Ministry to a Disconnected Generation

Chap ClarkFuller Seminarywww.chapclark.comTwitter: chapclark

Ministry to a Disconnected Generation

Chap ClarkFuller Seminarywww.chapclark.comTwitter: chapclark

Go to chapclark.com for

powerpoint and outline

Same kid…Two

conversations

HISTORICALLY:- Fixed, in stages (Piaget,

Erikson)- Generational issues- Assets (scaffolding) and Pos

Psych

Growing up

today What data tells us…

- “I get it; I’ve been there”

Growing up

today What data tells us…

CULTURALLY:

- What you see is all there is- Spiritual development and Human development are different things

Timing and Duration

Puberty Culture

14.5 16Pre-1900

1970-1980

Today

13 18/20

12 mid-20s

Changing Stages

14-15

Dependent Interdependent

11/12

19-21

Independentmid-20s

early-30s?

Emerging Adulthood

J. J. Arnett

Teenage brain

“If you think of the teenage brain as a car, today's adolescents acquire an accelerator a long time before they can steer and brake.”

- WSJ, What’s wrong with the teenage mind?“ Alison Gopnik

What has happened??

An exponential loss of Social Capital …

Every child must be provided

significant Social Capital in

order to become an adult

What a child needs:

14-15

Attachment that is GENTLE

12

19-21 mid-20s

Social Capital (Attachment)

Attachment that is

ENPOWERING

Attachment that is

INTERDEPENDENT

The State of Postmodern

kids:• skills

needed for successful adulthood

• ongoing adult support and

guidance offered

The State of Postmodern

kids:

• skills needed

• adult support

The State of Postmodern

kids:

“…These two trends have created a serious problem in our country, indeed a crisis.”Dr. James Comer, Yale UniversityCarnegie Corporation’s Commission on Youth Development and Community Programs, 1989

The State of Postmodern kids:

What has happened??

An exponential loss of Social Capital …

What has happened??

An exponential loss of Social Capital … even in their family

Ask a third grader to draw a picture of their family tree…

“Regardless of headlines labeling us ‘helicopter’ dads or ‘soccer’ moms, in many ways parents seem almost invisibly removed. Twenty-first century parent-managers, negotiating every single logistical challenge of their kids’ crammed schedules became too frenetically busy to be a magnetic presence in the internal landscape of a child’s world.”

- Childhood Unbound, Ron Taffle

Parental Rationalization:

How kids have been treated by adults…

Even in their friendships, even at church… there can be a gnawing

loneliness

Youth and Children’s Ministry and the Fragmentation of the Church

The History of Intergenerational (or,

“Family”) Ministry

Y.M.

Church

Church

Y.M.

The History of Intergenerational (or,

“Family”) Ministry

Youth and Children’s Ministry and the Fragmentation of the Church

Church

Y.M.

C.M.

M.M.W.M.

W.M.

C.M.F.M.

“Church”

The History of Intergenerational (or,

“Family”) Ministry

4 Tiers of Developmental Influence

Parents

Non-parental committed adults

Non-parental and non-committed adults/peers

Media, Ecology

the point for us?The church must provide the SOCIAL CAPITAL that young

people need to BOTH participate in the kingdom of

God and to be NURTURED into adulthood by the household of

faithWe listen

We engageWe initiate

We empower!

Abandonment has created holes in the net…

Childhood Attachment

Community Attachment

Teachersmall group

leader

When there are holes in the net…

Childhood Attachment

Community Attachment

Youth Professional

Family Friend

Teacher/ Coach

Church Communit

y

YouthLeader

Adoptive Ministry

Social Capital

the point for us?The TRAJECTORY of

ministry to the disconnected:

Adoptive Ministry

We are family… we are siblings (John 1:12-13)

1. In every church, there are those are “in” and “out”

2. As an “adopted” child, I am given a new family

3. Jesus has his eye uniquely on the vulnerable

4. Adoption is immanent for the outsider

“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40)

“We are God’s offspring” (Paul, Acts 17:28)

Adoptive Ministry

The Goal of youth and children’s ministry is to

participate with what God has declared is true by:- Proactively encouraging each one to actively participate in the

community with gifts, relationship and voice

- Corporately nurture, train, guide and protect the young and the

vulnerable