Teaching Outside the Box - Chapter 4. The Liberation Approach

This book is more than just a "How To . . ." kind of book. There are two main characters in the book. Jeremy is a local church youth pastor who is struggling to see any growth in his ministry. The youth come along, mostly, but they have become disinterested and disconnected. Jeremy knows this, and is trying to work out what to do but is at a roadblock.

Seymour is retired and in an aged care home. But in his younger days, Seymour had been a youth worker himself and had written a book on various approaches to teaching.

These two have no reason to meet, and wouldn't have, except for Jeremy's senior pastor who knew them both and created the meeting. Jeremy didn't arrive at Seymour's place with any enthusiasm, and while he enjoyed the first chapter of Seymour's book, he would have been pleased if that was the end of it and he didn't need to meet with Seymour again.

By the time we get to chapter four however, the relationship between these two men has deepened and Jeremy is beginning to learn some great things from this old man. (There's a lesson for youth workers here - the old guys know stuff you don't. Ask and listen.)

This fourth chapter is possibly the one chapter that would really make many evangelical pastors nervous. There's some good reasons for this, but let's actually read what Zirschky is saying before flying into a rage.

The teaching part of the chapter opens with the words of Jesus when he said:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.” Luke 4:18-19

Zirschky then clarifies that the goal of the liberation approach is to bring awareness and consciousness of features of our social systems that are contrary to God's ideals (p104). As Christians in first world countries, we can become very concerned about the places in the world where Christians are persecuted. This is surely right. But we can be completely complacent about the people in our neighbourhoods who are starving and cold. This is wonderfully - and confrontingly - illustrated in Yancey's book 'What's So Amazing About Grace' where he describes the hidden hypocrisy of his childhood church. This was a church that would raise funds to support work in Africa to provide food and water to africans, while at the same time men would have baseball bats in their cars in case black african-americans tried to come into their church. (That's how I remember the story anyway.)

Many of our youth ministries work to protect our young people from some of the problems of the world around them, and in so doing we are suggesting that these young people couldn't possibly be involved in any solution. Our youth are some of the most creative and passionate people in our communities. Allow them to spread their wings and stretch their faith and you might be astonished at what they do.

Zirschky shows how this approach can challenge two assumptions made by other approaches. First, it critiques youth ministry that is more concerned with personal belief or knowledge than action. Here is where the liberation approach can become uncomfortable in evangelical churches. We always challenge youth about their personal belief, and we do this with good reason. We believe that people are saved by faith alone so what they believe is fundamentally important. However, the liberation approach can add a helpful balance that is, I believe, missing in a number of churches.

Youth ministry that lingers in the youth room must be replaced with learning that invades the world in the form of critically reflective action. p108

Second, it questions the tendency of youth ministry to treat teenagers as objects to be filled with Bible knowledge in order to produce and unquestioned, socialized 'faith'. If all we want is knowledge and an ability to answer the questions in a correct way, then we are really asking our youth to be nothing more than spectators. For sure, some might get a little more involved by becoming teachers and leaders, but what are they teaching? Is it in the end nothing more than a Christian version of "Trivial Pursuit" where you get a token for a correct answer, but it doesn't really change anything? We can do better.

Now, I believe that if the only approach you use in teaching is a Liberation approach, you will end up with a shallow perspective of scripture. You will probably end up with a group of teenagers who are determined to make the world a better place, but I'm not convinced they would fully understand why they are doing this. They might be able to quote some relevant passages of scripture, but miss the fullness of what the Bible is teaching. I have a similar concern about the fifth approach even while appreciating the strengths of the approach.

That being said, why not open the story of the prodigal son with your youth and ask them to consider why the older brother acted like he did; why the younger brother acted like he did in the first place; and what were the cultural norms that were guiding them both. Then look at the people in your own community who seem to be the oppressed and outcast and begin to ask what the kingdom of God might look like in their lives.