Looking for a summer experience that invests in you while you invest in the lives of others?  Check out GYFM’s 2012 mentored internship in Progreso, Mexico, June 16 – August 10.  You’ll receive hands-on training in youth and mercy ministry while receiving active mentoring from an experienced pastor and youth ministry veteran as well as GYFM staff.  Progreso is on the Gulf coast of the violence-free and historically rich state of Yucatan, a few hours by car from Cancun.  See the brochure and FAQ sheet for more information.  Hurry!  The deadline to apply is March 31.

For more information contact Jonathan Taylor.

Download the Brochure here.

Download the FAQ here.

Please don’t let the word ‘theory’ scare you. So often, we default to what GFYM missionary Eric Larsen calls “pragmatics” (what works), “polemics” (our own agendas and ideas as to what is important), and “panic” (combating what we’re afraid of) when it comes to thinking about youth ministry. Yet, if we’re serious about working with adolescents as a pastoral calling, whether you are a parent, volunteer, or are vocationally involved in ministering to adolescents, you and I must come to a place where we are thinking deeply about the beautiful craft which is youth ministry. Humbly yet passionately diving into the work of pastors, theologians, philosophers, and cultural thinkers is a part of that deep thought. But be encouraged – you’re still reading, which means you’re doing that very thing! If no one has thanked you lately for this often unseen part of ministering to adolescents, hear me when I tell you that I am so thankful for youth workers like you.

We have been working with an idea – that our youth ministries are not only collections of individual students interacting separately, but also make up a system. Therefore, when thinking about how new and different students will interact with existing students, or when thinking about new programming, or even when considering how a cultural event is affecting students, we must think about how it affects the system as a whole, and then trace these ripples out into our individual student’s lives. But how did we get here? This week we will look at a few theories that influence our premise.

First of all, the idea of youth ministries being comprised of a system of interlocking political groupings (remember how political this gets?) is based on the assumption that people with things in common tend to get together. Sociologists for almost a century have been looking at how individuals rally around ideologies, which are ideas that carry with them specific practices, histories, and associated objects. They can be anything from family, geography, and nationality (“Americans” may share citizenship, but they also share specific ways of acting and looking at the world), to culture and fashion (“Goths” have specific tastes in music, fashion, and entertainment which are different from those into hip-hop), to sports (think of how polarizing a team like the New York Yankees is!). Thinking specifically about adolescents, this has come to be associated with a similar concept called peer cluster theory. Peer cluster theory is the idea that as adolescents grow, they move from a position of being influenced by their parents’ ideological commitments to a position of being influenced by their peers’ ideological commitments. However, this does not occur arbitrarily, but rather develops structurally as teens group together in bands of 4-10 students who share similar ideologies. These groupings provide the familial affirmation and support the adolescent needs to develop their identity. So, a young girl seeking the support of her peers will not only begin to make similar choices to them (what we often over-simplistically call ‘peer pressure’), but will adopt their philosophies of life and the expressions of those ideas. A great example of this is in the tragic yet eye-opening movie Thirteen, where a young girl transforms before the audience’s eyes as she joins a specific peer group. These clusters of kids then provide the new unit of engagement for an adolescent – to speak to a teenager is to engage with the ideas and patterns held by their cluster. They will, consciously or unconsciously, hear and weigh everything through filters like ‘I wonder what [friends' names] would think of this?’ In other words, because adolescents in this developmental stage struggle to hold onto a stable self-identity, they instead hold onto a group-identity which helps them process the world. For more information on this theory, see Chap Clark’s incredibly important work Hurt.

At the same time, what many who talk about peer cluster theory do not readily discuss is the tense interactions that can occur between these groups. In Hurt, Clark touches ever so briefly on this theme:

“…individuals within clusters may develop a hostile view toward those in clusters with different social views. I observed definite rules and boundaries between cousin clusters [what Clark calls clusters which are similar and may share ideologies] evidenced by such things as where students hung out before school, whom they sat with at lunch, which hallways they walked down, whom they talked to in class, and even what events they attended. Some students can overcome the social barriers that separate students from different clusters by ‘being friends’ in a specific and ordered context {such as on a sports team). But the majority of the time, clusters set up extremely subtle but clearly delineated ‘demilitarized zones’, and all parties tacitly understand that they will not get involved with one another. There is on every high school campus in the United States that I have investigated through this and other studies an undercurrent of stratification and even the implied threat of violence (even if only emotional violence) between various clusters and cousin clusters” (84-85).

