From the Ground Up: Rethinking Biblical Engagement in Urban Youth Ministry
For many churches, one of the primary challenges with which they grapple is how to effectively engage young people in the study of the Bible as a means of passing on Christian faith to the next generation. Despite the myriad versions of the Bible now available and the multiple ways in which the Bible and biblical studies can also be accessed through new media technologies, the millennial generation remains among those least likely to engage with scripture.1 All too often, however, the difficulties related to engaging young people in the study of the Bible are viewed through a monolithic lens, without considering the unique factors that contribute to the disconnect among particular youth constituencies. This brief essay explores some specific challenges and opportunities that accompany the study of the Bible within an urban youth context. In particular, it argues for rethinking biblical engagement in urban youth ministry and suggests three ways in which practitioners can attend more deliberately to the nuanced dynamics taking place in these contexts when teaching scripture.
In general, one of the most common complaints given by young people as to why they do not read the Bible more regularly is that the Bible seems disconnected to their life experiences. When young people make such claims, their statements attest, not so much the irrelevance of the Bible to their lives, but rather, as Charles Foster notes, the irrelevance of our teaching from the Bible to their lives.2 Simply put, biblical study with young people in many churches leaves much to be desired. Specifically, current approaches place far too much distance between the scriptures and the lived realities of youth. For urban young people, in particular, this frequently means a failure to teach the bible in a way that considers how specific social and political realities that are shaping the consciousness of urban youth can be a rich resource for reflection on biblical texts. At its core, the current disconnect begs a fundamental inquiry: How can church begin to rethink biblical engagement in a way that mediates the chasm between itself and urban youth? Certainly, consideration of the presence of “the city” in the Bible can be one aspect of this fundamental reorientation to biblical study among urban youth in our churches.
From the Ground Up: Averting Top Down Approaches in Biblical Study
The church should begin to close the gap in urban youth ministry and how the Bible is typically engaged by more actively addressing social justice concerns, both in the Bible and in the context of our youth, when teaching scripture. Directing attention to social justice issues needs to assume primacy in biblical study with youth because, in general, Millennials tend to have a stronger interest in socio-political concerns.3 Moreover, because countless young people living in urban communities have increasingly become visible targets of institutional forms of oppression and violence, practitioners in urban context must become intentional about teaching scripture in ways that address these occurrences and other experiences of disenfranchisement.
Traditionally, however, biblical study in ministry with youth has overlooked this focus and instead has centered on passing on the faith to young people in a top down manner. These approaches normally direct the goal of theological and biblical reflection toward producing certain learning outcomes (e.g., memorizing scripture so as to learn creeds and doctrines). Quite frequently, such a strategy can often lead to viewing biblical engagement as being centered only on conversion to a set of static beliefs. In this instance, however, conversion does not include orienting urban young people to the ideals of social justice as a constitutive dimension of Christian faith. Consequently, these approaches to biblical engagement seldom affirm the social and political consciousness and sense of moral responsiblity that is framing the narratives around which so many urban youth live their lives, and which are also present in the biblical narratives, if we look carefully enough.
Instead, rethinking biblical engagement in urban youth ministry calls for an alternative paradigm that seeks to understand how God’s Word also finds expression among those whose marginal standing in the world often locates them at “the bottom” of society, including urban youth. Such an orientation must begin biblical engagement by paying attention to what is taking place both in “the city in the Bible” and on the ground, that is, in the particular lived situations of urban youth today. Their lives should be a primary site from which biblical and theological reflection emerges. Embracing such a disposition ultimately subverts the notion so prevalent in teaching the Bible with youth, that the perspectives most important to highlight are those of the elite. Instead, this strategy affirms urban youth as those whose lives also unveil incarnational realities in the world.
Hip Hop as Habitus in Urban Youth Ministry and Biblical Study
Engaging scripture from more grounded perspectives also signals the need for practitioners to tap into urban youths’ natural sensibilities and proclivities when teaching scripture. This requires youth leaders to become more acutely attuned to the specific habitus that is shaping the attitudes of urban youths, their dispositions and responses to Christian faith generally, including as it relates to the Bible more specifically. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu describes “habitus” as socialized norms or tendencies that can guide behavior and thinking.4 For Bourdieu, a habitus forms a community of practice that orients persons towards a certain way of life and shapes how they make meaning in life. For many urban youth, popular cultural forms such as hip-hop serve such a role. Hip-hop culture first emerged during the 1970s out of the post-segregation and post civil-rights generational consciousness of poor African American And Afro-Caribbean young people in New York City. They sought to confront certain oppressive social-political realities they were encountering within urban life.
Not unlike their predecessors before them, these youth utilized the arts as a vehicle of social protest and created a new cultural network that would become known as a distinct hip-hop cultural form. Though hip hop emerged in the communities of urban youth, its reach now extends beyond these contexts to a broad segment of the world’s populations that is not only drawn to its revolutionary ideals but also identifies with the sense of disenfranchisement expressed by urban young people. Moreover, hip-hop continues to assume salience in the lives of urban youth because it has also become paramount to how they engage the quest for religious meaning.
As various studies now indicate, Millennials have become less engaged in institutional forms of religious life and in organized Christian practices as a whole. Instead, young people now participate in more marginal forms of religious life being mediated through cultural forms such as hip hop, both as a way of recreating sacred spaces and seeking out meaning in life.5 Such a reality animates the need for urban youth ministers to consider how the lived cultural expressions embodied in the symbols, rituals and everyday practices of hip hip hop can serve as a pedagogical resource in studying the Bible with urban youth.
Funding for Urban Youth Ministry: Bible Study and Financial Priorities in the Church
In addition to the need for greater attention to the cultural habitus of urban youth, another dynamic that warrants attention in the productive engagement of youth people with biblical study relates to the level of priority the church gives to young people. While Millennials continue to serve as those who are driving industry trends in the global economy, they continue to occupy a position of marginality in the church, especially in urban churches. No clearer indicator exists of the secondary status assigned to young people in the urban context than in the way churches appropriate funding for ministry to youth.
Consider, for example, that while urban youth workers often struggle to find resources to sustain ministry at reasonable levels, in many instances their suburban counterparts are assigned some form of budget to do ministry. Therefore, being an urban youth minister often means assuming multiple roles, including being a counselor, a recreational director, a teacher and a fundraiser. Many urban youth, because their communities are frequently characterized by inadequate access to resources, often turn to their churches and, by extension, church youth ministries, to meet a variety of needs. Yet, urban youth ministers are also more likely to work as volunteers, receiving little or no compensation for their efforts. Ultimately, lack of funding in urban youth ministry contexts seriously impacts how biblical engagement unfolds in these settings. When at least a modicum of funding is lacking for urban practitioners to do their best work, including in the form of providing schooling and training opportunities, financing ministry programs and/or compensating leaders, the result is that biblical engagement can become a secondary, if not sedentary, priority when the competing demands and expectations placed on youth leaders means ultimately, doing other things first. Thus, the opportunity for youth to study “the city in the Bible” and “the Bible in the City” in ways that ignite meaningful and faithful service to their world falls short, which takes away from the gift of the Bible to our youth and, potentially, of our youth to urban society and beyond.
Notes
1. The State of the Bible Report 2014.
2. See Charles R. Foster, Educating Congregations: The Future of Christian Education (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994).
3. Helen Fox, Their Highest Vocation: Social Justice and the Millennial Generation (New York: Peter Lang, 2012). “Millennials” generally refers to young people born from the early 1980s to the early 2000’s.
4. Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of A Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).
5. Monica Miller, Hip Hop and Religion (New York: Routledge, 2013).
