NextGenKent

Re-Imagining Youth Ministry :a blog mentorship experiment Yesterday I was visiting with a Senior Pastor and Youth Pastor of a church here in a small town in Oklahoma. I am coaching them and will be working with them to train some of their youth workers. These folks desire to be church B. They have a missional approach to ministry that to some, feels less flashy than the average youth ministry. So the youth pastor (let's call him Nate) was talking to the youth pastor down the street, who is in his 50's. As Nate was describing his ministry to this older youth pastor this is what the other youth pastor said to him.  "You send me your kids who want to have fun and I'll send you my kids who want to learn."--posted by Gerald Fees I totally get this. I just turned 50. I was raised under youth ministry professors who tried finding the balance to give to use youth ministry and Christian ed students, but hey, we were college students and we were already all about f...

Michael Frost shared in an interview* about his book, Incarnate, discussed what the Church can do to counter the "defleshing" character of today's digitized culture. He speaks about the "excarnation" of our disembodied social networking and how it contributes to such things as violence and porn. "My concern is that many people don't think hard enough about the way technology is shaping interpersonal relationships," Frost states, and believes "we need to live fully embodied existence, in community, and in place."    I totally resonate with what Frost is saying not only by observation in the church I worship in but also in my own home. I personally do not believe the worship service is a place where we allow our children to sit next to playing a game or having earbuds in on a device. You might disagree that this is no different than writing, drawing, coloring, but I see a big difference. You can listen to what is being said while doi...