If I could choose one phrase to describe the history and story of the Israelites at this time, I would say theirs is a Story of Ascension and a Wrestle with Hope.
There is a small collection of songs that are set apart in the history of the Israelites. These songs are my songs too, tales of despair that rises to hope, recognition of shame that leads to restoration – and always, in the closing stanzas, God is glorified, made known, shown as merciful and good.
These psalms are short (sweet relief immediately following the epic ps 119), able to be memorised and they were sung as the people ascended the steps into the Temple for sacrifice, worship and ritual.
1. The Ascension The Climbing of Stairs, the memory of rhythm, of rising, of systematically and methodically going back to the place of worship and the Glory of God. The rising up from lowliness. As we approach God, we are raised up from the earth into the kingdom of heaven. Light is always above us. Many of these psalms journey from darkness to light just as we climb closer to the sun as we ascend the heights.
The rhythm of hope that beats through the psalms of ascent is the rhythm of returning. Year upon year, time after time, recalling to God his great promises of mercy, his great deeds of deliverance and redeemption throughout their history they would remind God of his promises as they approached the holy of holies.
So we rise, those of us who have been prostrate, laid down in the darkness. Blackened with soot and desperation. Those of us that have words too honest for keeping, they burn on our tongues. And we climb, onwards and onwards, recalling the songs of our own history, recalling God’s promises to mind, declaring again his merciful hand with us. We climb and ascend once again towards the Light, only to grow evermore conscious of these two truths…. the unfailing and unstoppable force of redeeming love, as we watch the curtain of our own hearts be torn again from top to bottom….. and the ever persistant hope that is birthed in us again, even as we climb.
clenched fist against my chest desperate words of hope confess i am empty for the sight you
some say that it’s a gift to see what i see and to know but i see the truth it is
a gift like this is only for my father’s table a gift like this means nothing if not for you, my father’s hand guides me where to go, i only know his direction
how is it here in my broken shame i still know your voice and i lean in compulsively drawn to the truth i know i will walk this way where my brother goes and i take the cup as it is to me the sorrow of knowing you keep me in this life for where i want to be you know in my father’s home, is the life i long to know
for to make what i can from these hands threading my words for another man’s praise oh i need not your praise for the work of my hands is only for my father’s display and all other causes a plain facsimile, mean nothing to me
i put my life in your hands make your Glory in me, be seen. Oh i’ve learned what pleases you more than most and my gift is the gift of sight i recognise your art in life.
This is brilliant. It’s an acapella version of the song Typical by band mutemath.
From Dwight’s Journal of Music Boston, September 13, 1856.
It has long been a matter of wonder with us, considering the flood of wishy-washy, common-place, mechanical and un-religious psalmody in which we have been weltering, that someone has not felt moved to give us in convenient form, the incomparable old German Chorals as harmonized by John Sebastian Bach. Could these be studied in our more advanced choirs, our choral societies, our musical classes and “Conventions”, their influence in developing a love and taste for what is true, and pure, and high, and really devotional in sacred music, would be incalculable. It is not possible that no one can once become familiar with Bach’s Chorals and not love them – not feel that the highest ends of music are wonderfully realized in their most soul-ful and unworldly harmony. Bach never wrote for money or for cheap effect; he was a religious artist; his artistic efforts were his aspiration to the beautiful and good and true – to the Most High. All that he did was genuine. Hence his works never grow old. To those who study them now, a century since his death, they are the newest of the new. “In all his works he stands out great and bold and new.”
