Jacksonville-July 12-17-$205

Soul in the City is going on its 8th year in ministry and is a week long, AMiA middle and high school mission trip for students desiring to experience reaching the lost in their own backyard. The staff of Soul in the City is committed to exposing teenagers to a mission field that is not across a body of water, but in the same country they invest in every day. As a part of Soul in the City, students will have the opportunity to participate in *various work projects, including an outreach surfing ministry, VBS for vacationers, inner-city ministries, skateboarding ministry, and working on homes and churches in the local communities. Soul in the City ends on Friday evening with a special celebration designed just for the campers. This mission is for the AMiA student who is just realizing who Jesus is or who’s loving Him more and more every day.

contact information for Soul in the City:
Paul Morales 904-294-5670 and paul@newgracechurch.com

The Truth of the God’s word was under attack in America, and these third world missionaries rescued us from what is being described as a “spiritual genocide,” that was occurring without our knowledge.

After reading this book, I am honored to work within an organization that has stood firm in the truth. The leadership of Bishops Kolini, Rucyana, and so many here in our own country are an inspiration to us all. Through their guidance and love Americans are able to begin the journey back to truth, and stand firm in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. — bo bartlett

The book starts out looking through how youth ministry started and how it grew through the ages. YM 1.0 is fairly well portrayed and YM 2.0 is so honestly portrayed that it is painful at times to think that many youth ministries still operate under that ideology. Those are just precursors to what Oestreicher is getting at, though, and that is YM 3.0.

Mark has made it pretty clear that he isn’t proposing a new formula for youth ministry with this book. Instead, this book takes a “where we might go” kind of approach. I would have to say that I was happy with the outcomes and with how he expressed each stage of youth ministry through the years. There are many possible areas that are pointed out. I especially liked the ideas of a communional group and multiple youth groups within a youth ministry. The communional thought is based around teens desires for a more ancient expression of our faith applied to a more contemporary format. There is also the idea that youth ministries might be better suited to having multiple meetings that draw from affinities within the ministry. Either way, the book is a more vague idea of where we might be headed. Some people will no doubt be frustrated by the lack of concrete direction in the book, but that really isn’t what it is trying to accomplish.

This would be a great book for a youth pastor to get his senior pastor so that he understood why the ministry wasn’t like it was 10 or 20 years ago. This would also be a great book for a veteran who is trying to re-imagine what they do or try new things. It would also be a great book for someone new to ministry who is just trying to figure the whole thing out. I guess it would be a great book for lots of people.

What I like:
— The Cover (just looks good, unlike a lot of youth ministry books designed by ADD graphic artists)
— Quotes from people in the trenches ( a lot of good sound bytes)
— The examples from the past are really great in showing how really wrong some of the stuff we used was and yet how well it worked.
— The last two chapters I would say that everyone in youth ministry need to have in their face almost every day they plan anything in youth ministry.
— It’s short, so almost anybody can finish it in a day. No beating around the bush.
— It has a Facebook site already up to discuss it. Seriously could be something cool if people are willing to be honest.

What I didn’t like:
Not much, but…
— It was short (I know, I liked that it was short, but I really want to flesh this whole book out some more)
— I think the possibilities pointed to could be fleshed out more. There could be more options than what is offered for the preferred future (though I don’t think it could necessarily be done by one guy, even if it is Mark).
— I was thinking more and more about individual guys and how their gifting fits into where youth ministry will go in the future. I would love to hear more about that, though again, that might be beyond the scope of this book.

In a nutshell, I think this is an important book for youth ministry. I put it in the same category as Jim Burn’s The Youth Builder and Walt Mueller’s Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture, both of which I recommend to anyone in youth ministry who hasn’t read them. Way to go Mark, now let’s get some ideas flying and hear some stories of attempts in 3.0.

Get Youth Ministry 3.0: A Manifesto of Where Weve Been, Where We Are & Where We Need to Go from Amazon 

The following PDF resources may be helpful to you this Lenten season (and beyond) as you consider how to encourage your family to walk with Christ.

Of special note for Lent is the third resource for Family Sabbath 2009.
— Love and Logic
— Building Families of Faith
— AMIA Family Sabbath 2009 - Lenten Discipline Ideas
— A Family Plan by Rob Rienow

The problem I’m thinking of is one that I don’t think either the early church nor Christendom has faced yet. That is a people inoculated to the gospel.

