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Assignments
for this course take the form of written summaries,
research, and analysis. They are designed to help us
work through the course objectives, while keeping a
focus on our spiritural growth through conceptual
learning.
For each assignment, please develop a document and
submit it to me in either Microsoft Word, RTF (rich
text format), or HTML format (your word processing
software should permit you to do a "save as"
and choose either of those formats).
For each assignment, please be sure to that your
responses indicate that you have read and carefully
considered the resource material, as assigned.
Assignment
1
"Outside
The House"
You are the recently hired Youth Pastor for a medium
sized suburban church. The church is part of a major
denomination and has experienced stability, moderate
growth, and a balanced budget for the past several
years. The staff is competent and works together
smoothly.
Yet, as a youth-oriented person, you sense that the
environment has stagnated. Your youth group is made up
of mainly members’ children who attend the
functions, but their primary motivation for being
there seems to be pressure from their parents.
Haunted by the sense that the world is going to ####
right outside your door, you decide to take action.
Your group has been chosen by the national
denomination to make a presentation at an upcoming
youth conference. You inform your youth group that
their topic is going to be “reality,” as in the
reality they live every day, beyond the church and
beyond their parents’ influence and understanding.
The presentation will take the form of a play or
drama, and will be called "Outside The
House." It will consist of scenes, skits, or
speeches in which your youth group members will
express the real world as they see it.
Assignment - Script for "Outside The
House"
Although you will leave the actual scripting and
delivery of "Outside the House" to your
youth group members, you will provide them a set of
general guidelines in the form of a script format.
For this assignment, please develop that script
format. Your format should include overviews of issues
your youth group will consider relevant (very
important). To develop your format, you will need to
"live" in your group members’ worlds, to
the extent that technology will permit.
Spend some time preparing for this assignment by
tuning in to things that are important to young
people. Do your best to see things from their
perspective, and to look at issues as they would.
You may construct your script format any way you
choose, but the key to success is digging behind what
sociologists and observers think young people are all
about, and getting at what young people think young
people are all about.
The following list of questions may act as a map for
you. One way to develop your script format is to
derive answers to the following:
What is most important to me?
What do I know that my parents are not aware that I
know?
What is in my world that my parents couldn’t even
begin to understand?
What pressures do I face on a daily basis?
What are the most important dangers in my life?
To complete this assignment, use the Internet and
online resources to gain a young person’s
perspective of these questions, as well as
youth-oriented issues, including but not limited to:
Suicide
Drugs
Music
Materialism and money
Sex, sexual orientation, and gender
Media
Technology and communication
Format:
Please turn in your format script as a "working
document." That is, instead of developing a
report or review, please create the format for a
script of “Outside The House.” You may use a play,
drama, short skit, or speech format.
These
steps are suggested, but not required:
1.) Develop a general format for the presentation
2.) Determine the approach (ie, question and answer;
drama, etc.)
3.) Develop a list of issues to be considered
4.) Identify and track the most important components
and facts about that issue
5.) Identify the best information resources for that
issue
Note: The priority for this assignment-which will also
continue next week-is to dig into the realities of
where today’s young people live. The idea is to dig
into their world in order to better understand it.
That means visiting the Web sites they visit (if they
still visit Web sites!), paying attention to the
things they pay attention to, and understanding the
pressures and problems they face.
Reaching people is about moving beyond barriers of all
kinds. Getting "outside the house" to see
how real people live is a sorely neglected art in
today’s church. This assignment is an opportunity to
break out of the "church" mold and join
young people on their real turf.
Have fun.
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