Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation

Relational youth ministry, also known as incarnational ministry, can feel like a vicious cycle of guilt: "I should be spending time with kids, but I just don't want to." The burden becomes heavy to bear because it is never over; adolescents alwaysseem to need more relational bonds, and once one group graduates there is a new group of adolescents who need relational contact.It may be that the reason these relationships have become burdensome is that they have become something youth workers d...