In Christian youth work the majority of reflection, training, books, festivals and investment is in youth ministry with church-based groups and outreach that will disciple and grow those groups. Of course, those are incredibly important and valuable, but there are thousands of young people who will never be reached by those approaches. They are beyond the edges of the maps in the land of dragons. Richard and Lorimer Passmore’s strategy for youth work is to sail off the edge of the map and develop youth work and mission in the land of dragons with and among those young people - what they call ‘symbiotic’ youth work. They fuse the best of detached youth work with missiology and insights from the emerging church, to come up with a very creative way of working in mission with young people.
This book is not the latest fad or new idea, though it is very creative - it’s like a mature wine. It is born out of around 25 years of experience and practice, from early days of detached, and what then was called relational youth work, through to the rapidly burgeoning network of missional Streetspace projects that Richard, Lorimer and Frontier Youth Trust have catalysed in the last few years.
The book is in four sections and in some ways you could begin anywhere rather than taking the linear way through. The first explores the theology and missiology underpinning the approach; the second develops tools and resources for the journey; the third section, which unpacks a model of nine stages of working, is extremely practical and develops and expands Richard’s earlier books; the final section joins up with the wider scene of youth work, focusing on things like structures and measurement of impact.
I train pioneers in mission, who similarly are in the land of dragons, but not just with young people. One of the things they say is that the course gives them the language and tools to make sense of what they are doing.
Here Be Dragons is doing the same - finding language and tools to help people make sense of the mission, theology and practice beyond the known maps. The theory underpinning this book draws on contextual mission, anthropology, theology, youth work practice and even biology! It gets a little dense in places but is laced with stories and examples. The imaginative re-theologising with young people is particularly challenging and inspiring. Here Be Dragons is an invitation to youth ministers to sail off the edge of the known world of youth ministry. I hope many will have the courage to rise to the challenge. If you do, connect with Streetspace, which is fast becoming one of the most exciting missional youth work networks in Britain.
Published by Porterhouse.
