Give me the wise leader: The need for well-educated Christian leaders, youth workers, and church planters.
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The field of youth ministry is one that values real-world skills. The ability to work well with people, hold teens’ attention, get things done, and be productive are what matters most. So when it comes to encouraging people where to get educated on ministry, the emphasis is often on these type of ‘how’ qualities. When I talk with folks about getting a college degree in youth ministry, I hear phrases like “I want an education that is practical.” Or, “I don’t want anything that’s theoretical.” I understand what is meant, but the response heads too far away from the ‘why’ or the ‘what if?’ challenges that the real world will present. We tend to think of that as technical skill (what the Greeks called poiesis) training versus phronesis – developing practical wisdom.
What will matter most in our digital age where the noise is deafening is wisdom – not information (everything is accessible) or skill (easily learned), but wisdom. Help us interpret the times, to know what to do with all of this information. Help us find answers to the questions. Lead and collaborate wisely.
The truth is that whenever we act in a particular way, we have a theory-in-action. Postmodernity has helped us understand the dichotomy of practice vs. theory doesn’t exist. It’s not theory or practice, but rather practice is theory in action. So, to just focus on the technical skills may lead people down a road of unhelpful practice and they’d never know it as such.
I’d like to change the answer regarding ministry education: You want a degree that matters in practice. This moves us from the ‘it has to be practical’ limitations and helps us to think about learning. You don’t want to be in so practical that you’re learning how to run an overhead projector (which a CE course at my college did) and be out of touch in ten years. However, you can learn how visuals create learning opportunities and how that connects to ministry practices regardless of tools used. You want the wisdom behind the practice, the theory and theology that allows you to see the practice in context.
One more caveat: I value real life experience. The 16 years I spent in full-time youth ministry before come to Bethel – in both parachurch and local church, rural and urban – are invaluable to my teaching in college. And, when we looked to hire a second youth ministry prof, we found Robert Brandt with 15 years full-time experience in large West Coast churches (and working on a PhD from Talbot helped too). Experience matters, in my opinion.
I want to hire the best potential youth workers, I will look for someone who can think creatively, think critically, and think deeply. Most likely this person will be a learner who has read a lot and excelled to a better-than-average level in college. If they had only learned the ‘how to’, that alone is insufficient for this changing world, the deep questions that are posed, and the foundational skills that make practices matter.
Imagine the church planter who wants to develop a church and his (or her) training was in structural leadership of one sort or another.church attracts a wide range of people from the community, to bring various expectations with them, often latent, and as the church grows they have to decide on a governance structure, a theological statement, and a bunch. Add to that the fact that people will bring with them a variety of theological conundrums and look to the pastor for inserts. Families will bring with them various dynamics that need pastoral counseling and attention.
The allure to plant churches is strong for youth workers who want to be the robots, but the reality is that we are never own boss. The reality is that the world is looking to the church to answer some difficult questions, and we’re attending conferences that focus on leadership and structural management and little to do with reflective theological and philosophical thought. So the perennial problem of the church appearing thinner or irrelevant remains despite our continual in-house reminders that we area relevant and practical via our perpetual conferencing.
When it comes to higher education, it seems that you would want a degree that challenges the mind in the same way that weightlifting challenges your muscles. Even more so with a Masters degree. You want to produce youth workers who can think – and this demands a program that creates mental disequilibrium. This is a different approach than a content-centered education. Or one that just trains people on the necessary skills, which will be insufficient for effective leadership in the long run.
Theologically I think we need to revisit the biblical notion of wisdom and what that means. I think our Western mindset interprets that and as knowledge or platform (which has become a market-drive fascination for Christian leaders/pastors that still needs good biblical/theological critique) versus the ability to take difficult situations and make wise decisions.