——
Congregational singing in unison is the practice all over Germany, and hence the Bach Chorals are not used there in the churches. We, on the contrary, have our small trained choirs, who sing in parts. Why, then, should we not, instead of common-place and trashy psalmody, make some use of those purest, noblest models of four-part sacred music that exist? The reasons why we have not done it are obvious. In the first place, as work of Art, they imply a more refined and cultivated taste than has prevailed or ever can prevail in our church, so long as we have only the cheap and easy psalmody of everybody’s manufacture for the musical religious sense to feed upon. And then it might spoil the enormous trade in psalmody, to allow the love for the true thing to be nurtured; for just so surely as any company of singer, who have music in their souls, shall get familiar with these chorals, will they find the common psalmody become “flat, stale and unprofitable.” (We do not mean, of course, “Old Hundred” and the few grand old tunes.) In the next place the rhythm and metre of these old German hymns is so peculiar in most cases, abounding in double endings, or what is called female rhymes, that the tunes cannot be used much in connection with our hymnbooks. The Bach Chorals cannot supplant the psalm-tunes in our common forms of worship until the forms themselves are changed. But not the less is it desirable to have them made accessible. They may be put to excellent uses, of which we name the following:
1. They may be sung as voluntary piece for the opening or closing of service by choirs; and they suit equally well the largest or the smallest (simple quartet) choir; provided they be executed with the utmost precision and true feeling by good, well-trained voices. 2. They may be used with admirable effect in alternation with congregational singing; a verse of the latter, with organ accompaniment, in strong, homely unison, followed by a verse of the former, by trained voices, without accompaniment, the same hymn responding as it were from a more spiritual height, glorified in the fine harmonies and modulations of Bach; for as he has treated them, you have the religious essence of the music expressed, and purified from all that is low and common. 3. For great Choral or Oratorio Societies, to be sung in their more miscellaneous sacred concerts, or at the beginning and ending of a performance. Nothing has made a finer impression in such concert here than two of these same Chorals, similarly treated by Mendelssohn in his “St. Paul.” When perfectly sung by a great mass of voices, as our Mendelssohn Choral Society gave them, the effect is sublime. 4. In little private musical clubs and circles they will afford the very best sort of practice. 5. For organists and pianist, to be used simply as instrumental pieces, their purity and marvellous beauty and significance of harmony must commend them. There is more religious satisfaction in just playing them on the piano, then in listening to most of the music to be heard in any of our churches. The way in which each of the four parts, and each note in each, so perfectly serves the end of the great whole, is in itself a type of pure devotion.
At last, I was so excited when this book arrived on my doorstep courtesy of a somewhat begging-type email to Marko. International shipping would’ve cost me $53 US.. which is kinda funny. The wait to see this book hit NZ shores .. well who knows how long, but considering all things.. I wasn’t prepared to wait.
There’s something great about seeing the words printed and the smell of the book. The hardcover and layout is great.
So – although I could’ve posted previously on the book – I wanted to wait until I had my copy, had re-read it just like everyone else. I’ve loved the conversations on the Facebook group as people are reading, thinking, devouring, wrestling.
Opening Statements
1. I’m entirely biased towards the overall goodness of this work. Marko is my friend, fellow youth ministry type person, thinker, wise talker, grounded theologian and passionate exhorter of positive forward movement in youth ministry philosophy and practice. He’s also incredibly humble and has been so openhanded with the creation of this work and subsequent dialogues that he’s really embodied the essence of some of the YM3.0 premises we arrive at in the final chapters.
2. I’m entirely biased because these thoughts reflect both my passion for adolescent development,’cultural anthropology’, sociology, community psychology AND young people, the reformation of youth ministry practice and the future of the world. Many of these words and ideas are threads of my own story and I’m stoked to have had the opportunity for conversations around these ideas with Marko and the many other readers of his blog, YS groupies and the like.
3. This is not a typical youth ministry book because there is no cure prescribed – in fact, more or less, we’re left openended with a brief framework of some diagnostic tools and applications. The conversation is left openended intentionally. It does not answer all the things we instinctively want to be answered, because we have to wrestle with plenty of things ourselves.
Now…From The Beginning I really loved Kenda Creasy Dean’s introduction – she nails the spirit of the book and the author. I’m a sucker for reading the forewards and the acknowledgements. And this section really sets you up for what you’re about to read. She highlights the honesty and potential discomfort of the ideas.
Framing Change in Youth Culture Marko does a great job of reviewing the key tasks of adolescence, the emergence of youth culture and the history of adolescence in a broadsweeping but clear overview for people that get lost in the chaos of what all the science and psychology tells us. I’m a sucker for most of the reference material he refers to – and the recommended reading list at the back of the book provides great material that further unpacks these key ideas. There wasn’t much about actual brain function – but that’s ok, because you don’t want to lose people too soon in!
Marko’s concluding statement addressing where youth ministry as we’ve known it is currently failing highlights the shifting priorities of adolescence and how we’ve been slow to respond.
Implicitly, the question is brought to mind – with this elongated adolescent period, what does this mean for the future of the 20-something youthworker? It’s commented on in the sidebar too.
My lingering question : What happens if you line up generational shifts alongside these adolescent priority shifts and the responding youth ministry changes? What can we learn from mapping the past and present in order to make wise choices for the future?
A Brief History Lesson The story of Youth Ministry 1.0 and 2.0 covered in chapters 3 & 4 highlights a few important things – including that the “first youth ministry missionaries” did it exactly right – they responded to youth culture by “letting it inform the language and topics of youth ministry.”
