coupled with the decreasing numbers of young people attending church, this led to something of a crisis for Church leaders. It was recognised by those involved in Christian youth work education that a higher level of qualification was needed for faith-based practitioners. Professional status for Christian youth workers was advocated. However, a professional qualification alone was considered unacceptable. This would not address the features that marked Christian youth work as distinctive from secular youth work. Those in authority within the Church believed that a higher level of qualification for Christian youth workers should equip the practitioners for both mission as well as education. As a result, in 1999, the first cohort of CYM students enrolled on the first undergraduate degree for Christian youth workers, which offered theology as an accompanying discipline alongside the JNC professional qualification (Mayo, 2002).

Fifteen years on, a professionally qualified Christian youth work force is deployed throughout the UK in both Christian and secular organizations. Nevertheless, the discussion about the need for an adequate qualification is still ongoing. In particular, there has been a shift within the evangelical Christian constituency in this regard. Undergraduate Christian youth work degree courses

have been developed in recent years that do not include any professional qualification at all. This, in itself, is a resistance practice; a result of the growing fear and mistrust of what is regarded as an essentially secularised professional approach, to Christian work. The irony of this of this lies in the fact that the term ‘professional’ emerged from Christian sources through Franciscan monks who regarded their service to some of the poorest members of society as a ‘profession’ of their faith and therefore understood their ministry as ‘professional’.

I conducted a yearlong study of eight Cambridge CYM graduates during their first year of employment after graduation. I sought to address the issue of how professional identity of newly qualified professional Christian youth workers was formed during their first year in practice. All graduates had been awarded a BA (Hons) in Youth and Community Work and Practical Theology. The following is a summary of some of my findings, which are the result of data collected by twelve monthly practice diaries and four in-depth interviews with each graduate. Turner’s (1969) model of transition has been implemented to aid understanding of the complexities involved of moving from student to employee.

Drawing on the thinking of Van Gennep (1909), Turner (1969) argued that all ‘rites of passage’, or ‘transitions’, consist of three phases: separation, liminality and reincorporation. The ‘separation’ phase comprises of symbolic behaviour and a detachment from an earlier fixed point or set of cultural conditions, or both (Turner, 1969:94). Liminality is the space in which that movement or transition occurs. This symbolic domain is the ‘inbetween place’. This place has few or none of the familiarities or attributes of the past or future states. For the liminal entity (or ‘liminar’), this place is a ‘betwixt and between’ place. The liminars are neither one thing nor the other. They are suspended within a liminal space. Re-incorporation is the time when a stable sense of self is achieved once more. Individuals or groups are expected to behave in accordance with the norms and standards of the social system they inhabit.

The ongoing tensions arising from the debate concerning professional qualifications demand the development of a nuanced understanding of a professional identity for Christian youth workers. At the heart of this issue is the liminal space in which Christian youth workers find themselves. This becomes actualised when they make the transition from student to employee. It becomes their everyday reality as they find themselves located at the interstices of ministerial and professional discourses; they are positioned in a betwixt and between space, neither one thing (Christian youth minister) nor the other (Christian youth worker). Christian youth ‘ministry’ identifies with the discourse of youth ministry as education, mission, pastoral care and practical theology (Shepherd, 2009). The discursive framework for Christian youth ‘work’ is understood within the secular-liberal

15

principles of informal education, voluntary participation, empowerment and equality of opportunity. Also, Christian youth workers are apprehensive of the future as they consider the possibility (or not) of a career trajectory within an ambiguous occupation that is thought to be somewhere between voluntarism and ordained ministry. Youth workers are therefore suspended in this multi-faceted liminal space – a state of professional adolescence – until they ‘grow up and get a real job’. It is surely inevitable that internal tensions and anxieties should arise. These often manifest as contradictions and dilemmas as the youth worker attempts to realize a sense of authenticity, both in their faith and in their professional practice. Given this reality, we do well to use Turner’s model of transition as a framework to enable a nuanced understanding of the graduate’s transition period from university to work.

