Lesson 7 - Special Topics

Question 1

What are the dangers encountered in youth ministry?

Answer 1

1. ) Focusing only on fun and entertainment

2. ) Severed youth ministry from both their nuclear family and church family

Question 2

How do you avoid these pitfalls of youth ministry?

Answer 2

1. ) Ratchet down gimmicks
2. ) Focus on the means of grace - cultivating a life of prayer, word, and church
3. ) Tests of faithfulness - starting with the youth leader
4. ) Familial dimensions - connect the youth with their church family and nuclear family
5. ) Goal should be maturity, not entertainment

Question 3

What does the “juvenalization of American Christianity” mean?

Answer 3

• Juvenilization is the process by which religious beliefs, practices, and developmental characteristics of adolescents became accepted as appropriate for adults

Transformation of American adulthood

• • Old concepts : responsibility, self-denial, service to others
• • New Concepts: needs and wants expand, obligations and responsilbities and attachments contract

Question 4

What is meant by the term Christian-ish?

Answer 4

“Good people go to heaven when they die”

– People don’t know what they believe or why they believe it, but know enough about the religion to speak about it

Question 5

Who is Horace Mann and what was his impact on public education?

Answer 5

Horace Mann - early advocate of common schools

• • Public school should pay for, sustain, and oversee such education
• • Concentration on three r’s: reading, writing, arithmetic
• • local contral expanded to regional control

Question 6

Who is John Dewey and what was his impact on public education?

Answer 6

John Dewey - champion of the public school movement

• • The central concept in his philosophy was experience
• -Education was useful for only solving problems

Question 7

What are the reactions that Christian parents have had to public education?

Answer 7

1. ) Christian Schools
2. ) Classical Schools
3. ) Homeschooling

Question 8

What are the solutions that Christian parents have had to public education?

Answer 8

1. ) Parents should stay involved in the educational process
2. ) All schools are local schools - get to know them
3. ) Know the School, Know the teachers, know the child’s needs

Question 9

Do small groups fulfill the fellowship mandate?

Answer 9

No, they can help with it, but can’t completely fulfill it

• • Unintended consequences of small group
    1. ) Overemphasis on scripture being used to make life better or easier
    2. ) Tendency to use groups as a support system in which to sustain or benefit self
    3. ) People want community, but not one that’s binding
    4. ) Small groups become self-help tools that support individual agendas
    5. ) Easy in and easy out

Question 10

Explain the calling and duties of an elder?

Answer 10

Calling
1.) Shepherd the Flock (1 Peter 5:1-5)

Duties

1. ) Guard the flock
2. ) Check the spiritual pulse of the flock