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Published on: 6/19/2008
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Home Articles Reviews Review: A New Kind of Youth Ministry by Chris Folmsbee
Review: A New Kind of Youth Ministry by Chris Folmsbee
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By Matt Cleaver Youth ministry veteran Chris Folmsbee, CMO (Chief Ministry Officer) of YouthFront and President of Sonlife, is convinced that youth ministry is in need of drastic change.The word he uses to describe the change he seeks is reculturing.Reculturing is not a once-a-year evaluation and recommendation process, but is "an ever-developing ethos of change that will allow us to effectively navigate the fluidity of our ministry contexts."A youth ministry that has been recultured will seek to be constantly on the leading edges of what is happening within the ministry and make proper changes.Folmsbee has firsthand experience of the joys and trials of leading a youth ministry through such a reculturing process: it once cost him a job at a church he loved.
In the book, Folmsbee has different chapters that correspond to different ministry emphases: evangelism, discipleship, student leadership, and education, to name a few.In the chapters, he describes what it might mean to go from the current way of doing things to a recultured approach.For example, the "service and outreach" chapter is subtitled, "From Meeting Others' Needs to Living Amidst Their Need" and provides principles for positioning a youth ministry to take such an approach.
Folmsbee sets his sights on reculturing youth ministers and their jobs as well. {quotes}Not only do our ministries need to be rethought, so do the way youth leaders do their jobs./quotes} Making changes to programs or volunteer staff will only be surface-level changes if youth ministers continue doing their jobs and tending to their lives as they always have.
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Folmsbee calls this biblical, and I agree with him.