Toward a Prophetic Youth Ministry: Theory and PRAXIS in Urban Context - Paperback

by Fernando Arzola Jr (Author)

Youth ministries in an urban context are too often left to their own devices.The resources available to them are overwhelmingly conceived, tested andproduced exclusively in the suburbs, and bring little to bear on the realities ofurban youth culture. As a consequence, youth ministries in large cities havetended to settle onto one of three paths--a traditional paradigm thatjealously guards the spiritual formation of its young people, a liberalparadigm that concentrates exclusively on personalgrowth, and an activistparadigm that galvanizes youth around the social concerns surroundingthem. While each of these emphases is important, too often they arepursued to the neglect of the others, and the urban church suffers.Fernando Arzola Jr. proposes a fourth way, a prophetic paradigm thatintegrates the three and cultivates young people who are spiritually rooted, emotionally mature and responsive to the needs of their community. In thispace-setting book he draws on various disciplines--frombiology tosociology, from psychology to theology--to guide urban youth workers intoan effective and transformational ministry to youth.

Author Biography

Fernando Arzola Jr. is deputy chair for the Department of Youth Ministry and Christian Education at Nyack College in New York City. He also serves on the board of the Association of Youth Ministry Educators (AYME), and is founderand executive director of the Urban Family Empowerment Center in the Bronx.