Sexist Youth Ministry?
by Josh on August 19, 2008
Next Wednesday will mark the start of a new, seven-week teaching series in our high school ministry. We’ve created it in house, and I’m very excited.
The series is called “Live Like a Monk” and it asks the question “What would it look like if you applied monastic values to the lives of ordinary high school students?” The series was birthed out of my own preoccupation with the monastic life and my own questions about the role of contemplative practices in my life.
We’re going to use the series as a springboard to talk about classical spiritual disciplines and church history (specifically pre-Luther: church fathers, desert fathers, well-known saints), two topics that are almost never addressed in our church or our tradition. The whole thing represents two or so years of thought for me, and, needless to say, it means a lot to me.
That being said, there’s a hole in the idea. I noticed early on, and a good friend pointed it out to me today. The title is totally gender exclusive.
Early on considered calling the series “Live Like a Monk (or a nun!)”, but it just seemed silly. Beyond that, it felt completely marginalizing, let it was telling girls that they were both parenthetical and kind of a punch-line.
The whole thing has me a little shaken up. I don’t think a title change will do much good, but I do think that some of these ideas should be addressed in the content of the series, perhaps by including stories from great female contemplatives of the past.
Any thoughts? Do you think gender exclusion is an issue in this case? What would you do to fix the problem?
Next Wednesday will mark the start of a new, seven-week teaching series in our high school ministry. We’ve created it in house, and I’m very excited.
The series is called “Live Like a Monk” and it asks the question “What would it look like if you applied monastic values to the lives of ordinary high school students?” The series was birthed out of my own preoccupation with the monastic life and my own questions about the role of contemplative practices in my life.
We’re going to use the series as a springboard to talk about classical spiritual disciplines and church history (specifically pre-Luther: church fathers, desert fathers, well-known saints), two topics that are almost never addressed in our church or our tradition. The whole thing represents two or so years of thought for me, and, needless to say, it means a lot to me.
That being said, there’s a hole in the idea. I noticed early on, and a good friend pointed it out to me today. The title is totally gender exclusive.
Early on considered calling the series “Live Like a Monk (or a nun!)”, but it just seemed silly. Beyond that, it felt completely marginalizing, let it was telling girls that they were both parenthetical and kind of a punch-line.
The whole thing has me a little shaken up. I don’t think a title change will do much good, but I do think that some of these ideas should be addressed in the content of the series, perhaps by including stories from great female contemplatives of the past.
Any thoughts? Do you think gender exclusion is an issue in this case? What would you do to fix the problem?