SEPARATION

The research found that, in the separation from one liminal status of student to a different liminal status, that of a Christian professional youth worker, naming and owning professional status proved to be a point of contention. Subsequently, there was confusion regarding how Christian professional youth workers should position their professional selves. During the first three months as liminal entities, new Christian professional youth workers struggle with feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and instability. They seek to position themselves as ‘professionals’ within their new employment contexts. Being named as ‘professional’ by their awarding university, work colleagues (including volunteers), and employers played a significant role in how they constructed meaning in relation to their professional position. However, this only added to the confusion they were experiencing, as they didn’t ‘feel’ like they were ‘professional’. A collective, normative view amongst the research participants of what it means to be a Christian professional youth worker was absent during this phase. This is not surprising since they now belonged to an ambiguous profession. New Christian professional youth workers tended to identify strongly with a secularized-liberal educational discourse in the early months of qualifying, viewing youth work mainly within the four principles of informal education, empowerment, participation and equality of opportunity. This raised concerns at this point of their transition in relation to the ‘Christian’ aspect of Christian professional youth work. However, this was not necessarily limiting in identity formation. This identification was important in that it formed the basis for a kind of dialectic in which new syntheses were reached. Christian youth workers, although they found some stability within the discourse of secular youth work, also challenged it whilst negotiating the tensions brought about through conflicting ideas.

LIMINALITY

The findings suggested that the intervening months of the first year in employment (months four to nine) sees the liminal experience intensify for new professional Christian youth workers. During the year a significant shift occurs away from trying to position themselves amongst their social network as ‘professional’ with youth workers turning their attention to their actual youth work practice. This was a collective shift, which could be considered as a searching for a point of stability during what is an unsettling period. The anxiety associated with the first three months turned to anger and frustration, which in turn motivated an exercise in human agency. Other identity domains are now beginning to be considered within the wider landscape of the youth worker lives, with the intention of maintaining strict boundaries with regards to time spent working and time spent with family. In terms of discursive positioning regarding youth ‘work’ and youth ‘ministry’, youth workers vacillate between the two, depending on the varied range of working contexts they find themselves in.

The findings showed that new professional Christian youth workers strongly indentified with a dominant, secularised discourse of youth ‘work’. However, a point of convergence between discourses is evident. Narratives focused on relational (or incarnational) youth work as the dominant discourse. Christian youth ‘ministry’ draws on theology for its rationale, whereas Christian youth ‘work’ draws on secular notions of informal education as its foundational principle for the understanding of relational youth work. The point of interest here is that, for new youth workers relational youth work was present in the discourse of both youth ‘ministry’ and youth ‘work’. Graduates considered their work to be authentic if they felt the relational imperative was being honoured. This included such activites as initiating and sustaining meaningful conversations, remaining a consistent presence in the lives of the young people, and being an effective source of pastoral care. This was, of course, useful in bolstering a sense of authenticity when they were engaged in relational youth work. However, it became problematic when other methods of working with young people were considered to be of less value. Graduates saw themselves as inauthentic when engaged in non-relational practices. For example, when involved in classroom activities within schools or vocational accredited programs they considered these to be perfectly legitimate and worthwhile, yet far removed from the relational ideal.

Youth workers found their security and authenticity in that point of convergence. The Christian youth work identity was being constructed within a relational discourse of youth work, which traverses both discursive boundaries. As security increases and authenticity strengthens, an antiprofessionalism begins to emerge.


The study showed that resistance identity is developed through the spiritual practices associated with a Christian youth worker’s faith (nine to twelve months). Resistance identity is the refusal to be consumed by essentialised notions of identity constructed within, and by, discourses. The graduates had been so consumed by a secular-liberalized agenda that they began to look to their Christian faith again in order to express, produce and reproduce a sense of authenticity. Through the practice of spiritual disciplines a sense of equilibrium and authenticity could be experienced. The kind of antiprofessionalism that is demonstrated here enriches and energizes new youth workers, enabling interplay between discourses. Through their growing frustration with a dominant secular youth work identity, liminars rejected any notion that professional youth ‘work’ was empty and sterile. Rather, they sought to infuse their youth ‘work’ with a passion derived from spiritual discipline. It was in this adoption of resistance practice, mainly through prayer and bible study, that the discourses of youth ‘ministry’ and youth ‘work’ diverged and converged. The liminars experienced a renewed sense of purpose for their role as Christian professional youth workers/ministers. An interplay occurred between the two discursive domains, in which one was strengthened by the other. That interplay between professional values and Christian spiritual disciplines is the space in which authenticity is most profoundly formed, acknowledged and lived.

