Youth Ministry and Crisis

Youth ministry is not unfamiliar with crisis. Youth pastors are trained and equipped to manage all sorts of crises. However, conducting youth ministry in the middle of a global pandemic? Well, that is uncharted territory. This article focuses on how (select) youth ministries operated, reached out to youth, and cared for youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. How technology was utilized, challenges faced, and lessons gleaned are also addressed with practical application ideas.

Die rol van die ouerhuis in die intergenerasionele geloofsvorming van die jeug in belang van ’n geïntegreerde jeugbediening

The role of the parental home in the intergenerational faith formation of the youth for the sake of an integrated youth ministry. This article deals with the following question: What is the role of parents in the intergenerational faith formation of the youth for the sake of an integrated youth ministry? Several studies nationally and internationally have convincingly pointed out that parents have the biggest influence on their children’s faith formation. However, parents are currently still not sufficiently inclusively involved or supported in youth ministry. Osmer’s fourfold reflective equilibrium model forms the frame for how this article is structured. Nel’s theory of inclusive youth ministry is used as a theological framework from which the role of parents in intergenerational faith formation is investigated. The empirical research (quantitative, as well qualitative) was conducted among 175 parents and 10 ministers coming from 29 congregations in the Noordelike, Oostelike, Hoëveld- and Goudland synods of the Dutch Reformed Church. These congregations all have a family and/or intergenerational focus in their (youth) ministry. The research has shown that youth ministry cannot by means of programmes, structures and even relationships in any way replace the important role played by parents in the lives of their children, regardless of what happens in the youth ministry. When the parental home and youth ministries do not act as partners in the faith formation process, it does not only lead to weak faith, but also to a lack of commitment, unsustainability and ultimately alienation. Youth ministries can therefore not function effectively without an integrated ministry, which includes the parental home. With all the challenges threatening their capacity, the parental home can also not function effectively as faith mediators without an inclusive youth ministry. The research thus clearly indicates that Nel’s theory of inclusive youth ministry, is not only noteworthy, but it is also in the long term, necessary to work towards the congregation’s eschatalogical sustainability.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Youth ministries do not involve parents as the core part of their ministry. When youth ministries integrate parents into their ministry, children will be better guided in their faith formation. This adjustment calls for a paradigm shift in the focus of traditional youth ministry. Intergenerational faith formation in this study was approached within the framework of Practical Theology, Congregational Development and Youth Ministry.

Activity of legal education regarding the popularization of inventive activity

Keywords: inventor activity, invention, inventions, intellectual property The article is sanctified to the debatable question of necessity orimpossibility of popularization of inventor activity. The review of concepts is done invention,inventor activity, inventor. Possibilities are considered as exactly the state musttake care to the questions of creation of necessary terms for maintenance and strengtheningof the intellectual potential, and also for the search of ways of him quality development.Foreign experience is analysed in the field of it. The special attention is spared toorganization of work of young people through competitive activity, that became important direction of public policy of the almost entire industrially developed countries. Successfulrealization of scientific and technical and innovative politics in Ukraine is impossiblewithout activation of creative individuality and invention, that it is directly relatedto development of both higher and professional education.Successful implementation of scientific, technical and innovation policy in Ukraine isimpossible without the activation of creative individuality and invention, which is directlyrelated to the development of both higher and professional education. The materialand technical base of many (especially technical) higher education institutions today isoutdated, in need of updating, as well as teaching methods. The system of branch institutesof advanced training has also been destroyed, enterprises do not have the funds forin-house training, the motivation for inventive activity has decreased.It is important to maintain a positive experience. The organization of youth creativitythrough competitive activities has become an important area of public policy in almostall industrialized countries. One of the main directions of the invention is the state programsfor the development of technical creativity of youth. Ministries and departments,corporations and firms take part in the implementation of such programs. The WIPOconducted a study aimed at generalizing progressive forms and methods of state stimulationof inventive activity in industrialized countries.The Ukraine, unlike industrialized countries, does not have such a long tradition inholding such competitions. But what has already been done is valuable to society. It remainsto multiply this experience.

