“Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students: A Guide for Youth Workers, Pastors, Teacher and Campus Ministers” by Richard R. Dunn

Author Richard R. Dunn of “Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students: A Guide for Youth Workers, Pastors, Teacher and Campus Ministers” offers the following questions for us, as spiritual guides, that we can ask ourselves in preparation for loving well the students under our care. It is suggested we pray that God will speak truth and grace into our lives: (69)

· How effective am I as an empathic listener? In what key areas do my skills need development? Where may my heart need to be changed?
· How does God want to shape or perhaps reshape my prayer life as a pacing-then-leading spiritual caregiver?
· How effective am I as one who leads with the truth? In what key areas do my skills need development? Where may my heart need to be changed?
· How effective am I when I am called upon to confront or to resolve conflict? In what key areas do my skills need development? Where may my heart need to be changed?
· How will I become different if I yield more fully to God’s process of transforming me into a pacing-then-leading spiritual caregiver?
· How do I equip adolescents to live with moral purpose and purity in the midst of a sensate culture? What does pacing and then leading look like in relationship to the moral selves of postmodern adolescents?
· How do I provide an environment for the nurture of adolescent spiritual maturation in the midst of a sensate culture? What will have to change for me to provide spiritual caregiving in view of the adolescents’ generation rather than my own?

“Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students: A Guide for Youth Workers, Pastors, Teacher and Campus Ministers” by Richard R. Dunn

Author Richard R. Dunn speaks to spiritual formation:

· Spiritual growth isn’t a religious answer given in response to the perceived religious problem, instead Dunn shares, “It is a matter of personal transformation. That transformation process, God’s redemptive work with us, has one goal: “to make us more and more like God, or more and more like Christ who is the perfect image of God.” (52)

· “Becoming a “good Christian” is not God’s goal for our adolescents. His goal is nothing less than transforming each student into an increasingly accurate likeness of his Son.” (52)

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed

into his likeness with an ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord,

who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18)

· I like Dunn’s description: “The whole of the goal. Transformation into the likeness of Jesus is a whole-person process.” (52)
· “One common misunderstanding concerning the nature of spiritual transformation is betrayed in the oft-repeated critique “I think her problem is really a spiritual issue.” We must be careful not to over-spiritualize problems.
· And at the same time we must be wary of under-spiritualization. “An underspiritualized approach concludes that all human experiences can be explained in purely physiological or psychological categories.” (53)

· When addressing problems in teens lives as spiritual caregivers we may want to ask the following questions as part of our pacing process: (54)(I modified to encompass both genders)

How does she/he perceive God in her/his life?
How is she/he experiencing God in her/his life?
How is she/he responding to God’s invitation to walk daily with him?
How doe she/he feel about herself/himself?
How secure is she/he in relationship with her/his parents?
What needs are being met by gaining the acceptance of these peers?
What skills does she/he lack when it comes to making good decisions or communicating those decisions to her/his friends?
How does she/he deal with failure?

Richard R. Dunn explains in his book, “Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students”, that youth today are postmodern pilgrims in process:

· “Twenty-first-century postmodern spirituality is….less about where this generation is going and more about what young people have left behind. The worldview and ethos of our Judeo-Christian heritage no longer exert a prevailing influence on the culture within which North American adolescents mature.” (30) He describes that today we create our own designer gods. In an age of pluralism we pull our view of God from many sources, developing a personalized belief system.
· The dilemma is how to share biblical truth to youth. They are confused and seeking, “crying out for genuine spiritual experiences with a living God.” (35) “Jimmy Long echoes the longing for authenticity among Generation X, the generation immediately preceding the millennial generation.” (35)
· “The “been there, done that” millennial generation even more intensely seeks authentic, personally meaningful relationships with God. Nothing less than a real Jesus for a real world will suffice. “ (36)
· “Postmodern adolescents want communion with a God who can do what they cannot do for themselves: provide ultimate love, hope and meaning in a world littered with the residue of religious disillusionment.” (36)
· Dunn sees adolescent spirituality being tremendously affected by popular culture. Media, music, movies, television, videos, fads, cell phones all are dominant forces in shaping spiritual experiences of youth. (I certainly saw this trend from my responses to the questionnaire by high school students.)
· “In postmodernity what one can experience is one’s reality.” (40) “The sensate worldview leads to a “frenzied pursuit of pleasure” as the supreme goal of life.” (40) “The sense of pleasure is their god.” (40)
· This is a nugget of truth we must embrace: “Please help me feel good about myself” is at the core of much adolescent behavior, whether moral or immoral, seemingly godly or ungodly. In a youth culture that markets enticing pseudo-attachments at the speed of light, feeling good is routinely confused with having achieved a good feeling about who I am. Adolescents often lack the personal maturity and life experience to distinguish between the two. Without genuine attachment with Christ and others (real relationship), pseudo-attachments become a way of life in the consuming ethos of North American culture.” (42)
· “Leading postmodern adolescents into growing, intimate relationships with Jesus Christ begins as spiritual caregivers start pacing with the adolescents in their homes, churches and communities. Only intentional pacing relationships will be adequate to build bridges across chasms of disconnection, disorientation and disillusionment. Of all the failings of twentieth-century Christian youth ministry, perhaps the greatest was using programs and techniques to shortcut that need for relational proximity.” (44) (Emphasis mine.)

“Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students: A Guide for Youth Workers, Pastors, Teacher and Campus Ministers” by Richard R. Dunn

Dunn suggests that instead of “telling” youth, we “pace” with youth:

· He describes pacing as a language of love. “Pacing requires me to listen to the heart of an adolescent, seeing beyond words and behaviors.” This will require “time” of leaders, more than just surface conversations. “Pacing builds trust. Trust produces relationship. Relationship conceives spiritual life exchanges. Such exchanges are the sacred places where the Holy Spirit reaches through the life of a Christian spiritual caregiver to change forever the life of a student.” (16)

· He describes the notion that we must overcome the urge to tell. “Telling can be contrasted with pacing in the following ways” (18):

o “Telling enters the relationship with an agenda: communicating what an adolescent should be experiencing, thinking or doing. Pacing’s agenda is to understand what the adolescent is experiencing, thinking, or doing.”
o “Telling emphasizes the teaching and advice-giving abilities of an adult. Pacing emphasizes the listening and care-giving abilities of an adult.”
o “Telling emphasizes the adult’s expertise and knowledge about God’s will for adolescent lives. Pacing emphasizes the adult’s heart for hearing God’s will at work in the life of a particular adolescent.”
o “Telling has as its initial goals the student’s assent to and application of godly advice. Pacing has as its initial goals a student’s authenticity in relationship to God and the adult.”

· He describes Jesus as a pacer. Like Jesus, “Leading requires speaking truth, in love, into another person’s life.” (19) “Jesus not only considered what needed to be said but also how it needed to be heard. Jesus’ model of disciplemaking was simple: listen and learn (pace with), and then lead.” (20)