Is UK youth ministry too American and too male? – A response.

I love the blogosphere in youth ministry. It’s really important to have regular conversing voices on the table sharpening our work. One of the better youth ministry blogs out there is James Ballentine’s. James is a great thinker with bags of experience. I particularly would like to recommend:

What if our youth practices are the trigger for young peoples challenging behaviour.

What role do you want young people to have in church?

and

Accepting rest amid the storm

Last weekend James published an important challenge about American influence and male dominance over youth ministry – particularly in publishing. It was a stark challenge, and I think he is absolutely right! Many people have engaged with the post on twitter, and I’m glad that it is gaining traction.

I’m James’ brother on both of his issues, however I feel that without recognising some omissions he made, a reader could easily assume that I’m his opponent. This is not the case, and for posterity I would like to make that abundantly clear.

I stand with him on both issues – particularly the second. Youth workers, we must do better to support the immense and important ministry of our highly gifted and qualified sisters in Christ. Sometimes that just means us getting out of the way, but other times, like James has, we need to make noise.

The unfortunate thing, however, is that James used a recent post of mine as a springboard into his two points, and – I’m sure unintentionally – made me look like a bit of a negative poster-boy of those issues.

I think this is a little unfortunate. I’m sure James didn’t mean to hurt me or steer people into labelling me either. Perhaps in his rush to get to the meat of the issue, I just suffered the whip of his brevity.

In that vein I’d like to post a couple of clarifications in the hope that gracious conversation and level hearts will prevail.

(Quick note: I sent this to James before posting, and he responded incredibly graciously and humbly. Full credit to him!)

American Influence

Yup. Bang on! Youth ministry is a multi-million-dollar exercise across the pond, and frankly it only gets the financial dregs over here in the UK. The differences between the two are significant.

A while back I wrote this post – identifying just a few of the differences we should be aware of. It’s not a full picture, and – as someone rightly pointed out to me recently – it woefully neglects the specific issues of gender, race, and disability. There’s obviously much more to be said.

It’s also important to understand that YouthWorkHacks is read by an equal mix of both US and UK practitioners, and my list intentionally reflects that readership.

Selective use of my post

James’ post bypasses my careful and specific mentions of American influence.

Most importantly under the heading ‘Elephants in the room’ I write:

“Some books I’ve missed out not because they’re unsound or unhelpful, but because they really only work for an American context, and prove less useful over here in the UK. They include Purpose Driven Youth Work by Doug Fields and This Way to Youth Ministry by Duffy Robbins. Great books in their place, but that place is probably not post-Christendom 21st Century UK.”

Also, under Senter I write: “it needs to be read alongside something like Pete Ward’s Growing Up Evangelical for a UK perspective.”

And under Fields: “it’s probably more helpful for an American context, or for bigger churches, but still full of wise tidbits nonetheless.”

I think it’s an oversight to not mention any of this awareness when highlighting the list for being heavily American influenced.

The list in my post reflects the nature of the publishing market – which I think is the better thing to critique, rather than my favourite few from it.

Finally, I’m sure the five American authors in the list would themselves like me to point out that, in the case of all but Doug Fields, they are strong advocates against traditional American youth ministry. Their books (particularly DeVries) are actually very helpful for a UK context regardless of their origin.

Women authorship

I am a passionate advocate for women in Youth Ministry. My young people need their voices, and so do I as a leader.

This is why over half of the contributors to YouthWorkHacks are women. My own book includes two amazing sidebars written by women: Dr. Sam Richards and Rachel Turner. You can see a little more of my heart for women in youth ministry – along with more on the extent of the problem – here.

That said, more can and should be done, and I’m in a position of influence to give more ears to the issue. I’m happy to do so and James has challenged me to do exactly that.

The issue again, however, is the shape of the market, not my selections from it.

Very few youth ministry books are authored by women, although there are fabulous titles written by women (God-bearing Life by Kenda Creasy Dean, or Youthwork by Sally Nash for instance). This is slightly easier in the family’s ministry world. The only books I mentioned in my post under this category are written by women: “Check out anything by Rachel Turner, or the classic Family Ministry by Diana Garland.”

I would also like to take this opportunity to celebrate the amazing women heading up a lot of the accredited youth ministry training in the UK. This includes Alice Smith at St. Mellitus, Alia Pike at Nazarene, Mel Lacey at Oak Hill, Dr. Sally Nash at CYM, and – until very recently (soon to be Dr.) Carolyn Edwards at Cliff College, and now York Diocese. There’s a significant amount of influence in shaping the development of future practitioners. The extent of their reach is exponential and I look forward to more books because of it!

James is right though. We all have to do better, and I would like to be a part of the effort.

Conclusion

James is bang on about the issues, however I felt compelled to write this to show that I’m with him and not against him.

I’m glad James posted the link to my original post, but without reading that, or knowing me personally, and without any statement from James to the contrary, the reader will likely equate me with those issues, which I think is unfair.

I hope I have done enough here to show that these issues have been with me already for some time, which is why I appreciate James’ fiery passion, and want to stand with him on the front line.

In Christ.

Tim

(Quick note: I sent this to James before posting, and he responded incredibly graciously and humbly. Full credit to him!)

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *