Immerse | A Journal of Faith, Life, and Youth Ministry

A commentary on Christy Lang Hearlson’s: Models of Ministry

by Jennifer Bradbury on February 28th, 2012 -- filed under

This is an engagement with Christy Lang Hearlson’s Church article in the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of Immerse.  Find this issue here.

As an adolescent in a United Methodist Church, I never lacked female role models in ministry. My church had female directors of Christian education, associate pastors and even senior pastors. Through their example, these women taught me to discover and use my gifts to serve God, both inside and outside the church.

Because I was surrounded by women in ministry throughout my childhood, it never occurred to me to question the validity of this until I entered college and suddenly found myself unable to serve in certain roles at certain churches simply because I was a woman. Typically, these churches claimed to be following the biblical mandate for women in ministry and were careful to say that it wasn’t that I couldn’t serve. It was just that they needed women in specific roles, like teaching children’s Sunday school and leading women’s Bible studies.

Fast forward a few years to when, as a young youth pastor, I was asked to preach on Mary Magdalene in big church. Beforehand, I remember confessing to a male mentor, “It feels like I was asked to give this message because I’m a woman and it’s easier for me to talk about a controversial female character than it is for a man.”

My mentor didn’t disagree and instead said, “But it’s so good for the girls in your youth ministry to…

The Church As Curriculum

by Bethany Stolle on February 21st, 2012 -- filed under

Playing as Learning

This week alone, people will spend more than three billion hours playing online games. The average gamer will play approximately 10,000 hours of online games before the age of 21. That’s about the same number of hours he or she would spend in school from fifth grade through high school graduation—assuming a perfect attendance record!

These are statistics game developer, researcher and author Jane McGonigal highlights in her TED Talk, “Gaming can make a better world.”

While some are disturbed by the increasing amount of time people spend playing online games, McGonigal and others say this move toward “gamification” could change the world. (Gamification is applying techniques from game design to create fun experiences and engage people in solving problems.)

At the most basic level, I think the growing research on gamification points out the limits of how we typically think of learning and education.

Curriculum: A Dirty Word

Take the word curriculum. I’m almost uncomfortable using it. I work in curriculum publishing, and I typically tell people I develop youth ministry resources. Because if I say curriculum, sometimes people feel the need to defend their choice to write their own stuff or try to apologize for adapting pre-published curriculum.

I think that happens because we define curriculum as coursework or a syllabus or a leader guide or a workbook or a video clip (on a good day!). Merriam-Webster doesn’t help us much either. The definition offered in a typical dictionary is: “1:…

The Right Hemisphere of the Brain, Memories and Discipleship

by Aaron Mitchum on February 14th, 2012 -- filed under

The brain has two hemispheres, the right and the left. The left gives rise to language and logic. The right is nonverbal and produces autobiographical memory. So, contrary to popular belief, people are not right or left brained only. True mental health comes from an integrated brain.

Yet my experience of most church gatherings is a left-hemisphere experience. Logic and language rule the communication of biblical application. Even the songs are usually logic based to go along succinctly with the sermon. This is enough to convince me that it’s probably best if we stop preaching so much, especially to our youth.

Discipleship is about people seeking God in a way that helps them recover a sacred memory of what it means for them to be fully human. And, like all memory, it is encoded inside the autobiographical story of the person and the story of God that we share as people of God. Thus, it is important to know how we access those autobiographical memories and the implications that has on youth ministry.

Memories are encoded into our brains for organizational purposes. Our brains can’t constantly be bombarding us with our recent experiences. We’d go crazy if we were constantly remembering everything. Experiences associated with little or no emotion are encoded with little encryption and subsequently lost easily. Like a book with few markings on it in a large library might be. On the other hand, if an experience has excessive emotional arousal associated with it, it often impairs explicit…

For the glory of God

by Claire Smith on February 7th, 2012 -- filed under

Why do we do all that we do if not for the glory of God? Yes. There’s all that goes in between that has to do with the nuts and bolts of our call, but at the end of the day, we are confronted with Jesus’s statement in Matthew 5:14-16:

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Good works matter. In this context, we can think of good works in part as doing what God has called us to do in the area of youth ministry. This is vital. Brain research and other types of developmental research underscore the importance of what happens in the teenage years. Helping youth make that commitment to surrender to God in Christ and to live for God, thus providing a solid foundation for their lives, is a joy and privilege. It is good work.

Many of us can attest that, as we work faithfully, God gives the increase. We encounter former students after some years and see fruit. Or it may be that they contact us and give their testimonies. Somehow, in the midst of our struggles, our blunders, and wonderful moments in youth…

Adam McLane Interview

by Immerse Journal on February 2nd, 2012 -- filed under

Adam McLane needs no introduction to the youth worker crowd.  With his helpful insight into approaches for thinking about technology and his passion for youth ministry and how it fits into the future of the Church, Adam has been shaping youth ministry for years, from both the position of a youth pastor and national youth ministry organizations like Youth Specialties and the Youth Cartel. We’ve loved having Adam on our Immerse team and were stoked to grab a few minutes at NYWC with him.

