‘Rooted’ Resources on Tolerance

The Conference

We don’t promote a lot of conferences at Redeemedreader, mostly because there aren’t that many that touch on kids’ literature from a Christian perspective.   (If you’d like to change that, Janie or I would be happy to work something out at your event… just leave us a comment below.)  But the Rooted Conference in Birmingham, AL this Thursday through Saturday (August 9-11) is one I thought worth bringing to your attention.  It’s pertinent to us 1) because it is aimed ultimately at our target audience, adults working with young people; and 2) because despite our culture’s belief that tolerance needs no roots, real compassion and humility comes through Him.

A while back, I had the opportunity to interview Cameron Cole, who is on the board for Rooted and a huge force in the organizing of the event:

I’m trying to get oriented to the Rooted Conference. Is this a wider movement than just a conference, would you say?

Yes, we see this as a movement and ministry beyond the conference. The conference is a good rallying point for people trying to center their ministry in the Gospel, but the relationships and communications, via our blog and other publications, comprise the greater part of the ministry. We are trying to communicate that message that the Gospel and the Word of God are The Thing that changes people’s lives. Through relationships and communications, we talk about how Gospel-centered ministry practically occurs, and, through these avenues, we can do so to a wider audience. At this point, with our conference only being held in Birmingham, AL, people on the West Coast most likely will not be able to attend Rooted. At the same time, we can have constructive dialogue and can communicate this concept of grace-driven ministry to a wider audience. Ultimately, we would like to have conferences around the country, but we will trust the guidance of the Lord on the scope of the ministry in the future. 

I love your focus on Christ as the solution to the “isolation” and abandonment of teenagers by adults. What do you see as some of the negative impact of that abandonment?  And do you see their isolation impacting negative behaviors like sexual promiscuity or bullying?

Based on my experience and the literature I have read, I have seen negative trends in the behavior of teenagers who have experienced this type of abandonment. First, they have difficulty submitting to authority and relating respectfully to adults and superiors. Secondly, I see kids searching desperately for meaningful connection, but often in harmful places. Whether it is compulsively accessing social media and pornography or falling into promiscuity, isolated people will do anything to find the intimacy that God intended for them to experience with Him and within their families and friendships. In the adoption as sons and daughters of God which the Father extends to justified sinners, God offers the perfect love which every kid needs but never finds, even in the best of families.

What would you hope the impact of Rooted will be in the church? Ten years from now, how would you like the lives of teenagers in the church to be different?

Rooted ultimately hopes to foster youth ministry leaders that develop life-long disciples of Christ. Practically speaking, we hope that youth ministries form students who walk with Christ, remain obedient to God’s law, demonstrate faithfulness to the Church, and view their life as a ministry for the Kingdom. At the same time, we hope that student’s lives possess these characteristics, not out of conformity to religion, but out of sincere love and loyalty to God because of his incredible grace and mercy for desperate sinners. We think lives of discipleship that are fueled by appreciation for Christ’s work on the Cross have much stronger “sticking-power” than religious lives that adhere to a code of behavior.

In a grander sense, we really hope the work of Rooted contributes to growth and transformation in the church as a whole. I sincerely believe that if a person wants to see revival in the church, they should invest in youth ministry. Research suggests that the trends in the greater church often follow trends in youth ministry. Very often churches adapt their methods in order to attract younger parishioners. My hope is that we would raise up a generation of students so accustomed to solid biblical teaching and frequent proclamation of the message of the Cross, such that a decade from now churches would come to a point that they would say, “The young adults coming out of youth ministries expect good biblical exegesis and faithfulness to the Gospel of grace. We better get on board with these things, or we will be left in the dust.”

The Free Stuff

For those of you who won’t make the conference (and with the topic on so many Christians’ minds due to a certain politically incorrect chicken sandwich), I thought it might be a good time to review some of my favorite resources on tolerance and intolerance for older kids.   This is actually a list I came up with for one of our interns who is studying English literature at a secular university.

1) sermons/talks on Postmodernism:  https://www.mitchin.com/Post-Modernism.html  (I haven’t listened to them all–maybe only one or two, but a couple of the speakers I really admire.)

2) Another series of lectures by DA Carson.  Again, I haven’t listened, but I know his schtick: https://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Audio-and-Multimedia/Speakers-Lectures-and-Sermons/DA-Carson/Understanding-Postmodernism/

3) This is the closest I’ve found to the original postmodernism series of Carson’s I found life-changing: https://thegospelcoalition.org/index.php?/resources/name-index/John_Piper/DA_Carson/topic/Contemporary+Theology/

For more resources on this topic, see our interview with Gene Edward Veith.  Or take a peek at my unedited autobiography in books, Behind the Bookcase.

Any thoughts from our readers on this topic?  Will any of you be attending the Rooted Conference by chance?