REINCORPORATION

The findings showed that, whilst new Christian professional youth workers are constantly moving towards reincorporation, it remains elusive. Because new Christian youth workers are suspended within a three-fold, simultaneous liminal state, they can never fully achieve what Turner (1969) considered to be re-incorporation. Indeed, the very nature of the occupational status of the wider occupational group, as well as the discursive positions present within Christian youth work/ministry, mitigates against reincorporation as

a possibility.

The liminality of new professional youth worker transition is a space where they can move across discursive boundaries. The liminal space appears to include every possibility and opportunity for developing potential. It is a creative space. It is an experimental space. Without it, youth workers would be locked into customary norms and standards that would bind them. This would, of course, limit potential development and formation in both discursive domains. Christian professional youth work needs liminality. According to Turner, liminality provides a society that is unstructured or partially structured and ‘relatively undifferentiated’. Since young people themselves are held within the status of liminality (Bradford, 2012:60), in between childhood and adulthood, it seems only appropriate that youth workers should be held within a liminal status too.

A liminal professional identity means that youth workers can occupy uncertain and ambiguous spaces. Not all youth workers may find a liminal identity comfortable. As was seen through the graduates’ experience, a liminal identity can raise many problems. The employment context, and influences of relationships within that context, may have a determining impact on the youth worker’s ability to employ a degree of human agency. However, the findings showed, a liminal status does not imply an identity that is continually in a state of confusion or despair. In the case of Christian youth workers, they found their sense of stability, within the spiritual practices of their faith.

This raises questions about the secular and faith. For too long, the historical Christian roots of professionalism have been forgotten. The pervasive nature of a secularised idea of professionalism has constructed a notion amongst professionals and the wider society that professionalism is only about policy technologies and performance. But as the graduates have shown us, professionalism can be redeemed from a stale, secular liberal ideal and spirituality can once again flourish.

REFERENCES:HMSO. (1960). The Youth Service in England and Wales (Albermarle Report). London: HMSO

Gennep, A, V. (1909). The Rites of Passage. (trans. Vizedom, M. B. & Caffee, G. L.) London: Routledge & Kegan Paul

Mayo, B. (2002). Centre for Youth Ministry Theological Education. Journal of Adult Theological Education, British Journal of Thelogical Education, 12(2), 109-117.

Shepherd, N. (2009). Trying to be Christian: A qualitative study of young people’s participation in two Youth Ministry projects. Unpublished PhD Thesis: King’s College, London

Turner, V. (1969). The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. London: Aldine Transaction

DR JO GRIFFITHS Jo is CYM Centre Director in Cambridge. She has been involved in youth ministry for over twenty years, with considerable experience in Christian and secular Youth Work. Jo has an MA in Youth and Community Studies and has recently completed her PhD in the professional identity formation of newly qualified Christian youth workers.

BETWIXT AND BETWEEN : PROFESSIONAL CHRISTIAN YOUTH WORKER IDENTITY FORMATION 17

MESSYTRANSITIONS

by Lucy Moore


Teenagers are leaving Messy Church. Messy Churches long for them to stay. Motives need to be examined: is this concern really about meeting the needs of the teenagers themselves or is it a Messy Church team’s longing to be a ‘success’, to have the equivalent of ‘bums on seats’, an attitude that breeds selfishness rather than authentic mission? The solution in a Messy Church context is looking likely to be found not in clever Messy Youth Groups or Messy Teen Courses. It is starting to be apparent that the answer, if there is one, is simpler but infinitely more demanding and few churches will be prepared to countenance it.

