Abstract
Research on youth ministry in Africa and specifically South Africa traces its origin to much research conducted in America and Europe. Many African scholars also draw on research and practices within these international spheres. Empirical research on youth ministry in Africa is however of great importance. For this purpose, comparative analysis research provides a research methodology in the social sciences that aims to make comparisons across different countries or cultures. A major problem in comparative research is that the data sets in different countries may not use the same categories, or define categories differently. This article makes use of a faith formation case study conducted in South Africa to highlight the value of this methodology when reflecting on international research from an African perspective. The main argument of this article is that international research on youth ministry is valuable in an African context but this research needs to be culturally contextualised through using comparative analysis as a research tool. This will reflect that there are many similarities between international youth ministry and the African context but there are also many cross-cultural disparities. After comparison, differences that are unique to the African context are noted. The article focuses on South Africa as a reflection of youth ministry within the broader African context.
Highlights
IntroductionYouth ministry practice in Africa (and more so South Africa) has relied heavily on international principles and concepts
Youth ministry practice in Africa has relied heavily on international principles and concepts
The above-mentioned comparative study conducted by Weber (2014), the African-based studies and the continuing challenges that South African youth face, highlight the increased need for research studies in which the local contexts of youth are given specific attention. (South) Africa is becoming increasingly rich in its academic discourses around youth, the existing youth ministry practices and has an increasing number of scholars focusing on this area of ministry
Summary
Youth ministry practice in Africa (and more so South Africa) has relied heavily on international principles and concepts. I conducted a research study on youth faith formation of 14 to 17-year-old youth from an evangelical denomination in South Africa and compared its results with three similar studies, in search of the most suitable practice model on youth faith formation. The research question posed in this project was: ‘Are different images of Jesus to be found in the consciousness of this group of the South African youth?’ The content included various themes like God, Jesus, salvation, the church, their personal religious practice, the degree of secularisation and the influence of their faith on their decisions of various kinds, but greater emphasis was placed on testing various dimensions of Christological attitudes of these youth. Some of the content analysed was church membership, involvement and frequency of involvement in communal and individual church practices and why this is the case, how they experienced their faith positively and negatively, and what they wanted to see happening in their youth ministries
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