3.2. Dean Borgman - Contextual youth ministry
Dean Borgman, youth ministry professor at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, was to America what Pete Ward was to the UK during the 1990s. His take on the incarnational approach influenced a wide range of youth ministry. He summarises his view in this way,
As leaders committed to youth ministry, we may read the command of our Lord in this way: “You are receiving power from the Holy Spirit to be witnesses of me in all the youth cultures of the world”’ (Borgman, 1998:9).
Borgman’s main emphasis is that the youth minster needs to contextually enter into the subcultures of young people in the same way a missionary would a foreign culture (1998:10-11, 15-16).
3.2.1. Entering into youth culture
For Borgman, the incarnational model follows the example of Jesus leaving behind ‘heavenly status and security to enter human life and a …show more content…
It is never enough to study young people; we must live among them and feel the pulse of their lives, the beat of their hearts (Borgman, 1997:30).
Borgman interprets the great commission as the sending of workers into ‘the cultures of the world’ (1998:15; 1997:31) as translations or incarnations of Christ (32) . In the vein of Leslie Newbigin (1989), local mission requires the gospel to be translated contextually into culture in the same way it has been in international mission (Kandiah, 2010:44).
Borgman has a strong emphasis on cultural immersion, believing it is on this ground that the gospel can be best understood. Linhart, in contrast, notices it was exactly the opposite – taking young people out of their culture on short term missions – that best drew them into God’s presence. This allowed them an ‘existential alertness [which] enabled them to identify the consumeristic influences of their home culture’ (2006:452). This, in Linhart’s view, was actually the linchpin ‘necessary for growth’
Dean Borgman, youth ministry professor at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, was to America what Pete Ward was to the UK during the 1990s. His take on the incarnational approach influenced a wide range of youth ministry. He summarises his view in this way,
As leaders committed to youth ministry, we may read the command of our Lord in this way: “You are receiving power from the Holy Spirit to be witnesses of me in all the youth cultures of the world”’ (Borgman, 1998:9).
Borgman’s main emphasis is that the youth minster needs to contextually enter into the subcultures of young people in the same way a missionary would a foreign culture (1998:10-11, 15-16).
3.2.1. Entering into youth culture
For Borgman, the incarnational model follows the example of Jesus leaving behind ‘heavenly status and security to enter human life and a …show more content…
It is never enough to study young people; we must live among them and feel the pulse of their lives, the beat of their hearts (Borgman, 1997:30).
Borgman interprets the great commission as the sending of workers into ‘the cultures of the world’ (1998:15; 1997:31) as translations or incarnations of Christ (32) . In the vein of Leslie Newbigin (1989), local mission requires the gospel to be translated contextually into culture in the same way it has been in international mission (Kandiah, 2010:44).
Borgman has a strong emphasis on cultural immersion, believing it is on this ground that the gospel can be best understood. Linhart, in contrast, notices it was exactly the opposite – taking young people out of their culture on short term missions – that best drew them into God’s presence. This allowed them an ‘existential alertness [which] enabled them to identify the consumeristic influences of their home culture’ (2006:452). This, in Linhart’s view, was actually the linchpin ‘necessary for growth’