The issue is that Messy Church is trying to be an intergenerational model of church. It needs all ages present to function well. One of the most powerful ways that all Christians grow as disciples is by living, worshipping and simply being alongside other people on the journey of faith. Messy Churchprovides a two hour space where that can happen once a month: the presence of adults and especially the elderly, means younger people can see Christianity is a faith that can and does grow with them over the decades; the presence of children and teenagers means that older people are brought up short over and over again by the insights of the young, their living spirituality, creativity and joyful parabolic presence that have shaped the very values of Messy Church and that signpost the Kingdom to the secular world all around. The intergenerational mix of Messy Church speaks volumes to a generationally fractured world and demonstrates that society can be and is being transformed by the local church.

There is plenty that a Messy Church can do to be welcoming to this age group, not just to ‘keep’ them. As Martyn Payne writes:

So what can a Messy Church do, not to ‘keep’ teenagers, but to give them the best possible experience of church; to help them encounter Christ; to give them opportunities to share and develop their gifts; to demonstrate to them throughout their stormy passage into adulthood how much they are loved just as they are; to allow others to benefit from their parabolic presence; and ultimately to send them out to be missional somewhere else, just as Jesus did to his first disciples?

Obvious tactics include having teens on the core team to shape the very activities and celebration of the Messy Church and to challenge wherever their age group is being neglected. Ensuring anyway that the activities include a wide variety for all abilities is a key part of Messy Church but one that is often dumbed down to child-friendly activities only. Inviting the teens to offer their gifts and skills in service, whether at the welcome

desk, at activity tables, leading the celebration or helping in the kitchen is crucial. The message from the teenagers themselves is loud and clear that not all teenagers like the same thing and that offering them choice is essential.

The fact remains that many drift away between the ages of 9-13, leaving parents saying, ‘Lauren’s too old for Messy Church.’ ‘George has grown out if it now.’ It’s a healthy part of this stage of life that teens should find their own path independent of that of their family and no surprise that part of this independence may be to turn their back on a family-based church. If a Messy Church has done its job well, no teenager should be leaving because of a feeling that they have outgrown Christianity. The dream is for those that leave, and there always will be those who leave, that like good parents, leaders might actively bless their departure and make it clear that the doors are wide open, both at their ‘sending’ church and at other churches and Christian organisations, that they are still loved and valued and that Christ is always there for them. This is best achieved not through schemes but through intentional friendships, built over the years a team has with them in the Messy Church.

So what is ‘the answer’ for teenagers and Messy Churches facing this transition stage of life? I believe it is quite simply that we need to make friends with young people. And in a Messy Church framework we need to do this before they hit the teenage transition so that even if they choose to drop out of the Messy Church structures temporarily or permanently, the relationship

MESSY TRANSITIONS // LUCY MOORE

1 For example John Westerhoff in his lectures at the Household of Faith conference July 2014 said, ‘ The baptised share one vocation: to grow in an ever-deepening relationship with God, people and the natural world.’… ‘How do we make the church alive? Not by doing to but doing with each other.’3 Paton, G. (2014). Religious education subjected to ‘rank discrimination’. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10656555/Religious-education-subjected-to-rank-discrimination.html.

2 First Reflections on Teenagers and Messy Church August 2014, internal BRF team document

3 Response from teenagers helping at Messy Church from London 2013 and Yate 2014

“ONE OF THE MOST

POWERFUL WAYS THAT

ALL CHRISTIANS GROW

AS DISCIPLES IS BY LIVING,

WORSHIPPING AND SIMPLY

BEING ALONGSIDE OTHER

PEOPLE ON THE JOURNEY

OF FAITH.”

19

between them and some key people of that church continues to grow and shape their life for the good. The door to church is kept wide open even if the young person and their circumstances change dramatically. Gifts are recognised and serve to shape the Messy Church if the young person chooses to stay. Kingdom values remain an ever-present challenge and comfort as young people face the upheavals of adolescence. The gospel message of Messy Church becomes a Jesus message, not of courses and programmes, but of infinite trouble taken over every younger son, coin or sheep that gets temporarily lost, of seeing the bigger picture of the mission of the Church happening in the microcosm of an individual’s life. The answer is simply and radically to make friends.

