<p> McCormick Theological Seminary- Fall Semester, 2012 MEd-440 Congregational Models of Ministry with Youth and Young Adults Tuesday, 1-4, Room Lib Caldwell -Office -947-6329 [email protected] E.A. </p><p>Purpose We live in a culture and time of rapid change. The challenges and opportunities facing adolescents and young adults today are more varied and complicated than the time when their parents and quite possibly their pastors were this age. This course will consider congregational approaches to ministry with youth, young adults and their families. It will also explore the roles of congregations and their leaders in ministering to and with youth and young adults.</p><p>Learning Outcomes (By the end of the course, learners will:) 1. Identify and be able to teach others about issues that congregations need to address in ministry with adolescents and young adults. 2. Discuss the developmental needs of youth and young adults and identify implications for congregational approaches to ministry with both age groups. 3. Be familiar with and critique current literature in the area of families, adolescents, young adults, youth ministry, confirmation education, pastoral care. 4. Gain experience as a curriculum writer focusing on a particular group in the church: youth, young adults or parents. 5. Identify gifts as leaders with youth and young adults and personal priorities for congregational ministry with youth, youth adults and their families. 6. Experience community and share the gifts of mutual support.</p><p>Required Reading: 1. Kenda Creasy Dean, Almost Christian, What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church, Oxford University Press, 2010. 978-0-19-531484-7 2. Mark Yaconelli, Contemplative Youth Ministry , Practicing the Presence of Jesus, Zondervan, 2006. 0310267773 or Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster, The God-Bearing Life, Upper Room Books, 1998. 0835808580 3. Dori Grinenko Baker, The Barefoot Way, Westminster John Knox Press, 2012. 978-0-664-23802-5 4. Elizabeth Caldwell, Leaving Home With Faith, Nurturing the Spiritual Life of Youth, Pilgrim, 2002. 082981504X 5. Additional articles for reading will be posted on Moodle.</p><p>One More Thing If you are working with a tutor in the LRWC and need extra time to complete your writing assignments, please speak with Lib. If there are any health or learning issues that I need to know about, please speak with me.</p><p>1 Course Requirements There are 3 requirements for this class. 1. Class attendance and responsible/informed participation in class discussions. 20% Because group discussion is richer when everyone participates, there will be some assigned questions related to the reading posted on Moodle. You are expected to post your response to Noodling and Moodling by Monday before class. There are two opportunities for leadership in this class, either as a small group discussion leader or closing the class (pause, listen, think, pray, go) Please sign up for one during the first session. </p><p>2. Mid-term Project 40% This project is designed to give you the chance to reflect on some aspect of ministry with youth and/or young adults that is most useful to you for your ministry context. Read over the following options and decide which one you will choose. If you want to propose another option, please speak with Lib. Please indicate by September 26, the topic you have chosen. This project should be designed to allow you to integrate readings, experiences, and reflection on the topic of this course. The paper should be 5-10 pages and is due October 12 posted on Moodle.</p><p>1. Compare and contrast 6-8 websites that would be good to use with youth or young adults. (waytolive.org; spiritseasons.org; ppj.org; teachingtolerance.org; pcusa.org (youth ministry); methodx; sundaysoftware.com; d365.org; thethoughfulchristian.com; Interfaith Youth Core ifyc.org ). What resources do you find that would be helpful to use in teaching youth or young adults. Feel free to find additional websites.</p><p>2. A research paper on a topic related to youth or young adults. Look at the journal, Religious Education , for a form to use in writing such an article. This option would give you the opportunity to work in depth on an issue which is of interest to you and important in ministry with youth and/or young adults, families and congregational leaders.