You can find Adam at: http://adammclane.com/

You can find The Youth Cartel at: http://theyouthcartel.com

And don’t forget to check out Adam’s columns and features in these issues of Immerse:

Nov/Dec 2011 – Adam’s Feature: Open Source Theology

July/Aug 2010 – Adam’s innovations column

 Sep/Oct 2010 – Adam’s Innovations Column

Nov/Dec 2010 – Adam’s Innovations Column

An interview with Steve Argue

by Immerse Journal on January 24th, 2012 -- filed under

Steve Argue has been a part of the Immerse family from the beginning.  His insights into youth ministry are always challenging and worth listening to.  So we were excited to sit down with our friend and talk about some of the articles he has published with Immerse, what his youth staff at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI  are up to and of course #RunningThoughts.

Steve is the Life Development Director at Mars Hill, serving as a member of the Leadership Team; giving oversight to kids, adolescent, emerging adults, and adults teams, and directing Mars Hill’s Internship and Residency Program.

Find Steve’s “Youth Ministry’s Theological Horizons” in the May/June 2010 issue of Immerse 

Find Steve’s Soul Care column in the Nov/Dec 2011 issue of Immerse

An interview with Bethany Stolle

by Immerse Journal on January 17th, 2012 -- filed under

At Immerse we have enjoyed the ability to meet so many quality people in the field of youth ministry. One of those people is Bethany Stolle.  Bethany works at Sparkhouse as a senior developer.  She has been a major part of developing much of the curriculum that Sparkhouse is putting out these days.  Bethany is also an Immerse author and she was a moderator for the Theological Forums at The National Youth Worker Conventions.  We were happy to get a chance to sit down and chat for a moment with Bethany about youth ministry and her work at Sparkhouse.

Find Bethany’s blog at http://bethanystolle.com/

Find Sparkhouse at http://wearesparkhouse.org  

Plus don’t forget to check out the latest issue of Immerse to find Bethany’s article Encountering the Messy Midrash.

An interview with Kenda Creasy Dean

by Erik Leafblad on January 10th, 2012 -- filed under

During the fall of 2011 Immerse was proud to be a sponsor of the Theological Forums at NYWC both in San Diego and Atlanta.  Both forums were exciting opportunities for us to be a part of a conversation that is bolstering the theological turn in youth ministry today.  Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean, as a panelist and Erik Leafblad, as a moderator were important parts of those forums.  In Atlanta Erik got a chance to sit down with his former professor on behalf of Immerse and ask her some questions about her work and her take on the current reality of youth ministry.

Kenda Creasy Dean is an ordained elder in the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference (United Methodist) and professor of youth, church, and culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she works closely with the Institute for Youth Ministry. A graduate of Wesley Theological Seminary, she served as pastor in suburban Washington DC and as Wesley foundation director at the University of Maryland-College Park before coming to Princeton Seminary.

Erik Leafblad is the Director of Ministry Initiatives for Youthfront, focusing on national initiatives such as Something to Eat and the Youthfront School of Formation. Erik has written for a few publications including Immerse Journal, as well as the content developer for Missio (www.missiolife.com). Prior to joining the staff at Youthfront, he was a Youth Pastor in Minnesota. Erik is also adjunct faculty at MidAmerica Nazarene…

“Me Too” – An interview with Brock Morgan

by Brock Morgan on January 3rd, 2012 -- filed under

For six years Brock was a member of the Youth Specialties One-day national speaking team and has been working with students for over 21 years.  He is a popular speaker for camps, retreats, and conferences and has overseen youth ministries in both big and small churches.  He leads the New England cohort for the Youth Ministry Coaching Program with Marko Oestreicher and is currently the youth pastor at Trinity Church in Greenwich, Connecticut where he lives with his wife Kelsey and their lovely daughter.  You can find out more about him, his writings, and his ministry at brockmorgan.com

Recently Immerse sat down with Brock Morgan to talk about the story that led up to him writing the column, “I AM Broken” for the May/June 2011 issue of Immerse. As well as how learning how to operate out of the posture of “me too” has changed his ministry and relationships. Oh and spoiler alert, Brock also told us what the future of youth ministry will be.

Read Brock’s “Going Deeper With The Complexities of Adolescent Spiritual Formation” here.

Buy the May/June 2011 issue of Immerse with Brock’s, Soul Care column, “I Am Broken” here.

Occupy Christmas: Reflections on the Occupy movement – Part II

by Mark Yaconelli on December 22nd, 2011 -- filed under

Maybe the most moving interaction I’ve had with the Occupy movement was in November in Vancouver. I was leading a retreat for youth workers in the United Church of Canada. One night I met up with my friend Blair, a pastor, theologian, and veteran youth worker. Blair took me out to dinner with a group of youth workers who were attending the Youth Specialties National Youth Worker Convention held at the downtown Hyatt Regency. We finished dinner, and I walked with the group back to the Hyatt. On the way, we passed the Occupy Vancouver people, camped across the street on the steps of the provincial courthouse. The temperature was near freezing and the rain coming down heavy. The rag-tag protesters were trying to keep dry beneath makeshift tarps, many standing on wood pallets to keep their feet out of the pooling water. It was a pitiful sight.

My youth worker companions were intrigued by the Occupy folks, so we walked into a tent that had posted a wooden sign reading, Information: We can respond to Where? How?, and What?. But you must answer Why? I walked up to a young woman bundled in a heavy orange parka, her head enclosed in a wool cap with ear flaps. “Can I ask what you’re doing here?”

She laughed and stepped toward me and the small group of youth workers. “Actually, I’m only here two days a week. I have job up in Whistler and only come down…