This ‘organic, ‘soft’ answer will not appeal on an institutional level, as it is impossible to measure or quantify. It is challenging to team members as friendship on whatever level is costly and with true friendship there is a loss of control involved, whether that be of time, money (as it may be more appropriate to take a teenager out for a milkshake than to invite them to your home), status as people around us expect us to spend

our time on grander schemes than one ‘selfish’ thirteen year old, or reputation as our motives are questioned in a hyper-sensitive society. Perhaps the challenge for Messy Church is to find and ‘roadtest’ appropriate models for Christians to befriend young people safely, to mentor them, to take a committed interest in their life, pray for them, be prepared to meet Christ in them and model a lifestyle that sings of the Kingdom.

Lucy Moore is Messy Church team leader at BRF and part of the team that set up the first Messy Church. Her role involves Messy research, advocacy and training across the UK and overseas and is quite possibly the most interesting job on the planet. www.messychurch.org.uk (search for ‘teenagers’ for articles and features) [email protected]

LUCY MOORE

Messy

“KINGDOM VALUES REMAIN AN EVER-PRESENT CHALLENGE AND COMFORT AS YOUNG PEOPLE FACE THE UPHEAVALS OF ADOLESCENCE”


These courses are designed for people like you...practitioners - either employed or voluntary - who want to further develop knowledge, understanding and skills. It is an opportunity to refine thinking, channel passion and explore new approaches. Our postgraduate courses offer the opportunity for continuing professional development and advanced qualification.

Our Postgraduate Diploma/ MA in Youth and Community Work with Practical Theology covers such topics as reflective practice, human development and wellbeing, understanding contexts and managing youth and community work. Our Postgraduate Diploma/ MA in Professional Practice and Practical Theology allows choice from topics such as leadership, doctrine in practice, mission-shaped practice, management, spirituality and many more. There are options to attain the Professional Practice MA with named awards in: Spirituality and Wellbeing, Chaplaincy Work or Leadership and Mission.

Post Graduate Degrees are validated by University of Gloucestershire. Students can begin their MA studies in either September or March.

CYM OFFERS TWO ROUTES FOR POSTGRADUATE STUDY

CYM has a particular commitment to developing the insights and understanding needed to support ongoing work and ministry in children, youth and mission work.

Our CPD events give experienced practitioners the opportunity to meet and mix with colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds, to share expertise as well as learn from the range of speakers and trainers. It enables you to sharpen your abilities as a mentor, trainer or line-manager; explore how to develop chaplaincy, pioneer ministry or family work; and deepen your understanding of theology and practice.

The CPD points you earn through participating in our courses and events will demonstrate to employers and stakeholders your commitment to developing your professional approach to ministry and mission. You can also use the CPD you undertake towards credits for post-graduate qualifications. Accredited CPD provision validated by Staffordshire University.

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21

THE UNIVERSITYTRANSITION

by Rosie Kersys


The university years are to be treasured and enjoyed. They are an opportunity to learn and explore many new things and will help shape the course of student’s life. Whilst there are many life battles to be fought for Christian students in twenty-first student culture, familiarising ourselves with the strategies to fight the battles is a great discipline to hold.

We believe that the church needs to wholeheartedly encourage those who are undergoing life at university. It is time that the university years become a foundational training-ground for Kingdom values and living. We are commanded to make disciples, those who choose daily to follow Christ. It is time to prepare our school leavers like never before.

DRINKING

The drinking culture at university is intense. Often new students haven’t been exposed to alcohol as readily available before. But did you know that 25% of students don’t drink? We believe that Jesus has called students who follow him to be present at the pressure points within the student culture, the drinking scene being no exception. Often Christian students shy away from sports team’s socials and nights-out with housemates because of the openness to alcohol. However, we must ask ourselves, how would the Christian student movement look if every Christian student got involved in sports team’s socials regularly, not drinking to excess but looking out for their friends; calling a taxi for them when they can’t walk, or holding their hair back when they’ve had too much to drink. Jesus was accused of being a drunk, not because he was, but because he partied with those who were. Let’s prepare our young people for a culture in which they can party like Jesus.

