Friday, January 07, 2005

Family Youth Ministry?
Just been reading the updated version of Mark DeVries
Family Based Youth
Ministry.


Helpful in some thinking I'm doing around youth groups etc.
Overall not sure really! I think the basic idea that young people need relationships with an extended church family and that their own family has a role in faith formation is undeniably good.
But there was something about the tone of some of the chapters that left me a little cold - a seeming longing for "the good old days" and a sense that the cultural changes of the last 50 years are on the whole negative.
He does say some good stuff about the tension of being routed in the continuity of the line of faith and yet the need for young people to step away and find their own faith and identity.

One quick quote that I'm unsure of:

"the truth is that most teenagers are no more developmentally ready to make a genuine commitment to the institution of church than they would be to make a commitment to the institution of marriage" (p165).

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