Category: English

Relational Youth Ministry

Andrew Root’s article “Reexamining Relational Youth Ministry: Implications from the Theology of Bonhoeffer” is an excellent reminder that youth ministry should not be about creating a place of influence but a place of sharing. The question the church must ask according to Root is:

Will we seek to hire young, magnetic individuals who can use relationships as a means to an end, or will we, all of us (youth workers, volunteers, and congregation members), bravely take the initiative to walk into the center of adolescents’ deepest sufferings and joys, standing with and for them, sharing their place? In this way relationships are an end, the concrete presence of Christ in the world.

Word & World –  Summer 2006.

Organizing Armageddon

The most persistent systemic problem with big international aid efforts, one highlighted in virtually every major study, is that no one is in charge. In a major catastrophe, thousands of high-minded, highly motivated folks pour in from all over the world. Each big agency has its own style and priorities, and each sets up its own supply chain of planes, ships, and trucks. They compete with one another for resources, duplicate one another’s efforts, and generally get in one another’s way.

from Organizing Armageddon: What We Learned From the Haiti Earthquake via Derek Hoven.

What is not mentioned in the article, and is even more catastrophic is the fact that very few of those aid efforts utilize and work with locals, allowing the locals to participate in the decision-making process.  This is perhaps best understood by the fact that no Haitian is addressed in the article except for the negative image of a muscular man stalling the Red Cross in their effort to deliver food.

Why We Should Learn the Language of Data

Of course, as anyone with any exposure to statistics knows, correlation is not causation. And individual stories don’t prove anything; when you examine data on the millions of vaccinated kids, even the correlation vanishes.

From Clive Thompson on Why We Should Learn the Language of Data via Derek Hoven.

Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction

“On More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” by Frederick Herzberg is one of the must read articles about leadership. Its main claim is that there is a difference between the things that motivate employees and the things that make them dissatisfied.

According to Herzberg environmental factors, like boss’s attitude, structure of the workplace, and salaries can surely by demotivating, but the changes in those factors to the better does not create a motivation in the employee.

According to Herzberg it is challenge, interests, and responsibility that do motivate people to do better in their workplace. He even claims that as a fact that:

Motivated people seek more hours of work, not fewer.

Herzberg’s article is valuable, not as a fact study about motivation (though it surely has some value) but to open our minds to the complex systems that are to be found in all structures.

What Makes a Leader?

Daniel Coleman’s article about the necessity of EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is an important read, whether we think its status as a classic is well deserved or not. In the article he lifts up the need for self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. All crucial parts of what Coleman calls EQ. In the article Coleman defines what he means by those five crucial components of EQ.

According to Coleman all those components can be learned.

Coleman’s findings are based more or less on a feeling, rather than any hard data. It is based on observation “how emotional intelligence shows itself on the job.” This is not to say that there are no questionnaires to be found, they might, but they are not quoted here or even referenced. Having said that, it is an important read, as long as we are aware of its shortcomings.

From “What Makes a Leader? (HBR Classic) – Harvard Business Review” by Daniel Coleman

The Self Interests of Congregations

A paper called “Church Based Organizing: A Strategy for Ministry” presented be the Gamaliel Foundation, makes an interesting claim about the new focus of congregations:

Fifty years ago, the self interest of the church was to respond to the problems of poverty, poor schools, lack of health care etc. affecting its people. Today the self interest is still there; but a more powerful self interest is the very survival of the congregation.

Here is more about Gamaliel Foundation.

Plagiarism

In an interview, she said the idea of an author whose singular effort creates an original work is rooted in Enlightenment ideas of the individual. It is buttressed by the Western concept of intellectual property rights as secured by copyright law. But both traditions are being challenged.

from Lines on Plagiarism Blur for Students in the Digital Age – NYTimes.com via Hamma Library.

Clergy Burnout

“We had a pastor in our study group who hadn’t taken a vacation in 18 years,” said Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell, an assistant professor of health research at Duke University who directs one of the studies. “These people tend to be driven by a sense of a duty to God to answer every call for help from anybody, and they are virtually called upon all the time, 24/7.”

via Evidence Grows of Problem of Clergy Burnout – NYTimes.com.

Why Anne Rice Has Never Been More of a Christian

Whatever backlash Anne Rice might eventually receive from her Christian readers, or from the Evangelical establishment itself, the undeniable fact is that the decision of this sensitive, passionate, and devout woman to leave Christianity is one that Christ himself would likely understand, even applaud, even as He would likely weep at the holocaust of hatred, bigotry, and collateral carnage that has devolved from the grimy, shopworn religion to which His glorious name has been affixed.

via Michael Rowe: Why Anne Rice Has Never Been More of a Christian.

Ministry to shut-ins

Few years ago I wrote an educational material for the church of Iceland, in collaboration with Guðrún Eggertsdóttir and Ragnheiður Sverrisdóttir, about how congregations can structure their ministry to those that are unable to leave their home.

I have always meant to look at the in context of the structure of Stephen Ministries here in the US. And maybe one day I will.

I lift up my eyes to the hills

It is sometimes annoying being a student of theology. One of the devastating moments in my studies was addressing Psalm 121, and learning that the original meaning is NOT that God’s comes from the hill to save us. The reason we lift our eyes to the hills, is that the heathens live there, and we are afraid they are coming to get us.

This completely ruins the reading of this text in the context of Vatnaskogur Summercamp. How often have I thought about hill “Kambur” and its beauty when I have read this text.

Gospel as a threat

As I looked through my stuff, there are lot of interesting things that might as well go here on ispeculate.net. When taking a class about Urban Ministry in Detroit, I attended few lectures by Dr. James W. (Jim) Perkinson. Dr. Perkinson was in his lectures focused on the reading of the Bible as a response to the Empire. Continue reading Gospel as a threat

Effective Youth and Family Ministry

On the website of the ELCA Youth Ministry Network (Warning: it has sound), one can find various resources for youth and family ministry. On of them is “Definition of Effective Youth and Family Ministry: A Working Document (ver. 1.2).

The document as based on ten words that should describe Youth and Family Ministry, and what those words should entail.

The Document can be accessed via ELCA YMNET -> Resources -> More Resources … .