DM210 - Foundations for Youth Ministry

  • 0 Standard Tuition Fee
  • 4
    Credit Points
  • 0.125 EFT 
  • 5
    AQF level
  • develop ministeriesUnit Discipline

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will

A. Know and understand

  1. Essential biblical, theological, historical and strategic foundations of youth ministry
  2. Essential aspects of contemporary youth
  3. Nature, shape and forms of youth ministry

B. Be able to

  1. Describe the essential biblical, theological, historical and strategic foundations of youth ministry
  2. Outline the essential aspects of contemporary youth
  3. Describe the nature, shape and forms of youth ministry

C. Be in a position to

  1. Use perspectives from their theological studies in Youth Ministry
  2. Use perspectives and skills from Youth Ministry for personal understanding and in ministry contexts

Content

Content

Section A: Biblical, theological, historical and strategic foundations for youth ministry with an introduction to youth in society

  1. The Bible's teaching on youth and young people.
  2. Developing a theology of youth ministry. Biblical authority in a post modern world. Relational theology. Incarnation and reconciliation.
  3. Historical overview of Christian youth ministry in Australia, especially since World War 2.
  4. An examination and development of strategic models of youth ministry; motivation; goals; content; methodologies.

Section B: Youth Today

  1. A survey of the place and understanding of youth in western society.
  2. Major aspects of youth cultures in Australia, in the light of secularisation. The changing nature of youth subcultures.
  3. The beliefs and values of significant youth subcultures, including varieties of household types, ethnicity, rural or urban contexts; students, workers and the unemployed. The contexts where young people gather.

Section C: Ministry with Youth

  1. Personal reflection by candidates of their spiritual formation or faith journey.
  2. A survey of the nature, shape, and forms of the ministry of a selected church youth minister.

Set Readings

Butcher, T. (ed.), Emerging Youth Cultures Urban Australia (Melbourne: Pluto, 2003).

DeVries, M., Family-based youth ministry (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004).

Fields, D., Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002).

Growing Up Without God? 1997 Report on the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney???s Working Group on Children???s and Youth Ministries.

Heflin, H., Youth Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Youth Ministry (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2009).

Higgs, M., Youth Ministries from the Inside Out (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2004).

Hilborn, D. and M. Bird, God & the Generations (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2002).

Jones, T., Postmodern Youth Ministry (Grand Rapids:?? Zondervan, 2001).

Mason, M. C., A. Singleton and R.Webber, The Spirit of Generation Y: Young People's Spirituality in a Changing Australia (Mulgrave, Vic.: John Garratt Publishing, 2007).

Muggleton, D. and R. Weinzerl, The Post-Subcultures Reader (Oxford: Berg, 2004).

Nilan, P., May, J., Roberta and J. Germov, Australian Youth: Social and Cultural Issues (Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Australia, 2007).

Yaconelli, M., The Core Realities of Youth Ministry: Nine Biblical Principles that Mark Healthy Youth Ministries (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003).