Brad “Hype Reader” Alexander

“Wesley cast a vision of the world that was unlike anything before or since. It was a world where God actually cared about everyone, not just the chosen few who believed the right thing.”
― Jeremy Steele, Reclaiming the Lost Soul of Youth Ministry

“Ministry is not about helping these kids be better Christians; it is about helping them be what God created them to be-human. And it is the degradation of their humanity, brought about by broken and abusive families, violent neighborhoods, failing schools and poverty, that caused them to lash out so forcefully. Ministry is about suffering with them in their dehumanization, celebrating their human endeavors and in all things pointing to the true human, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Having”
― Andrew Root, Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation

“Deep processes are at work in society that cause people to be especially starved for meaning, identity, belonging, and emotional comfort.”
― Thomas E. Bergler, From Here to Maturity: Overcoming the Juvenilization of American Christianity

“Ministry, then, is not about "using" relationships to get individuals to accept a "third thing," whether that be conservative politics, moral behaviors or even the gospel message. Rather, ministry is about connection, one to another, about sharing in suffering and joy, about persons meeting persons with no pretense or secret motives. It is about shared life, confessing Christ not outside the relationship but within it. This, I learned, was living the gospel.
I”
― Andrew Root, Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation