Product Description

Youth ministry isn’t about what to say, what to do, or how to be; it’s about serving the needs of the students God has put in your life. This book is an attitude overhaul that creates a more organic approach to youth ministry that helps you create meaningful silence, covenant communities, and contemplative activities that allow your students recognize the presence of Jesus in their everyday lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #225160 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780310267775
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Back Cover
“Contemplative Youth Ministry is refreshing rain for dry youth workers and barren youth ministries. More than the same old youth ministry tips and tricks, it gives principles and practices to soak in God’s grace, love, and power. I wish I had read it 15 years ago.”

- Kara Powell, Ph.D., executive director, Center for Youth Ministry and Family Ministry, Fuller Theological Seminary



“Mark invites readers to be encountered by the presence of Jesus who is always near. This book is transparent about the challenges that churches and families face as they desire to be effective in youth ministry. The book is filled with the honest stories of different kinds of youth ministries representing the breadth of Christianity in the United States. I heartily endorse Contemplative Youth Ministry as a rich encounter with the souls of youth and adults whose

lives have been transformed by our very present God.”

- Bill Kees, director of youth ministries, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)



“Mark Yaconelli not only reminds us of some of the long-forgotten pathways of faith, he shares with us how it actually looks when men and women who love God practice it with young people. I especially appreciate Mark’s optimism in his perspective of today’s kids, for his insights are grounded in God’s view of them.”

- Chap Clark, Ph.D., associate professor of youth, family, and culture, Fuller Theological Seminary



“Mark Yaconelli was experimenting with contemplative youth ministry practices before contemplative youth ministry practices became cool. This book has about it the unique air of authenticity. He shares with us in these pages his own journey as a youth worker who actually believes that God’s still small voice speaks louder than the roaring windstorm of our busy youth ministry calendars. It’s a book about creating for our students places of silence and opening up spaces for God to speak.”

- Duffy Robbins, professor of youth ministry, Eastern University; author of Enjoy the Silence and This Way to Youth Ministry



“Mark Yaconelli has emerged as one of youth ministry’s most provocative ‘voices in the wilderness,’ calling us back to our theological taproots: The contemplative practices that bind our lives to the life of Christ. If Mark’s research has taught us anything, it’s that these practices do not cause youth ministry to take fl ight into a spiritual never-never land; rather they anchor young people—and their churches—in the fertile soil of Christian tradition, in the nitty-gritty of daily life, and in the explosive transformation that awaits us when we wait upon God.”

- Kenda Creasy Dean, parent, pastor, and professor of youth, Princeton Theological Seminary; author of Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church

