Brother Andy: A Review of: Practicing Passion

Practicing Passion: Youth And The Quest For A Passionate Church by Kenda Creasy Dean is a refreshing view of youth ministry that inspires readers to search out passion in ministry. Kenda Creasy Dean asserts that passion is a key component of adolescence. She sees passion as an important way for youth to relate to Christianity as a whole as well as to a church’s congregational life. Dean roots her preaching of passion in theology by observing that “passion is the point at which adolescent experience and Christian theology intersect (56).” Typically there is a negative assessment of passion in relation to youth culture, where sowing wild oats is looked down upon. However, Dean believes that this passion can be rerouted, harnessed and then be a used as a valuable tool for youth ministry.

Teens have trouble connecting to Christianity because they view it as nice hobby rather than a passion that stirs our emotions and deserves a radical response. Dean wants church members and leaders to lead teens into valuable experiences to teach them that Christianity is about a relationship with Jesus and this relationship is one which is worth dying for. This relationship of getting to know Jesus Christ as Lord and sharing in his passion will in turn lead teens to life a passionate life. Dean stresses that adults must also be engaged and allow themselves to experience a passionate life. Youth will see the passion within their leaders’ lives and want to share in that meaningful experience.

Dean seeks to teach church leadership to be agents of God to help form the spiritual lives of the youth within the church. The youth minister should be involved in the process but should not be the lone worker seeking to shape the lives of the youth in the congregation. The whole community of Christians must join in to shape the spiritual lives of the youth within a church. Dean asserts that the youth should know that they are an integral part of the church rather than a separate entity that will one day graduate into being a part of the church.

In order to encouraging churches to show fidelity to youth by being there for them and with them, Dean urges churches to avoid the “one eared Mickey Mouse Model of Ministry” where the youth group is attached to the church only on the peripheries. However, perhaps unintentionally, that particular model seems to be the one that most churches gravitate toward. The “one eared Mickey Mouse Model of Ministry” is a picture with two circles, one big (like Mickey’s head) and a smaller one on the periphery (Mickey’s ear). The big circle represents the church body, or adult church; while the small circle represents the youth group. The representation serves the purpose of drawing attention to how many churches seek to allow their youth ministry and church body as separate and apart from each other. Regrettably many churches unwittingly engage in this model of youth ministry which robs the youth of the church from valuable formation from being incorporated into the church body as a whole.