Are our employment practices driving youth workers away? (Research write-up by Jonny Price)

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I am deeply passionate about youth ministry. I believe that through Christian youth ministry, we can see lives transformed, chains broken, and bring people to fulfil what they were created to be through the redeeming love of Jesus.

To do this, I believe that relationships are key. The relationships we build during our teenage years can shape the beliefs and values that we hold for the rest of our lives. Youth and children’s workers are essential in leading ministries which allow relationships to flourish.

These relationships, however, take time to build. If our approach to the employment of youth workers doesn’t support this, then the relationships won’t get built, and the lasting impact with be negligible.

The Research

While studying theology, I spent some time researching the employment practices of Youth and Children’s workers by churches. I did this to discover if we are, in fact, negatively affecting the long-term relationships needed for healthy young people.

I have been working in youth ministry for a while and during that time I have seen several skilled and talented youth and children’s workers walk away from ministry, and some the church altogether, because of the way they were treated while employed by churches.

I got in touch with 17 Anglican Diocese (the ones who replied to me), the Methodist Connexional Offices, and Baptist’s Together. I had an online questionnaire, which gathered nearly 100 responses, and I interviewed 12 people who were either youth and/or children’s workers, had been youth and/or children’s workers, or who had managed youth and/or children’s workers.

There were many interesting things that came up in the research. With all the usual disclaimers about sample size, researcher bias etc, here are the six things that stood out most to me that we should all be aware of.

The Results

  1. Too much/not enough freedom

This is a two sided coin, and boils down to the way we are managed. Many of us will be placed under the supervision of the minister of the church/es we work for, and this can be an awful arrangement. For one thing, many ministers have no formal training or experience of supervising staff, which often means they do one of two things:

  1. a. They have no idea what they or we should be doing, and so go completely hands off.
This can mean that the worker has no clear idea what their role entails, particularly if this is their first experience of employment, and so can drift from one thing to another with no plan. This can lead to disillusionment, purposelessness, and very little to do. Add to this that churches will pay for a worker out of their giving, it can lead to serious guilt.
  2. b. The minister goes to their only experience of supervision: training.
I spoke to several youth workers who had been managed in the same way a trainee minister would, despite being experienced workers. This led to overly specific aims and goals, micro-management, and a sense of being patronised with no creative freedom to approach ministry in their own way.
  3. Working to different goals

Generally, church ministers work to a bounded-set model, where membership is based on certain pre-set commitments. For example, church ministers would see attendance on Sunday as a sign of membership. Youth workers, however, often to work to a centred-set model, where membership is defined more by closeness to the centre (Jesus), than attendance at certain events. This can mean that there will be a communication breakdown between church ministers and youth workers, which will inevitably lead to frustration as they will be pulling in different directions.

  1. The move to “proper” ministry

Many youth workers go on to make very good church leaders, but that doesn’t mean we all want to do it! There is an assumption, which I am sure we have all experienced, that we will move on to church leadership.

This came out in my interviews with diocese youth advisors, and some ex-youth workers (though interestingly, not children’s workers). Even in church literature about lay ministry, youth or children’s ministry is rarely mentioned. All of this serves to undermine youth and children’s work as valid ministries, and leads to workers in these areas feeling undervalued.

  1. Lack of spiritual support

Church ministers, particularly in established denominations, have access to support from wider bodies, as well as having things like sabbaticals and retreats built into their working agreements. These are rarely, if ever, thought about for youth or children’s workers. One interviewee mentioned that they had asked if, as they were entering their seventh year in post, they would be entitled to a sabbatical, as clergy are. They were laughed at.

If we are to avoid burnout, we have to build spiritual care into our employment practice in the same way we do for church leaders. 

  1. The longer we are in post, the longer we are likely to stay

As part of the research I looked at the amount of time people stayed in posts, the number of posts held, and their attitude changes over time. This was fascinating.