About the Author
Mark Yaconelli is the co-founder and co-director of Triptykos School of Compassion. The author of Downtime, Contemplative Youth Ministry, and Growing Souls, Mark lives in Oregon with his wife and three children.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Contemplative Youth Ministry: Practicing the Presence of Jesus
Copyright © 2006 by Mark Yaconelli
Youth Specialties products, 300 South Pierce Street, El Cajon, CA 92020 are published by Zondervan, 5300
Patterson Avenue Southeast, Grand Rapids, MI 49530.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yaconelli, Mark.
Contemplative youth ministry : practicing the presence of Jesus / by Mark Yaconelli.
p. cm.
ISBN-10: 0-310-26777-3
ISBN-13: 978- 0-310-26777-5
1. Church work with youth. 2. Contemplation. I. Title.
BV4447.Y23 2006
259’.23--dc22
2005037968
The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted
1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the
United States of America, and are used by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-(except for brief
quotations in printed reviews) without the prior permission of the publisher.
Web site addresses listed in this book were current at the time of publication. Please contact Youth Specialties
via e-mail (YS@YouthSpecialties.com) to report URLs that are no longer operational and replacement
URLs if available.
Creative team: Doug Davidson, Randy Southern, Heather Haggerty, Laura Gross, and Mark Novelli
Cover design by Burnkit
Printed in the United States
06 07 08 09 10 • 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
teen angst and
adult anxiety
In our age everything has to be a “problem.” Ours
is a time of anxiety because we have willed it to be
so. Our anxiety is not imposed on us by force from
outside. We impose it on our world and upon one
another from within ourselves.
Sanctity in such an age means, no doubt, traveling
from the area of anxiety to the area in which
there is no anxiety or perhaps it may mean learning,
from God, to be without anxiety in the midst
of anxiety.
—THOMAS MERTON, THOUGHTS IN SOLITUDE
I’ve really begun to understand what deeply spiritual
people teenagers are. (Silly to have forgotten,
when I was one myself.) Even the scruffi est middle-
schooler is on a seriously beautiful, completely
unique journey, as we all are, and have been, even
when we were little kids. Understanding that has
perhaps been the best fruit that contemplative
prayer has yielded in my relationship with young
people.
—MELISSA RANGE, POET, YOUTH MINISTRY VOLUNTEER,
OAKHURST BAPTIST CHURCH, DECATUR, GEORGIA
Teenagers make adults anxious. They just do. In fact, adult anxiety
about teens may be the primary reason youth ministry exists.
Spot a cluster of unfamiliar young people laughing outside the
church, and adults get suspicious. If these youth happen to paint
their lips black or jump skateboards off the church steps, adults can
get downright fearful. Adult anxiety toward teens is ancient, even
biblical. In the only scene we’re given from Jesus’ adolescence, the
young Messiah sneaks away from his family and hides out in Jerusalem.
When his mother fi nally rushes into the temple and discovers
her holy middle-schooler, she cries frantically, “Child, why have you
treated us like this? Your father and I have been searching for you in
great anxiety!” (Luke 2:48). It turns out that even the teenage Prince
of Peace can make adults crazy with worry.
There are many reasons why adults feel anxious around teens.
Young people are fi dgety. They fi ddle with things and won’t stay
still. They exaggerate and mirror adult postures that make us selfconscious
and uncomfortable. They always seem to be looking for
something—a friend, an adventure, a ride, food, acceptance, a glimpse
of who they’re becoming. Youth can voice their questions with such
open-hearted honesty that we fi nd ourselves blushing. Sometimes
their neediness or suffering can be obvious in a way that leaves us
feeling helpless or despondent.
Young people are green. They can make adults feel tired, musty,
and unattractive. Emerging from childhood, teens move toward adulthood
with fresh eyes and energy. They see white elephants. They ask
the obvious and un-faced questions: “Why do we have to go to church
when Jesus never did?” “How come you tell me not to drink alcohol
when you have a beer every night?” “Why are these benches called
pews?” Just the presence of young people within a community of adults
exposes weaknesses, raises doubts, and challenges assumed values.
]Young people can be disturbingly (or is it refreshingly?) unpredictable.
One day they seem happy to conform to their parents’ wishes
and adult conventions; the next day it appears they’re making it up as
they go along, led zigzag by an internal drummer that even they don’t
seem to recognize. Young people can express a childlike dependency
one moment, then get offended by the lack of independence they’re
granted the next. Youth are messy. Take this example:
Three years ago while traveling on a bus full of young people, I
noticed I was seated near fi ve or six teenage girls. At the time, my
wife and I were expecting our fi rst daughter, and I was eager to learn
about the relationships between these teenage girls and their fathers.
I asked the girls if they would be willing to tell me about their relationships
with their fathers and to offer any advice they thought helpful.
Although these young women were from all over North America and
represented diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, I was surprised at
how all the girls in this particular group spoke in very similar, adoring
tones about their dads. Then one 15-year-old said, “Of course, you
have to be prepared for times when your daughter might say to you, ‘I
hate you, Daddy!’ But usually by the next day you’ll get a handmade
card that says something like, ‘You’re the greatest dad in the world.’”
Bewildered, I looked at her and asked if any of them had enacted
this kind of behavior with their own fathers. All but one nodded in
agreement. I was incredulous. I asked what had prompted them to
use such extreme language. One girl replied, “Well, it can be anything,
really. Like, a couple of months ago I stopped talking to my dad after
he wore black socks and sandals to pick me up from school. But other
times I’ve said similar things for really no reason at all.” When I asked
them why, they just shrugged their shoulders. “It’s just something we
do,” one of them offered. Youth make adults anxious.
One thing that becomes increasingly disturbing for many grownups
is the sense that they have little control over young people. This
scares adults. Adults want youth to conform to adult standards. They
want kids to act responsibly. They want them to sit down and listen.
They want them to hurry up and get their identities fi xed and
grounded. Adults want youth to have a roadmap for a secure and reasonable
future, and they get rattled when they notice that most youth
aren’

Customer Reviews

prophetic youth ministry a welcomed book
Contemplative youth ministry is a welcomed book. It's a book that seeks to put God at the centre of youth ministry instead of programs that stem from good ideas. The title of the book sums up the theme and direction of the book. Basically if Brother Lawrence had done youth ministry, he probably would have written a book like this. He instructs youth leaders on how to listen to God, how to minister from a place of silence and hearing God's voice, and how to encourage these activities among the youth.

One of the strengths of the book would be his testimony at the beginning of the book in which he describes himself as being program driven and success seeking. He then recounts his transformation to a place where he ministers out of love instead of anxiety. I felt that I could relate.

The part that I got the most from was when he called us to be "fully present" to the individual youths. He made me realise how often I've only given someone half of my attention. His challenge to me to slow down and give a youth my full attention and listening ears is much appreciated.

I felt the book had a couple of weaknesses that made me give this otherwise unique book only three stars. First of all, he fails to ground his (what are for many) new and somewhat radical ideas in scripture. With the exception of the odd verse, he bases his ideas more in church history than in scripture. Not to say that I think that his ideas are unbiblical; for at least the most part they are not. But, when calling the church to fundamentally change how we do things, we want a surer guide then a few testimonies and a "this is how Ignatius Loyola would have done it". Often I thought that he had a good idea which made me think of different texts of scripture, but he failed to ever interact with them. I felt that this decreased the potential power of the book.

The second weakness I felt the book had was the somewhat negative tone towards preaching or what he called "word heavy youth ministry". Preaching is very uncool in today's post-modern era where authority is downplayed. There is a general shift away from preaching and teaching and I feel like this book is affected by that wave of thinking. The author encouraged the exercise of meditating on scripture together and then sharing what each person felt that the text was saying. What the author failed to teach us was what to do when some outlandish, nut-job or even heretical ideas are being shared. How do we bring correction and instruction into a moment like that? Is there really no value at all in having a gifted teacher authoritatively say, "here is the text, let me explain what it means and how to apply it to your lives"? The gospel needs to be preached and not just reflected in the way we live.

Also, the author never uses the term "prophetic", but what he describes in some areas could be termed "prophetic youth ministry". Hearing what God is saying and acting on it is a prophetic action. Though this is unfortunately terribly under lived among us, I felt a desire to say during the book, "There are other types of prayer we can engage in to make effective youth ministry. What about the "loud crying and tears", what about the intercession? We need to do more than just listen to what God is doing; we also need to pray things into being."

Extraordinary Resource
This is a stunning book. It's grounded in a seven year Lilly Endowment study of youth ministry. The power of the book is in its authenticity, its deep reality. We lived in a speeded-up, multi-tasking society. A richer life lies in a real connection with God and deep relationships with others. Youth yearn for real conversations with loving adults, they need and respond beautifully to authentic prayer and silence. Please read this book - use it. Our youth, our adults, our churches deserve the chance to shift to God's timing and God's reality. What a gift of the Spirit!

changed my life
When I first started this book I was struck by the ease of reading this book - Mark Yaconelli has a very nice pace, it makes me think that he's actually practicing what he's talking about in the book while he's writing, because everything is just really laid back. Secondly you notice that Mr. Yaconelli knows what he's talking about - telliing all the stories of youth ministry failures, and successes and just how he's come to this place of contemplative prayer.
This book is very well written, and very very useful as far as it's praxis.
I highly recommend it.