About this item
Highlights
- Relational youth ministry, also known as incarnational ministry, can feel like a vicious cycle of guilt: "I should be spending time with kids, but I just don't want to.
- About the Author: Andrew Root is assistant professor of youth and family ministry at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota.
- 221 Pages
- Religion + Beliefs, Christian Ministry
Description
About the Book
Root reviews the history of relational/incarnational youth ministry in American evangelicalism and recasts the practice as one of "place-sharing," not so much "earning the right to be heard" as honoring the human dignity of youth and locating God in their midst. (Ministry & Pastoral Resources)Book Synopsis
Relational youth ministry, also known as incarnational ministry, can feel like a vicious cycle of guilt: "I should be spending time with kids, but I just don't want to." The burden becomes heavy to bear because it is never over; adolescents always seem to need more relational bonds, and once one group graduates there is a new group of adolescents who need relational contact.It may be that the reason these relationships have become burdensome is that they have become something youth workers do, rather than something that youth workers enter into. In Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, Andrew Root explores the origins of a dominant ministry model for evangelicals, showing how American culture has influenced our understanding of the incarnation. Drawing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose work with German youth in troubled times shaped his own understanding of how Jesus intersects our relationships, Root recasts relational ministry as an opportunity not to influence the influencers but to stand with and for those in need. True relational youth ministry shaped by the incarnation is a commitment to enter into the suffering of all, to offer all those in high school or junior high the solidarity of the church.
Review Quotes
"Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry establishes Andrew Root as a seminal voice in a new generation of youth ministry scholars. Fresh, wise and disciplined, Root exposes the sand on which much 'relational youth ministry' of the late twentieth century has been based, and recasts the church's ministry with young people in the Christology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In so doing, Root injects youth ministry with both a needed missional direction and a welcome theological humility. Drawing on 'real life' relational ministries, Root offers concrete practices that reestablish youth ministry's footing in the suffering love of God in Jesus Christ. Andrew Root is poised to lead the field in rethinking youth ministry as a practical theological discipline, and this book is a breathtaking step in the right direction."
--Kenda Creasy Dean, M.Div., Ph.D., parent, pastor and associate professor of youth, church and culture, Princeton Theological SeminaryRoot challenges youth pastors to go beyond doing mere jobs and live the incarnation of Christ with youth.
--Chris Maxwell in Ministry Today, March/April 2008Too often we abandon teenagers when our relationship does not produce our predetermined results. Thankfully, Andy Root has brilliantly laid before us an essential course correction for relational ministry that is faithful to the incarnation of Jesus.
--YouthWorker eJournal, August 2007About the Author
Andrew Root is assistant professor of youth and family ministry at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. A former Young Life staffworker, he has served in churches and social service agencies as a youth outreach associate and a gang prevention counselor.