There was a definite trend that showed the longer a person stayed in ministry, the more problems they saw with the approach of churches to it, but the longer they saw themselves staying in it, and the fewer roles they averaged. Of those who had been in this ministry 7-10 years, just under half had done this in just 1 role. The average time in any one role was 2 years.

I believe this points to parts of the workforce with a strong vocational calling to this specific work, who will continue in it despite the problems they see, because they see the value of this work.

  1. Continued professional development, or the lack of it.

Across all the research there was a repeating theme that Churches are unwilling to spend either the time or money on proper training for youth and children’s workers.

In some ways this is understandable if short sighted. If youth workers are only going to stick around for a couple of years, then why train them? The simple answer: if you train them, they may well stay around longer! They will feel empowered in their ministry, more capable and confident in what they are doing, and will know how to take more care of themselves and their young people.

In short, we will develop a workforce that is more motivated, more capable, and with greater longevity.

Conclusions

Let’s really work this problem together! There is a clear correlation between poor youth and children’s workers management and poor youth and children’s work. Our employment practices (or lack thereof) are driving quality people away who might otherwise have been totally committed to the long haul.

  • Youth and children’s workers need to be treated as independent workers, not trainees. They need clear goals and accountability, with the freedom to creatively pursue the best in their work.
  • There needs to be clarifying conversations between minister and youth/children’s worker about what constitutes success and what models they are working to together.
  • Youth and children’s workers are genuine lay ministers and need to be referred to, celebrated and supported as suck.
  • Further to this, youth and children’s workers need the same levels of spiritual support built into their contracts including training, sabbaticals, and retreats.
  • Youth and children’s workers need to be encouraged and supported to stick to single posts, rather than moving around every two years.

Proper training and professional development is essential for youth and children’s workers. This should be generously budgeted for and expected.

42 things NOT to say to a youth worker… that have ACTUALLY been said

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  1. When are you going to get into proper ministry?
  2. When are you going to be a real pastor?
  3. It must be great to get paid to just play with kids!
  4. What do you do all week?
  5. What is your job, job? I mean like, real job, like how do you like you know make money?
  6. How about taking on the Children’s ministry too?
  7. God told me some things about you. But I’m not going to tell you what it was
  8. Why do you need a vacation? You just spent a week at camp with the students!
  9. Does you wife play the piano?
  10. I’m too old to help out with the youth group
  11. Can you fix my son/daughter?
  12. I have an old [*insert random piece of crap here]… you can have it if you pick it up… and maybe give a ‘token donation’
  13. We had to write a paper in class about our hero, so I wrote you’re name at the top…..then I couldn’t think of anything else to write so I erased it and wrote a paper about my dad instead
  14. You’re the youth pastor? I thought you were a student/new youth pastor’s son/married to the youth pastor.
  15. I know the deadline was last week but can I still go to camp tomorrow ?
  16. Oh I saw something on tv yesterday…was it Joel Osteen or was it Joyce Meyers…mmm Ill find it and send you a link.
  17. *End of the Summer,* Pastor says “You really need to work on getting your numbers up! Btw, our kids have ball games so we wont be there this week”
  18. *Kid gets scholarship to go to camp,* “Sorry, I wont be able to go to camp, we’re going to Disney that week”
  19. I won’t be at youth on Wednesday, I’m going on a first date to see Deadpool.
  20. You need to make those kids behave” – after the kids have been yelled at by that adult.
  21. So, do you play guitar? Can you sing? No? Are you really a youth pastor?
  22. Your messages are great and stuff, but they want to play more games.
  23. I’m not going to send my kid to student ministries because (while I’ve never checked your program out) I’m pretty sure all you do is play games and never open the bible!
  24. So when are you going to get married and have kids of your own?
  25. “Are you married?” “No..” “Oh, better get on that..”
  26. Well here’s the thing, the old youth pastor used to…
  27. The way we used to do things was…
  28. It worked when I was doing youth ministry (40 years ago).
  29. A parent concerned about the safety of a game lectures you for a solid 10 minutes saying “I think you need to pray about it” at least 7 times.
  30. We need you to start focusing more on the ‘core kids’ who’s parents tithe rather than the kids who come to church by themselves.
  31. The Youth Pastors’ job is the most important job in the church because it’s his job to go out into the community to find teenagers to bring into our church, and then their parents will come, and then they will tithe.
  32. “I didn’t know anything about that,” (after verbal announcements, social media posts, email, remind app).
  33. I see you’ve lost your razor.
  34. Are we doing anything fun tonight?
  35. Where is everybody?
  36. Could you recruit some kids to ____________ this weekend? We’re not going to pay them or anything, we just need some extra workers.
  37. Isn’t that what we hired you for? (Following a request for volunteers)
  38. Can you get my child saved at camp this weekend?
  39. (Parent, after child’s baptism), “well, your work is finished.”
  40. My son is doing this, this, this, this, this, this and that. I want you to talk to him about it but don’t tell him I told you.
  41. You’re 40? Isn’t it time you move on to something else.
  42. I thought you lived in the bell tower.

