Jeffrey Keuss - Blur: A New Paradigm for Understanding Youth Culture

PRAISE FOR BLUR

Think of Blur as a conversation about ministering to youth with one of the most intelligent, experienced, and compassionate people you know. Dont expect programmed, easy answers. Keuss offers a view of ministry that helps teens move toward the very heartbreaking reality of who we arewere called to a life of direction, release, and ultimate integration with our Creatora poetic integration thats prepared in advance for us to do. This includes meeting teens at the wells in their lives, walking beside them on their journeys, and offering glimpses of a life that looks more like a narrative quest than a how-to book. This book challenged my assumptions, fired my imagination, and confirmed the power of the life poetic.

Maureen McQuerry, author of The Peculiars and Beyond the Door

Wow! Blur is a thoughtful, practical, and compassionate exploration of youth culture and faith from a theologian who has thought deeply about both. Packed with rich insights, this is a must read for anyone trying to faithfully understand and love the younger generation.

Dick Staub, author of The Culturally-Savvy Christian and founder of The Kindlings Muse podcast

I deeply appreciate the work that Jeff Keuss has done, both as a father of two teens and as a youth worker for the last twenty-five years. While there is much to be said about the impact of culture and new media on todays young people, Blur reminds us that relationships centered on the incarnational, redemptive, and missional power of Gods story can still change young peoples lives.

Brian Muchmore, executive director, Youth for Christ

Conversant in the most recent trends in youth ministry, plus everything from Bonhoeffer to Bjrk, Jeff Keuss has greatly added to the canon of scholarship in youth ministry with Blur. Keusss concept of sacredly mobile youth puts a name on what many of us have been observing in recent years. This book is destined to be a conversation piece in youth ministry studies for years to come.

Tony Jones, distinguished lecturer in the practice of theology at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and author of Postmodern Youth Ministry

ZONDERVAN

Blur

Copyright 2014 by Jeff F. Keuss

YS Youth Specialties is a trademark of YOUTHWORKS!, INCORPORATED and is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

ePub Edition December 2013: ISBN 978-0-310-51485-5

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Keuss, Jeffrey F., 1965

Blur : a new paradigm for understanding youth culture / Jeff Keuss.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-310-51484-8 (softcover) ISBN 978-0-310-51485-5 (ebook)

1. Church work with youth. 2. Youth. I. Title.

BV4447.K48 2013

259'.23dc23

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

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.

Cover design: LUCAS Art & Design

Cover photography: Masterfile

Interior design: David Conn

Printed in the United States of America

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 /DCI/ 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

I m a theologian who is deeply concerned about young people. In my work as a youth director and pastor of churches both in the United States and the United Kingdom over the past twenty years, Ive been blessed to have many encounters with youth. Throughout these pages Ill reference some studies on youth faith development as well as some of my own experiences. It is my hope that this book will help you better understand the young people youve either encountered or will encounter in the future.

Let me begin by introducing you to two young men Ive had the opportunity to serve: Ill call them William 1.0 and William 2.0. They represent much of the promise I hope youll see as you open your eyes to the many ways God is working and moving in todays young people.

Recently, I was having coffee with a young man in my church, William 2.0, and our time together evoked one of these sanctified dj vu moments, if you will. The moment reverberated with so many encounters of people around watering holes: those places where we find people seeking to quench their thirst and find companionship. Meetings at watering holes are big in Scripture. We see this in the accounts of Abrahams servant finding Rebekah, the future wife of Isaac, at the well of Nahor (Gen. 24:10-61); Jacob meeting Rachel at the well in Harran (Gen. 29:1-20); and Moses receiving Zipporah as his wife after he rescued the seven daughters of Reuel at the well in Midian (Ex. 2:16-22).

Wells in youth ministry can be many things: events that open up young people to hearing the gospel in new and transformative ways; a particular book, movie, or song that grabs a teenagers attention and leads him to ask deeper and more sustaining questions that will propel him into the arms of Christ; and relationships forged with mentors and communities that help youth see their identities in the Holy Spirit who has been working on their behalf before they were even born.

To locate the well of a young person is to find that its a combination of things not easily discernedthings that seem to draw together at particular moments. Picture tide pools on the shoreline that are separate and distinct at low tide, but at full tide they become a large pool in which one can swim betwixt and between, making the connection in movement and purpose. Like the wells of the Bible where people meet and find new meaning, the wells of young people arent merely places, people, or cultural products such as a books or songs. Instead, they can be one thing and a collection of things all at the same time, depending on whats occurring in the journey of the young persons faith. This well where I met William 2.0 represents such a time. His was a deep well, one that went far below the surface andas with quite a bit of youth ministryrequired work to draw out what was in there.

I met with William 2.0 as part of a confirmation class requirement that all young people in our church must complete if they wish to become members of the church. Many of our youth look forward to this class as an opportunity to dig deeper into Christian tradition, read Christian Scripture, and be mentored by an adult in the congregation. I was partnered with William 2.0 with the intention that we would meet regularly, build a theological friendship of sorts, and pray together throughout the six-month class.

At this particular meeting, we sat across from each other with our respective drinks in hand, and he continually prodded his cell phone as it lay on the table, as if to check its pulse. I began the conversation with the seemingly benign question, So... how are things with your soul?

William 2.0 is an introverted young man who has grown up in the church. His family loves him dearly, supports his extracurricular interests, and gives him autonomy while also providing good boundaries. When I asked about friends, he didnt have many to speak of other than classmates he saw only at school. As an honors student, hes never struggled with school, yet hes indifferent to it. Hes interested in comic books and video gamesnot obsessively, but theyre important to him. William 2.0s world includes the church but is in no way bounded by it. Hes a reader of sci-fi novels and has watched all of the Star Wars films. (We both dislike the later additions to the series, and our distain for the character Jar Jar Binks was a moment of connection, to be sure.) These fictional universes have given him the metanarrative for his life: honor, courage, adventure, and the quest for something more.