Did you notice the politicized language Clark uses? You’d think he was talking about the 39th parallel! But instead, he is talking about the interconnected social structure of teenagers in a specific microcosm – a school. The key is that the same structures and tensions also exist within a youth group. You can almost picture it as a political map – with borders, nations, states within nations, places of tension, historical confrontations, treaties, allies, enemies, etc. all clearly marked. Think about the level of awareness such a map would take to construct! Yet teenagers within these microcosms almost unconsciously understand all these complexities – and navigate them everyday.

One more wrench in the works for today. Do not assume that these boundaries and relationships are solid. They are constantly changing. This is how teens can seem to instantly change ‘best’ friends from year to year, how groups which may despise one another on one front (such as primarily African American and Latino gangs in inner city Los Angeles) may share ideological beliefs on another front (a distrust of the LA Police Department, and a sense of government oppression). Further, sociologists are finding that teens growing up in an increasingly postmodern environment have fractured self-identities to the point of even belonging to more than one cluster at a time within a microcosm (not to mention being something different from microcosm to microcosm, like when your students are one thing at youth group and another at school). To them, this is not hypocrisy, but an authentic expression of their inner self. Sociologist Paul Hodkinson in his essay “Youth Cultures: A Critical Outline of Key Debates” writes:

“…the centrality of increasingly complex, fluid and diversified culture industries makes it increasingly unlikely that young people will commit themselves to clearly bounded subcultures. Previous boundaries between different collective youth styles are deemed to have become increasingly insignificant by ever-more frantic turnovers of fads and fashions and a general proliferation of commercially marketed styles, most of which [are] disconnected both from distinct groupings and from ascribed characteristics such as class or ethnicity. As a consequence, collective stylistic deviance, rebellion, or ‘authenticity’ are deemed increasingly impossible and their pursuit unfulfilling. Instead, young people each develop eclectic individual portfolios of tastes, interests and social networks, which cut across genres or communities” (9).

Again, this sounds daunting, like an overwhelming sea of brokenness and shattered selves. Yet what we are talking about has beautiful implications beyond the darkness – a level of intimacy and awareness with students that sees their interconnected lives and helps minister from within these connections, which can anticipate how students will react to new things, and can find holes in our ministries where lonely kids sit in the corners of their microcosmic worlds. Next week we’ll begin to discuss these interactions in more detail and practically begin to ‘create the map’ through the 100-year old political philosophies of a revolutionary Italian-Marxist. I can’t wait.

Grace for the Arrogant

My dad made me think about something this week that I have never thought about before.  He said, “Jesus loves to frustrate us in the workplace in order to show us how much we need him.”  I mean, think about the call of Peter.  Jesus showed up on the beach early in the morning and Peter was tired.  God had kept him from catching a thing all night.  But when Jesus told him to go and do the exact same thing he had been doing for hours, he got different results.  Why? Because Jesus was there.  He had to frustrate him in his area of giftedness to remind him who was in control.

During our time here in Roanoke, everyone has been so encouraging to us.  This encouragement has brought much needed confidence.  But God knows how quickly and easily I can move from confidence to pride.  That’s why he sent me a fever and an upset stomach the day before I was examined for licensure by a whole room full of seasoned pastors.  I had studied hard, done well in the committee exam, and was feeling self-confident.  I needed to be reminded who is really in control, and I needed to be reminded that when I passed my exams, it was only because of God’s grace.  So now I write you not to brag, but to give our God all the glory.  Please celebrate with us that the Lord helped me through my licensure exams, and I am now officially licensed to preach!

