A Missional Theology for Youth Ministry: Series

This is my second attempt to devote myself to a project here on Leaf-blog. We'll see how it goes the second time around. This first post is an introductory post. Before I lay out where I'm going with this series, I want to give a little background on why I'm attempting what I am.

In my M.Div. program I was introduced to missional theology, and have been interested in exploring its terrain since (I'm using missional as an organizing category, but will be including theology that doesn't necessarily refer to itself as such). Through the process of discerning my call, I ended up in youth ministry, and wrote an admittedly entree-like thesis on youth ministry in the missional church. I want to revisit some ideas from my thesis, but taking a different approach, somewhat. Rather than simply theoretically imagine how youth ministry might be reconceived for the missional church, I'm going to try and develop a practical missional theology for youth ministry in conversation with my current practices of youth ministry. Hopefully this will be rewarding for me, as well as for others. I will take a look at the various elements to our youth ministry, and critically interact with each by bringing missional theological analysis to bear on them. My hope throughout this series is that it will spark some discussion about how we might faithfully be the church, especially in youth ministry, and, a bit more personally, it will hopefully provide me a needed outlet for theological discussion.

By way of introduction, I will point out that I will avoid using the category "Missional Youth Ministry." One of the problems now inherent in the word missional is that it has come to mean almost too many things to too many different people. However, I think that if you really take a strong look at the theologians influencing those who kind of started this whole "missional" discussion, it is a way of organizing a theology, a way of talking about the church. In other words, I'm not sure its appropriate to talk about missional youth ministry, missional small groups, etc. That is why I'm titling the series "A Missional Theology for Youth Ministry." This part of my argument I hope will become more clear as I go.

So, if there's anyone out there, I hope this can be a fruitful dialogue for all of us. Later this week, look for a provisional outline for the series.