Andrew Root's Blog, page 13
January 28, 2015
Why Theology Isn’t Enough for Youth Ministry: Bonhoeffer, Dead Dogs and a 10-Year-old’s Tears
A few months ago a very nice person approached me and thanked me for writing my book The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry. I was moved by their kind words. The person then said, keeping the conversation going, “I was thankful for the book because I’ve been saying for years that we just need to get kids to read Paul Tillich.” I stopped for a second, assuming the person was kidding, but inside the awkward few second of silence it became clear there was no jest in this remark. So I asked, “Why Tillich?” Confidently the person responded, “Because kids need theology!”
Anxiety over Millennials
We are certainly concerned about millennials.
It began about the time this age cohort reached adulthood, with the 1999 publication of Saving the Millennial Generation: New Ways to Reach the Kids You Care About in These Uncertain Times. It accelerated when some polls in the mid-2000s began to suggest millennials’ waning interest in church. Enter “millennials and church” into a search engine, and soon enough you are pointed to sites that proclaim, “Ten reasons churches are not reaching millennials,” or, “Why millennials are leaving church.” The latter article quickly garnered some 100,000 page views not long ago.
November 5, 2014
Take it from Bonhoeffer — there is no ‘Christian youth’
For a while, I thought it was like the Loch Ness monster or Sasquatch. People said it existed, but I’d never seen it, and nobody was able to tell me how I could. But finally, I found it, and it was as amazing as I’d imagined.
December 5, 2013
Youth Ministry Now Lecture, Dec 2013
This my lecture from Yale Divinity School’s Youth Ministry: Now series on the children of divorce.
November 22, 2013
Youth Ministry as Magical Technology
The room was packed with excited youth workers numbering in the thousands. The lights dimmed and the spotlight moved to the left side of the stage to flood a man in his late thirties in jeans and button-down shirt. On the multiple screens behind him, in a cool font, his name was displayed, and below his name his title stated, “CEO Idea Guy.” He owned a consultation business that helped people find their “big idea” and turn it into a reality. For six minutes he pumped up the youth workers by prodding them that they possessed the next big idea that would change the church, that would bring hordes of young people back to the church — that would become a big deal. “You have this big idea in you,” he said. “You just need to do it! Design it and do it! It will be big, and lead to big things for your ministry, and for the church. Do not sell your idea short; move into creation and watch your wildest dreams come true, watch the impossible dawn!” With his last punctuated phrase, the spotlight faded to black and the room cheered with the kind of roar that signaled that these youth workers had been moved.
May 1, 2013
The Relational Pastor and Inception
by Andrew Root
I have the hardest time turning the channel when it is on; I always watch even just a few minutes before reminding myself that I’ve seen it dozens of times. I can’t help it—I just find the Christopher Nolan movie Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio captivating.
I’m sure nearly everyone reading this blog has seen it; it was a smash hit during the summer of 2010. It is a movie about spies that have the technology to enter your dreams so they can extract your idea or secrets. Using a machine, DiCaprio, the lead sexy spy, can enter, say, a CEO’s dreams, seeking to discover the future plans for a business and then take the information and sell it to rivals. The movie has so many creative layers of psychology, consciousness, philosophy and espionage that it keeps my remote trigger thumb from moving past it.
click here to read
April 24, 2013
FamilyScholars Conversations Podcast
Amy Ziettlow interviews me about many things, including divorce and young people, theology and youth ministry, and more.
March 1, 2013
Tourists or Missionaries?
This is an excerpt published in YouthWorker Journal from Unlocking Mission and Eschatology in Youth Ministry
Nadia and three other youth workers were surrounded by
a hundred young people in bright orange T-shirts that read “Operation Change: Being Jesus’ Hands in Making the World Right.” The shirts had been provided by the organization that had contracted to handle logistics for another mission trip.
Click to read
February 20, 2013
Stop Calling Them Students
The renowned sociologist begged us to stop throwing “student” in front of ministries. He explained that the dropout rate is high, and such a nomenclature eliminates many from finding a place in the church. But almost everyone read his remarks either with the shrugged shoulders of, I don’t get it or the rolling eyes of, Come on, loosen up, I think you’re drunk on statistical tables, feeling his comments as some kind of exhausting academic version of political correctness.
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October 28, 2012
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