COURSE DESCRIPTION

Students will investigate the history of youth ministry in order to discover and evaluate leadership models and their effects.  Using theories and methods drawn from history, theology, cultural studies, and the social sciences they will learn to explain how and why changes occur in the lives of young people and through them, in the church and in society.  They will also learn to identify and evaluate the unintended consequences that accompany every youth ministry leadership decision.  In addition, students will employ these interpretive skills to evaluate specific youth ministry leadership decisions and predict their consequences. (3 credits)

A WORD FROM PROFESSOR CANNISTER…

The difference between success and failure, faithfulness and fraudulence, effectiveness and inadequacy in every aspect of life and ministry can always be traced back to leadership and the decisions leaders make (or fail to make). Historically, we gain tremendous insights into leadership through studying the turning points in the history of ministry and the church.  Using such insights from the past to analyze the challenges of contemporary ministry can lead to the discovery of alternative strategies, predictable consequences of change, and ultimately help us deliver maximum impact for kingdom work with young people.

In the sobering words of Andy Stanley: Your ministry is perfectly designed to achieve the results you are currently getting. So it has been down through the ages. Becoming more effective (how ever you define that) always requires change and change is always brought about by wise leadership and wise leadership always strives to embraces lessons from the past that will propel ministry into the future. With that in mind, the dynamic interaction of course participants will assist all of us (me included) in critically analyzing and interpreting the history, theory, and practice of student ministry leadership.

The great promise of a graduate course is the adventure in problem-solving that we will encounter together.  I do not have all the answers to your questions—this I promise. But, together we have the opportunity to explore cooperatively the rich fabric of youth ministry past, present and future. I won’t be prescribing any particular model of leadership or ministry (though I have some strong opinions) rather my goal is to lead you through a process as together we learn from the diversity of leadership and ministry models that have been employed over the last century.

 YL 510 REGISTRATION DEADLINE: March 9, 2009

YL 510 major assignments:

• Read two books and various articles before class meetings in Denver and participate in on-line discussions concerning the readings.

• Read one book and various articles following the class meetings in Denver and participate in on-line discussions concerning the readings.

• Write a Research Paper on topic of your interest (12-15 pages).

 Additional YL 510 details are available to registered students only.