In other news…

I have now stepped down from my job at Westminster and am stepping into full-time support raising.  0ver 21% of our monthly needs have already been pledged at this point, and we couldn’t be more thankful!  Now we are praying that the Lord will get us to 60% by June, so that we will be allowed to attend our cross-cultural ministry internship.  In other words, we’ll probably be knocking on your door in the next few months if we haven’t already.

Also, please welcome William “Fox” Lupton to the GYFM family!  He is firstborn to our good friends, Andrew and Laura Kate Lupton.  Please pray for them as they juggle parenthood, work, and raising support to serve with GYFM in Bogota, Colombia.  They are just one of three GYFM families who could use your prayers as we raise support to reach the next generation with the good news of Jesus.

Thanks for your love, prayers, and financial support.  The Lord is doing great things, and we’re so excited to be a part of it!

-Brooks and Riva

Prayer Requests

1. Riva and I will be going to Asia in April with our friend and GYFM associate Robbie Sweet to spend a week with missionary kids whose families serve in a sensitive country (the big one in East Asia).  Please pray that Jesus will be exalted as we plan activities, talks, and worship services.
2. In Nagoya, the Heart and Soul Café and eikaiwa (ESL program) will hopefully be opening within the next month.  Please pray as our team makes final preparations to ready the facility, and for the hearts of the students he will bring.
3. Please pray for wisdom and diligence as I study between now and May 5. While I am licensed to preach, I am not yet ordained and therefore cannot administer the sacraments.  Ordination requires that I submit more tests and papers, and undergo more examination.  I need grace.
4. Please pray for Riva as she works toward licensure in counseling. Riva is having trouble getting her classes and client contact hours approved by the board.  Ask the Lord to work that out and bring more clients her way.   

 Make sure your check out our blog! You can find more info on our ministry in Japan and other cool stuff! thecains.wordpress.com

Where’d January go?
I had every intention of sending this update out in January but January got away from  me! February is turning into quite the busy month as well. Hope you can take a minute to read about my trip to Mexico and what the next month will hold.

Abide with Me

Mexico Project

We had a GREAT time in Progreso, Mexico. (If you don’t know Progreso is right on the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico about 3 hours from Cancun) The Lord was faithful and provided lots of great opportunities for us to see the area and to scout out options for hosting short-term teams and interns there. We already have a church from Teaneck, New Jersey signed up to go!  If you’d like to see a short slide show about our time you can head over to Vimeo and watch one there.  The photo to the left is (from left to right) David Correa (pronounced like Korea the country) our GYFM Associate in Progreso, the President of San Pablo Theological Seminary, Eric Larsen, Jonathan Taylor and ME! If you or your church would like to know more about what we are doing in Mexico and opportunities to serve please let me know! Please continue to pray for the planning of this trip.

Re-Entry

We had another successful Re-Entry retreat at the end of January. I had a good time with the kids that were there (ranging in ages from 8-14). While it’s often challenging to put on a program for kids in a office we made do and were able to do art projects, play games and  had fun. Turns out all you need for a fun game of ping pong are paddles, a ball & a conference table! I also enjoyed playing drums for the morning devotion and worship time. Please be praying for the families who were at the retreat as they transition  back to the US (some for good).

Coming Up

Youth World Awareness Weekend (YoWAW) - I was asked to be a seminar speaker (along with others from MTW) at YoWAW next weekend (February 17-19)! YoWAW is a one-of-a-kind missions and ministry learning opportunity for high school students and their leaders. Its design and purpose is to challenge and equip students for a life of ministry by allowing them to interact with those who are already involved in missions and ministry. I’m really excited about this opportunity and would appreciate your prayers as I represent GYFM & MTW to these students and leaders.

Briarwood Missions Conference - I am so looking forward to being back in Birmingham for Briarwood’s Missions Conference. It will be so good to get to visit with friends and former co-workers. It’s been far to long since I’ve been back to Birmingham and I’m looking forward to sharing the ministry and vision of GYFM with those at Briarwood. I’d love to catch up with as many of you as I can who may be there. Let me know and we can set up a time.

