The Tension Between “Safe Places” and Theological Reflection
Many youth workers speak of their youth ministries as a "safe place," in what has become an increasingly unsafe youth culture. In many ways this is an important and critical task in youth ministry. One of the tasks of adolescence is affinity, the need to belong. These youth workers recognize the crucial need of young people to belong to something, and more specifically to something greater than themselves. Naturally it only makes sense for churches to create and foster an environment where all students can belong. This is a beautiful and unique element of the Gospel, in that it invites all people into the community of faith because Christ’s atonement and resurrection was an invitation for all people. The creating of safe places is a very theological approach to developing healthy youth ministries.
Yet there is a dark side to too much of a focus on creating a safe place as well. Too often our desire for safety and comfort can easily lead to a ministry grounded in simply addressing felt needs. I recently completed a study where I interviewed five youth pastors. One of the questions that I asked each one was, “how do you go about deciding what to teach your students?” In one youth worker's response he said that his teaching topics were usually re-active to issues that his students were dealing with. While it is certainly important to help young people navigate through the challenges of their immediate context, I cannot help but wonder what implications such an approach would have for the theology of which the student is developing. When asked about teaching students another youth worker responded: “I really try to hit on certain aspects like: evangelism, moral rights and wrongs, family structure, sex and purity, really just some of the big basics.” This approach to teaching is less re-active and more based upon core values (or basics) of which hopefully the students will adopt and embody. Yet again, I wonder what kind of theology a student would be developing based upon core values such as morality, purity, and evangelism. These are good and important topics but how are Christian youth ministries helping students develop their own Christology’s, or understanding of the Bible as the inspired word of God, or the Trinity, resurrection, church, and worship[?
Youth workers have the giant task of equipping the church in forming young people in the deep riches and virtues of the kingdom of God. Unfortunately there seems to be a lack of effective theological reflection in youth ministry today, and too often the result has become what Christian Smith, author of Soul Searching, refers to as “therapeutic moralistic deism.” Safe places, and felt-need teachings must certainly be important elements of youth ministry, but they cannot be the only elements. Youth workers must engage the students in the grand metanarrative of creation, fall, redemption, and re-creation, inviting them into the story of God and discovering within it their own story. Though in his interview one youth worker spoke of more felt-need core values, he also referred to graduating students “who are filled with awe, wonder, and passion for God.” What a beautiful mission for youth workers, to seek to guide students into a passionate, awe-inspiring, wonder-filled relationship with their Creator and Sustainer! May we as youth workers strive to guide our students into a deeper and richer understanding of what it means to passionately follow Jesus in the midst of a dangerous world.
Posts