Top 8 Reasons Why Youth Workers Burn Out

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Youth worker burnout is a very real issue. In the UK youth workers last an average of 2 years in a position, and around 3-5 years in total before throwing in the towel.

I spent some time with a great youth worker yesterday who has put some real energy into properly researching this dilemma, and has made some very helpful observations. He has agreed to write up his findings for us – so watch this space!

Now our appetite is whet, I thought I’d compile a list of what I think are the top reasons Christian youth workers burn out. Enjoy!

1. Expected to be each Biblical office

Is the youth worker an elder, pastor, teacher, apostle, evangelist, prophet, deacon, or overseer? The truth is that this will depend on the unique sensibilities of each role in context, however most youth work positions expect their worker to most if not all of them!

The problem is that the gifts and personality types of an evangelist are very different to pastor-teacher. The same is true for elder and apostle, prophet and deacon – there is a reason they are distinct roles within the church, and why it’s unhealthy (for ministry and minster) to be all of them at once.

As a pioneer will be frustrated, and likely to cause damage trying to be a pastor-teacher, and an evangelist will not have patience for the polity behind elder, you’re heading for an emotional car wreck trying to contort yourself into these positions.

2. Mixed or no accountability / management

A common problem youth workers complain about is an unclear line of management. In some cases the management structure can be so arbitrary that everyone in the church tries to fill the void and become ‘the boss.’

Parents, kids, elders, pastors, wardens, caretakers – can all try to hold you accountable to their own standards and particular sets of expectations, whether or not they are in your job description, or conflict with the other 300 people you are trying to please.

In other scenarios you have a line-manager, but in reality they are trying to mentor you. Or you have a line manager who is also the Senior Pastor, thus has conflicting aims when you meet.

In *this post* I argue for a threefold structure of manager, pastor and mentor, which – when communicated properly to a church – is surely the healthiest model.

3. Isolation

Youth workers are often mavericks, and can find themselves easily in the role of ‘lone solider.’ Timetables are full, friends are few, and most of the time is spent with people in a completely different stage of life than you.

Youth workers need friends who are totally unrelated to their work – and youth workers need to know other youth workers.

Making the effort to get to network days and training are essential, as is carving out the time for just going out with mates.

There’s a lot of lonely youth workers out there, lets take it seriously.

4. Unrealistic expectations

I was also told a story yesterday of a youth worker who was expected to double her youth group numbers in six months. Really? Then there are training manuals and courses that leave you with the impression that you should be ‘always on’ for the young people and ‘make every opportunity count.’

A lot of these expectations come out of poor management. Having real goals that genuinely make sense of working hours and are regularly evaluated is key. As is holding the youth worker accountable to their working week, holidays and days off.

Focus, identify clear objectives, work to your resources, build a healthy team, take your time off, have a life and settle in for the long haul.