</p><p>3. Write an annotated bibliography of 10 essential resources in youth ministry.</p><p>4. Parents of youth are sometimes overlooked in congregational ministry. Based on your reading for this class and additional reading from recommended books and websites, propose a program for a year that would seek to offer support, education and ministry with parents of adolescents.</p><p>5. Your church is interested in inviting and welcoming more young adults into its life of worship, work and education. The Christian Education committee has asked you to come and talk with them about who young adults are today and how that relates to their ministry with them. What would you say to this committee? </p><p>6. You have started a blog about youth ministry or young adult ministry. Design and write 5 blogs for use during Advent 2012.</p><p>7. Choose one of these books to read in the area of spirituality/ministry and write a book review following guidelines posted on Moodle. In addition to the review, also write a one page review of the book that you would use in a workshop with youth leaders, on the “youth” page of your church’s website, in your regular email to college students or other young adults. . Dorothy Bass, Don Richer, eds., Way To Live: Christian Practices for Teens, Upper Room Books, 2002. 0835809757</p><p>2 . Soul Tending, Life-Forming Practices for Older Youth and Young Adults, Abingdon, 2002. 068703079X . Tony Jones, Soul Shaper, Exploring Spirituality and Contemplative Practices in Youth Ministry, Youth Specialties, 2003. 031025101X . Joyce Ann Mercer, Girltalk Godtalk, Why Faith Matters to Teenage Girls – and Their Parents, Jossey Bass, 2008. 978-0-7879-7594-4 . Evelyn Parker, Trouble Don’t Last Always, Emancipatory Hope Among African American Adolescents, Pilgrim, 2003. 0829815406 . Carolyn Pogue, A World of Faith, Introducing Spiritual Traditions to Teens, Copper House. . Paul B. Raushenbush, Teen Spirit, One World, Many Paths, Health Communications Inc, 2004. 0737301193 . Don C. Richter, Mission Trips that Matter, Embodied Faith for the Sake of the World, Upper Room, 2008. 9780835899475 . Jana Struková, Kitchen Table Youth Ministry, Inviting God to Dinner, Pilgrim Press, 2010. 9780829818406 . Anne Streaty Wimberly, Keep It Real, Working with Today’s Black Youth, Abingdon, 2005. 0687497027 . Selected chapters from these books: Yust, Johnson, Sasso, Roehlkepartian, eds., Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality: Perspectives from the World’s Religious Traditions, London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006; or Eugene Roehlkepartian, ed., The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence , Sage Publications, 2005. </p><p>8. Propose a project choice to Lib, something you have passion about and want to work on. </p><p>3. Curriculum Writing Project 40% The Thoughtful Christian is an online curriculum resource for youth and adults. The final project for this class involves writing curriculum in the form of sessions on this website (thethoughtfulchristian.com) for the following groups: Younger youth (Grades 6-8), Youth (Grades 9-11), Graduating Seniors (12th grade) , Parents, College Age and Young Adults. Each person will select one group for which to write and one area on which to focus:  In the News  Bible and Theology  Popular Culture  Contemporary Issues  Spirituality  Christian Living</p><p>You will write a leader’s guide for the topic and a short piece or handout for the learner. In addition to writing the resource, each of us will be responsible for reading and critiquing each other’s work. Due date for this project is the Friday before it’s discussed in class.