By my understanding, inoculation is a small taste of something that keeps you from getting it full blown. Flu inoculations give you just enough of the flu so that you build up antibodies against it and therefore are prepared to fight it off should you encounter it in the wild. I think that is what has happened to the church. There are many different ways this plays out, but essentially by reducing the gospel to what happens to us when we die, by making Christianity into a decision to “ask Jesus into your heart” that is a one time assent, Christianity has been inoculated from receiving a good news for them where they are know and in the afterlife.

More later.

In the crisis, I began to see something that became one of my biggest convictions. I didn’t have the budget to have big events for the youth minstry, so I began to pray asking God what he would have me do. The answer was an undeniable call to discipleship. Not what I had always thought of discipleship - small groups, going through a book or Bible study - but instead an investment into the lives of the youth I had attracted with programs. It was different from what the church was used to and caused some raised eyebrows, but I was convinced that it was the direction we needed to go. Using that plan it didn’t cost any money, it didn’t have to commit any resources, it would bring people together unlike the groups that had been meeting. It met all the needs of the ministry and only had a few percieved draw backs (predictability, concrete and measurable goals, etc.).

Eventually, I was asked to leave that church, though I’m not sure if it was all based on this idea or not. I don’t bear tham any grudge, they were just going in a different direction than I was. That direction, though, is where I think a lot of churches are findign themselves. Apart from resources and money, without being able to provide great meeting places and the newest curriculum, churches will have to become much more intentional in how they do discipleship. They don’t actually have to, though I don’t see any better way.

So if I were a prophet, which I am not, I would tell the church to stop ordering curriculum from people who have figured out how to reach their group, stop sinking huge amounts of money into attractional programs, stop spending lots of money on things and start developing an idea of how God will reach the people of your area. Jesus chose to invest in a few to make an impact through millenia. The monetary cost was low. The kingdom payoff was priceless.

Is theology wrong?
No, for almost everyone in our time, it is the way we learn to listen to God. Even people who don’t study theology, they form one for themselves. The problem I have with theology, or any doctrine for that matter, is in it’s adherence to be perfect. I don’t believe in relative truth, but I don’t think there are many things that we understand absolutely either.

The big problem with theology is when people use it, worship it, proselytize it instead of  Jesus. If it is a substitute for the presence of God in our lives and our faith in the person of Jesus, then it’s an idol.

Is listening better?
At the same time, I don’t think that throwing theology out and just focusing on listening is much better. Of course, all Christians try to listen to God, but it is an imperfect hearing. The church has probably been just as hurt by individual’s insistence on perfect hearing or the infamous “word from the Lord” as any other problem of the church. I have over 15 years and thousands of dollars invested in learning how to listen, and I would never imply that my hearing is close to perfect.

What both of these methods, taken out of balance, contend with is arrogance and a lack of patience. The solution is complex and I am not sure I know what it is, but I do have my own checklist. The biggest way I keep myself in check from a raging arrogance that I am completely capable of and an impatience I feel persistently in my life is community.

Community that works bars the door of heresy and arrogance by accounting for individual’s ideas in theology and in individual ideas in hearing from God. It also promotes the patience required to sit with God and ask again. To get confirmation in what I hear and hear about what I think.

For me personally and for most of the people I associate with, we need to listen more. Theology is always happening and I need to continue with it, but I need to put down the books more and go skip some smooth stones across a quiet creek and hear that whisper in my soul that calls to deep.

Hearing comes from the word
Church would look a lot different if this were true. Instead of being universities that taught theology, the church would be a place that listened together to what God is saying and what he is doing in each of our lives. Worship would be more of a time of hearing what God is doing and being blessed and encouraged by each other’s stories. Ancient practices like Lectio Divina would become more regular.

My own personal Jesus
Our relationship with God would become more personal as we wouldn’t wrap our heads around these facts about God, but instead would spend more time with him. The church would learn to rely on each other more and help each other.

Patience is a virtue
People would have to wait until God told them something before acting, rather than having to press on and make decisions like our society teaches. In the church, we would have to wait more and do less. It would be anti-culture rather than relevant seeking culture (meaning, trying to catch up to where culture is leading).

Church would be much different, but it would still be necessary and beneficial. The mission of the church would move from telling everyone what they think to asking people to listen. God could speak for himself. It would also allow for a more incarnational way of life. Evangelism would move from memorized phrases and vague references to the death benefit to a personal good news that is in this life and the next.

Now, if I can just figure out how to get there.