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BETTER INFORMED,BETTER EQUIPPED TO MINISTER to today's blurred youth culture Mobile. Connected. Wired in. This is a generation that skips over perceived cultural boundaries and resists definition. They are a mash-up of identity, a blur of old categories and classes. Creators and consumers of a rapidly changing culture. But how does one reach a demographic that is so difficult to pin down? Many of the most popular approaches to youth ministry today begin by portraying youth as collections of fixed snapshots, "profiles" based on sociological research studies. Yet according to Dr. Jeff Keuss, today's teens cannot be adequately characterized by these simplistic and static descriptions. Keuss argues that what is needed, instead, is a qualitative approach to describing young people, one that recognizes the "blurred" nature of today's mobile youth culture. Jeff Keuss presents an optimistic new way of thinking about youth, one that sees them more holistically and less clinically. As we learn to see youth culture through this new lens, we will become better informed and better equipped to minister to the teens of today's rapidly changing world.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Seeing the blur of youth as ‘Sacredly Mobile Adolescents’
Chapter 2: From studying the pictures to ‘seeing the blur’ – creating a space for authentic ministry in a postmodern context
Chapter 3: Seeing the blur of youth as Jesus did – a phenomenological reading of Jesus’ encounters with youth
Chapter 4: Seeing the blur of youth through ‘Confessions’ on the dance floor: the role of St. Augustine for a practical theology of youth culture.
Chapter 5: Seeing the blur of youth in the midst of Conviction, Character and Community
Chapter 6: Seeing the blur of youth as 'coming of age' - from Goethe to Star Wars, The Matrix, Harry Potter and Twilight.
Chapter 7: Race and White Privilege: Taboo topics in today’s youth ministry
About the author
Jeff Keuss is Professor of Christian Ministry, Theology and Culture at Seattle Pacific University (SPU) in Seattle, Washington. Jeff is a regular contributor to The Kindlings Muse monthly podcast on theology and culture (www.thekindlingsmuse.com). His books include Your Neighbor's Hymnal: What Popular Music Teaches Us about Faith, Hope and Love; Freedom of the Self; A Poetics of Jesus; and The Sacred and the Profane. You can follow him on Twitter @JeffKeuss as well as his blog: http: //jeffkeuss.com/
Summary
Dr. Jeff Keuss argues that instead of characterizing youth in fixed cultural groups, we need to take a qualitative approach that recognizes the “blurred” nature of today’s mobile youth culture. This book will help you rethink the ways in which you view the youth around you and how to measure the effectiveness of your ministry to them.