5. Having no idea what they’re doing

This might be the biggest issue. Youth workers, let’s admit it, we don’t have a clue! We’re expected to understand and relate to the monstrous and mysterious beast known as ‘youth culture,’ develop professional plans to execute sophisticated projects, and hold in tension conflict, personality types and genuine spiritual needs, emotional abuse and organic community.

We are expected to be team managers and recruiters, teachers and trainers, counsellors and mentors, sociologists and missiologists, scholars and facilitators – and expected to look like we’re none of these things so we can ‘fit in’ with the young people. Usually a youth worker has up to 1 year of training to learn all these areas where genuine practitioners have spent half their lives in school to develop.

We don’t know what we’re doing!

This can be helped by defining the role and having realistic expectaitons. It can also be resolved through ongoing training, professional development and support. Mostly however, we just need to hold tight to the expert… which is God.

6. Forgetting who God is

This is, unfortunately, probably the saddest, but most frequent. It can be propagated by all the above, and exacerbated by a lack of genuine spiritual mentoring and accountability, but mostly it just results from being tired all the time.

In my experience youth workers tend to be badly trained in how to use their Bibles. This means a shaky foundation and an especially insecure problem-solving mechanism. Without having a solid understanding of where their role comes from, and what is needed when the rubber hits the road, the proof-texting they have grown up with tires and leaves them wanting.

The worst thing is starting to forget what God’s voice sounds like, so you stop recognising him when he leads, warns and protects you. The security fails, the passion dies up, you start to feel guilty, believe you’re a fraud – and give up.

The most important thing a youth worker should take seriously is their own personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Before you are a youth worker, you are a child of God. When that turns round – so does everything else.

7.Just getting bored

I sometimes wonder if the reason that youth workers come across as so wildly creative is that they’re just desperately trying to break the monotony.

On the surface, youth work looks like a lot of activity, and it is but I’ve found that for every hour of creative fun, theres two-three hours of planning and then at least an hour of cleanup. Because you’re working with volunteers, this can often be alone and repetitive.

Add to this a lot of written work, planning, management, conflict resolution and reporting, it can start to get to you. Then you need to consider that you are spending your time dialoging with people of a very different maturity and life experience, having the same four of five conversations.

8. Low pay

Ok, this is going to sound weird but it’s true. Youth workers get paid usually less than entry-level teachers for a similar job, expectation set, and working hours; and we all know teachers don’t get paid enough!

There, of course, is a pastoral humility required for ministry, a lack of material desire, and I’m not sure that the youth worker should be paid more than most of the congregation. However, for such a stressful job, the low pay can put a massive amount of pressure on the youth worker’s family.

This can affect a lot of life choices: Does my spouse also need to work full time? Can we afford to have children? My biggest stresses throughout my youth work career has been a secure place to live (we’ve had to move six times) and maintaining a car (been through seven in five years). We also once went two years without more than a half a tub of hot water a day and no heating. With a very unwell life, this was insane!

I know a lot of youth workers who survive off credit – lease-agreement cars, back-paying bills, and crazy mortgages – just so they can maintain a family alongside their work. I know it’s a difficult economy, but churches should carefully look into how their youth worker is living and consider the church’s responsibility for them.

The three most misused Bible verses in youthwork:

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Matthew 18:20 – When two or more are gathered…

This is a verse about discipline and correction, but is often (quite randomly) used in defense of ‘youth church’, or youth groups being a ‘church alternative’. Ever heard something like this:

‘Well all you need for church is two or three believers and a cheeky Nandos… boom!’

Or even…

‘Me and my mate do church in the car listening to Hillsong!’

There’s two whopping problems with this idea:

  1. God is in lots of places that aren’t church; that’s kinda the deal with omnipresence. God’s presence alone doesn’t make something ‘church’.
  2. Church is lots of other things than just gathering (or in the actual context of the verse, correction and discipline). Church should probably include things like worship, teaching, scripture reading, a wider variety of people, sacraments etc. too.

