Spent 3 days up in Seattle this weekend with friends attending the Association of Youth Ministry Educators Conference. I know that probably doesn’t sound like a big party but it was great. I’m biased I know because a bunch of my friends were there and I enjoyed being with them. I also like the format of the conference where someone gives a lecture/paper and there is always a response from someone else. Sort of a mini debate which pushes all of us to think. If you are in the Youth Ministry world at all you will recognize some of these great folks. Jeff Keuss, Andy Root, Mike King, Kenda Dean, Mark Matlock, Dave Rahn, Les Christie, Bethany Stolle, Tony Jones, Andrew Zirschky, Jason Santos, Chap Clark, Brad Griffin, Duffy Robbins, Amy Jacober and more. There were 120+ of us representing pretty much every institution that teaches youth ministry.
I am particular excited about the direction that Youth Ministry Education seems to be going. In my opinion we are seeing 2 trends emerging that are shaping what we do.
1. There is a distinct turn towards a deeper theological reflection. This seems to be stemming from Princeton Seminary and Luther Seminary and the folks involved there. Kenda Dean and Andy Root’s book The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry. Is a great place to start engaging in that discussion.
2. There is a greater awareness of the need for different disciplines to be engaged in the world of youth ministry. Chap Clark is one of my mentors and professors from Fuller Seminary. He along with Kara Powell and Brad Griffin and the Fuller Youth Institute are really pushing the boundaries of this and engaging different disciplines together to dialogue through how to best teach and reach students. Just go to Amazon and look up Sticky Faith and you’ll get a couple of great resources that show how they are committed to using their research to help shape this discussion.
Another thing that I am particularly stoked about was the way Youth Specialties is working to reengage the academy and some of these theologians. Part of what is happening this year are some of the theological panels and cafes that YS is putting on at the National Youth Workers Conventions. Many of these educators and theologians and academic institutions will be represented there and that’s a great place to engage with these folks. Mark Matlock the president of YS announced at the event that YS has a new publishing arrangement with Zondervan and that they are committing 20% of the books they publish within that agreement to be from the category YS Academic. This is a great step and will help the academy get it’s resources into the hands of youth workers.
That’s it. Academics can be fun.
Wow…never thought I would hear the day when we academics would be called “fun.”
Seriously, thanks for being there and I’m glad you found the conference helpful. Your participation helps push us to remember that all of this is about what happens “on the ground” of youth ministry, not just in theory.
Maybe next year you’ll submit a paper proposal. Would love to see that.
You’ll get a paper proposal from me for sure next year. It was great to be with you all