“Every young person longs to be seen as they truly are. Jeremy Paul Myers has written an honest, compassionate, and reflective work to help us see young people as full human beings and cocreators with God. I highly recommend Liberating Youth from Adolescence to pastors, youth workers, parents, and anyone who truly cares about the lives of young people and the well-being of the church.”
Liberating Youth from Adolescence
Liberating youth through theological reflection on vocation
Jeremy Paul Myers, a seasoned expert in youth and family ministry, calls the church to challenge the dominant societal view of adolescents as “underdeveloped consumers” who can only contribute creatively when they mature into adulthood. Myers argues that young people are innately creative creatures called by God to love and serve right now. We need to see young people as the called cocreators (with God) that they are.
Using current studies, Myers shows how marketing and consumer science target young people with the hope of making them find their identity in buying and using things. This strong cultural emphasis underserves young people and even at times defines their lives as mere commodities.
Myers tells the stories of a number of young people whose lives buck the consumer paradigm and myth of the underdeveloped young person in order to live as the called cocreators God has created them to be.
Each chapter provides a set of ideas that congregations can use to take a closer look at how young people in their midst are or could be invited to be creative contributors to the life of the congregation. Questions for discussion are also provided to encourage discussion and facilitate action.
- Publisher Fortress Press
- Format Paperback
- ISBN 9781506433431
- eBook ISBN 9781506438184
- Dimensions 5.5 x 8.5
- Pages 186
- Publication Date October 1, 2018
Look Inside
Endorsements
An honest, compassionate, and reflective work to help us see young people as full human beings and cocreators with God.
Mark Yaconelli | author of "Contemplative Youth Ministry" and "The Gift of Hard Things"
You’ll be moved to action that I’m confident will change your ministry
“Jeremy Paul Myers has offered us a timely and engaging little book in Liberating Youth from Adolescence. It comes on the heels of other pieces in youth ministry arguing that adolescence is a constant empirical reality across all cultures and times, not an invention of industrial capitalism. Myers offer a competing and, I believe, more helpful construal. Escaping the hidden chains of scientific positivism, Myers offers a prophetic take that all working with young people should consider, study, and engage. In doing so, you’ll be moved to action that I’m confident will change your ministry.”
Andrew Root | author of "Exploding Stars, Dead Dinosaurs, and Zombies"
Jeremy Paul Meyers calls us to reimagine what we should have already known . . . young people were created with meaning and purpose!
“Can you imagine your work with young people taking seriously that they are created in the image of God? Can you imagine your work with young people in such a way that sees them as a vital part of the body of Christ? Can you imagine your work with young people that helps them see themselves as children of God and makes room for their call to be cocreators with God? Jeremy Paul Meyers calls us to reimagine what we should have already known . . . young people were created with meaning and purpose! What they need are guides to assist them in becoming who they already are!”
Reggie Blount | Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
In the noisy marketplace of ideas about young people today, Myers’s voice stands out.
“In the noisy marketplace of ideas about young people today, Myers’s voice stands out. He reminds us how to come alongside young people 'becoming who they already are'—be that ordinary, heroic, idealist, confused, or all of the above at the same time! Through appreciative critique of the developmental theories that shape ministry with young people, Myers opens a way to go about this work that is joy-filled, relationship-rich, and non-anxious. He does so in full acknowledgment of the disparities facing young people as they navigate the multiple, often death-dealing social locations of contemporary life. The result is a liberating manifesto."
Dori Baker | author of "Doing Girlfriend Theology" and "The Barefoot Way"
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The Undeveloped Consumer: Youth in Bondage to the Adolescent
2. Vocation as Liberation from the Undeveloped Consumer
3. Called
4. Child of God
5. Relational
6. Created Co-Creator
7. Conclusion
End Notes
Acknowledgments
Index