An encouraging trend in youth ministry over the last 5-10 years has been the growth of contemplative practices in youth ministry. one of the real pioneers in this in the usa has been mark yaconelli who developed and ran the youth ministry and spirituality project for 7 years. the question he wanted to explore was what would happen if you took youth groups in a range of denominations and worked to introduce them to ways of contemplative prayer. would this have any transformative effect? the results were dramatic… youth ministers and young people that learned how to pray were transformed.

mark has written a book contemplative youth ministry (which has just been published in the uk) in which he shares his insights and approach. it is a wonderful book. if you are involved in youth ministry you must get it. i actually think you should get it and read it if you are in any kind of leadership in church. this isn’t really another model to buy off the shelf as the latest quick fix solution which is probably the last thing we need. it goes much deeper than that.

mark says that

contemplation is being with god within the reality of the present moment. contemplation is about presence. it’s about attentiveness, opening our heart’s eye to god, ourselves, and others. contemplation is an attitude of the heart, an all embracing hospitality to what is…

and so contemplative youth ministry is simply being with god, and learning to be attentive to god’s presence in the lives of young people. mark suggests that youth ministry needs to slow down.

i have observed too many churches and youth ministries who embody a sense of urgency that communicates a god who is either a relentless taskmaster or completely incompetent… this is the endless parade of duded up rock stars, hyperactive activities, word heavy programmes… there is a tangible sense that god must be dressed up or hidden behind high energy music, and charismatic speakers. our churches and ministries seem to be deathly afraid of any kind of downtime. all silence and stillness is eradicated for fear that young people might find god disappointing, boring or absent. it’s as if our church and ministry leaders have an anxious suspicion that god has left the building and so they stall with jabbering words and meaningless activities in the hope that the crowd won’t become restless. in contrast jesus isn’t afraid of doubts, or downtime or disappointment or boredom – in fact i might even claim that he finds doubt, boredom and disappointment critical to spiritual growth! … jesus asks us to stop, he invites us to come away to quiet and deserted places. he asks us to be still and know. he calls us to take a moment to do nothing. he calls us to turn our attention away from our anxiety and busyness and just simply notice the work god is already doing.

the book is full of encouraging stories and it’s very practical. as well as outlining some specific practices of prayer mark suggests how to help a church start from scratch to build a youth team, help that team learn to practise discerning god’s presence and voice in their midst, and then to begin to introduce that attentiveness to god’s presence with the young people. this includes a simple outline for running meetings mark devised called a liturgy of discernment that looks very easy to use but shifts the emphasis of planning quite significantly. the last section uses a threefold approach taken from spiritual direction as a framework for working with young people – noticing (helping young people become aware of their experience of god), naming (helping them find a language to describe it), and nurturing (helping young people develop practices that deepen their understanding and relationship with god). the journey is as much about us changing and learning to pray and be attentive as it is about the young people.

if you think this is a consumer choice or personality type thing i.e. your young people won’t be into it, don’t dismiss it so quickly. it’s really not about stopping having fun and just engaging in prayer and being serious all of a sudden…

the purpose of integrating contemplative presence in youth ministry is not to form kids into monks, nor is it to make us experts in contemplative prayer – it is to deepen our (youth and adults) awareness of god and others and self so that we might become fully alive.

what is encouraging about the stories and process that mark used in the youth ministry and spirituality project and written about here is that the churches that used this are not your uber cool ones. they sound like bog standard denominational set ups, in some cases with no youth ministry to speak of. and from the descriptions those with a call to get involved with young people don’t need to be young and cool themselves.

this complements other books such as tony jones soul shaper, jenny baker and moya ratanyake’s tune in chill out and kenda creasy dean’s practising passion. together these are opening up a very hopeful way forward for youth ministry. i think it especially opens up very hopeful possibilities for youth ministry in traditional and denominational settings. it has sometimes felt as though the only way offered to do radical stuff with young people has been to get them into charismatic worship where they experience god. that is transformative for some groups but problematic for others. there are lots of traditions and groups of young people for whom that just isn’t what they are looking for or going to get into or it cuts them off from their tradition. it may also be for more charismatic groups that this will open up whole new possibilities as well.