Theological Wiggle Room as a Resource in Ordinary Theology: Significance for Ecclesiology, Leadership, and Personal Development

Ordinary theology is often described as unrefined and imprecise in comparison to academic theology. A recent ethnographic study of vital youth ministries discovered a similar pattern, which the study coined “theological wiggle room.” This article discusses how a lack of precision may serve as a possible resource for theology in the ordinary, and thereby why theological wiggle room may be of significance. The article argues that a certain theological wiggle room engages centripetal and centrifugal dynamics. In other words, the lack of precision should not be interpreted as a shortage or deficiency alone, but as a significant quality of theology in the ordinary – in particular with regard to ecclesiology, leadership and personal development.

Waste of Space or Room for Place?

This article explores how young people today engage with physical space and how it can best be utilized within ministry to youth. Sociological research has suggested a movement away from thought on physical space and its impact on creating a place for young people to be rooted in community. Through visual research conducted on a current youth ministry, it was discovered that physical spaces directly impact youth and their ability to belong to a faith-based community. It was also discovered that of the two youth ministries analyzed in this study – one in the US and one in the UK – there was the practice of attempting to create a third place for youth to congregate. From the visual research conclusions, this article argues for the importance of creating a place for youth and how this can be achieved in multi-functional spaces, specifically through the utilization of music.

Wide-awakeness in the World

Maxine Greene’s aesthetic pedagogy speaks to the sense of purposelessness felt by many young people today. Greene’s pedagogy cultivates the moral life defined as a sense of ‘wide-awakeness in the world’ through promoting the work of the imagination through engagement with the creative arts. Imagination creates community by being a precondition of empathy. Greene’s philosophy calls religious educators to create dialogic spaces of mutual concern. Theological engagement with Greene asks how the quest for meaning making is not simply a pedagogical version of sin. Charles Taylor’s analysis of authenticity identifies the ethical core in the pursuit of meaning-making. Greene’s challenge to Christian theology to give young people freedom in their spiritual choices is answered with David Bentley Hart’s notion of Christian persuasion as ‘the martyr’s gift’. Youth ministries pursue the kingdom vision of shalom in hope grounded in the resurrection of Christ.

Environmental Justice

This chapter discusses the importance of environmental justice and issues of equity within urban environmental education. Urban environmental education engages with environmental justice through topics such as disparities in access to nature and ecosystem services and in exposure to industrial pollution and other environmental risks. There are many approaches to addressing injustice, including food sovereignty, political mobilization, and climate justice. The chapter first provides a brief history of the environmental justice movement before presenting three case studies illustrating educational responses to environmental injustice in cities: Green Guerrillas Youth Media Tech Collective and Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice in New York City, and the Equity and Environment Initiative in Seattle, Washington. These initiatives demonstrate the ways in which race, colonization, poverty, and other social issues overlap with access, understandings, benefits, and related considerations of urban place, as well as how urban environmental education is addressing these intersections.

Exploring the voices of children and youth: A plea for renewal in Church structures for child and youth ministries

Various trends in Children and youth ministries indicate that the church is struggling to engage with and to serve children and youth effectively. This then impacts negatively on efforts to succeed in this strategic ministry. Considering the decreasing figures of church attendances amongst children and youth, it is proposed that the voices of these children and youth should be heard in an effort to find innovative ways to develop effective Children and youth ministry strategies that will address their unique needs. This article explores the experiences and perceptions of children and youth in the Presbytery of Wellington (URCSA) in an effort to think about new paradigms and new ways of doing in terms of serving children and youth.

Protestant Youth Ministry at the University of Sydney in the 1930s

This paper will examine youth ministry focusing on the foundation and character of the Evangelical Union at the University of Sydney. It will be argued that a new model of ministry to youth was created in the 1930s with four key characteristics: theologically conservative, student led, a focus on peer ministry and co-educational. This model was to influence the other youth ministries formed in the 30s and flourish and bear fruit in the 1950s. The paper concludes that those who minister to youth today may learn from the example of the eu in nurturing a strong religious identity in young people and by encouraging self-sacrificial leadership.