Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
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.
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- Explores the origins of a dominant ministry model for evangelicals.
- Recasts relational ministry as an opportunity to stand with and for those in need.
- Presents Jesus as a living person.
In Andrew Root’s debut, he has produced a book that every youth worker (and every sponsor, volunteer, parent and pastor) should read. With incisive thinking and articulate writing, Root argues that relationships are not a means to a goal--they are the goal. He treats history fairly, develops a compelling Christology and shows how Christ is present within human relationships. Without hyperbole, I predict this book will change the face of Christian youth ministry.
--Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village (www.emergentvillage.org) and author of The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier
Andy Root has unveiled the most significant challenge in youth ministry today--unconditional relationships. Too often we use relationships to achieve our goals and in the process abandon teenagers when those goals are not achieved. Andy has brilliantly laid before us an essential course correction for relational youth ministry that is faithful to the incarnation of Jesus.
--Mark W. Cannister, professor of youth ministries, Gordon College
Andrew Root combines biblical studies, history, sociology and theology in a well-researched mix that, I hope, will drive our youth ministry thought and practice. In a day and age when every youth ministry practitioner owes it to the One who first modeled incarnational ministry and to the kids we serve to be thoughtful about what we do, this is a book that will get you thinking about what you’re doing.
--Dr. Walt Mueller, president, Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, and author of Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture