Okay, this is not another post about a paper but a response. After Graham Stanton finished presenting his paper, the responder (each paper had someone respond to it) got up and said something to the effect of… “Relational youth ministry works in some places and perhaps it does not in others. Let’s not paint with broad brushstrokes. Some people are saying that Youth Ministry has failed and that we have to rethink or reinvent it. It has not failed. Maybe in some places it has not produced the results that we hoped for but in many places it is working fine.” Well, this esteemed youth ministry professor who comes from a well known Christian College in a northern state shocked me. For one, he painted with a broad brush stroke to start with. Second, he went all pragmatic in suggesting that what works is what is best, and third he implied that Graham was suggesting that Relational youth ministry does not work. In actuality, Graham was simply suggesting that this may not be the most helpful or Biblical model for evangelism and he (Graham) went on to challenge Root’s work, specifically the idea of place sharing. No one in their right mind can deny that youth ministry is for the most part very relational. I am still chuckling over all this (obviously).
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