Covenant College Weekend - Right after the missions conference I’ll be heading up to Chattanooga to spend the end of the week with MKs at Covenant College as well as GYFM team-mates Drew & Lindsey Wilkins (who, once fully funded, will be based in Chattanooga). Can’t wait to see those students again!

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Looking forward to writing in March and tell you all that the Lord did through these events and travels. So thankful for all of you prayers and support!
By His Mercy,
Ruthanne

Politics as Usual…And Not Even Close To Pretty

If you’ve been tracking with us so far, we’ve introduced the idea that students relate to each other not only individually, but through complex systems. This means that, like a pebble thrown into a still pond, actions that we evaluate as only having minor repercussions between individuals actually can ripple out through an entire system – in this case, your youth ministry. While this sounds like someone over-thinking teenage interactions, it actually can be a helpful tool for those who work with adolescents (and really, those who work in any system at all), in two ways: First,  it helps us anticipate the effects these seemingly individual actions have on our ministries, because it forces us to get to know our ministries in new ways. As the “quarterback” to our ministries, we don’t only know our plays, but we also know our players so well that we know what a shift in the other team’s defense will do to that play, and we can react accordingly. Second, such a knowledge helps us to see our weak points – and in youth ministry, weak points aren’t blind spots in an offensive line or a potential interception, but marginalized kids, those who our ministries are unable to love well and who we might unintentionally actually turn off to the gospel through unconsciously unloving actions.

One of the reasons some will see this type of thinking as “over-thinking” is that we are actually very aware of this reality already, abit unconsciously. It’s called politics, and especially in the West, it is the soup we swim in. James Davison Hunter, professor of cultural studies at the University of Virginia, in his new book To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, argues that one development of Western democratic thought, coupled with the information explosion that has occurred over the last 600 years, is that people become more minutely diverse in their opinions on everything. Because there is no authority which sufficiently moves for one possibility over another, people must argue, persuade, manipulate, attack, and defend on behalf of their opinion. This ‘politicization of everything’ results in a society where (as postmodern philosophers predicted) every interaction in every relationship is some form of power play. So even something as seemingly innocent as kids deciding whether to play basketball or soccer can be analyzed according to who in the group speaks the most (lobbying), who holds the most power/sway (perhaps who owns the balls needed to play with, or who is the oldest or best athlete at each respective sport), who is picked first or last, and who is watching them play.

While I hope you don’t hear me saying that our kids are participating in some kind of social Darwinism where popular kids abuse those who are under them and where leaders must be paranoid lest students make choices which bring us closer to Armageddon, the picture I am painting is not incredibly flattering. It reveals a categoric layer of brokenness where our kids are intentionally selfish and exist for their own survival and advancement. And, as youth ministries are microcosms of larger social systems, it means that this brokenness shows itself in very particular ways that as leaders, we can see if we follow the patterns.

How does this play into our new paradigm of systems thinking? Remember, we are trying to move away from thinking about our students’ interactions between one another as individualistic. Therefore, when we picture our hypothetical basketball vs. soccer scenario, we don’t only think about one or two dominant voices holding sway over the debate. Instead, we have to think of the entire group. If a popular kid’s opinion is winning the day, we have to ask ‘why is he popular?’, and ‘with whom?’. What we find is that even though the interaction looks like individual kids debating over playing a game, what we are actually seeing is groups of kids, with different levels of power and influence, interacting. And these levels are not bound to popularity, or athletics. Think about how we mentioned the kids who own the balls. On one hand, individually they have power because they control whether the specific games can be played. Yet when considering the group dynamic, their power individually is severely limited when they consider that if they do not give into the will of the dominant group, they may not be able to play at all the next time. We will return to that word, ‘dominant’, as well as the fear of marginalization, later on.

Hopefully, by this point you see the complexity and the brokenness of how your kids interact with one another. Sometimes this is very depressing to first realize, because if this is real, then our kids in their everyday interactions fail to reflect the calling of the church to be a community of love and sacrificial service based on the example of Christ. even more than we perhaps used to think. Yet I also think that establishing such a broken reality moves the discussion of systems thinking out of the “methods and models” category only (although it hopefully is a helpful tool for you), and into a prophetic cry for redemption whereby you as a leader now have a new layer of brokenness to cry out to God for, and to leverage your love and passion and teaching in response to. In the end, we may even realize our own culpability in all this, and be brought to repentance ourselves. But for now, let’s thank God for his mercy and pray that he will bring redemption into the interactions of our students. Next week, we’ll delve just a bit deeper into how and why students group into interconnected systems, how to see these systems, and their implications for where to go from here.

