Youth ministries in an urban context are too often left to their own devices.
The resources available to them are overwhelmingly conceived, tested and
produced exclusively in the suburbs, and bring little to bear on the realities of
urban youth culture. As a consequence, youth ministries in large cities have
tended to settle onto one of three paths--a traditional paradigm that
jealously guards the spiritual formation of its young people, a liberal
paradigm that concentrates exclusively on personal growth, and an activist
paradigm that galvanizes youth around the social concerns surrounding
them. While each of these emphases is important, too often they are
pursued to the neglect of the others, and the urban church suffers.
Fernando Arzola Jr. proposes a fourth way, a prophetic paradigm that
integrates the three and cultivates young people who are spiritually rooted,
emotionally mature and responsive to the needs of their community. In this
pace-setting book he draws on various disciplines--from biology to
sociology, from psychology to theology--to guide urban youth workers into
an effective and transformational ministry to youth.