The charts included are helpful for mapping the drivers, youth culture fixation and key themes. Love those.
My lingering question : How much deconstruction of Youth Ministry 2.0 has to be done in order to have a healthy foundation for YM 3.0? Much, none or some? Is it possible to leap into YM 3.0 from 1 or 2.0 (yes, whispers of 1.0 still exist) or must there be a 2.8 process? What is the role of leadership and broader church context? Can a youth ministry grow (this is a better idea than leap or shift) into 3.0 without the active participation of the whole spiritual community?
Chapter five includes some gems.. Like Chris Cummings statement on pg 67
“This generation of teenagers knows there’s something worth living for beyond themselve, but they’re struggling with actually defining it.. and everything else in our culture says it’s all about them.”
This is a classic observation of the Generation Y tension – and what creates such a great melting pot moment for YM 3.0 to hatch in these communities of young people assured of their own value and voice, desperate for a way to make a difference.
Marko leans heavily on some of Tim Keel’s concepts from Intuitive Leadership (another big emphasis on how great both the endnotes and reading list from this little book is .. ) when talking about the role of youth workers shifting to “cultural anthropologists with relational passion”.
Much of the practice ideology here is straight out of a mission context that has been successful forever – Paul started it. “Culture informs contextualisation” is a great phrase that should stick in the mind. Themes of Communion and Mission were wrestled with publicly on the blog and the picture of a Present youth ministry took shape with the voices of dozens of youthworkers.. they translate well into this section. They also form an almost impeccable mesh with Generation Y values of tribe, cause, flexibility.
My lingering question : Ideologically, it’s perhaps the biggest shift the book deals with, something that really impacts the practices of goal-setting, future planning, curriculum development, the very fabric of what spiritual formation in practice looks like. Marko is truthful enough to say what many of us already know deep down – that programming small groups does not build true community. Small groups of young people and volunteers who truly embrace life together on a wider scale do – but that kind of “community curation” (my phrase, not Marko’s) I think requires a different mindset than what the current “ideal youth worker” might be in the minds of those hiring.
So…How do we get there? This has to be the most frustrating but the most liberating section of the book – Marko raised great concepts, ideas and gives lots of permission to experiment, to fail and to invite multiple voices into the process. He offers a few key ideas – like Contextualization and pushes at colonization approach that some have had towards youth culture.
My favourite part of this chapter throws open the question of what real life-long learning in a youth ministry context can look like when YM3.0 will also require so much unique cultural anthropology. The priority of incarnational life with real young people becomes so particular. The stories and lives of the young people we are actually with (Present).. are the best blueprint to the youth ministry we are doing (Mission in current context). To me, it feels like a welcome spring clean of the boardroom whiteboard where we’ve drawn endless visions of what we’d like our youth ministry to be in 5 years time. (I’m not convinced that there isn’t a place somewhere for t
his thinking, but probably not in the priority line it has been in.)
Points of Note: Discernment features strongly in this chapter – and my friend Jill recently commented that “discernment and intuition have a lot in common – discernment is perhaps educated intuition?” I think there is merit to the point especially in the context of discussing the communal discernment of a group in regards to youth ministry. So, discernment (being something we more naturally attribute to wisdom and age, experience) is perhaps the maturing spiritual gift of intuition that may be present in many of your young people/leaders/surrounding voices..that intuition may be found in those that naturally ‘feel’ the ebb and flow of the ‘environment’.
Multiple groups have been an issue of contention and whilst not supporting this as THE way forward, Marko presents it as an opportunity. You could argue that the response of people to this possible programming tool demonstrates a high level of 2.0 thinking that still resides. Others ask the question fairly enough, how to do this in the context of small ministries – but it’s an idea for consideration, not a prescription. My reflection is that this kind of approach allows affinity to be one of the key tasks worked out through your ministry.
Experimentation is a strong value here, especially the process by which the young people themselves are the dominant storytellers.
Supra-Culture is the youthworkers dream. “Common affinity found in Christ alone”. My thought would be that having the same philosophy or values at the core of your ministry would enable multiple groups to work out unique expressions of this Supra-Culture.. again, lots more experimentation and reflection required. More of a labratory of youth ministry as many have commented on in discussion. The messiness of this is absolute, guaranteed – but the longterm effectiveness of this approach may be highly rewarding.