Our desire is to ”equip men and women to lead the global church in engaging the emerging generation”.  GYFM Associate, Stephen Yates, has agreed to write a series of articles on related to marginalization and power dynamics in ministry to adolescents.   This is the first of a 10 part series.  Be on the lookout for one each week! Stephen is finishing a dual degree (MA & MDiv) at Covenant Seminary with a concentration in ministry to the emerging generation in partnership with our Global Youth & Family Institute. Stephen along with his wife Krissi, love working with youth and have been volunteers in their local church!  We love their heart and celebrate the ways God has gifted them and is using them to reach the nations and the next generation.

Thinking Systems with Students: A Small Pebble…

Have you ever thought about the experience of a new student, coming into the doors of your youth ministry for the first time? What do you think they are feeling? How do you keep them from immediately turning around and running back out the door? If you are anything like me, your ‘recipe’ for keeping students involves a fun, relevant program and friendly, loving students and volunteers. Yet a few years back, I had an experience which has changed the way I look at new students and how they see our ministries.

In 2010, I was a youth director at a church in St. Louis, MO, with a wonderful young program of 15 students in an upper-middle class suburb of the city. One day, I received two different phone calls from two parents who attended our second church site, located deeper into the urban center of St. Louis. We didn’t have a youth ministry within the city, and they wanted their daughters to come join us. I was ecstatic. I loved my students, but they were largely a homogenous bunch – 90% of them attended the same local private Christian school, they dressed the same, listened to the same music, and played on the same sports teams. Not only would these two girls – one of a different race, both of different subcultures than my kids – be able to diversify our group and introduce new expressions of culture to us, but they would also establish a ‘second ministry front’ for our church. I was confident that my students would love these newcomers well. After their first night with us, I knew our ministry was on the verge of a wonderful change. 4 weeks later, I never saw them again.

What had happened? I was completely taken aback. Phone calls to the parents referenced the girls ‘not fitting in’, although I had seen nothing but smiles on all sides. I searched my own efforts, trying to find a place where I had failed to encourage a student to befriend them in an awkward moment, or call or email them to thank them for coming, or if I had offended them in any way. Nothing. It was nothing I could see, nothing I had done or failed to do. All the evidence pointed to them truly enjoying themselves, to friendships being formed, Facebook statuses being traded, music being shared. Following my own recovery from self-pity, I wondered if it was simply a case of a lack of cultural intelligence on the part of my students – maybe they simply didn’t get the urban experiences the girls would use, couldn’t relate to their prayer requests, and felt awkward around their different tastes in fashion, music, and language.

But as I continued to reflect, I felt that there was something more going on. In fact, I realized that this same thing was the type of thing that had gone on in every ministry I had ever been a part of – an almost unconscious, simultaneous feeling of uneasiness, judgement, fear, and apprehension, simply because new people had entered into the system.  Aha! This was new! Not the idea that new people coming into a new situation is awkward – we all know that. But thinking about my ministry as a system. I had always thought of my students as individuals, that individually related to each other. Thus, when these new girls came in, I judged their acceptance based on the individual loving attitudes of individual students based on my individual ministry.

This began a journey for me, a quest to uncover more about how groups of students form together, and what goes on when someone new joins. I realized that rather than being only individuals who relate together, students actually are also participants in complex and overlapping social structures, which interact in ways that at best can be described as political, and at worst, completely evil in nature.

