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

Going Deeper With “Life Outside The Big Top”

by Brian Kirk on May 3rd, 2012 -- filed under Church

I began my career in youth ministry at the ripe old age of 22. Looking back, I’m fairly certain the church hired me primarily because I looked like their idea of a youth minister: young, male, thin, sporting a goatee. The trouble was, I had no idea what I was doing. Though I’d spent my whole life in the church, I had no training in leadership and very little background for working with youth other than a four-year college degree in psychology. Still, I graciously accepted their title of director of youth ministries and did the only thing I could think to do—emulated the youth ministry of my experience.

I quickly filled the calendar with lock-ins, game nights, outings to the movies, road trips, bowling and pizza parties. Whatever it took to keep the teens happy and entertained, I was more than willing to do. Join them for a sledding party on a school snow day? Sure. Dress up in some crazy costume for a Halloween party? No problem. Though I’m loath to admit it, my younger self perfectly fit Benjer McVeigh‘s image of the youth minister as clown.

I think I finally realized this distinction one Sunday as we hosted a whole series of messy group games in the church parking lot. There was no spiritual content to this event. It was simply a way to attract a lot of teens. It worked. I knew that on Monday morning I was going to be able to give a great…

Going Deeper With Brandon Winstead’s “Discovering God’s Grace”

by Nathan Didlake on September 12th, 2011 -- filed under Theology

I am woefully afraid of board games. My idea of a good time is sitting back with my pals, eating, talking and laughing. But when someone brings out a board game, my lungs collapse. My skin goes pallid. And my stomach wrenches into a putrid explosion of awful. Every part of me wants to escape, to disappear. And if I am forced, coerced or generally expected to play, I find a way to lose quickly and exploit it.

I have ADHD. When I sit, my leg bounces. When I stand, I glide about. Reading is a chore, but I can do it. I can focus in conversation. I can even listen to a four-hour lecture and get by (if I’ve taken notes and brought a recorder). But pull out board games, and you will see my ADHD flare like the blueberry girl on the old Willy Wonka film. They are the only things that scare me in a group setting, and I avoid them at all costs.

How could a guy like that write anything valuable concerning a theology of play? Like Brandon, I wish to understand how God made me and others. Working with youth calls me to understand the world around me, to accept mysteries where they are present and to inquire deeply into things as simple and complex as play. I agree with Brandon’s critique of our performance-based society, the need for students to be free of those pressures and the merciful nature of Jesus to lay…

Going Deeper With Brad Griffin’s “Sticky Faith”

by Patti Gibbons on September 12th, 2011 -- filed under Church

Looking around the congregation during the course of my first months on staff, I noticed that families didn’t sit together for the service. Children sat with their friends, while adults rocked babies not their own and elder adults shepherded toddlers trying to make their escape down the aisle. This congregation was raising its children together. As the pastor who urged me to check out this church said to me, “The big ones care for the littler ones right down the line.” It was remarkable.

Why was this church so different? What made these adults invest in children who were not theirs? Who trained them to step into the mix of one another’s lives? This church had no programmed men’s or women’s ministries, and youth ministry was brand new.

Sunday school for all ages occurred before the main service; children’s church only met during the sermon time. If babies or toddlers made noise in the service, people smiled. If the children ran, skipped or otherwise acted like children, no one complained. If teenagers were gifted in music, prayer or service, they were invited into situations to offer those gifts to the congregation. This church put feet to the scripture that says, “Let no one look down on you because you are young.”

When the young people I observed in those early months grew, graduated and headed for college, they not only found places to worship; they stayed involved in ministry.

This small, urban congregation was marked by trust in one another.…

Going Deeper With Tim Suttle’s: Evangelical Social Christianity

by Paul Sheneman on July 15th, 2011 -- filed under Church

I have a friend named Jim, a conservative, evangelical baby boomer, who taught me that the gospel is radically individual and spiritual. Jim often told me that most of my life decisions were between me and Jesus. And when it came to sharing the gospel with people, Jim instructed me that the most important thing was for a person to make a personal commitment to God.

When I recently talked with Jim, I was shocked to hear him say, “Our church is being Jesus to people by just caring for their basic needs.” I inquired further, and Jim said that he was learning that Jesus took care of the whole person. He was learning this through his church, which was trying to help people with job searches, computer skills and basic health needs. In Jim’s words, he was learning that the gospel was much more than a spiritual thing.

I found Tim Suttle’s article, “Evangelical Social Christianity” to be another indication that the evangelical tradition that discipled me is experiencing a transformation. Specifically, Tim, leaning on the writings of Walter Rauschenbusch, wants to emphasize that the gospel is both personal and corporate in nature. His article adds to the movement of people who have recognized the same issue with the North American Evangelical articulation of the gospel and was helpful in evaluating my local church’s expression of the gospel.

Seeking a Common Language

I recently had a conversation with Jamie Casler, who is the director for the J. V. Morsch Center for Social Justice…

Going Deeper with: Aaron Mitchum’s “Pleasures of the Imagination”

by Micah Thomas on March 7th, 2011 -- filed under Arts and Culture

As an artist, I have wondered from time to time what it is that makes art good. I live, think and practice primarily in the musical realm, but I believe whatever can cause art to reach past the surface and into the soul is transferable between mediums. I was delighted to read Aaron Mitchum’s “Pleasures of the Imagination” and learn from his observations. According to Aaron, “Honesty is why some art is great while other art is not. Before technique or form, honesty is first in defining good art.” At first blush, I was not entirely convinced of this simple calculation, but after further consideration, I believe Aaron is really onto something.

We have all experienced art that is enjoyable and that reaches us in ways that cannot be put into words. It can be difficult to determine how much honesty is involved in the creation of such art. However, I believe it is the test of time that will naturally and accurately winnow art that was created with honesty and art that was not. Even cheap, gimmicky, or surface-level art can be attractive, but it has little staying power.

For some, this is best proved through top-40 radio or contemporary Christian music. These genres tend to be self-referencing to the degree that anything new is the same as what came before with only slight modifications. This overplayed and under-created kind of art tends to lose its effect and annoy those who encounter it faster than heavily donned cheap perfume…

Going Deeper with: Alan Roxburgh’s “Can the West be converted?”

by Steve Case on March 4th, 2011 -- filed under Church

See if you can relate…

It is six o’clock in the morning. You’ve been up for an hour. Sleep came in short bursts all night long. You are standing in the kitchen of a church where you have never worshiped and barely know your way around. You’re sleeping here because the friend of a friend of a pastor said, “Yeah, you and your group can sleep here.”

You’re trying to figure out which of the youth sleeping in the next room ate the last of the chocolate Pop-Tarts. You’re willing the coffee to come out of the pot faster. The other chaperones stand around you, all of you in silence; it is not time to speak just yet. In a moment, when the Pop-Tarts are gone and the coffee is in hand, you can speak about the day ahead.

Yesterday you helped put a new roof on a home that most of your students would never lower themselves to live in. The woman who owns the home grew up there. She’s 90. Today you will take the youth to the local food pantry because this is the day the welfare checks come in, and many of those in town make a day of it and come for food and clothing. Tonight you’ll sit around on hard metal chairs and talk about the day. Tomorrow you’ll do work very similar to today’s, and the next day you’ll go home to a warm bed, a loving spouse, and a hot shower.

This…