COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is designed to help students develop a biblical theology of youth ministry centered on the person of Christ. With one eye on Jesus’ 1st century context and the other eye on the 21st century context of youth ministry, students will discern Christological patterns for life and ministry. Case studies and literature from the fields of theology and youth ministry will be used to help students lead youth ministries that live out the presence of Christ in their respective contexts. (3 credits)
 

A WORD FROM DAVE. . .

This course is designed to help students further develop a practical theology of youth ministry centered on the person of Christ. With one eye on Jesus’ 1st century context and the other eye on our 21st century contexts, students will discern Christological patterns for life and ministry. Case studies and literature from the fields of theology, missiology and youth ministry will be used to help students lead youth ministries that live out the presence of Christ in their respective contexts.

I can’t think of many things I enjoy talking about more than the connections between Jesus and how we do ministry. We all know Jesus should be central to how we minister to students. But what does that really mean? How does his 1^st Century example shape the way we shepherd families, plan events, and navigate the never-ending changes in youth culture?

The world in which Jesus ministered was radically different from the places where we serve. And Jesus was God. Yet clearly he can’t be irrelevant to how we go about doing student ministry.

This course won’t be prescribing any one model as “the” way to do Jesus-like ministry. I promise you that. But we will explore how Jesus’ first century ministry sheds light upon what we do day-to-day. And together, we’ll seek to learn from the diversity of youth ministry models that are taken from the life of Christ. We’ll seek to discern patterns that emerge from a careful study of Christ’s 1^st Century life.

The sentiment of the course is captured by these words by N.T. Wright:

“The church has so often read the Gospels as the teaching of timeless truths that it has supposed that Jesus did something for his own day and that we simply have to do the same to teach the same truths or to life the same way for our own day. Jesus, on this model, gave a great example; our task is simply to imitate him. By itself that is a radical denial of the Israel-centered plan of God and of the fact that what God did in Jesus the Messiah was unique, climactic, and decisive. People who think like that sometimes end up making the cross simply the great example of self-sacrificial love instead of the moment within history when the loving God defeated the powers of evil and dealt with the sin of the world, with our sin, once and for all…But the foundation [Jesus] laid does indeed provide the pattern, the shape, the basis” for our mission.
(p. 181 in The Challenge of Jesus)

 I look forward to learning together!

YL 517 REGISTRATION DEADLINE:  December 15, 2008

YL 517 major assignments: 

• Read and discuss about 500 pages before class

• Write a 4-5 page critical analysis of a youth ministry model based upon the life of Christ (Sonlife, Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry, etc.)

• Some additional reading (300 pages?)

• Final project (15-20 pages)--TBA

 Additional YL 517 details are available to registered students only.