My lingering question : Lifelong professional development for youth ministry that doesn’t sit in isolation from broader church leadership, that focuses on developing practical contextualization skills and anthropological thinking/frameworks that youth pastors can use. How? Also – how to encourage and enable youthworkers to hold the desire for effectiveness and the mandate to experiment and exegete locally in tension?
My lingering thoughts from this chapter: Whilst Marko doesn’t cover the brain/biology equations, I think that the role of Feelings & Experience in the faith train diagram are vital. As these experiences and feelings form neuron pathways while cognitive recognition of “God” occurs – they must be valued. Thus the “feeling” and “experiential” components of our ministry may actually help form “faith” foundations while the rest of experience is in chaos?
Youth Ministry 3.0 will acknowledge the humanity and validity of teenagers – they are contributors “in development” and “in practice”.
The role of family-based ministry will need to change – for those places where it’s in practice.
We need to come up with new frameworks for KPIs, goal setting, reassessment and staff management in this area.
And So To End I read this book last night with a drink, a starry night and a cigar.. in honour of such nights in San Diego! There were lots of things I underlined. Lots of things that will continue to be discussions over the coming years. I am excited for multiple copies of the book to arrive onshore so that meaningful conversations can start around so many things…
There are things I wrestle with – mostly to do with how we can appropriately engage in these practices and conversations in a way that sees real change. How quickly can we translate and establish new training and support structures for this new way of thinking and crafting youth ministry? How do we, taking these lessons, begin to also look ahead to what the kids of Gen X and Gen Y will look like and how youth culture may continue to map our response in youth ministry?
Mostly.. I’m glad to be part of the conversation. This reengages my hope and desire to work with young people and for young people – for the sake of attainable belonging or affinity with the person and body of Christ. (I’m not sure how they are both important or expressed, but they both are.)
‘Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you.’ – Kahlil Gilbran (Sand and Fog)
From the beginning, we lived in the presence of greatness. We lived under the constancy of light but we barely understood what it meant. We lived with great provision without realising the character of the Provider. We were treated as sons and daughters by the Master, when really we were still slaves.
Slaves not to Him, but to ourselves. Slaves to fear, to darkness, to false truths. Slaves to our own bodies, created for a wide open lives but squashed into terrifyingly small spaces. We lived in the presence of completeness, of wholeness and yet we never grasped the fullness of it. Our slavery led us away from the light until we were so far away from the original intention of our being, we were cast out into the darkness and the light longed for us, called out to us but was not with us as the Light had been.
You see, we share it in, equal parts, the slavery that led Adam and Eve, the first man and woman into abandoning the presence. We share in the same humanity that led us to suspicion and distrust of the only Loving Father we had ever known. We choose to walk in opposition to the only thing asked of us and we walked straight into the darkness, the bloodiness of human history.
Adam, from the word “Adama”, literally named of the earth, chose slavery over freedom, and cast out from the garden, walked onto the earth to cover it with bloodshed. The very blood which gives us life, became our undoing, our brokenheartedness, the scar of our history on this earth… acres and acres of bloodsoaked earth.
But we weren’t left alone out here. In fact, God barely left us for a minute before redrawing the path, the Way back to Him.
Time and time again, he re-drew it in the earth, the sky, through the history of humanity as it poured out its story on to the planet. And still it faded from our view because we so easily turned our eyes. We washed out the path with dirt, blood, greed.
Again and again, He, the great Father, used his own hand to lead us back to him and our history of words and stories is the history of our enslavement and our freedom, being captured and set free, choosing entrapment and crying out for salvation again.
We still live in the Presence. His light is all over us, the footsteps of the Way before our eyes. Through blood and war, peace and beauty He still points out the Way and welcomes travellers onto it. Whatever you do, once you find the Way, don’t lose it as so many are prone to do.
We are still sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, still making our way through the human story and wandering the earth. Hold to the constancy of light, the character of our Father, do not take your eyes from His hand drawing us home. Don’t lose the Way.
Grace is one of the children attending the school in Kibera Slum that 100days100dollars is working with. This is her recital of a poem (unknown origin).
life oh life life —- how many ever lived and today no more but dust it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor surely life is more than south african gold
all sons of my woman, of my woman and daughters of my womb this generation of young ducks has fallen apart days and nights boys and girls walk right left left right forward backward
alcoholic —- tell me where is your destination ——— ——— ——— ———
Tash McGill is a broadcaster, writer and strategist who works with people and organisations to solve problems and create transformation. She believes people are the most important thing and that stories are powerful ways of changing the world. You can find out more at tashmcgill.com or by visiting her LinkedIn profile.