Consider Susie. Susie is a popular, pretty 10th grade volleyball player who has just visited her local youth group for the first time at the invitation of a friend. She meets a number of people, including Lucy, a fellow volleyball player, and Brian, who think’s she’s quite cute. Under the individual paradigm, we would describe Susie’s interactions with these two in individualistic terms: she might become friends with Lucy based on their mutual sport, and Brian might ask her to a movie sometime because he is attracted to her. There is nothing abnormal about this. But these are not the only ways in which Susie is being related to. Unconsciously (or sometimes consciously), there are other forces at work related to the system in which Lucy and Brian belong to which complicate their budding friendship with this newcomer. While Lucy is likely to befriend Susie over volleyball, she is just as likely to wish Susie would never come back. Why? Because Susie is a threat to the role in which Lucy plays within the current system.  Lucy fears that Susie will be a better player than she is, and thus feels threatened by the possibility that her power within the system will be reduced. She likely also feels threatened by Brian’s attraction to Susie (depending on Brian’s own desirability as a guy) – if Brian feels susie is pretty, he is defining attractiveness in the system in a new way, a way which may or may not affect how Lucy sees herself, and how others see her as well.

Thinking about systems and group dynamics within youth ministries is a ‘complexifying’ process, where every seemingly simple action is like a small pebble – itself being of little consequence, but when thrown in a still pond, causing ripples which move outward to affect the entire system. Understanding your youth ministry as an interconnected system, however complex, is an exercise which is well worth the time. Over the next few weeks, we will be discussing a number of topics which help us understand how youth groups are subtly comprised of complex systems. Doing so will help us anticipate how new students will affect and be affected by the system, how systems unconsciously marginalize specific groups of people, and how we are called to build a gospel-centered understanding of power and dominance into the DNA of our ministries. I hope you enjoy the journey with me!

Baby Lupton has arrived!

We are happy to introduce the latest member of the Lupton family, William Fox (going by Fox)! He arrived on January 10 at 7:27 am, weighing 7 lbs 12 oz and measuring 20.5 inches. Thank you for your prayers for us throughout the pregnancy and birth – we praise the Lord that both Fox and Laura Kate came through labor and delivery safely and healthily. We’ve included a picture of our little guy, and there are more on our website for those of you who are interested. We can’t wait to introduce him to you in person.

For your listening pleasure…

Over Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays we had the opportunity to record some music with Laura Kate’s brother, Kevin. We’ve posted a few songs on ourwebsite, and will soon have a free CD available for any of you that would like one. Our hope is that you will enjoy the music and remember to pray for us whenever you listen to it.

We reached our goal!

In our last letter, we mentioned our year-end goal to reach 25% of our monthly support. We were humbled and amazed to see the Lord meet that goal. We’re grateful to each of you who helped us by pledging your monthly financial support! Lord-willing, we plan to leave for Colombia in September, and meeting this goal keeps us on pace to do that. Thank you for praying for us during this process!

We begin 2012 in awe of God’s faithfulness to us in many different ways. May you look forward to this year in the confidence that only comes from trusting God’s faithfulness to you in Christ Jesus.

-The Luptons

The Lord tremendously blessed our time in Progreso Mexico! We are so thankful for all He is doing with our partnership there and excited to see what the future will hold. We thought we’d share with you a short slideshow of pictures from our time there.  If you can’t see the video you can watch it here.

We are very excited to announce our newest (and smallest) GYFM team member!

William Fox Lupton (will be called Fox) was born on January 10th at 7:30am to Andrew & Laura Kate. He was 7lbs and 12 ounces and 20.5 inches long. Both Fox & Laura Kate are home now and doing well. Please keep the Luptons in your prayers as they adjust to having a newborn and continue to raise support to go to Bogota Colombia.

Welcome to the world Fox!

Mindy Belz from World Magazine interviewed our own Eric Larsen & Jonathan Taylor about what we call the “10/30 window”. What’s the 10/30 window you ask? It’s the largest unreached people group in the world.  This group is not bound by nationality or geography, but made-up those from age 10 to 30 years: tweens, teens and twentysomethings.   By God’s grace, GYFM is equipping men and women to lead the global church in engaging the emerging generation with the gospel.  Check it out in the January 14, 2012 issue of WORLD.

You can download a pdf of the article here or head over to worldmag.com and read it there.

Will you join us in reaching the largest unreached people group in the world?