School leavers need to have opportunities to discuss their values around alcohol. Question why we value being sober rather than just have a rule about not getting drunk. How can students prepare themselves for the drinking culture and sports club initiations? What boundaries need to be self-imposed? Having an accountability pact starting at the beginning of term means that you can regularly keep in contact with them and ask predetermined questions to keep them encouraged and supported.

LONELINESS

The student culture has seen a loneliness epidemic, this is not how God created us to be. A study on loneliness at universities found that 17% of students suffered serious self-doubt and isolation, significantly higher than the general population. Unsurprisingly, loneliness is one of the widest held needs at university. Everyone’s ‘connected’ via social media, but that doesn’t replace our relational needs. However, loneliness itself isn’t the largest battle we face as often it passes over time. The

damage is done when we try to fill that void with other dangerous activities that displease God. There is a pain to the feeling of loneliness that cries out for comfort. God’s design is that we find our comfort in God and through connection with others.

We need to prepare school leavers to handle some of the feelings of loneliness, equip them to make new friends and above all value friendship as a gift they have to offer. Loneliness is a serious problem that takes time to cure. The church is called to look out for the least and the lost and to support the vulnerable.

MONEY

The Bible says that the love of money is at the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). He prescribed the remedy to this evil as radical generosity and sacrificial giving. Some of the symptoms of the evil are consumerism and materialism. Whilst there may be a few signs of this being a problem during the student years it mainly manifests later in life as financial security cements.

Encouraging new students to have a budget in place may seem like the most simple of things but it is important to have the students expectations set on a weekly budget so they aren’t dipping into their overdraft in Freshers week. It is also important to empower students to be ambassadors with their money. If students tithe and give outrageously throughout their student years, imagine the impact of how they will give their money when they have greater financial security.

CHURCH

The current student generation is commonly referred to as the ‘maybe’ generation. Students don’t want to commit to an event or give time just incase something more appealing turns up.

Church is often treated like an optional extra or a gym membership. This has led to church becoming another consumer choice for students. Unsurprisingly, those Freshers who choose to take a break from church in

THE UNIVERSITY TRANSITION // ROSIE KERSYS

“THE UNIVERSITY YEARS ARE TO BE TREASURED AND ENJOYED.”

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the first couple of weeks rarely go back. One thing that could transform our universities is seeing every new student equipped with the understanding of what it means to be part of a church community whilst they are at university. Committing to a church is more than just attending a Sunday morning service. It is about being a part of the family; serving and blessing in areas the students are gifted. A new student who decides to commit to a church straight away limits more and more the power they stand against on other battlegrounds. They are no longer alone, but in community and supported by a family.

Practically, Student Linkup connects students to churches and churches to students. It provides a bridge between student and church and starts communication before the student has left for university. Help resource your young people for university by signing them up

to Student Linkup and buying them a Student Linkup box (£10 from Fusion) so that they can live life rooted in Jesus at university.

FOR MORE INFORMATION on Student Linkup or preparation for university, get in touch with Rosie at [email protected] or 07885583548.

RECOMMENDED READING BY ROSIE:STUDENT LINKUP SESSIONS Rich Wilson and Pippa Elmes

CHRISTIANITY AND UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE Mathew Guest, Kristin Aune, Sonya Sharma, Rob Warner

LIVING MISSION Rich Wilson and Miriam Swaffield

Rosie is the Student Linkup Campaigns Manager for Fusion. She is passionate about seeing students fully prepared for university, and her job focuses on helping them become rooted in a local church for their university years. She’s a recent graduate from York St John and loved the city so much that she stayed put. Rosie attends G2 church and also helps with the student ministry there. Her favourite things involve cheerleading, knitting and sausage dogs.

