The Shock Absorber

Continuing the discussion of engaging youth culture in the church, Stu, Tim and Joel sit down to review Andrew Root's seminal book Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry and it's implications within the Incarnational model of ministry and beyond.

Hear about how Stu's studies of Italian Communist Gramsci, the Black Panthers, the Chicago Seven and a segment on Triple J lead to the clarification that trying to be cool wasn't an ideal ministry approach because it was buying into the hegemony. Instead, being overtly Christian, clothed in Christ and seeking to institutionalise relationships centred on Christ was the way forward.

01:04 The green Kombi + Shock Absorber Conference (30 Oct, 2021)
08:06 Cultural Artefact: The 2000s Golden Age of Television + The Rise of the Anti-Hero + the iPhone
10:36 Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry
14:31 The importance of historical perspective
17:24 Root investigates the history of culture + Incarnational theology
26:34 How high schools affect youth culture
32:38 Being relational in ministry
35:30 Gramsci, The Black Panther, Triple J and hegemonies
42:27 Let's be Christians
46:32 Targets or people? Cool or overtly Christian?
1:01:34 Institutionalising relationships centred on the cross
1:06:21 Being Christian first

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DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

The Rise of TV
Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry by Andrew Root
Antonio Gramsci
The Black Panthers
Panther (movie)
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Triple J
Donald McGavran
1 Thessalonians 1
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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CONTACT US

Email: [email protected]
Discord: https://discord.gg/Vb6g4JzD

Having finished discussing the 1990s with the Four Views of Youth Ministry, Stu, Tim and Joel now move onto approaches to ministry that emerged in the 2000s. On this episode, they look at Family Ministry; how it was presented as a solution to the cultural context of the time, how it focuses on Christian adults being the most appropriate spiritual mentors to children and how it influences discipleship and mission.

01:16 Cultural Artefact: Malcolm in the Middle (CORRECTION: Bryan Cranston is the dad)
03:33 Pre-industrial revolution way of life and how technology changes family
09:19 What is the Family Ministry approach?
15:13 Homogeneous Unit Principle, industrialised relationships, outsourcing humanness and teaching of children
21:17 Is the core issue being addressed?
25:35 Christian parents pass on their faith to their children
27:33 Thinking Orange
30:34 Partnering with parents
38:30 Possible limitations of the Family Ministry approach - discipleship
44:08 Possible limitations of the Family Ministry approach - mission
51:49 The importance of listening to youth and children (again)
56:14 How the younger generations can experiment and communicate those ideas
1:00:40 Final thoughts

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DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

Malcolm in the Middle
The Four Views of Youth Ministry, by Mark Senter III
Think Orange, by Reggie Joiner
Timothy Paul Jones
Jay Strother

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CONTACT US

Email: [email protected]
Discord: https://discord.gg/Vb6g4JzD

Stu, Tim and Joel get together once more to go through the fourth and final approach detailed in Mark Senter's Four Views of Youth Ministry - the Inclusive Congregational approach. There are some similarities between the Shock Absorber and the approach. Two key differences emerge:

1. The importance of listening to young people
2. How that is facilitated by providing a space for them to experiment with their own expression of church and a space for the whole church to communicate and discuss those experiments.

01:22 Cultural Artefact - Blended movie
03:58 What is the Inclusive Congregational approach?
09:07 Should children and youth be part of everything, all the time?
15:01 Young people need the space to experiment and a place for us to communicate together
18:32 Inclusive Congregational reacts to the Homogeneous Unit Principle but misses the cultural context
19:34 Contrasting between the Strategic approach and the Inclusive Congregational model
21:57 Allowing children to be children
37:12 The perceived need to fit everything into a one hour service, and opening up to create more opportunities for discipleship and mission
48:14 Allowing teenagers to be teenagers
53:32 Embracing difference and being one big family

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DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

The Four Views of Youth Ministry, by Mark Senter III
Blended
The Coming Revolution of Youth Ministry, by Mark Senter III
Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

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CONTACT US

Email: [email protected]
Discord: https://discord.gg/Vb6g4JzD

The Shock Absorber reconvenes with Joel, Stu and Tim to continue looking at different strategies of engaging youth by diving into the next of The Four Views of Youth Ministry - the Strategic approach.

Starting with 90s skate punk and band breakups, they investigate the roots of the strategic approach and it's pros and cons. Unsurprisingly for the Shock Absorber, the intergenerational approach is offered as an alternative. Some have believed Soul Revival to be aligned with the strategic approach, and Stu explains why that doesn't match up. They finish up with some practical examples and how an intergenerational approach can gain some traction within a homogeneous unit principle mindset.

00:58 Cultural Artefact - 90s punk music, The Living End, band breakups
06:24 What is the strategic approach to ministry?
12:32 Why young people aren't listened to and the cultural shifts that affect that
22:43 What the strategic approach misses - cultural expressions are not the gospel
29:17 Institutionalising and has Soul Revival followed the strategic approach?
40:30 The importance of Soul Revival's theology of atonement
42:32 Tips for moving towards Intergenerational ministry

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DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

The Four Views of Youth Ministry book
Prisoner of Society, by The Living End
The night The Eagles imploded
The Darkness
Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End) by The Darkness
The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast

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CONTACT US

Email: [email protected]
Discord: https://discord.gg/Vb6g4JzD

Stu, Tim and Joel are back again breaking down the Four Views of Youth Ministry, tackling the Missional approach in this episode and comparing it to the intergenerational approach.

