Enacted Faith, Youth Ministry and Theological Shorthand

Theological shorthand is expressed through the words: relationships, like Jesus, being there, and time and journey. These words articulate a complex and nuanced practice that carry and communicate the Gospel and faith of youth ministers amongst young people. When examined, the practice of youth ministers resonate with echoes of theology from the Christian tradition, yet this is not overtly expressed. The theological shorthand articulation can be seen as ‘thin’ theology, with practice based on being like Jesus and the youth minister as symbol. Current youth ministry practice can be seen to be guided by the normative voice of the literature on youth ministry. Through these, practice has the potential to be limited theologically and risks un-tethering youth ministry from the church and wider Christian tradition.

Youth Ministry as Discerning Christopraxis: A Hermeneutical Model

This article provides a picture of how discernment happens within ministry, and how the process of discernment can be done theologically. The great challenge for those teaching youth and family ministry is to help students begin to think beyond simple implementation of successful program strategies and move into reflection on context and theology. This then calls for a commitment to a God living and active in the world through Jesus Christ. Jurgen Moltmann has called this Christopraxis. Drawing on a series of epoch making theologians and philosophers, this paper constructs a paradigm for discerning Christopraxis which allows the youth minister to move past seeing him or herself as a church programmer and instead to recognize his or her place as participating in the dynamic actions of God in the world, and in the lives of adolescents.

The practice of music in youth ministry and the mystery of the Divine

How do musical preferences of youth influence conceptions of transcendence and imminence of the Divine? This article will address this question based upon responses of teens to a Life Meaning Inventory administered by the Youth Theological Initiative at Candler School of Theology. The teens' responses will point toward important philosophical questions that wrest the foundations of Christian theology; this is to say that these questions position the youth minister in a unique position to address the polarity of transcendence and immanence in Christian thought. As such, this essay suggests that a discussion of transcendence and immanence offers a new means of thinking about or re-thinking the practice of music in youth ministry.1