ROSIE KERSYS


“TRULY I TELL YOU, HE CONTINUED, NO PROPHET IS

ACCEPTED IN HIS HOMETOWN.” (LUKE 4:24)

by Dan Crouch

TRANSITION FROM LAITY TO LEADERSHIP IN YOUR

HOMETOWN


Jesus’ ministry began - after he had been tempted by Satan in the wilderness - in Galilee before he quite quickly returned to Nazareth where he had grown up. We read that he received a far from warm welcome from his former friends and neighbours. Ministry in your hometown is hard. As a youth worker of nearly ten years’ experience I should know. I was born and grew up in the town in which I minister. In fact, I have never lived anywhere else. Having trained in youth ministry with the Institute for Children, Youth and Mission (CYM) using my home church as my placement I was appointed to a full time role here four years ago. But the transition from laity to leadership and from young person to adult leader, has not been straightforward.

There are many positives to ministering in your hometown. The depth of local knowledge developed over the years is one. The strength of relationships that have been nurtured and invested in because of your commitment and longevity is another. A degree of respect is afforded in community settings because you are not a parachuted professional, but a member of the very community you serve and always have been. But living and ministering in your hometown involves engaging frequently with people who have direct experience of your past. It can be a struggle to assert an identity as an adult when surrounded by people who remember your childhood and teenage years with clarity. Additionally, in the context of belonging to a faith community, it can be very difficult for others to see you differently. ‘I remember when you first joined the choir…’ is often uttered to me as people leave the church at the end of my latest talk twenty years later! This historical baggage should be expected when ministering in your hometown.

In spite of the challenges I would contend that there are also significant benefits to developing as a young leader in your hometown. The local knowledge and community relationships that take time to develop - and are often not afforded this time – form the building blocks for effective community engagement. Further, ministering in an environment that both intimately knows you and you know intimately offers the opportunity to work at a very deep level of integrity and authenticity. A mutual accountability develops. Within the faith community there is a general willingness to see you succeed. You are offered opportunities to facilitate the engagement of others with the gospel in a unique way. You are able to offer insight from a distinctive perspective developing a ministry that is truly representative of the locality.

From a youth work perspective hometown ministry offers a positive example to young people of a faith community that provides a space to grow in discipleship and a place that is interested in developing people. It shows that it is possible to attain roles of leadership and responsibility where you are. It brings a reality to a value that so many churches vocally promote –that the potential of young

people is worthy of our investment. Longevity in one role speaks of both a commitment to youth ministry and to young people. In our youth ministry we have sought to encourage young people to develop their leadership potential while they are at their home church instead of, or in addition to, moving on to community life (Lee Abbey) or other gap year experiences (YWAM and Camp America). While for some it can seem there is more to lose in their home context for others home is a safe environment in which to experiment and grow. I have little doubt that because the local church invested in me, I understand the importance of the local church investing in young people today.

Bowden (2011) reminds us that ‘all of us are shaped by the localities in which we have been nurtured and by the cultural networks we have inhabited.’ Our localities have a lasting impact on our worldview, our values, our beliefs and our actions. My hometown, Keynsham, is located between Bristol and Bath and home to approximately 16,000 people, who are predominantly white and middle class. The majority of the population are of working age or retired. There are some opportunities for young people in the town and transport connections to the surrounding cities are good. The church community reflects these overall demographics of the town. It is predominantly white middle class with a high proportion of elderly and retired members. And this context shapes the minister I am today. Since I was a young person in the town, there is an immediate unspoken understanding with the young people I work with. Wherever you minister your context shapes your worldview, your values, your beliefs and your actions. It is about making use of this to partner with God in ministry.

