Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church

In a nutshell: 1. Mainline denominations are having trouble reaching youth. 2. Youth are passionate people. 3. The gospel is fundamentally about passion -- Christ's passion. 4. Our churches lack passion. 5. Solution for reaching youth boils down to the church becoming passionate about the gospel. But Dean says all this much better than I do. Listen to this (p. 25): "What if mainline Protestantism's disappointing track record with young people (in and beyond the church) has not been primarily a failure of models, educational strategies, historical cycles, or institutional support, but a failure of theology? Is it possible that the "problem" facing youth ministry reflects all too accurately a malaise infecting mainline denominations generally: a flabby theological identity due to an absence of passion? That would be ironic. Most young people come to us brimming with passion. Could it be that, instead of fanning this youthful zeal into holy fire, we have more often doused it, dismissed it, or drowned it in committee meetings? The theological challenge youth pose to the church is blunt: Are we who we say we are? Do we practice passion, transformed by a Love who never disappoints, and live by a faith so convincing that we stake our lives on it? Or are we just another sagging social convention, like Dracula, that needs young blood to survive?" The whole book is written with that much passion. Dean argues, passionately, that if we are to speak meaningfully to youth, we must first connect the passion of Christ with the passion of youth. When that happens, the result is a passionate faith. Care about youth? Care about the state of the church? Read this book. Yesterday.

Creasy Dean writes at a time when the Church is declining, when people do not find the Church attractive any more and when the world around us is offering, with passion, unreliable solutions for problems, while the Church is loosing its passion and therefore its people. She shows a real concern for the passionless Church that has no power to attract passionate youth to its life and most of all has no solution for the young passionate hearts that are searching for "something to die for". This is a very complex book written with a highly academic style and the roots of her book are based in theology. She is able to find logical and theological solutions for issues that youth are dealing with, in today's society, and all of her solutions are closely related to Christian Passion, in fact to Jesus Christ's Passion. She is placing the youth ministry with all its vulnerabilities in practical theology in stead of looking for the available secular options. Creasy Dean stresses that in order to have a live Church there must be a live group of youths that are involved in the life of the Church, and in order to have this, the Gospel must be preached with passion, the Church activities must have a motivation and passion at least equal to youth passion, and that passion is found in Christ's passion alone. Since the adolescent age group, is the most vulnerable age group of mankind, is the age group where the personal identity is formed, and youths are desperately searching for something worth living for or something worth dying for, they want to "love something worthy of suffering, and to be so loved" (p.2). As adolescents are trying out many different types of passion, they very often end up being badly hurt and suffering consequences that may last for years, Creasy Dean is promoting the only valid type of passion "who is really worthy of sacrifice, who really does love us selflessly and extravagantly - the Love who never disappoints, who will not let them down, and who will not go away" (p 20) and this is not just any type of passion or a very special passion, is the passion of Jesus Christ. In the first section of the book, "Shared Passions", Creasy Dean is showing the power of Christ's passion as subversive, as something to die for. She is pursuing a line of passionate love, a love that motivated Jesus Christ to come and die for humans; and now the challenge that she puts before us is to love and serve Christ unconditionally, "because if Jesus isn't worth dying for, then he's not worth living for, either" (p 32). Adolescents have very often been involved with the "wrong crowds", and than end up suffering for the wrong passions and not only the youth from "bad homes" or from areas with integration and/or social-economic problems but youth from all social classes end up in a very difficult state, and that is due to the fact that they are not exposed and introduced properly, to the only passion that will match their passion, Jesus Christ's passion. By contras

This book is one of the best I've read on what is truly at stake and essential in youth ministry. It does come with a warning though: One adult volunteer I gave it to found it overwhelming at first read. So I highly recommend it for those in the field and in the habit of talking about these things, but recommend perhaps wading in with some other ones (maybe The Godbearing Life, which Dean co-authored) before tackling this one. But do reach that point, if you at all can.

Kenda Creasy Dean explores an area most youth workers do not want to go near - The passion of teenagers, the search to find something worth dying for. This is not an easy read or a step-by-step roadmap, but challenges the concepts on which we base youth ministries.

I am shocked that this book has not received a review yet. Dean does a masterful job in her book locating youth ministry practice in theology, rather than in popular methods of education or developmental theory. She does use developmental theory to ground her theology, but it is theology that drives her book. I am convinced that youth ministry needs to become much more theological and jettison the pragmatic methods in order to become faithful to the gospel. Dean outlines an approach to youth ministry that intertwines the passion found in almost every young person with the Passion of Jesus Christ. A wonderful book that is well-deserving of your time if you are invovled in youth ministry. Be warned: this book is fairly academic in tone and style. It has extensive footnotes and was originally written as a Masters thesis. So, this is not a light, easygoing read. But if you are unfamiliar with the academic genre, this book is worth taking the time to read. Also, Dean comes from a mainline background, so some of her references and assumptions might be unfamiliar to those outside the mainline tradition. A worthwhile read. Every full-time youth pastor should read this book.