Making a specific group is fine – but using this verse to call your group group ‘church’ is a little bit naughty! Being Christian does not equal being church. #wristslap

 

Jeremiah 29:11 – I have an epic plan for you…

‘God has an amazing (kinda) plan for your life (true if you add an ’s’) which, if you find it (how?), you will never get bored, hurt, needy, depressed, or confused (just no).’

We use this to help us push through hardship in the hope of getting to something better by tapping into God’s secret blueprint for our lives.

The problem though is, in context, this is not what God was offering to the Israelites. He was not promising to sort out their struggles and send them home from exile. In v.7 he says they can prosper right where they are.

This verse is not about some individual future blessing or plan, its about the whole people of God communicating with and depending on Him right slap bang in the middle of suffering and trial. And isn’t that so much better? Teach that instead!

 

1 Timothy 4:12 – Don’t let anyone look down on you because of your youth…

This is one of those weird Greek words that could basically mean anyone under the age of forty. Timothy was about 15-16 when Paul met him on his missionary journey (Acts 16:1), but the letter was written about 14 years later. This makes Tim around 30!

Even though the sentiment is true, there are better examples of actually young people who did amazing things in the Bible – like the disciples.

 

Things Introverts In Your Youth Club HATE – Comics by Chloe

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Guest comics By Chloe Perrin. Volunteer Youth Worker, Musical Theatre Tutor and Youth Charity Trustee.

 

7 Ways To Lead People Older Than You – on Leadanyone.com

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A wee while back, I was approached to write a couple of articles of Leadanyone.com by it’s founder Joel Preston. The whole site is full of quality articles and I would heartily recommend it to you.

The first of my articles went up online, and you can read it here. It’s a simple set of tools used to evaluate objectively your ministry projects. I hope that it’s helpful!

11 Lists That Successful Youth Workers Keep

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I love a good list. Numbers, bullet points, colour coordination and, of course, subheadings. Lists are nectar to the analytical soul! They’re also invaluable if you run Youth Work projects. Here’s a random bunch of my favourites gleaned from talking to amazing youth work practitioners. If you don’t already keep some of these – you might want to think about them.

1. Contacts

Adhering strictly to data protection law, keeping lists of contacts is a must. Keeping a check on young people that you come into contact with, and their parents; Growing a donors and prayer partners database; Friendly teachers and council staff; and finally other practitioners that you can partner with in the work that you do.

2. Goals

I outline a list of about ten specific goals for my projects to accomplish every year. These are broad brush, optimistic yet achievable, and enthusiastic yet measurable.

3. Values

Broader than goals, is a list of values. A short, succinct but specific list of ideals that you can measure all your projects and activities against is very helpful. This takes your theology and ethics and nails them to the door of everything that you do.

4. Tasks

Every morning I lay out a list of tasks need to be accomplished the following day. These are action and communication based, very practical and very specific. I also have a larger task list that includes all my major one-off projects throughout the entire year.

5. Project Bucket List

I have crazy ideas every day that I know I cannot accomplish immediately. These go into my project bucket list. Not only is this a great resource for ideas later, but it has allowed me to always drive the vision forwards.

6. Promises

There are easily hundreds of specific promises made in scripture. At the beginning of a year or a season, I like to go through these and ask God to bring some of them particularly to mind that might be pertinent to the year ahead. I keep these in a handy promises list that can be stuck up above my desk.

7. Prayer Journal

This is a simple two column list of prayers asked and prayers answered. Sometimes this includes lists of people that I’m praying for, or specific projects which have particular needs. I’m always amazed at the prayers answered part by the end of the season.

8. Creative Ideas & Tools

Youth conferences, training days, books, magazines and blogs are full of ridiculously creative ideas and tools. I copy and paste as many of these as possible into a creative ideas list to dip into throughout the entire year of events and clubs.

9. Expenses

If you don’t already, it is really important to keep track of your expenses. I’m good at tracking them, but I’m rubbish at claiming them! I always get to them, but rather later than I mean to. Keeping a clear track of expenses helps you understand your handle on stewardship, as well as God’s provision.

