Facilitator: Walt Mueller

Description:

As you know, the Open Source Seminar format is a new thing at the NYWC this year. I’m excited to be a part of the trail-blazing team on such a crucial and timely topic for youth ministry as cultural engagement. Our ministries will stand or fall based on the approach we take to this topic in the course of our daily interactions with kids.

Now we get to work together on shaping how we’ll spend our (all-too-short) 90 minutes together. At this point, my goal is to come out of the session with each attendee being challenged to think through the spectrum of contemporary approaches to faith and culture while evaluating where they do fall on the spectrum as well as where they should fall on the spectrum. Then, I‘d like to look at some basic skills for cultural engagement along with practical examples and perhaps some practice of each. Since 90 minutes is a very short time to address any topic with much depth, I’d like to use our ability to social network together after the convention to do some stuff individually that we then process together. This could include some short directed readings and interaction with each other on what we’ve read, tackling a single or variety of cultural expressions (film, TV show, book, magazine, etc.) and then interacting on each, discovering ways the cultural piece informs or can be used in our ministries, etc. In other words, our time won’t be up at the 90 minute mark!

Here’s my initial suggested outline for the 90-minute seminar (and remember, this is a very, very fluid work in progress that depends on you!):

First – about 45 to 50 minutes of me passing on some foundational theory to you as follows. Remember, you may have seen some of this somewhere before, but our group will be all over the place on this one and we’ve got to attempt to build some sort of shared foundation.

I. What is culture – specifically youth culture?

    A. Definitions

    B. Ingredients

II. Cultural Engagement – evaluating options on how Christians should view their place in the world.

    A. Accommodation

    B. Isolation

    C. Infiltration/Transformation/Creation

III. The Youthworker Engages Culture

    A. Targets – what do I Engage?

    B. Skills – how can I Engage?

    C. Boundaries – is there a line?

Then, we can start to practice what we’ve learned. At this point there are a few options open to us. I really need your advice. Here are some options:

- Have the entire group view a cultural piece (image, clip, etc.) and then discuss in small groups, developing practical strategies for engagement based on the piece.

- Divide up into individual groups and look at a variety of different pieces (some will look at a print ad, others a film clip, etc.) and then work in small discussion/strategy groups based on interest.

- Other ideas you might have for small group work?

Keep in mind that with each of these I will be providing a simple list of questions/paradigm that will guide the discussion, resulting in practical ways to engage the piece with the result being effective ministry.

We’ll finish up with some Q and A and summary statements.

Now. . . . . where do we go from here?

It would be most helpful for us to interact on three things:

1. How does my preliminary outline look for the first 45 to 50 minutes of the class. Any suggestions for changes, adjustments, etc.? Perhaps it would be helpful to think about the specific issues related to cultural engagement that your facing in your ministry – what questions do you bring to the table?

2. What’s the best plan of attack for our small group interaction time. Remember, we don’t have a whole lot of time, and we want to come out of this without a whole lot of loose ends.

3. I’m really excited about the “after-the-convention” stuff that we can do via the social-networking site. What suggestions do you have for this? What would be reasonable and helpful?

I’m really looking forward to this process!

Blessings,

Walt