practicing passion - youth and church

i was having a discussion with someone about books read in 2004. it reminded me of some that i read in the summer and had been meaning to blog about but never have. one of those was practising passion: youth and the quest for a passionate church by kenda creasy dean. it's been a while since i have read a really good theological book on youth ministry. but kenda's book is simply the best to have been written for quite some time. kenda suggests that adolescence is characterised by passion and that ministry with youth needs to be predicated on passion - the passion of christ, the passion of youth and the passionate faith that results when these two come together. in a consumer culture which seems to focus on self fulfillment the passion of christ subversively calls us to self giving love. kenda suggests that enabling youth to live passionately in the life, death and resurrection of christ is precisely what they are longing and looking for. but often the church is passionless or afraid of passion - discipleship is so easily about socialising young people into our (adult) way of behaving and being sensible, nice and respectable rather than unleashing their passion into being dangerous followers and lovers of christ. she suggests that they way to do so is to develop a curriculum of passion - introducing young people to the ancient practices of the christian faith which are transformative. these practices are ultimately about enabling a community to be imitators of christ transformed into his likeness - (youth ministry loses its way when it ends up being about entertainment and cool youth leaders).

one of the things i love about the book is that it seems to afford a new language for talking about youth ministry that will appeal to fans of soul survivor and tradition alike (albeit for different reasons). in fact the book is really addressing mainline protestant denominations and the critique it offers is of that. kenda is based at princeton so the book is addressing an american context but it crosses the atlantic really well. if you are in youth ministry read it. it's a fat, weighty book but don't let that put you off. there is a welcome trend in youth ministry in the usa and here that is about a turning away from youth ministry as solely about entertainment and back towards the ancient practices of the christian church. soul shaper by tony jones in the usa and tune in chill out by jenny baker and moya ratanyake are the most recent examples. this book adds a much needed theological weight to the discussion. and is simply inspirational about christ and what it means to follow him. i've added a few quotes from the book below to give you a taster...

i am looking forward to meeting kenda at the IASYM conference next week. if you are interested in the papers being shared at the conference if you become a member of IASYM they are all available online. anyway on with the quotes:

Young people are among God's most forthright, frustrating and often unwitting prophets, reminding us that salvation is at stake, for they will not give up on love until they find it or until consumer culture numbs them into a kind of lobotomized compliance, whichever comes first. Whether they discover the true source of passion - whether they ever connect their desire for love with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ or with the church at all, for that matter - largely depends on whether the church bears witness to a love more true than those available in popular culture. And that of course depends on whether the church practices the passion we preach...

...Passionless Christianity has nothing to die for: it practices assimilation, not oddity. Passionless Christians lead sensible lives, not subversive ones; we are benignly nice instead of dangerously loving...

...Practices of faith are not intended for accumulation; they are intended for transportation, as inroads to the fidelity, ecstasy and intimacy - the Passion - of God. So what would happen if we adults in mainline protestant youth ministry ventured more deeply into Christian practices to begin to fathom divine passion? How might we invite adolescents, once we have found our depth, to come into the deep end with us?...

...Rerouting youth ministry through the historic practices of the Christian community - those actions by which centuries of Christians have conformed to the Passion of Christ - establishes a sacred sense of direction in adolescents, transforming them into bearers of God's grace simply because love of this magnitude begs to be shared...

Comments

[brian orme]

sounds like an interesting book - I've been in youth ministry for a while - I think passion is key - one of the downfalls though, I think, is that we filter it through teaching that is cheesey - 'extreme faith''extreme evangelism' 'hang time with God' etc. Teaching passion without dumbing it down is important. I will have to check out the book - thanks.
peace

[ben]

thanks for the recommendation,
i look forward to reading it.
happy new year (in advance)

[the other darren]

its a great book, i had to do a number of essays on youth ministry n theology this year and kenda was constantly in the footnotes. i should put my thoughts up one day on this book too, i've been telling pple in the uca here that its one of THE books to read for 2004...

[mark]

i agree..an excellent book..every now and then you can tell she's writing to the princeton elite but she does a good job balancing...some great one-line quotes in there..

mark

[Lorna]

Hope it's okay I linked this to our site?

oh and Happy New Year!

[roy]

thanks for the recommendation - ordered it on strength of a great blog post.
Have a great new year!