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Incarnational Ministry
Why Every Youth Ministry Major Should Read To Kill a Mockingbird
“’First of all,’ he said, ‘if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along better with all kinds of folks. ... ’”
- Exchange between Atticus & Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (30)
One of the prevailing theories in youth ministry today is of “incarnational ministry.” This theory says that all youth pastors need to realize that they are possibly the only Jesus that their youth may ever see and therefore, they must relate to the youth as Jesus would have related to them. In short, the youth workers must be “God with skin on.” To practice effective incarnational ministry, the youth worker not only needs to be able to slip into Jesus’ skin, they must be able to slip into the skin of the youth to which they are ministering. In Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch teaches his daughter, Scout, this very concept. ... As it effectively demonstrates the principle of incarnational ministry, every youth ministry major should be required to read To Kill a Mockingbird.
An important question is whether or not incarnational ministry is a valid form of ministry. ... Doug Fields, in his book, Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry, asks the question “What’s most important to students?
Approximate Word count = 1071
Approximate Pages = 4.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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