Must Read...Sorta

Any youth minister or children's minister who doesn't read Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church by Kenda Dean seriously needs to have their head examined.

It's a scholarly work, not nearly as accessible as the Doug Fields stuff (notably Purpose Driven Youth Ministry), but much more provocative. I know it's difficult to get into quotes, but I spent my day off being alternately provoked by this book and celebrating my wife's birthday and being provoked and going to my daughter's volleyball game and being provoked and watching C.S.I. and quitting in the middle because I couldn't put it down.

So, here we go...keeping in mind that this book highlights the reality that the American Church (in every sense of the word "church") has lost it's passion.

"Most of us assume that our beliefs lead us to act in ways consistent with those beliefs. If that were true, I would drink far less Diet Coke and spend a lot more time at the gym."

"Not surprisingly, where youth and adults pray together and often, youth ministry typically receives a fresh bolt of energy...True union with God knows no tactical shortcuts. There is no other route to true communion save a lifetime of faithful practice, which contemplative practices simplify, purify and bather in prayer, leading ultimately to silent responsiveness, 'an empty waiting on God that precedes union in a full sense."

And, here's one that should terrify us all as a tribe:

"Sociologists point out that, no matter how 'family-like' they appear, small groups typically stop short of real (read financial) group maintenance--people who think or act differently either conform or quit. Instead of providing a context where young people may safely wrestle with faith and with one another, small groups--like youth groups and churches as a whole--tend to operate under a veneer of niceness that makes the kind of honesty to which Christians are called decidedly unwelcome."

Resolved: Change the status quo. Pronto.