When God Shows Up: A History of Protestant Youth Ministry in America. By Mark H. Senter III. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010. xvi + 363 pp. $26.99 paper.

摘要

When God Shows Up is part history of how Protestants have interacted withn“youth” in the United States and part theology of how they should structurensuch interactions. Mark Senter, chair of the Educational MinistriesnDepartment at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, presents his readers withna survey of a variety of movements and initiatives that Protestants have tried,nattempting to situate these youth ministries in larger historical and culturalncontexts. He argues that youth ministries go through fifty-year cycles of risenand decline and that four such cycles occurred from the antebellum periodnthrough the late twentieth century. Senter uses two hooks—depictions ofnyouth in popular culture and the metaphor of “jazz”—not only to help hisnreaders understand the historical situations Protestants and their childrennwere in but also to help explain how youth ministries function. Through thenmetaphor of “jazz,” Senter suggests that Protestant youth have oftennimprovised their styles of ministry instead of intentionally establishingnspecific programs. Just as jazz has been modified with the times and gonenthrough distinct phases, so too, he argues, can we see similar occurrences innyouth ministry.