{"id":4229,"date":"2020-06-23T10:58:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T14:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/practicalmattersjournal.ecdsdev.org\/?p=4229"},"modified":"2020-07-01T10:40:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T14:40:58","slug":"youth-ministry-and-theological-shorthand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pmcleanup.ecdsdev.org\/2020\/06\/23\/youth-ministry-and-theological-shorthand\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth Ministry and Theological Shorthand: Living Amongst the Fragments of a Coherent Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Download PDF: Calvin RV, Youth Ministry<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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By: David Bailey
Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2019. 260 pages. $31.00<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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In his book Youth Ministry and Theological Shorthand: Living Amongst the Fragments of a Coherent Theology, <\/em>David Bailey poses some insightful questions about theological education and the way that it translates into the practice of youth ministry. Bailey\u2019s research explores the phenomenon of what he calls \u201ctheological shorthand\u201d: theological concepts that have become distilled into popular youth ministry catchphrases but have grown untethered from the larger Christian narrative. Bailey\u2019s book is unique among youth ministry literature in that it centers not on the youth themselves or how to minister to them but on the youth ministers and their own theology. This makes it relevant for a wider audience, as it includes theological educators in its scope as well as practitioners and youth ministry educators. For youth ministers, it provides an opportunity to reflect on and deepen the theology that grounds their own ministry. For theological educators, it shows how their work translates into ministry contexts \u2013 and invites them to consider how they might equip their students to think theologically about ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through his interviews with youth pastors, Bailey identifies common phrases such as relationships <\/em>(in the \u201crelational youth ministry\u201d trend), like Jesus, being there, <\/em>and time and journey <\/em>as examples of theological shorthand. These shorthand concepts represent the theology that undergirds and resources the work of youth ministry practitioners \u2013 they see themselves as imitating Jesus through \u201cbeing there\u201d for young people. Bailey acknowledges that this theology seems to be enough of a foundation to \u201c[fuel] long-term sacrificial ministry\u201d (7). Yet he also sees it lacking in depth and believes it could be stronger with a theological reframe. Bailey peruses resource guides in Youthworker <\/em>journal as well as popular worship songs of the past decade, analyzing the fragments of theology they contain. He shows how the vast tradition behind those summary fragments is lost to practitioners who \u2013 although they use the language \u2013 often cannot articulate the theological nuance of what it means to be \u201clike Jesus\u201d or to \u201cjourney with\u201d young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey finds this theological shorthand problematic insofar as it becomes untethered from the deeper well of theology that it references, and becomes its own free-floating, shallow theology. However, Bailey also sees theological shorthand as an opportunity; he acknowledges that these shorthand phrases function as \u201cicons of epistemology,\u201d as windows onto the larger theological tradition that invite us to explore more deeply the theology that undergirds and resources our ministry. His solution for fleshing out the shorthand is the practice of \u201ctheodramatic dialogical reflection\u201d \u2013 that is, identifying<\/em> the fragments of theology, interpreting<\/em> their usage, and \u201cdialogically reflect[ing]<\/em> upon the language via differing theological views\u201d (176). Bailey attempts to model this process through the structure of his book: he identifies the theological shorthand fragments used by youth ministers, explores what they mean by them, and uses those fragments as openings into a discussion of Kevin Vanhoozer\u2019s Trinitarian theology \u2013 which Bailey believes is robust enough to ground the work of youth ministry in a way that theological shorthand cannot. The most substantial theological reframe for Bailey seems to be from the idea of youth ministers being \u201clike Jesus\u201d \u2013 a theological fragment that \u201creduces the imitation of Christ to its Xerox potential\u201d (135) \u2013 to a theology of participation in the divine theodrama. Bailey observes that youth ministers who spoke about being \u201clike Jesus\u201d by \u201cbeing there\u201d for young people felt that it was primarily their own responsibility to model Jesus to their youth (140). However, he sees that this individualistic mindset over-emphasizes the youth minister\u2019s own effort to imitate Jesus, and it fails to account for the ongoing work of God and the support of the church. The theological