If you will be in Malibu for the Bible Lectures I want to invite you to the two classes Eric Brown and I will be teaching on “Where are all the 20s & 30s?: Practical Ministry to a Missing Generation.” In my opinion it doesn’t get any more relevant than that, otherwise we would teach on something else! Whenever you are teaching at something like this the natural tendency is to look at the program and see who else is teaching at the same time to see who people will be picking between. Since our lineup of “competition” includes: Jim Martin, Rick Atchley, Joe Beam, Earl Lavender, Phil Ware, Keith Lancaster, Mark Parker, Tim Spivey and Tom Olbricht I figured I better do a preemptive blog strike in order to get the word out on where to do just so you don’t get confused and go to one of those other phenomenal communicators. You know you have already heard all those guys before, right?
So what are we going to be talking about? We are going to spend the first session talking shop on who these 20s & 30s are, their worldview, why the are missing/why we aren’t reaching them, and the reason for the generation gap. I really believe Eric and I have made some credible connections in this material that no one else is making. The second session will be crazy practical covering hands on steps that congregations can take to minister to this group as effectively as possible. This comes from our own ministry to this age. We are still working through a few things but we will share what we have done, why, what has worked, what hasn’t, why, and how to really reach out to this group to meet them where they are rather than just tweaking a few things in order to be more appealing to them. There are many underlying issues to understand (session 1) before you can understand what is meaningful to them and how to go about doing it in a way that reaches them, that is glorifying to God and respectful of scripture (session 2).
Now, we aren’t shooting in the dark here or just reciting things we have heard other people say. We figure anyone coming to this class has read some of the same books we have. This will be fresh, informative and practical. We will also have plenty of handouts for the material and resources we won’t have time to mention. So if you are going to the lectures feel free to stop in. If I don’t see you in the class, I hope to catch you out there!
Session 1 – Thursday at 8:30am (AC 263)
Session 2 – Friday at 8:30 (AC 263)
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Sounds great! I’m looking forward to it!
One problem might be that The Jesus who is all powerful and can do anything that we learned to love in our childhood is not the same one introduced to us again in our twenties and thirties. he has not changed , yet we can not seem to represent him to older intellectuals in the same gushing way without feeling silly.
Wish I was going to be there. I suppose I can get a DVD. Have to get me a link.
Wish you could be there too! Are you going to any lectureships in 2011?