I'm a pastor.
I haven't always embraced this title,
but I'm doing so now.
How did I become a pastor? It has a lot
to do with Bob Clayton and Carman Ruggeri. Bob was the Senior pastor
and Carman was the youth pastor at Mountain Christian Center in
Oakhurst- the church where I grew up. Bob and Carman literally called
me into ministry. I'm sure God was also involved, but as I look back
to those adolescent days, I remember these men speaking words of
affirmation and encouragement to me as the catalyst for why I'm in
ministry today.
Calling young people into ministry is
why I'm excited to have been a part of the writing of Consuming
Youth. The message of the book is my story. I do what I do because of
people like Bob and Carman. In the same way this book challenges
adults to take the same interest and oversight of teenagers today.
Consuming youth offers an alternative reality, a different story to
inhabit; one that calls youth and adults to consider their identity
as vocation and calling first.
One reader of Consuming Youth
summarized it in this way, “Culture tells youth to find identity
through consuming; the Church should tell youth to find identity
through their calling.”
Unfortunately, as we know, this isn't
often the case. Culture defines youth as:
- Consumers- value comes through what is owned or possessed.
- Self-absorbed- the message that teenagers only care about themselves to the exclusion of others
- Rebellious- that they are walking bundles of out of control hormones at war with adults
- Only peer-oriented- no room or desire for adult interaction
Consuming Youth offers a different
narrative. One that challenges youth and youth leaders to create
communities that represent:
- Called- with a unique purpose
- Others oriented- youth can come alive through service
- Resourced- that there are caring adults available to walk alongside these teenagers.
- Community – part of a larger story.
The feedback we've received since the
December 2010 release has been very interesting. This book is
striking a cord with a wide variety of people in a wide variety of
life stages. Older adults are rediscovering the power of vocation and
are finding themselves reenergized to spend the rest of their lives
pursuign God's vocation for their lives. Youth leaders are investing
themselves in ministry that takes seriously the need for a different
narrative to live by, one that moves us beyond the dominant message.
One of my favorite stories from the
book is about a youth pastor friend of mine who was responding to a
program I was involved in that sought to implement the values spelled
out in the book. When the high school students returned to his youth
group, he told me they were “ruined for normal.” They were no
longer able to fully participate in North American teenage consumer
culture because they had been touched and transformed by the power of
vocation and call.
I thought of Pastors Bob and Carman as
I listened to my youth pastor friend, and all I could do was smile.
