Tony Jones writes on Postmodern Youth Ministry

This last week the Generations in Conversation course took a look at Tony Jones’ book, Postmodern Youth Ministry, published by Youth Specialties and Zondervan, 2001. Exploring cultural shift, cultivating authentic community and creating holistic connections.

Postmodern Youth Ministry

The first thing we noticed about the book was the layout. There’s more white space than most books – which gives the reader more scope for engaging with the text that’s there. We found ourselves engaging with bites, quotes and vignettes rather than attempting to read the chapter from start to end. There’s an element of randomness to the selection and placement of graphics. There’s a strong connection with the feel achieved by Douglas Coupland in his first edition of the novel, Generation X.

The second thing we noticed was the interactive nature of the book. Tony gave his manuscript to colleagues and included their responses in the end product.

Contributors were Rudy Carrasco (Urban Onramps & Harambee Ministries), Brad Cecil (Axxess), Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill, Seattle), Dan Kimball (Vintage Faith), Brian McLaren (Cedar Ridge), Sally Morgenthaler (Sacramentis), Doug Pagitt (Solomons Porch), Kara Powell (Fuller Theological Seminary), Leonard Sweet, Pete Ward (Kings College London) and Mike Yaconelli (died in October 2003).

Tony Jones

Tony’s blogging over at Theoblogy and The Emergent Theological Conversation. He’s studying towards his doctorate in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and is part time National Director of Emergent USA. He’s the author of three other books, Read. Think. Pray. Live., Soul Shaper, and The Sacred Way:Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life.

So what’s Tony saying about postmodernity and postmodernism? He says that Gen-Xers are the cusp generation in relation to postmodern values. The Millennials however are studying in an environment with ‘full-blown, no-holds-barred postmodern thought”. He points to the postmodern ethos being displayed in the work of song writers, television and movie producers and advertising executives. That made a lot of sense when we considered the nature of the television advertising we’d been looking at. The Three “We Like Music” ads and the XBox 360 “Jump In” ads seemed to flow from a postmodern approach to narrative rather than linear product obsession.

Tony gives an ‘incomplete in-progress’ list of values of emerging postmodern culture versus the values of the modern/Enlightenment era:
1. Experiential rather than Rational
2. Spiritual rather than Scientific
3. Pluralistic rather than Unanimity
4. Relative rather than Exclusive
5. Altruistic rather than Egocentric
6. Communal rather than Individualistic
7. Creative rather than Functional
8. Environmental rather than Industrial
9. Global rather than Local
10. Holistic rather than Comparmentalized/Dichotomized
11. Authentic rather than Relevant

In response we wondered how much we were seeing a ‘versus factor’. It seemed to us that there was more a shift of focus and emphasis. For all the focus on ‘communal’ we were seeing as much individualism as ever in the ways that people made decisions about their futures. We could see evidence of global and local going alongside each other. Perhaps we needed to factor in the approach taken by Leonard Sweet in which he combined global and local to make glocal. What would the other ten look like if we did the same?

We liked Kara Powell’s thought:
“It would indeed be terrifying to worship a God we could figure out. The enigmas, mysteries, and antinomies of God are what make him God. Without these, he would be just a very cool guy.”

Hmm. We had to find a decent dictionary (online) to find out what antinomies meant. It refers to several laws or constants that are held together even though they may seem to contradict each other.

However we noted that many young people we were dealing with did not fit into the fascination with mysticism, acceptance of ambiguity and comfort with diversity associated with postmodernism. One workshop participant talked about the hunger for concrete approaches to God, life and everything. In another post I’ll explore the connection we made between James Fowler’s stages of faith work and the emergence of postmodern values.

Tony finishes by saying that ‘Relational’ remains as a constant. He writes that “there is new room in our faith for experience, for mysticism, and for mystery. We can recover the story as the great conveyer of truth, and we can use it to great effect just as Jesus did. We can welcome people into a journey instead of getting them to assent to an oversimplified version of the gospel and recite a three-sentence prayer.”

True.

2 Replies to “Tony Jones writes on Postmodern Youth Ministry”

  1. Hi Duncan,

    I have been popping in for a squiz at your site every now and then. As a youth ministry consultant myself, I was surprised at your groups comment regarding their experiences of young people’s relating to God in terms of the mystical etc. I would agree accept to say that the young people that I encounter in my work, (and I work cross denominationally and with young people in non-Christian circles)aren’t demonstrating these things from the angle I might. What I mean by that is, while the more mystical side of God (as well as the other things you quote from Powell) conjours up certain things in our mind, I wonder if we have missed the mark on what the young people might think or call it. Perhaps we think they aren;t into that when in fact they are, but they wouldn’t call it mystical because of the historical connotations that go with it. So when I meet with a young person in youth detention who seeks to engage in journey with God rather than try and sum him all up on day one (as particularly we in evangelical circles are prone to promote!) he calls that journey. I call that a more mystic (and Christ-like!) approach to faith. I’m not sure I am making sense of what I want to say (mystical perhaps!?!)… we should do coffee in the New Year. I live in Bris-Vegas and do stuff on the G.Coast from time to time. What’s say we go for a coffee sometime? Drop me a line. Cheers.
    Mark G
    thegladman@gmail.com

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