shift to participation <\/em>in God\u2019s mission rather than imitation<\/em>, Bailey believes, can reframe their work in a healthier way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Bailey\u2019s interesting claims is that the phenomenon of theological shorthand stems partly from the fact that youth ministers are more influenced by youth ministry literature than they are by their own faith traditions or even by the Bible. As he points out in his discussion of Youthworker<\/em>\u2019s resource guides, the youth ministry guild\u2019s attempt to be ecumenical leads contributors to paint in broad theological strokes, creating a widespread youth ministry language of theological shorthand. Although this observation is not the focal point of his argument, the ecumenism of the youth ministry guild \u2013 a fascinating phenomenon I would like to see explored in more detail \u2013 troubles Bailey\u2019s argument for a more \u201ccoherent theology.\u201d Although he acknowledges that the Christian story takes on \u201cdiverse accents and radically altered interpretations,\u201d he insists that there remains a \u201croughly consistent Christian narrative\u201d and \u201croughly coherent theology\u201d (225). The rough coherence he envisions, however, is apparently not the ecumenical version of the gospel that loosely gathers various theological viewpoints under the umbrella of theological shorthand on which most Christians can agree. That kind of coherence, he believes, leads to \u201cplastic hermeneutics\u201d and free-styling interpretation. This raises the question: how can we achieve theological coherence among theological diversity without embracing theological shorthand? Or is coherence perhaps not the right goal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey\u2019s work raises important questions about how theological educators can better resource practitioners entering the field. But while it raises those questions, his emphasis on orthodox Trinitarian theology does not serve as a satisfactory answer. At the end of the book, I find myself wondering about Bailey\u2019s primary goal: is it to put forth a new theological foundation for youth ministry, or is it to address the problem of theological shorthand by equipping practitioners with the tool of theodramatic dialogical reflection? If it is the former, the theology he proposes will not solve the problem of theological shorthand that he has identified. As Pete Ward notes in the foreword, any theology that is taught in seminaries or that makes its way into the youth ministry literature is likely to become theological shorthand \u2013 including the theologies of \u201cparticipation\u201d and \u201ccommunicative action\u201d that Bailey puts forth. His Trinitarian solution to the problem of theological shorthand, if it catches on in the youth ministry literature, is doomed to repeat the cycle he critiques by becoming shorthand itself. Thus, the solution cannot be in a better, deeper, or more orthodox theology, but only in the practice of theodramatic dialogical reflection he identifies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if the latter goal drives his work, concluding with theology falls short of achieving it. Rather than exploring pedagogies and methods by which theological educators can teach this practice to youth ministers, Bailey models the practice of theodramatic dialogical reflection by his own (monologic) theological reflection on the Trinity. His desire for coherence leads him to avoid the true dialogue for which he calls. Although he does explore the positions of other theologians with whom he disagrees, he ultimately casts his own theology as normative for youth ministry practitioners. This move is appropriate for the former goal (a new theological foundation) but not for the latter (the practice of theological reflection) because Bailey\u2019s conclusion implicitly encourages the consumption of another\u2019s theology rather than a critical reflection on one\u2019s own. But should the goal of theodramatic dialogical reflection be coherent theology \u2013 or should it be true dialogue? Bailey sees theological shorthand as an opportunity to \u201cguide, educate, and illuminate\u201d (177), but I see it as an opportunity for ecumenical dialogue that \u2013 although messy and even incoherent and inconclusive at times \u2013 can be mutually enriching and edifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey\u2019s work on theological shorthand is both illuminating and thought-provoking, but ultimately, the promising solution of theodramatic dialogical reflection is left hanging. In the final chapters of this book, I would have loved to see Bailey explore this practice in greater depth, showing readers how to facilitate it and demonstrating through qualitative research how it can spark rich conversation among youth ministry practitioners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download PDF: Calvin RV, Youth Ministry By: David BaileyEugene: Pickwick Publications, 2019. 260 pages. $31.00 In his book Youth Ministry and Theological Shorthand: Living Amongst the Fragments of a Coherent Theology, David Bailey poses some insightful questions about theological education<\/p>\n

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