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    The God-Hungry Imagination: The Art of Storytelling for Postmodern Yourth Ministry
    Unavailable
    The God-Hungry Imagination: The Art of Storytelling for Postmodern Yourth Ministry
    Unavailable
    The God-Hungry Imagination: The Art of Storytelling for Postmodern Yourth Ministry
    Ebook229 pages3 hours

    The God-Hungry Imagination: The Art of Storytelling for Postmodern Yourth Ministry

    By Sarah Arthur

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    What kind of story is your church telling?

    Ministry experts describe our culture as having "lost its story." Through neglect or rejection, the next generation seems unplugged from the church's core beliefs. For the most part, young people simply do not feel part of the ongoing, communal story. Paradoxically, this has occurred at a time when youth have fully embraced social networks that connect the world in self-obsessed "I" narratives.

    This world is starving for a story bigger than what you find on Facebook and YouTube.

    Sarah Arthur emphasizes the importance of story, an intrinsic aspect of the Christian faith but an aspect that is often overlooked in ministry, especially youth ministry.

    Arthur shows how youth ministry can be planned as a transforming series of story moments instead of programming. She weaves together her personal experiences and insights along with the sociological work on the faith of teenagers from the book Soul Searching by Christian Smith and Melinda Denton.

    Repeatedly and unapologetically, Arthur stresses the importance of a distinct Christian language for teenagers. If teens can't speak the Christian language, they don't know the Christian story. If they don't know the Christian story, they don't know how Christians are supposed to live.

    So what's her solution to this narrative deficiency? The idea of youth ministers as bards, or storytellers. Arthur reminds youth ministers that their primary task is to tell the Christian story, to reclaim the imagination as part of spiritual formation, and to reclaim the church as God's ongoing story.

    This book would be insightful for all ministers, not only those who work with youth. It can help us make a significant shift in the way we think about and approach ministry in the postmodern world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUpper Room Books
    Release dateOct 1, 2007
    ISBN9780835812108
    Unavailable
    The God-Hungry Imagination: The Art of Storytelling for Postmodern Yourth Ministry
    Author

    Sarah Arthur

    Sarah Arthur is a fun-loving speaker and the author of numerous devotionals and other resources on the intersection of faith and great stories. A graduate of Wheaton College and Duke University Divinity School, Sarah has spoken at such events as the Princeton Forums on Youth Ministry and National Youth Workers Convention on the role of stories and imagination in spiritual formation, based on her Upper Room book "The God-Hungry Imagination: The Art of Storytelling for Postmodern Youth Ministry." A full-time and volunteer youth worker in the United Methodist Church for over fifteen years, her first book was the best-selling youth devotional, "Walking with Frodo: A Devotional Journey through The Lord of the Rings," followed by the award-winning "Walking with Bilbo: A Devotional Adventure through The Hobbit" (both with Tyndale House Publishers). She lives in Lansing, Michigan, with her busy toddler, Micah John, and her husband, Tom, pastor of Sycamore Creek United Methodist Church. Sarah blogs at www.saraharthur.com.

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