This book review was written by Jonny Baker: Contemplative Youth Ministry

The central problem in sharing the Christian faith with young people doesn’t concern words; it’s deeper than that. The real crisis facing those of us who seek to share faith with youth is this:
we don’t know how to be with our kids.
we don’t know how to be with ourselves.
we don’t know how to be with God.
 pp19

Contemplative Youth Ministry is a book that’s been a long coming, a result of the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project (http://www.ymsp.org) which has been facilitated by Mark Yaconelli.

For 8 years the YMSP put together research, articles, conferences and retreats for church communities and youth workers engaging people with contemplative practices, prayer and ministry. Mark has compiled much of the lessons from the project and placed them into this fantastic book so that others may also engage with the project and the opportunities that contemplative practices may offer their ministry.

I’ve been a fan of books by Kenda Creasy Dean and Dorothy Bass that have been encouraging youth ministry to explore the benefits of spiritual and contemplative practices, and have found that their writing have benefited and challenged my ministry with young people over the last few years, yet find that their work is not as widely read here in Australia as I’d like. This book I hope will break into those networks and ministries that haven’t paid much attention to the challenges of other authors to explore contemplative practices in ministry and open their eyes and minds to the benefits of such practices in ministry with young people.

What I like about this book is that it’s written partially as a text book for leaders as well as providing some practical input as to how leaders can learn some of the practices that are spoken about in the book. This isn’t about teaching people how to get their young people to participate in contemplative practices, it’s about sharing stories and exploring ways in which people’s youth ministry may benefit from contemplative practices.

One of the key learning points for me included Mark’s exploration into what I believe to be the root problem behind most youth ministries, that they’re more about addressing either adult’s fears and anxieties for young people or the fears and anxieties that young people have of the church.

adult anxiety about teens may be the primary reason youth ministry exists.
pp31

That if youth ministry is about addressing the anxiety that adults have about young people then it’s about control, about developing good morals, about teaching people how to act and believe. Youth ministries like this develop discipleship models and become restrictive and deadening.

The other direction that many youth ministries take is to address the fears that young people have of the church. Ministries that focus on these fears will tend to focus on entertaining young people, trying to address the fear that “church is boring” they also distract young people from the deeper rhythms of the Christian faith.

Mark continues the exploration into anxieties and shares some stories and lessons learnt from discussions with parents of young people asking exactly why many adults see the need to take their children to church. The suggestion being that parents really want their children to be alive, to know the presence and reality of God, although their expectations tend to lean towards learning morality and how to conform to the life of the community.

It’s difficult for parents to trust their children to God. Look what happened to Jesus! Look what happened to the disciples! Look what happened to his friends, those we point to as saints! Parents, church members, and youth might want Christian values and assurances, but we don’t want the life of Jesus. 
pp42

Mark continues his book to explore the benefit of contemplative prayer, not only as a part of one’s spiritual life and being present with God, but also as a way for people to learn to simply be present with the young people that they minister with. As we learn to practice contemplative prayer so we learn to practice contemplative youth ministry, as he writes that contemplative prayer doesn’t move people into more silence, but instead into more authentic action.
The gifts that contemplative practices encourages in us naturally feed into our ministry with young people, allowing us to learn to just be present, to truly see the young people that we’re working with, to really be able to listen to them, to build a ministry of nurture and most of all to learn just to be present with those who have learnt that they will never get an adult’s full attention.

As I read the New Testament it’s clear to me that people felt seen by Jesus. It’s also clear that Jesus’ willingness to openly see people (particularly those who often went unseen and unnoticed) was at the heart of his ministry.
pp106
What’s so special about this book is that it’s telling us stuff that we already know to be true, i mean we allready know that young people are looking for adults who know how to live lives of love, but we still find it difficult to live it. Mark has written in a way that inspires us to take it on and be energized about altering our approach to our ministry with young people, our own personal spiritual journey and the way in which we see, nurture, notice and be with young people and with each other.

This is a youth ministry resource that needed to be written and needs even moreso to be read, I’m hoping that what we’ll see out of this is a number of youth ministries being revitalized, a number of youth workers being inspired, a number of churches being transformed and a number of young people with a new generation of ministries that is all about introducing them to the deeper rhythms and practices of the Christian faith, and the alternative life that Jesus calls each of us towards.

