The Over-Educated Youth Pastor

I am back to blogging, though no longer on the Over-Educated Youth Pastor site.  I've created a collaborative blog with colleagues from The King's University College that will launch in January of 2009.  You can check it out at http://kingsgreenpad.ca

You've probably already figured this out due to my silence, but the Over-Educated Youth Pastor Blog is on a bit of a hiatus as I transition to my new role as Professor of Geography and Director of Environmental Studies at the King's University College in Edmonton, Alberta.  When the blog picks back up later in the year it will need a new name, and argubaly a new focus.  Any suggesstions?

Here is my schedule for the rest of the summer:

May / June: Close roles at First United Methodist Church and hammer out the PhD Dissertation

Early July: Travel to Edmonton to situate final details of the move

Mid July: Enjoy a vacation at Holden Beach

Late July: Spend time with my in-laws in Florida and continue writing the dissertation

Early August: Attend the Regent U. Faculty Retreat then officially move to Edmonton

I feel bad about taking a break from the blog, but I simply must finish my dissertation and I am closing distractions - even good ones!  I'll be back...

The first of what will be many reviews of Pomo Timmy is in!  This one is by Anthony Horvath, an author who operates a Christian Apologetics website.  Check it out at SntJohnny.com!

Wake up youth workers! We are in a global food crisis, and we who work with youth have a voice to do something about it. But, are we?

 The Rethinking Youth Ministry Blog has a great post with questions about how to address issues of global poverty beyond an annual 30 hour Famine. Somehow we need to find a way to enable youth to deeply connect with issues central to the Kingdom of God in ways that are effective.

The Big Ear Creations blog addressed some of these issues through quotes from Tony Campolo on macro economics and youth ministry. The blog quotes Campolo in an interview with Kara Powell. He states,

“I find most youth workers haven't a clue as to what macro economics is all about and how macro economic factors influence the poverty, and create the poverty in third world countries. They don't understand why third world peoples are angry with America...They hate a powerful country that is able to control international trade in such a way as to increase poverty in third world while it aggrandizes itself. Those insights into how things operate on the macro level and how macro factors in politics and in economics in third world countries and in our own country foster poverty are totally beyond the comprehension of most youth workers and that's a very sad thing indeed...”

Campolo then provides a scathing review of youth workers:

“Point blank, I am not impressed with youth workers. I find that they don't know what's going on in the world. That youth work becomes a matter of fun and games. When I go the National Youth Workers Convention I get more depressed every year. Because what I find is what the youth workers are really interested in is techniques. They don't want to deal with issues. They don't want to deal with the hard nosed facts of what is going on in the world.”

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Tony – and as I revealed over the last couple of weeks his criticism is more or less accurate for my own ministry, especially as it existed before I really understood some models for transformational development.

In the quote above Tony mentions macro issues of economics. In my next post I will go back to Jayakumar Christian to address the complexity of dealing with poverty on a macro level…
 

Last year when I worked at World Vision Appalachia our executive director, Ruston Seaman, interpreted poverty experts Jayakumar Christian and Bryant Myers by summarizing the circumstance of the poor into two general concepts: the poor have a marred identity and the poor lack purpose.  At the time I felt Ruston's interpretation bordered on culture of poverty theory, which is to say that the entire circumstance of the poor is a fundamental issue of their specific culture, belief and behaviors and not an outcome of a broader system of exploitation and manipulation.  I now see how the two go hand in hand.

Jayakumar Christian believes that the identity of the poor has been marred in three specific ways.  1) It is marred by flawed social norms and worldviews.  Here in Appalachia I've seen this in what I described a few days ago as the Appalachia stereotype.  Many of poor in Appalachia have difficulty breaking out of the roles they are asked to play in local culture. 2) It is marred through years of marginalization.  Here in Appalachia it would go beyond years to generations.  According to Christian, "years of exploitation have reduced the marginalized to dull, submissive living objects."  Hence, 3) It is marred as the poor are reduced to mere objects.  The poor become less than human, which opens the door to further exploitation.

Jayakumar Christian presents a solution to address both the individual circumstances of those in poverty and the broader structural dynamics that impact poverty: recognize that the poor are made in the image of God.  Ruston Seaman summarizes this by stating that the poor need to find their identity and their purpose rooted in the Kingdom of God rather than in the prescribed social norms.  Those of us who work with families in poverty must find ways to affirm the image of God in people and not further mar their identity.