A Review of: Practicing Passion – Part 4

Practicing Passion: Youth And The Quest For A Passionate Church by Kenda Creasy Dean was a great read for me because it helped me remember that youth ministry and ministry in general is about relating with real live people who have emotions. Anyone who seeks to minister to youth must constantly strive to remember what it is like to be young. Dean’s book is rooted in theological truths and provides helpful encouragement for youth workers to strive to live a life of passion. Youth ministry must work to capture the passion of teenagers and turn their passion over to go to be used for his glory. However, youth ministry must resist the temptation to woo youth into their programs by appealing only to their passion for fun, food and community. These passions are the easiest to access, because teenagers’ lives are usually overly packed with frenetic activity.

Youth ministry must engage teens in a way that teaches them of something to die for. It is difficult to capture the passions of youth, yet Dean offers theological truths that back up her call for ministry to work toward that end. Dean speaks to the heart of youth by realizing their needs for fidelity and communion. One of the major reasons that motivate me to do ministry is to teach of God’s everlasting fidelity and model God’s commitment to Christians, even though my model cannot nor should try to be a substitution for God’s perfection. It is important for youth to experience deep relationships within the church so that they are assured of the safety within the church to be who they are and to become more Christ-like.

Everyone desires this safety and intimacy of relationships, especially teens who are seeking to find their identity. It is the youth minister’s privilege to introduce them to Jesus Christ as the model for that identity. Hopefully youth can see Jesus within the body of their church, living and active, so that they can have a model that is still today incarnated who will walk beside them along the journey of faith. The ministers who take to heart the message of Practicing Passion will have a better understanding of the relationships that teens seek and need. All Christians’ lives’ are better when they are full of a passionate love for Jesus. Passion for God fills the holes in the life of teens. I agree with Dean that youth ministry must strive to be a place that produces teens who are adept at practicing passion.


Dean, Kenda Creasy, Practicing Passion: Youth And The Quest For A Passionate Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004.

A Review of: Practicing Passion – Part 3

In Practicing Passion: Youth And The Quest For A Passionate Church, Kenda Creasy Dean addresses an integral part of youth ministry that tends to be over looked. Dean communicates a new way of participating in youth ministry by establishing the dimensions of Passion. She asserts that the core longings within youth for passion are seen in their longing for fidelity, transcendence and communion and they can find these this perfectly in God as well as being part of a community of faith who strives to imitate these traits. Dean asserts that a church without passion is like an amputee with the phantom pains of passionate suffering which motivates us to service.


Dean dispels that youth ministry’s primary purpose is to ensure the church of tomorrow. Instead it must create a place where passion is transferred from those who possess a passionate and vibrant faith to those who seek it. Dean asserts that “the passions of young people serve as signs of a deeper, human longing for love that is most fully addressed by the Passion of the Christ”. (15) Dean admonishes the church to serve as a community of disciples that display Christian disciplines and practices which act as scaffolding for the new faith that is being formed within youth. Adult Christians who display passion within their lives serve as living evidence of a life redeemed and become messengers who embody the message of grace.

By being consistently present in the lives of youth, adult leaders teach their students about the fidelity of God within the Christina life. Passion can be taught to youth thru avenues that relate to their world such as play, sabbath, and worship. Youth can quench their thirst for intimacy only within the passionate life found within love received and given to God. Youth realize innately that our creator knows the recesses of the youthful heart better that anyone else.

By teaching youth the paradox of the transcendence of God and that God still maintains imminence with the church leaders can instill a sense of awe within youth that will provide fuel necessary for a full passionate Christian life. The Church bears the responsibility to teach and display lives that display the power of the cross. Their influence can incite fervor within new believers that will lead youth to proclaim the grace they received. Passionate youth are vibrant witnesses of Christian faith who obsessively seek to carry on the tradition of practicing passion.

Dean, Kenda Creasy, Practicing Passion: Youth And The Quest For A Passionate Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004.

A Review of: Practicing Passion - Part 2

Practicing Passion: Youth And The Quest For A Passionate Church by Kenda Creasy Dean stresses that teens must be able to witness the passion of church members from all ages in order for their maturation process to be holistic. Youth ministry that is separated from the body of the church (like the Mickey Mouse ear) will ultimately be incomplete and thus be more prone to minister burn out and frustration. Youth ministry that involves the entire community of faith in forming the spiritual lives of youth by incorporating them into the passionate story of faith will be able to survive the tests of the world and live within the fidelity of the Church. The world constantly tempts youth to find solace in passions of the flesh which contradict the passions of the spirit which are found in the body of faith.

Dean continually reminds the church that youth are inherently filled with passion and so ministry to youth must acknowledge that passion and seek to fill it with the passionate story of Christ. Teenagers must have something positive to fill their passions with because in there development into adulthood they are seeking a life of love, being loved and loving. Youth actively seek out passionate experiences. The Christian life is one which can be full of passion that is directed toward a life of discipleship following after the example of Jesus. Churches that have the passion of Christ at their core will be more apt to incorporate this passion into the youth within it. Such a life of passionate faith will not only resonate to youth in today’s culture, but will also inspire adults who live within our postmodern age who seek emotive responses to faith as well as rational. Adults within the church are sure to be interested in what Dean portraits as passionate faith relationship which is intimately connected to the passion and ministry of Jesus.

Dean does an excellent job of expressing that adolescents are formed by being involved and included within a passionate community of faithful believers. Dean rightly notes that youth seek the company of people who live bold lives full of passion. Youth within a church will take notice when its church body puts a strong emphasis on a passionate life in relationship with Jesus. Teens will see this passion expressed in the daily lives and action of the church body. However teens will also be acutely aware if passion is only given lip service to and never attained.
Youth have a sense about them for honesty and if they sense the church is in any way false or simply blasé in their faith claims, they will seek to fulfill their hunger for a passionate life elsewhere. Youth inherently seek out faith which desires to live in deep relationship with a community and with Jesus. This heightens the importance of the church body for the spiritual formation of the youth within their church by including them in the body and thus supplying them with the identity inherent to the church. By finding their identity within the passionate church this will in turn help to fan their flame of faith and enable them to ignite a passionate, faithful life.

Dean expresses the ideal situation within the book which may intimidate some ministers who feel they themselves have lost a bit of their once youthful passion. However it is encouraging to all ministers who seek to work with youth to be ever vigilant in seeking out ways to understand, engage and contextualize the pre-existing passions of youth so that they can be used to help form their faith, rather than serve as a detriment to faith building.

Dean, Kenda Creasy, Practicing Passion: Youth And The Quest For A Passionate Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004.

A Review of: Practicing Passion - Part 1

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.

Dean, Kenda Creasy, Practicing Passion: Youth And The Quest For A Passionate Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004.