What does a contemplative approach to youth ministry look like? It looks like youth engaged in centering prayer as well as body surfing. It look like kids doing lectio divinia as well as critical study of the bible. It looks like solitude as well as service projects, contemplative worship as well as disco karaoke. As Jesus points out again and again, it’s not the method but the spirit – the love and awareness behind our activities – that make them Christian.
pp232

Mark Yaconelli has released his long awaited a book titled contemplative youth ministry.

It is a wonderful book.

If you are involved in youth ministry you should get it.

Actually, I think you should get it and read it if you are in any kind of leadership in church.

This isn’t really another model to buy off the shelf, nor is it the latest quick fix solution (which is a good thing because probably the last thing we need is a quick fix solution). It goes much deeper than that.

He has found the time to answer a handful of the questions that I sent him re his latest book Contemplative Youth Ministry, a special thanks to Mark for providing these answers and the book, which I think offers a lot to the international dialogue on youth ministry

a) you, and many others have come under some suspicion from a number of people who compare contemplative approaches to prayer with eastern mysticism citing it as non-christian, how have you engaged with these people and criticisms? (note that i think many of their questions are unfortunately coming from what I’m calling a western mysticism that is based around a blessing theological view of ministry and prayer)

Mark: I’ve faced questions like this for ten years. People continue to post websites attacking me on this issue…what amazes me is that I’ve never been contacted by any of these people. How can they be Christians and not confront me, hold me accountable, if they really think I’m doing something that’s destructive to Christians?

In answer to your question. It’s difficult for people to recognize that silence is neutral. Silence is a human capacity that can be good, bad or trivial. If a Buddhist monk stood on a street corner and began preaching about Buddhism would we call him a Christian because he was using the traditional Christian practice of “preaching?” Some people feel that because contemplative prayer invites silence, stillness, and meditation that it somehow makes you part of another religion. The important thing to focus on in any Christian practice (even preaching or teaching or studying or other traditional Christian practices) is the “intention” and “attention” of the person practicing. In Christian forms of contemplative prayer we draw our attention to the God of Jesus Christ. Our intention is to make ourselves as vulnerable as we can be to the God of Jesus Christ. Jesus is concerned with the direction of our hearts. The practices themselves can be used for good or bad (look at the religious leaders in Jesus’ day. They were highly moral people who new their scriptures and yet their hearts were closed to the presence of God.) Jesus continually goes off in solitude and silence to commune with God. We are told in the some to “meditate on our beds at night” and to “Be still and know.” Any growing relationship with God requires not only our activity and words but also a willingness to listen and watch and wait. This is contemplative prayer, a willingness to listen to the One who names and claims us.

b) how long in the making was this book?

Mark: I first began writing this book in 1998. I wrote five chapters between 1998-99 and then realized I didn’t know enough. In 2001, I wrote another three chapters. I submitted all of these chapters to publishers in 2004 to secure a contract. Once I had a book contract I set the book aside for six months. Then during a year long sabbatical with my family I sat down to write and the book flowed out in three months. I used only 1 chapter from my original writings in 1998, 99 and 2001. I’m glad I waited. If I’d used earlier chapters the book would’ve been much more eager about scoring points for contemplation and demeaning other approaches to the Christian life.

c) what’s the most important lesson that you’ve learnt from the process of working on this project?

Mark: One of the most significant things I’ve learned is that people don’t feel like they have permission to be spiritual leaders, spiritual guides. The calling that ministers feel is to know God, commune with God and then accompany the Holy Spirit in helping other people to awaken to the presence and love of God. As people begin to serve in the ministry, this calling is somehow set aside. People suddenly feel that their job is to administrate programs, engage in psychological counseling and learn how to become good educators. They set aside their calling to be spiritual guides and seek to become family counselors, efficient administrators and teachers. These are good skills and roles to play in ministry, but they aren’t the central calling.

