Youth Ministry As Practical Theology
Chap Clark

This essay argues for youth ministry to be located as a sub-field of the discipline of practical theology. Youth ministry as practical theology offers an iterative process enabling practitioners to form a praxis-theory-praxis mode of decision-making and discernment in their ministry. This process of deliberative and communal theological reflection results in faithful action. Youth ministry educators should equip their students to engage in faithful action that is rooted in careful analysis and ultimately moves toward a praxis that takes seriously both God's kingdom trajectory and biblical precedent. The goal is to help youth ministry students to arrive at a conclusion that aligns with what God is doing in their context and helps them "keep in step with the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).

We Will Find The Answers As We Go: A Response To
Chap Clark's Youth Ministry As Practical Theology
Kenda Creasy Dean

Dean suggests that youth ministry offers the academy practical wisdom, believing that it contributes to practical theology scholarship. Further she believes Clark overlooked the notion that practical theology requires two levels of theological reflection-one in the academy, and one in the daily life of the church. Ultimately practical theology is concerned with divine and human action which involves more than reading scripture and looking for principles we can apply to life. Practical theology is hermeneutical as well as biblical and is not a purely exegetical. It requires humility to confront our biases and entertain interpretations that may adjust our perspective. Bifurcating theory and praxis would contradict the nature of Christ. Practical theology can not pretend to figure out God in advance, and then hand divine truth over to its audience. Rather, we trust that we will find the answers as we go.

A More Excellent Way: A Response To
Chap Clark's Youth Ministry As Practical Theology
David F. White

White raises an overarching question in response to Clark: How does this constellation of practices reflect and foster the beauty of Christian faith? Clark's approach includes exacting specificity, raising the issue of whether ministry is appropriately more technical-rational than intuitive-affective. White suggests that while Christian leadership in particular and Christian discipleship in general should cultivate practical skills, its life flows from the compelling beauty of the Christian life, a life that reflects the beauty of God. Further he contents that knowing Christian truth cannot be reduced to extracting rational principles from biblical texts. Practical theological theory has helped reclaim a vision for the integration of various sources of Christian knowing, including knowing of contexts, thinking biblically and theologically about these contexts and responding faithfully. Clearly attending to this range of sources fosters a higher synthesis or beauty as people become more integrated and whole.

Toward What End? A Response To
Chap Clark's Youth Ministry As Practical Theology
Gary A. Parrett

Parrett ventures beyond the main text of Clark's article to focus on some perceived assumptions. Concern with focusing on the place of youth ministry in the academy, he suggests: "If part of what I am reading here is yet another in an unending string of attempts by those who teach in areas of ministry to justify their existence in the academy, then it is a futile chasing after the wind." Second, he addresses the use of theological jargon that Clark uses to make is case. "If there is even a hint of an effort here to find security in sophisticated and contemporary theological verbiage, then it is unwise, unwarranted and ultimately unfruitful." Finally, Parrett suggests that a concept that meets both Clark's criteria for good practical theology and his own criteria is catechesis, which Clark identified as inadequate.

Coming Together:A Rejoinder To Dean's, White's, and
Parrett's Responses To Youth Ministry As Practical Theology
Chap Clark

Clark rejoins the conversation clarifying the intention of his article and responding to the critiques of Dean, White, and Parrett. The intent of the article was never to justify the field, rather to help the field agree on a common conceptual language and structure that would move youth ministry education toward establishing common ground that would shape our thinking, teaching and practice. In responding to the critiques Clark examines the need for a methodological approach to praxis by engaging issues raised by the respondents concerning the complexity of the method, the place of spiritual practices and worship, the relationship between theory and practice, and the importance of being theological stewards of youth ministry. Ultimately, he argues for an agreed upon practical theology method (not necessarily his) that will enable students to first be exposed, then trained, and finally steeped in a process of critical correlation reflection and urges scholars in the field to work together in developing a theological inquiry method that culminates in "theologically appropriate" praxis.

Further Illusions Of Postmodern Youth Ministry:
An Affirmation And Response To David White
Andrew Root

The context in which adolescents live is interpreted using the social theory of Anthony Giddens as a lens.  Affirming David White's assertion made in the Fall 2007 issue of The Journal of Youth Ministry that postmodernity as a philosophical/epistemological perspective does not fully describe the adolescent context, this article pushes further his assertion of the illusions of a postmodern youth ministry.  White's interpretation gives too much attention to structural realities, most specifically the economy.  Giddens' social theory suggests that in addition to structure, agency must be taken into consideration.  The issues adolescents face in our context are not just epistemological, or the reality of oppressive structures such as capitalist consumerism, but also the loss of tradition and the re-definition of the self and intimacy. 

Toward An Adequate Sociology Of Youth Ministry:
A Dialogue With Andrew Root And Anthony Giddens
David F. White

In his article Illusions of Postmodernism (2008) White attempted to elaborate a more nuanced understanding of this contemporary cultural context than exists in popular youth ministry resources. In his response, Andrew Root seized upon Whites ideas to enrich and extend our grasp of the dynamics of contemporary culture, drawing especially on the work of British sociologist Anthony Giddens. In this response White seeks to bring both authors social visions into conversation with a few basic notions of our Christian theological heritage.

What We Can And Can't Learn From
Willow Creek's REVEAL Study
Bradley R. E. Wright

Willow Creek Community Church's REVEAL study examines fundamental church issues such as spiritual growth, participation rates, and member satisfaction. This review of Willow Creek's research examines the REVEAL study, exploring what we can, and can not, learn from it. More generally, this review uses REVEAL as a case study of methodological issues that commonly arise in church surveys. Ultimately, REVEAL raises challenging questions but may be guilty of over-interpreting its data.