Jonny Baker on Grief, Newness, and Missional Entrepreneurship

"There is a growing consensus that business as usual in youth ministry won’t do, that things have got somewhat stuck. I actually get rather excited when things get stuck because it tends to generate energy - energy that comes from frustration, from anger, from passion, from grief, from saying enough is enough. When things are ticking along this doesn’t seem to happen in the same way. If we have the courage to lean in to this frustration it can generate energy for change, for newness to come."

A friend put me onto a post from Jonny Baker on Premier Youth Work.  I have followed Jonny Baker's work in the church in the U.K. for about the last 10 years and his stuff is highly innovative and amazingly creative.  In many ways, the church in the U.K. is miles ahead of us in North American in terms of how they are creating.  The post is excellent and it eventually works its way around to social entrepreneurship, or missional entrepreneurship, and youth ministry specifically.  It's pretty cool stuff.  I also really appreciate the notion that it is our frustration and grief that leads us to act beyond the existing frameworks of youth ministry.  The grief that led me forward was the economic downturn and a housing crisis that lead to a creative purchase and a re-model. Oh yeah, and here is the post. Also here is the link to the conference that Jonny Baker helps. That link is here.  Are we frustrated and grieved enough yet to make any changes to the way we are doing ministry with teens inside and outside the church?