Subscribe to the NetworkAn Admitted Bias…
I come from the perspective that there are very few “neutral observers” in the world, thatscientists, futurists, cultural observers and the like almost always approach their craft with a built-in bias; they begin the process with something to prove. Therefore, there exists a tendency to pay more attention to evidence that supports your bias than to evidence that seems to be contrary to what you hope to prove, discover or observe in action. All of us could make a good sized list where this is obviously happening (creation vs. evolution, global warming, the economy, foreign policy etc.).
And, it’s happening in youth ministry. The conversation about the current state and future of youth ministry is such an important one. So important, in fact that I wonder if we do the conversation harm when we ignore the fact that much of our observation of youth ministry, how we interpret the history of youth ministry, what we think of the current state of youth ministry and where we think it is or should be headed in the future is clouded by a host of outside influences. Our theology, our own personal youth group experiences when we were teenagers, our lack of youth group experiences when we were teenagers, how we have been treated by church leadership, how our parents modeled or didn’t model healthy faith, the size of our church, the pressure we feel or don’t feel to ‘perform’…..all of these and a massive host of other things totally influence us and shape our youth ministry perspective and, In my opinnion, create a bias in one direction or another.
So let’s keep talking! But let’s do so recognizing a couple things:
1) Youth ministry is more ‘art’ than ‘science’. There really is no singular formula for success. Trying to put God in any box, be that the box of a formulaic approach or the box that he can’t work within such formulaic approaches doesn’t make sense.
2) We are all biased to an extent (based on those outside factors I mentioned), and those biases keep us from truly being neutral in the discussion.
I know some of my biases…I know from what perspective I enter the discussion:
- I think the state of youth ministry is, at it’s core, okay. I don’t believe it is broken (although parts of it are) or in need of a complete overhaul.
- I believe God is at work any time caring adults choose to enter the lives of students and that this isn’t automatically helped or hurt by the size of the church, the strategy of the youth ministry etc.
You don’t need to admit your biases in the comments (although you are welcome to do so), but I do encourage you to identify them so you can more honestly enter the discussion.
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Kurt,
Great insights on Admitted Bias. As a social scientist by training and working with graduate students we discuss this constantly. It is not just Christian that are biased, most everyone is, even many dedicated natural and social scientists. As an evangelical, I find some interesting bias among two groups I watch. Many fundamentalists think the church and the world are going to hell in a hand-basket and we need to get serious. Some reformed folks have this tendency/bias as well. Interestingly, the larger group these days is the anti-fundamentalist group. These folks are very biased against the fundamentalist. I was talking with Erwin McManus a couple of years ago and he commented on how many youth pastors he meets who are very committed to drinking and smoking. I wonder if this is an interesting bias of both groups both of whom are strongly for and against lifestyle issues. I hope we can all be a little more insightful and a little less biased. Thanks for raising the issue.
Rick Mann
President
Crown College
Kurt you’re a deep thinker! This concept escapes even the ‘open minded’ unbiased people who claim others are closed minded for not agreeing with them.