Trinitarian Youth Ministry

Place-sharing with Jesus

Christian ministry: our participation in the ongoing ministry of Jesus…

• It’s about who Jesus is and what he is doing• It’s grounded in the love and communion of the

Triune God being shared with all humanity in and through Jesus

• It’s about relationships (where Jesus is found)• It’s our ministry with Jesus, not for Jesus -

(WIJD not WWJD)• It’s Jesus’ ongoing lifestyle, not a mere program• It’s about place-sharing

What is place-sharing?(see handout essay)

• Coined by Dietrich Bonhoeffer• Luther’s “happy exchange”• Speaks to Jesus’ being & doing in

sharing our place• We’re called to participate with

Jesus in his place-sharing with believers and non-believers

Place-sharing is about… “more than influencing adolescents; it is sharing in ‘I-You’ relationships where Christ is present. It is being truly human alongside and for the adolescent, and in so doing calling the adolescent to be human, which is made possible by Jesus, who is incarnate, crucified, and resurrected.” (Andrew Root, Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, p. 123)

Place-sharing: the way of “costly grace”“…Costly because it costs a man his life, and… grace because it gives a man the only true Life… Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus. It comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart…[then] compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him. It is grace because Jesus says:

‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’”

(Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, p. 48)

“Discipleship is not limited to what you can Comprehend…Not to know where you are going is the true knowledge…. Thus Abraham went forth… not knowing whither he went…. [Says Jesus:] ‘Behold, this is the way of [my] cross. You cannot find it yourself, so you must let me lead you as though you were a blind man…To that I call you and in that you must be my disciple.’”

(Bonhoeffer, quoting Luther, The Cost of Discipleship, p. 103-4)

Place sharing: a journey of discipleship

Place-sharing stories

• What has place-sharing with a teen or child looked like in your experience?

• What resulted?• How can we start such relationships?