10. Icebreakers

Almost every single thing that I do requires an icebreaker to get people talking independently and sharing together. It’s always worth having access to an icebreaker list. I’ll make things easier:here is one ready made for you!

11. Holidays

Okay, not so much list as much as a properly planned calendar, but if you make a list at the beginning of the year which includes all your major projects and school dates, then you should be able to work out your entire year of holidays too! If you’ve been in youth work for more than a couple of years then you’ll know exactly why I’m saying that. Get them listed and get them booked!

Enjoy, everybody – and lists ahoy!

Approaching The Dating Topic With Some Help From Plato

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Approaching the topic of dating in the Youth Group can be a snake pit of misconstrued ideals, worldly concepts and our own sporadic histories. We need to fundamentally challenge the build up on nonsense that’s sewn into the fabric of Western Society before we can get anywhere.

Our modern, 21st-century view of dating can be summed up in these five immortal words: “snag the best you can!”

This clearly has more to do with you than the one you want to go out with. You, sir or madam, are a certain build, a certain character, a certain group of personalities, a certain hairline, a certain waistline and a certain punchline. Put all those characteristics into the magical food processor of life, and out pops a concoction with a very specific formula that only certain suitors will drink.

Effectively, this ranks potential partners into a devastating hierarchical pyramid. The PHD supermodel at the top, and the receding, skinny ginger (myself) at the bottom buried under a foot of peat. A young person learns very quickly how high on that pyramid to aim – and then they stick there. Anyone above that level becomes ‘out of their league’ therefore ‘out of bounds’ and ‘not worth the effort.’

This means they start looking for the wrong things in a partner from the get-go and they lead this search with a stupid and an immensely low view of human value.

Plato’s Guide To Dating

This is the exact opposite of the eminent, classical philosopher Plato. One of Plato’s key theories was, ‘you should always allow your lover to change you.’

The way this works out in practice is that rather than looking for someone ‘just like you’ or ‘at your level’ or ‘in your league,’ you instead look for someone who possesses characteristics that you want but do not have. You aim for the stars!

Your lover should be more than you. By virtue of being with you, they will help you develop those characteristics that you want in yourself. They should help you become more than you already are and drive you to being a better person. You should always reach beyond your ‘league.’

We need to teach our young people to value personal growth in relationships, and to seek the best in people in a way that draws the best out of themselves. This means what the world values in a mate, is fundamentally flawed and bankrupt as you might not want those things for yourself!

It Worked For Me… Kinda

I met my wife at Uni. She was four years older than me, a poet, and an incredibly smart philosophy student with some history in modelling. She was totally beyond my reach. Yet by the grace of God, we ended up together, despite my best efforts to trash it.

After we’d known each other for a month she asked me directly, ‘Are you interested in me?’ And I – subscribing of course to the ‘not in my league’ formula – lied through my buckteeth. ‘No, no, no! Of course not. We’re just friends!’ Little did I know how much that would break her heart, and how close we came to utter disaster. Salvaged only by her  fierce tenacity and my simple ineptitude. Eight years later, I still wake up dumbfounded.

So aim above, don’t aim below. Don’t settle for ‘the trick is to aim for the 2nd prettiest.’ Don’t believe all the nonsense that the media feeds you about what you deserve and what makes people compatible. Reach for the stars and do not settle.

Keep A High Standard

Teach young people to have a really high standard for a partner, and to no allow themselves to settle for anything less.

Of course, this will also take some serious soul searching and consistent teaching about what human values are the most long-lasting and valuable – but you were doing that anyway weren’t you?

This will take more time and more self-improvement and more confidence on their part. This will take more waiting and more self-control and self restraint. Yet this is the only way to a happy partnership that really grows a couple and develops individuals.

Thank you Plato, you dog.

Epistemology of Youth Work

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Epistemology, technically speaking, covers one third of all philosophical enquiry, and it is the branch most concerned with faith.

Epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, is always asking questions like, how do you know that, how do you know anything, what is knowledge, what signifies knowledge as fact as opposed to an opinion? How to you get to fact from opinion?

I use epistemological questions to level the playing field across all my work. Here are some examples:

In Broad Apologetic Theory

When entering a new classroom, I often get the students to describe their worldview. I do this by giving everyone a blank sheet of paper and asking a series of questions that determine what they know, what they think they know, what their priorities are, and what they truly care about deep down.

These questions range from ‘who is the most important person in the world’ to ‘why are you here’ and each question is followed by an epistemological question such as ‘how do you know that,’ ‘why do you think that,’ or ‘how can you be certain that’s true?’

The result of this exercise is a wide variety of worldviews (or dare I say religions) that hinge on a varying degree of faith. Even those who thought that they had an incredibly naturalistic, empirical or scientific approach to life need to admit a large reliance of faith.

In Specific Apologetic Questions

When responding to specific questions about God’s existence, such as, ‘how can you believe in a God when evil exists’, or ‘hasn’t Science disproved God’s existence’ I often start with some epistemological follow-ups. These can really narrow the scope and power of those initial questions.

Take God and evil: Why does evil dissuade you from God’s existence? What is it about suffering that makes God’s existence impossible? Can you not think of any possible world where God and evil could exist?

Or on the question of science: Which scientists and what research have you read to lead you to that conclusion? What do you mean by science? Can you think of anything in your experience that science could not prove or disprove? For their help with that last one, consider that the scientific method cannot provide evidence for the existence of mathematics, distinct minds, the reality of time, aesthetics or beauty, or even the scientific method itself!

Always follow a question with who, what, when, where, why, how, or which. Find out what they really know, what makes them think they know it and you’ll on your way to not only answering the question, but finding the real question behind it.

 

In Exegesis and Bible Studies

It’s certainly important to dig specifically into what does the text say, but it’s also important to analyse what presuppositions and assumptions we might be reading into the text as we examine it. Where did you get that opinion? Who told you that was true? What other possibilities could be going on? How do you know that is what God is like? If you we’re a 96 year old blind lady, what would you think then?

We will get further into the text if we examine (in the hope of somewhat suspending) our own epistemology, and what makes us think we are reading a passage correctly.

It’s also important when we start to apply a Bible passage to remember that the facts of the Bible – which I do believe are inerrant and infallible – are being filtered through my sinful perspective. Thus I will need God’s grace to help me understand, and faith to trust the Holy Spirit’s guidance as I read.

In Talks and Presentations

If you want to engage with a wide range of learning styles, then you will need to ask a wide range of questions. These questions need to be broader than just application, but should dig deeper into the specifics of how different personalities engage with knowledge.

Considering four or five different epistemological perspectives before you work out your applications will help you speak to a wider variety of people.

Some people’s epistemology will only allow them to assimilate a new truth if you can hang it on to experience they have already had. Others may accept what you say to readily because they believe you are a legitimate authority on the subject. Yet others will ignore you completely until they have seen it for themselves through working the problem step-by-step. Some people’s epistemology will only allow them to accept concrete ideas, and will outright reject abstract or open principles.

In Conflict Resolution and People Management

Knowing how to work with different epistemological perspectives is just as important as knowing how to work with different personality types. How people think and assimilate knowledge, and how seriously they take new information will affect how they receive communication.

This will of course change how you resolve difficulties and conflicts, and what language you use in public and private settings.

Epistemological lines of questioning can also help different people consider points of view otherwise removed from their own. Again, simple questions like ‘how do you know that’s what she was thinking when she told you that?’ can go a long way in lowering the temperature of a room.

So … You want to set up a youth cafe? – On Premier Youth and Children’s Work

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Great to have another post on Premier Youth Work blog this week. This time I was talking about the immensely popular ‘Youth Cafe’ project, how to make it work, and why you might not want one.

Check it out here.