</p><p>3 CLASS SESSIONS September 5 Realities, Possibilities and Challenges of Congregational Ministry WITH Young People Focus: Building our Class Community Class Covenant Individual learning goals Defining the terms Review the syllabus Really Big Questions – identifying issues and concerns A space for silence and reflection</p><p>September 12 Considering Adolescent Development Focus: Who they are and why they are and implications for adults who work with them and congregations who have baptized them, confirmed them, worship with them and serve with them. Reading: . Leaving Home with Faith, Chapters 1 and 2 And two of the following four chapters posted on Moodle:</p><p>. Rodger Nishioka, “Violence, Boy Code, and Schools in Mary Elizabeth Moore, Almeda M. Wright, eds, Children, Youth, Spirituality in a Troubling World, Chalice. . Evelyn Parker, “Sanctified Rage, Practicing Holy Indignation with Teenagers in the Black Church” in in Mary Elizabeth Moore, Almeda M. Wright, eds, Children, Youth, Spirituality in a Troubling World. . Evelyn Parker, Chapter 3, “I’m Mixed, The Politics of Racial Identity,” in Trouble Don’t Always Last. . Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, “The Making of Culture, Identity and Ethnicity among Asian American Youth,” in Asian American Youth, Culture, Identity and Ethnicity. </p><p>September 19 Youth and Religious Identity Focus: Much of the recent literature is focusing not on programs and models of youth ministry but rather on our role in nurturing and supporting the development of “consequential faith” in youth. This session and the next one will help us engage with Dean’s response to the findings of the National Study of Youth and Religion. Reading: . Almost Christian, Chapters 1-5 . “Passing it On” The Christian Century, 10/04/03 Posted</p><p>September 26 Youth and Religious Identity Focus: New ways of thinking about Youth Ministry and the roles of adult leaders Reading: . Almost Christian, Chapters 6-9</p><p>4 . Contemplative Youth Ministry , Practicing the Presence of Jesus or The God Bearing Life October 3 Confirmation/ Commissioning -To and For What? Focus: Review and critique models of confirmation education. Guiding questions: . Who teaches? . What curriculum is used? . In what ways does confirmation education build on previous experiences of Christian education? What educational opportunities follow confirmation? . Expectations of parents? Expectations/commitments of the congregation Reading:  Leaving Home with Faith, Chapter 4  Walter Brueggemann, “Confirmation”, Colloquy.  William Willimon, “Taking Confirmation Out of the Classroom,” Presbyterian Outlook, 03/16/88</p><p>October 8-12 Reading Week</p><p>October 17 Pastoral Care with Youth and Families Focus: Considering the issues of pastoral care which are most immediate with parents and families, adolescents and emerging adults (18-25) Reading: . Leaving Home with Faith, Chapter 3 . G. Wade Rowatt, Adolescents in Crisis, Chapters 1-2 </p><p>And choose 3 articles to read from among these five: 1. Grace Kim, "A Ministry of Self-Identity and Pastoral Care" 2. Evelyn Parker, “I Snapped Man, Teenage Rage” in Trouble Don’t Last Always, Emancipatory Hope Among African American Adolescents 3. Evelyn Parker,ed, The Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls, Parker, Chapter 2, “Gods and Grandmothers: Spiritual Values of Resistance to Racism Among African American Adolescent Girls” 4. Parker, ed, The Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls, Chapter 6, Pat Davis, “Okay with Who I Am: Listening to Lesbian Young Women Talk about their Spirituality” 5. Losers, Loners, and Rebels, The Spiritual Struggles of Boys, Cole, Chapter 3, “Loneliness as a Condition of Boyhood”</p><p>October 24 Curriculum Writing Workshop Focus: Writing curriculum for youth, young adults, parents, teachers using the model of the Thoughtful Christian. Assignment: Visit thethoughtfulchristian.org and look at the foci for the curriculum. Read the sample curriculum available in class and the guidelines for writers. Come to class prepared to indicate an age group for which you would like to write: Youth (9_10th),Older Youth (11-12th), Young Adults – College Age or Post-College, Parents</p><p>5</p><p>6</p><p> by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman Jim & Scott Jerry by</p><p>Dec 5 ______5 Dec</p><p>Nov 28 ______28 Nov</p><p>Nov 14 ______14 Nov</p><p> comments will be made available on Moodle. on available made be will comments</p><p> so everyone will have a chance to read and comment on it. A form for for form A it. on comment and read to chance a have will everyone so</p><p>Post your curriculum on Moodle the Friday before it is discussed in class class in discussed is it before Friday the Moodle on curriculum your Post</p><p>November 14, 28, Dec 5 Curriculum Sharing Curriculum 5 Dec 28, 14, November Articles posted on Moodle on posted Articles</p><p>Reading: Reading: Dear God, sometimes </p><p>Dear God, sometimes </p><p>What are your big questions? What are your dreams? your are What questions? big your are What 4. I think my life is as </p><p>I think my life is as </p><p> faith? hard as a rock. Some </p><p> hard as a rock. Some </p><p>How might the church better engage emerging adults in a life of Christian Christian of life a in adults emerging engage better church the might How</p><p>3. decisions I make are </p><p>Why are they welcomed to do youth ministry? youth do to welcomed they are Why 2. decisions I make are </p><p> so hard to decide. </p><p> ministry of the congregation? congregation? the of ministry so hard to decide. </p><p>Amen. Jeremy </p><p>Why do congregations find it so hard to invite young adults into the life and and life the into adults young invite to hard so it find congregations do Why</p><p>1. Amen. Jeremy Guiding Questions: Guiding Mann</p><p>Mann</p><p> adults</p><p>Implications for congregational and pastoral support of young young of support pastoral and congregational for Implications</p><p> them</p><p>: Implications for congregations which baptized and confirmed confirmed and baptized which congregations for Implications : Focus</p><p>Ministry Ministry</p><p>Young Adults – Mentoring Models and Models for for Models and Models Mentoring – Adults Young 7 November</p><p> adolescence to adulthood? adulthood? to adolescence</p><p>What are young people looking for as they transition from from transition they as for looking people young are What</p><p>Guiding Questions: Questions: Guiding What is emerging adulthood? emerging is What</p><p>Chapters posted on Moodle on posted Chapters Reading:</p><p>Beginning discussion of emerging young adults young emerging of discussion Beginning Focus: October 31 Young Adults – Who They are They Who – Adults Young 31 October Bibliography in Youth and Young Adult Ministry 1. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties, Oxford University Press, 2004. 978019530937 2. Dorothy Bass, Don Richter, eds, Way to Live, Christian Practices for Teens, Upper Room Books, 2002. 3. Michael J. Bradley, Yes, Your Teen is Crazy! Loving Your Kid Without Losing Your Mind, Harbor Press, 2002. 4. Dori Grinenko Baker and Joyce Ann Mercer, Lives to Offer, Accompanying Youth on their Vocational Quest, Pilgrim, 2007. 5. Dori Grienko Baker, Doing Girlfriend Theology: God-Talk with Young Women , Pilgrim, 2005. 6. Lyn Mikel Brown, Carol Gilligan, Meeting at the Crossroads, Women's Psychology and Girl's Development, Harvard University Press, 1992. 7. Patricia Davis, Counseling Adolescent Girls, Fortress, 1996. 8. Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster, The God-Bearing Life, Upper Room Books, 1998. 0835808580 9. Kenda Creasy Dean, Practicing Passion, Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church, Eerdmans, 2004. Soul Tending, Life-Forming Practices for Older Youth and Young Adults, Abingdon, 2002. 10. Robert C. Dykstra, Allan Hugh Cole Jr., Donald Capps, Losers, Loners, and Rebels, The Spiritual Struggles of Boys, W/JKP, 2007. 11. David Elkind, All Grown Up and No Place to Go, Addison-Wesley, 1998 12. Barbara Findlen, Listen Up, Voices from the Next Feminist, Seal Press, 1995. 13. Harry Gardiner, Jay Mutter, Corinne Kosmitzki, Lives Across Cultures, Cross-Cultural Human Development, Allyn and Bacon, 2004. 14. Carol Gilligan, Girls Seen and Heard, Putman, 1998. 15. James Heft, ed, Passing on the Faith, Fordham University Press, 2006. 0823226484 16. Patricia Hersch, A Tribe Apart, A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence, Ballentine. 17.Tony Jones, Soul Shaper, Exploring Spirituality and Contemplative Practices in Youth Ministry, Youth Specialties, 2003. 18. Arthur J. Kukbick, ed., Confirming the Faith of Adolescents, An Alternative Future for Confirmation, Paulist Press, 1991. (OOP) 19. Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, eds., Asian American Youth, Culture, Identity and Ethnicity, Routledge, 2001. 