Youth

916 Words2 Pages

In her book “Practicing Passion – Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church”. Ms. Dean paints a vibrant and passionate picture of the youth of today, in which she calls them a “powder keg of passion”. This book is a power keg of insight, knowledge, compassion, and understanding of the adolescence social culture of today. She expertly details through research and examples of how passion is part and parcel of the adolescence culture existing today in other words their way of life.

We I was growing up back in the late sixties and seventies we were no where near inundated with all the information, now available to kids of this generation. Yes we had church groups which mostly involved the teaching of the scriptures. Where did the teaching of theology go, Ms Dead, points out “ that theology may be partly responsible for the church's diminishing influence on young people” page 10. Even though I agree with her on this point in comparison to my growing up in the church. I also believe that there is more to just teaching the Passion of Christ as it is also living in the word of God. She points out the “Youth ministry is not just about youth” it is an eclectic variety of shifting paradigms from the view point of the adolescents and the church.

Were as the church need's to recognized that youth is not the future of the church it is the church. Ms. Dean points out on page 14. “that when adolescence are left to their own devices they are quite able of doing “church”, passion is what the youth of today have to give to the church and one another. In her book Ms Dean equates passion with suffering or as in her quote by Moltmann on page 19. It is my opinion that the youth of today do not see passion as suffering. However, to them it is a ral...

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...h the sense that they understand the need of others, while their intent is to pursue their own goals and purpose”. It is all about the me generation or as Leslie Gore sang “It's my party and I will cry if I want to”, and the heck what you think or feel. People in today's youth ministry's must and need to change this way of thinking and foster oneness in Christ.

This is an incredible book of which I am well aware that I did not truly give it the justices it deserves in this reactive paper. However, it is and well remain a incredible written mastiff to the insights of adolescence behavior and how we can bridge the generational gap as well as be cognizant of our missives toward social media. Ms. Deans book would defiantly be much more appreciated in a semester course where one could expand upon the nuances of her insight into labyrinth of the teen mind and behaviors.

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