i have added a link on the right hand side to a list of articles by other people. this consists of articles i linked to on my old blog plus a whole bunch of other stuff and sites/pages i have come across with a good selection of articles.
i have created a list of these for the same reason as i added a list of worship tricks in one place. i thought originally that type pads categories would enable me to track articles but in fact it’s useful for me (and hopefully some of you) to have one place where i link to them all.
do feel free to leave comments if you think there are pages/articles i might like to add…
i am aware that the link to forgotten fire is broken, but i am hoping to retrace it which is why i have left it on the list…
one new article is which i have added is life creates a bridge (pdf) by mark yaconelli. i have blogged about it before when i read it in the lectures from princeton’s youth ministry seminar/conference 2003 but at that stage it hadn’t been added to the web site. well last year’s are now up there and also tom beaudoin’s lectures which had disappeared for a while are back. i really liked this article by mark and quoted from the start of the article before about the need to do nothing and learn to wait. here’s a few from the second half of the article where he suggests that in the post-modern world the stations of the spiritual life are being amazed, letting go, and resisting:
On being amazed:
In youth ministry we set up programs to help control, manipulate, and manage young people. We buy into the conventional wisdom within the Church that young people are problems that must be solved. They need converting. They need to be in worship. They need confirmation. They need better moral training. They need Bible study.We don’t have time to be “amazed” by young people. We have no space in our lives to stop and notice how God is alive in youth. We have work to do. We have a ministry to run. Is n’t it a relief that Jesus didn’t start “Jesus Christ’s World-Wide Ministries”? Isn’t it a relief that Jesus didn’t write a book series or curriculum called “Here’s the Way!” It turns out, contrary to what we see in most of our churches, Jesus wasn’t running a ministry program. Instead of directing ministry Jesus spent most of his life in wonder. He stood in wonder at the beauty of the natural world, the suffering of people, the questions of strangers, and
the presence of the poor. He stood in wonder at the presence of the little ones, the marginalized and discarded children. Stopping and doing nothing is what prepares us for wonder and amazement. When we stop and slow down we are open and available to see the miracle of living and the power of God’s presence in the world…
On letting go:
When people brought their children to Jesus, the disciples tried to control the crowd. They tried to
respond to the longings of the crowd. Jesus, noticing that the disciples had placed themselves at the center of the ministry, became indignant. He called the disciples to stop. He called the disciples to listen. He called them to notice what they were doing. He called them to turn or repent. He was calling the disciples to let go. When Jesus called the disciples to turn their attention to him, he was calling them to let go of their activity, their concerns, and their ministry. We understand how difficult this must have been for the disciples. We can understand why they didn’t want to turn and face Jesus. First of all, who could trust Jesus with the ministry? Jesus had no order, no system for effective ministry. “Let the children come!” he exclaimed. No straight lines, no organization— just kids climbing everywhere. When we turn to Jesus, chaos seems to break loose. We lose “control.” People get upset and confused. There’s too much ambiguity. Why should we let go of our ministry and trust Jesus when he’s so unpredictable?…
On resistance:
Youth today are growing up in Babylon, they are growing up in ancient Rome, they are growing up in a culture that is saturated in a materialistic understanding of life. To counter an understanding of life reduced to buying and selling we need to embody a spirituality of resistance. When young people enter a Christian community they should experience a way of life that is deeply resistant to the values and mores of North American market culture. To be Christian necessarily means to relate to material goods differently and to understand and value families differently. It means we experience time, neighbors, strangers, and the earth in very different ways than those presented by the media culture that surrounds us. Unfortunately, most churches have been co-opted by the culture of hype— the culture of buying and selling. Most ministries mimic the surrounding cultural practices in order to make the faith more palatable. As a youth minister I regularly re c e i ve charts and grids from Christian music companies to help sell Christian CDs to the youth I know. These charts list secular bands and then match them with comparable Christian artists. Why do we need the comparison? Why can’t Christians produce music without seeking to appeal to the mass market? Worship services are becoming more like television. Participants can sit back passively and watch beautiful images roll across video screens while a Paul Schaefer-like band performs inspiring Christian rock ballads. Resistance means that we refuse to participate in the culture’s addiction to greed…
Man, that stuff about worship becoming a rock performance is dead on, and so is the stuff about Jesus not having a systematic order of worship or method for ministry. I just can’t get over how hard we try to bring Jesus in new ways and how hard we try to worship in more captivating ways, when the old school stuff has always worked, it just needs to be explained. people need to be told why we sing hymns and what this hymn means, they need to know why the liturgical practices are set up the way they are, and the rich symbolism behind it all. great stuff posted here, i love reading your posts!!
Why even try to compete with ‘secular’ music, is music that engages a culture beyond the Church not inspired by God? By trying to compete with ‘mainstream music’ with Christian alternatives are we subconsciously saying that anything ‘not evangelically christian’ is evil and wrong?
By ignoring this attitude we can let it seep into our everyday practice (as christians) and ignore what God is doing in this world through (for eg) social justice, equality of opportunity and those involved in inner city work, who are not and do not proclaim the Christian message.
The question is, can God work in our culture without our input?
I think we should learn to recognise that God works in places Christians fear to tread… this incudes the music scene!