0415946689 20. Nancy Lesko, Act Your Age! A Cultural Construction of Adolescence, Routledge Falmer. 21. William Myers, Becoming and Belonging, A Practical Design for Confirmation, The United Church Press, 1993. 22. Joyce Mercer, GirlTalk/GodTalk: Why Faith Matters to Teenage Girls--and Their Parents, Jossey-Bass, 2008. 23. Mary Elizabeth Moore, Almeda M. Wright, eds, Children, Youth, and Spirituality in a Troubling World, Chalice, 2008. 9780827205130 24. C. Ellis Nelson, Growing Up Christian, A Congregational Strategy for Nurturing Disciples, Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 2008· ISBN-10: 1573125237. 25. Rodger Nishioka, Sowing the Seeds; The Roots of Who We Are; Lynn Turnage, Growing a Group; Bob Tuttle, Growing Leaders, 1998, Bridge Resources. 26. David Ng, People On The Way, Asian North Americans Discovering Christ, Culture and Community, Judson. 27. Peggy Orenstein, SchoolGirls, Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap, Anchor Books, 1994. 28. Carolyn Pogue, A World of Faith, Introducing Spiritual Traditions to Teens, Copper House.</p><p>7 29. Don Richter, Mission Trips that Matter, Embodied Faith for the Sake of the World, Upper Room, 2008. 30. Richard Robert Osmer, Confirmation, Presbyterian Practices in Ecumenical Perspective, Geneva Press, 1996. 31. Evelyn Parker, Trouble Don’t Always Last, Emancipatory Hope Among African American Adolescents, Pilgrim, 2003.The Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls, Hard Stories of Race, Class and Gender, Pilgrim, 2006. 0829816887 32. Sharon Daloz Parks, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams, Mentoring Young Adults in Their Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Faith, Jossey-Bass, 2000. 0787941719 33. Eboo Patel and Patrice Brodeur, eds, , Building the Interfaith Youth Movement, Beyond Dialogue to Action, Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. 9760742550674 34. Linda Perlstein, not much just chillin’, the hidden lives of middle schoolers, Farrar, Straus and 2 Giroux, 2003. 037420882420. 35. Mary Pipher, The Shelter of Each Other, Rebuilding Our Families, Grosset/Putnam Book, 1996. Reviving Ophelia, Saving the Lives of Adolescent Girls, Ballantine, 1994. 36. William Pollock, Real Boys, Owl Books, 1999. 37. Paul B. Raushenbush, Teen Spirit, One World, Many Paths , Health Communications Inc. 0737301193 38. Michael Riera, Joseph De Prisco, Field Guide to the American Teenager, Appreciating the Teenager You Live With, Perseus Publishing, 2000. 39. Eugene Roehlkepartian, Strategic Youth Ministry, Group Publishing. 0766421891 40. Eugene Roehlkepartian, ed., The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence (The SAGE Program on Applied Developmental Science) , Sage Publications, 2005. ISBN: 0761930787 41. Wade Rowatt Jr., Pastoral Care With Adolescents in Crisis, W/JK Press, 1989. 42. Charles M. Shelton, Pastoral Counseling with Adolescents and Young Adults, Crossroad, 1995. 43. Christian Smith, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, Oxford, 2005. Christian Smith with Patricia Snell, Souls in Transition, The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults, Oxford University Pess, 2009. 978-019-537179-6 44. Jon M. Sweeney, Praying with Our Hands, 21 Practices of Embodied Prayer from the World’s Spiritual Traditions, Skylight Paths Publishing, 2000. 1893361160 45. Maren C. Tirabassi, Blessing New Voices, Prayers of Young People and Worship Resources for Youth Ministry, Pilgrim. 46. David White, Practicing Discernment with Youth, Pilgrim. 0829816313 47. James A. Wilde, ed., Confirmed as Children, Affirmed as Teens, Liturgy Training Publications, 1990. 48. Anne Streaty Wimberly, Keep It Real, Working with Today’s Black Youth, Abingdon, 2005. 49. Robert Wuthnow, After the Baby Boomers, How Twenty- and thirty Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion, Princeton University Press, 2007. 9780691127651 50. Karen-Marie Yust, Aoestre N. Johnson, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, Eugene Roehlkepartian, Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality: Perspectives from the World’s Religious Traditions, London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. </p><p>8 9</p>