TRANSITION FROM LAITY TO LEADERSHIP IN YOUR HOMETOWN // DAN CROUCH

“MINISTERING IN AN ENVIRONMENT THAT BOTH INTIMATELY KNOWS YOU AND YOU KNOW INTIMATELY OFFERS THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK AT A VERY DEEP LEVEL OF INTEGRITY AND AUTHENTICITY”

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I am increasingly aware of the fragility of transitional moments in the lives of people of all ages, but particularly the young. The transition from primary to secondary school, child to teenager, school or college to further education or young person to adult all present moments of vulnerability. What is interesting about each of these transitions is that they are usually accompanied

by situational change. How do we transition when we stay where we are? The short answer is with some difficulty. However, here are three thoughts for further reflection;

1. Ministry that transforms lives is built on relationships developed over a period of time. How do we encourage practitioners to commit to a role for the long term? What changes might we need to make to our understanding of ministry in light of this?

2. To transition where were are requires the ability to reinvent, reimagine and respond to changing group dynamics and the needs of individuals. The skills of listening and interpreting where energy and momentum are present is important allied with the courage to change where necessary. Jesus experience shows this is difficult. Are we facilitating this process in our faith communities? Do we assume that in order to reinvent or reimagine we need to change situation?

3. The natural response to a young person pursuing a gap year is to encourage them to look beyond their home context. Should gap years always be served elsewhere? Could and should churches invest more in nurturing their own members? What impact might that have on their engagement with the community?

Dan Crouch is an experienced youth ministry practitioner working in the parish of Keynsham. He is also an MA student with CYM and facilitates the Diocesan Youth Council for the diocese of Bath and Wells. He is passionate about youth ministry, community development and encouraging young people’s participation. [email protected]

DAN CROUCH

from laity to leadership in your hometown

“MINISTRY THAT TRANSFORMS LIVES IS BUILT ON RELATIONSHIPS DEVELOPED OVER A PERIOD OF TIME.”


PHILOSOPHY IN YOUTH AND COMMUNITY WORK By Mike Seak and Simon Frost

Available now, priced £14.21* HERE, ISBN 1905541902, pb, 170 pages.

*Price correct on date of release

A book on philosophy in youth work, is always going to ask a lot more questions then it answers, and this book doesn’t disappoint. Taking a number of concepts that all-to-easily trip of the tongues of youth workers, the authors purposefully set out to encourage the reader to think about them in more depth. They do this by introducing the reader to the ideas within which these concepts are embedded, and some philosophers that have wrestled with these ideas. This is not, therefore, a book on philosophy in the strict sense of the genre, but a book which encourages the reader to do philosophy. A book which believes, as do I, that it is in this process, that the youth worker will find the necessary wisdom and depth for their practice.

The authors use the first chapter to engage with the anti-intellectual debate, which, regrettably, is still very present in certain areas, arguing that a space where thoughtful, honest, open and rigorous dialogue can occur is not just desirable, but necessary. A middle ground marked by a synthesis between practice and theory developed through good reflective practice. In one authors terms, much like the jazz musician uses both musical theory and a feel for her audience to improvise night after night music that speaks.

It is in this spirit, that I would have liked more consideration of the age we are in. There is something valuable in seeing that even philosophy arises from within something bigger, a background sense of things in Charles Taylor’s post-

Hiedeggariam language. This would have brought into focus an assumption I felt the book left unexamined. What is the world we are looking to bring about by our creative and thoughtful improvisation? Is youth work simply the foot soldier of humanism? I, for one, believe this meta-idea should also be interrogated. After all, the banality of humanism has been discussed by many philosophers. But this is more to add my voice to the discussion, then offer a devastatingly critique. A book is only ever a small part of any discussion. A review even less so!

This then is the aim of the book, and the youth work they espouse. The practice of interrogating commonly held views. An aim, that I, as a practitioner from a faith background, whole-heartily support. Especially when, as the authors envisage, such challenges release life’s trapped within such views.

Accordingly, I would not hesitate to recommend this book, and would like to see it on the reading list of all youth work/ministry courses. In it we find the heart of youth work. Thinking, feeling, creative practitioners, as the foot soldiers of liberation.

ASSISTANT CENTRE DIRECTOR, CYM CAMBRIDGE REVIEWED BY ROBIN BARDEN

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ISSUE 3 AVAILABLE MAY 2015

praxeis journal - issue 2

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