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Box 30183 Portland, Oregon 97294 USA Website: www.tren.com E-mail: [email protected] Phone# 1-800-334-8736 ___________________________ A STRATEGY FOR ENGAGING STUDENTS IN SPIRITUAL FORMATION FOR THE FALLS CHURCH THAT REVERSES SYSTEMIC ABANDONMENT A MINISTRY FOCUS PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY JAMES BYRNE MAY 2012 A Strategy for Engaging Students in Spiritual Formation for The Falls Church that Reverses Systemic Abandonment Jim Byrne Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2012 The purpose of this paper is to develop a theologically informed and contextually sensitive plan for healthy youth praxis within The Falls Church, which attempts to address the systemic abandonment of adolescence such that the adult community assimilates and adopts youth into the life of the church through positive relationships. The Falls Church is a historic, growing Anglican Church located in Northern Virginia. Four years ago, the congregation voted to re-align denominational affiliation ties from the United States Episcopal Church to CANA, The Coalition of Anglicans in America. Student ministry of The Falls Church has grown numerically in the past three years and has had a rich history of outreach and discipleship youth work in the Washington D. C. suburbs since the 1970s, yet has not fully addressed the adoption and assimilation of young people by the adults in the community. The culture of youth assimilation is desired by the senior pastor and church leadership, but not practiced to the extent needed to support adolescents in a healthy way. Youth ministry is a high priority of The Falls Church. The Washington D. C. suburbs create a high expectation for youth to perform academically, athletically, and to excel in social status. This seems to drive families into a fast-paced lifestyle, and these values are carried over into our church community. The cultural fragmentation of the family interjects this value into our community. With its rich history, the diverse educational components create a fragmented program and unintentionally work against the development of biblical community. The desire for the congregation to be a “family of families,” is undermined by the effective development of the separate ministries.1 Young people have been delegated to their own program and miss the blessings of intergenerational ministry. Theological Mentor: Kurt Fredrickson, PhD Words: 288 1 Dennis B Guernsey, New Design for Family Ministry (Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications Ministries International, 1982), 100. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE: MINISTRY CONTEXT Chapter 1. SYSTEMIC ABANDONMENT OF ADOLESCENTS 7 Chapter 2. CONSEQUENCES OF ABANDONMENT IN SOCIETAL SETTINGS 30 Chapter 3. PERSPECTIVE ON THE FALLS CHURCH YOUTH WORK 60 PART TWO: FOUNDATIONS Chapter 4. THE RELATIONSHIPS OF A HEALTHY CHURCH COMMUNITY 87 Chapter 5. IMPARTATION AND DISCIPLESHIP: THE METHODOLOGY OF RELATIONAL COMMUNICATION 121 PART THREE: STRATEGY Chapter 6. HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS IN THE CHURCH FOR THE ADOLESCENT 133 Chapter 7. A HEALTHY PROGRAM OF MINISTRY THAT REVERSES THE ABANDONMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE 152 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 167 APPENDICES 173 BIBLIOGRAPHY 175 iii INTRODUCTION Anyone who has worked with youth for more than twenty years would agree youth work is not what it used to be. “Old” youth workers reminisce that there was a time when the building was packed, programs were full and the youth were much more respectful and engaged. Strong Young Life Clubs were in the hundreds and church youth groups were active and flourishing. Whether it was the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s, I am not sure, but it is not like it used to be. For the most part, youth work in churches has become professionalized and adults who serve in this vocation have more resources and church-wide support than ever. Youth Ministry majors are developing all over the country. Several seminars and events are attracting thousands of youth workers to help them gain new ideas and encouragement. Some church youth room facilities rival entertainment centers with multiple large-screen televisions and media experiences that would never have been dreamed of in the 1970s. Many senior pastors of large churches in America were youth pastors decades ago and desire to see youth work as a high priority in their churches, as they promised themselves if they ever got to those positions. Youth ministry books fill the shelves of youth workers grasping for that one idea, one key, to developing a “successful youth ministry.” The examples have mostly failed them. Churches of four hundred people cannot replicate a Willow Creek or Saddleback. 