From Jamie Oliver to the Jesus Movement, Incarnational approach to No Guts, No Glory, the boys take a journey to discover what lead to the missional approach and why we are tempted to separate discipleship and mission.

01:19 Jamie and The Nonnas
04:15 What is the missional approach?
12:05 Examples of the missional approach
13:36 Missional vs Intergenerational
16:56 Discipleship and/or mission? Together or separate?
30:49 The counterintuitive impulse to the fracturing of discipleship and mission - intergenerational ministry
39:57 Examples of intergenerational ministry strategies

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DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

The Four Views of Youth Ministry
Jamie and The Nonnas
Chip Lunch podcast

CONTACT US

Email: [email protected]
Discord: https://discord.gg/Vb6g4JzD

Joel, Stu and Tim get back together to continue discussing strategies that have been used by the church to engage youth.

They dig into the first of Mark Senter's Four Views of Youth Ministry: The Prepatory Approach and compare it to the intergenerational approach.

02:39 Woodstock '99, the 90's and the end of the hippie movement
15:15 Youth ministry strategies in the 70's and 80's
17:58 Senter's Four Views of Youth Ministry + divisions in the youth culture
23:41 Soul Revival emerged in the 90's
27:30 The Preparatory Approach
34:35 Why children are part of the church today, not just tomorrow
37:12 The drawbacks of the Preparatory Approach
43:00 Making connections between groups
46:46 Listening to young people
50:27 An intergenerational approach embraces difference
59:15 No Guts, No Glory/Bead method
1:02:02 Real life experiences of intergenerational ministry

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DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

The Four Views of Youth Ministry, by Mark Senter III
Woodstock '99: Peace, Love and Rage

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CONTACT US

Email: [email protected]
Discord: https://discord.gg/Vb6g4JzD

Stu and Joel are rejoined by Tim as they chat about the Youth Quake in the 1960s and how it shaped youth ministry in the subsequent decades. They look at the Jesus Movement that created Christian communes and coffees house, their return to the established church and how they changed worship music. To the Brass Tacks/Funnel method, No Guts, No Glory and the institutionalisation of those ideas and how it all lead to what we now call the Shock Absorber.

01:06 Mosaic chat
02:13 Moving forward on the Shock Absorber
03:48 Cultural Artefact - The 70s, AC/DC and The Jesus Movement
07:38 The 60s Youth Quake saw the rise of The Jesus Movement
16:36 How the Jesus Movement became part of the established church
22:19 Brass Tacks/Funnel Method
26:54 Every form of youth ministry institutionalises
29:23 No Guts, No Glory
33:00 How the Shock Absorber is the third way
50:42 How to prevent institutionalisation

Watch this episode on YouTube

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DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

The Coming Revolution of Youth Ministry, by Mark Senter III
The Four Views of Youth Ministry, by Mark Senter III
Double or Bust: The Church needs radical change to engage young people again
Overdose by AC/DC

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CONTACT US

Email: [email protected]
Discord: https://discord.gg/Vb6g4JzD

We introduce Soul Revival Church's Children's Pastor, Tim Beilharz and he helps us paint a theological picture of Intergenerational ministry, a mosaic using his words.

Being the Shock Absorber, there's the inevitable comparisons between Intergenerational ministry with other ministry approaches. The key though, is that as part of God's family, Jesus's sacrifice calls us to be living sacrifices ourselves and hence be countercultural to the rest of the world.

01:34 Introducing Tim
06:06 Tim answers: Does the church have an image problem?
07:59 When Stu and Tim saw being intergenerational as key to ministry
15:30 Intergenerational theology in the Old Testament
22:20 Intergenerational theology in the New Testament
37:42 Drop off points within the Homogeneous Unit Principle and spending time with those different to ourselves
42:51 Culture has become more individualistic and the emergence of Incarnational theology
53:05 The importance of sacrificial love and Atonement theology
1:00:03 An intergenerational response to Double or Bust article
1:05:50 Why is family more credible than institution?

Watch on YouTube

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DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

The Four Views of Youth Ministry book
Youthworks
Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, by Andrew Root
Double or Bust: The Church needs radical change to engage young people again

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CONTACT US

Email: [email protected]
Discord: https://discord.gg/Vb6g4JzD

Stu and Joel are back into it with Season 3, kicking off a discussion about engaging young people in the church by asking the question: Does the Church Have an Image Problem?

02:18 The Chats - Pub Feed
06:45 Does the church have an image problem?
11:06 Where does the problem originate from?
28:46 Cultural changes in 1990s and 2000s
39:04 Avoid creating an echo chamber of adults
41:58 What the reinvention looks like

Watch this episode on YouTube

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DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

Pub Feed by The Chats
Mark Sayers
1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything
Double or Bust: The Church needs radical change to engage young people again
Chip Lunch podcast

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CONTACT US

Email: [email protected]
Discord: https://discord.gg/Vb6g4JzD

Stu and Joel are joined by Soul Revival Church's Youth Pastor, Ethan Crawshaw, to discuss how the Shock Absorber helped the church adapt to the lockdowns imposed by COVID-19 through the creation of digital gatherings and what was learnt from it.

The COVID-19 pandemic that struck the world also affected many churches. In Sydney and New South Wales, churches were forced to adapt even further when a statewide lockdown was imposed in 2020. The Shock Absorber allowed the younger generations of the church to come to the fore in order to still make church as normal as possible.

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