The central calling is to be a spiritual guide. To be a spiritual guide you need to spend regular time in the Spirit. You need time in solitude, in prayer, in study. You need to know how to listen, how to see the work of God in the midst of chaos or routine. You need to be vulnerable to suffering and have a keen ear for spiritual restlessness. There are different skills, different forms of study and preparation when you see yourself as a spiritual guide. In my work with churches I had pastors and youth leaders keep journals of their experience in integrating contemplative prayer and ministry. As I read their journals the one word that kept popping up was “permission.” I feel like I’ve finally been given permission to be a spiritual leader.

d) do you think that program based resources like those from youth specialties may have had an effect of encouraging people from a more contemplative based ministry to one that is continually program based? Do you think it’d be helpful to go back on a number of program based resources to write up a contemplative ministry resource for them all?

Mark: One of the misunderstandings of contemplative youth ministry is that the goal is to make kids candle-loving monks. Prayer, solitude and silence are necessary for a Christian life but the results of prayer and listening is that we know better how to act, how to engage, how to serve and befriend others. In one church that I worked with as the adult leaders spent more time listening and waiting on God in the midst of young people what they began to discern was that their kids were over scheduled, stressed out, and burdened with expectations. Through prayer and listening they began to hear that the best way to communicate the life and freedom of Jesus was to let-go of some of the heavy times of Bible study and worship and instead take the kids bowling.

So. Do we need to throw out the old fun and games approach to youth ministry? I would say “no.” We need to be more discerning of when fun and games are needed, when silence and prayer are needed, when teaching and study is needed. We need to be more attentive to the spirit so that our programs are more responsive to the needs of youth and the guiding of the Holy Spirit. What helps us to be attentive to God and young people. For me, I’ve found that listening forms of prayer, in the community of others, helps us to be more discerning of God’s call and leading. That’s contemplative youth ministry.

e) if you were to help a church put together a job specification for a youth pastor/worker, how would it look when using some of the themes and ideas formed in your book?

Mark: Here’s what comes to me off the top of my head…

Then I would create a job description (if it were a full-time position) that would require the youth ministry to take one day a week for Sabbath (prayer, reading, solitude, silence, walks outside, good food with friends, etc.). I’d also ask the youth worker to meet regularly with a spiritual director or other spiritual mentor. Someone who the youth director could talk to about their spiritual life and ministry.

f) one of the things i’m really interested in is how your book continually suggests people to develop ministries that are contextual, that form out of a community of young people rather than mimicking those ministries of other churches, in part i was hearing a similar thing to that of emerging-type-churches who are trying to do a similar process. do you think that the contemplative approach to ym could also be transferred to a contemplative approach to ministry, and how much do you think things would need to change to do so?

Mark: Yes. What we discovered in our research was a contemplative approach to ministry. It just happens that our study and my background is in youth ministry, but the principles, practices and processes can transfer to any form of ministry.

g) if you were to put together a mix tape of your favourite 10 songs to listen to while driving what would they be?

Mark: I’m not good with song titles…but it would include music from Iron and Wine, Ryan Adams, Son Volt, Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Django Reinhardt, Duke Ellington, Stephen Grapally (sp?), and maybe the early Police records.

h) if you were to put together a list of the 5 most helpful texts in your ministry with young people what would they be?

Mark: Psalm 139

Baptism stories from Mark and Luke,

Luke 15 parables

Romans 8

Matt. 11:28-30

Isaiah 55

John 15 (particularly verse 15)

1 John 4 (particularly 7-21)

Did I go over my allotted verses?

i) what makes you anxious?

Mark: My children. The find everything that is unhealed in me and draw it to the surface. Every time I return home from leading a retreat and feel like I’ve got some spiritual mojo…all I need to do is step into my house and encounter my three, beautiful children and within moments I’m human, anxious, upset, unsettled and uncertain of my own skills as a parent.

j) what are you currently reading?

Mark: The Dark Night of the Soul by Gerald May. God Laughs and Plays by David James Duncan and Hidden Oregon Where Vacations Meet Adventures (We’re planning our vacation).

Interview provided by Darren Wright

So, we’re now 4 days into the CYM blog tour, which means these blogs have already posted:

• May 8 – Jonny Baker
• May 9 – Gavin Richardson (part 1)
• May 9 – Gavin Richardson (part 2)
• May 10 – Sarah Dylan Breuer (although it seems she’s running a tad late)
• May 11 – Jennifer Roach