1 An article from USA Today was left on my desk last fall, titled “‘Forget the Pizza Parties,’ Teens Tell Church” dated August 11th, 2010.1 I read it quickly2 and at first missed that a former member of my youth group was quoted in it. It explained to me why he had not returned my numerous phone calls last year. He told how he no longer believed in Christ and was not interested in church. This is just one of many publications that expresses this disconnect of youth to congregations all over America. Other publications are titled, Generation Ex-Christian: Why Young Adults Are Leaving the Faith . And How to Bring them Back;3 Already Gone: Why Your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can Do To Stop It;4 and The Last Christian Generation.5 Young people across America are spending more time with their computers and much less time with their youth groups.6 From the titles of these publications alone, it can be seen that there is a clear disconnect of youth and congregations. The purpose of this ministry focus paper is to point out areas where adults abandon young people and determine some of the consequences of this abandonment. A plan will be introduced to reverse this disenfranchisement of young people by providing them with a healthy youth ministry. The youth ministry of The Falls Church will be 1 Cathy Lynn Grossman and Stephanie Steinberg, “‘Forget the Pizza Parties’ Teens tell Churches," USA Today (August 11, 2010), http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-08-11- teenchurch11_ST_N.htm (accessed January 22, 2011). 3 Drew Dyck, Generation Ex-Christian: Why Young Adults are Leaving the Faith...and How to Bring Them Back (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2010). 4 Ken Ham, Britt Bemmer and Todd Millard, Already Gone: Why Your Kids will Quit Church and What You Can do to Stop It (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2009). 5 Josh McDowell, The Last Christian Generation (Holiday, FL: Green Key Books, 2006). 6 In Grossman and Steinberg’s article, they quoted David Kinnaman, President of the Barna Group, as saying “Talking to God may be losing out to Facebook." 2 targeted in attempting to push back this abandonment and integrate young people relationally into the life of the community of the church. My youth ministry training instructed me repeatedly that Scripture is the message book and the method book.7 It is the message book that communicated the journey of redemption. As stated in the first chapter of Isaiah, though humanity’s sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. God has provided a way for humankind to receive redemption though Jesus Christ. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Redemption is for sinners and anyone can be redeemed. Scripture is also the method book, showing dynamic, real relationships that the people of Israel had with their children, Paul had with his churches, and Jesus had with his disciples. The methods are shown years later as the Church attempts to communicate this message to a generation that is alone and frustrated by the unmet needs storing up inside and out. Youth ministers may ask how Jesus cared for this group of men; how Paul related to his converts and gave himself to them; and how the law will be communicated to the next generation. I believe that the method of youth ministry needed today is one of investing in lives of young people and battling against their experience of adult abandonment. To reverse this systemic abandonment and disconnection is a needed goal in local congregations. This is not easy, and to be done with Christ-centered relationships that cannot be taught by an outline, booklet or seminar. It is to be handed down person to person, group to group, within the context of a healthy intergenerational community of 7 Lois Lebar, Focus on People in Christian Education (Grand Rapids, MI: Revell Books, 1968), 47. 3 faith. Local churches need to embrace a philosophy within an active youth program that integrates young people into the life of a church. The period known as adolescence has seemed to increase in years. Although causality is difficult to determine, the lifestyles of American families and cultural social settings have contributed to the extension of the youth experience (adolescence) into the late twenties. The marginalization of young people may have contributed to their loss of identity and autonomy. They are lacking intergenerational community and seem to only look to their peers for answers. I am reminded of a scene in the recent movie, Juno.8 After this young high school girl Juno has gone (alone) several times to purchase a pregnancy test at the local drug store and finds it to read positive again, she calls her best girlfriend. The first adult in the movie she sees has no compassion at all and seems to mock her in a mean-spirited way.