Missio Dei and Youth Ministry: mobilizing young people’s assets and developing realationships

Jeremy Gregory Wyngaard

doi:10.7832/43-3-120

Abstract

It is said that young people are the future of a country. It is also widely believed that young people flourish as human beings when they are entrusted with responsibility and leadership roles. This article advocates a distinctive approach in the effort of local churches to rethink how it could maximize the potential of young people and build healthy relationships across different generations in the church’s participation in the Missio Dei. An examination of an asset-based and relational approach to the Missio Dei provides the local church with a potential dual movement that can have positive, far-reaching and more sustainable implications in the broader community.

Highlights

The writer will draw from the work of Life Zone Ministries International (LZMI), a registered faith-based organization (FBO) and non profit organization (NPO) that is based in the “twin-suburb” of Factreton-Kensington in Cape Town, South Africa
On its website3, LZMI, states its purpose: Life Zone is a registered Non Profit Organization based at Wingfield Primary School in Factreton, a vulnerable, “high-risk” community in Cape Town, South Africa...We use soccer as a tool for personal and social transformation in schools and “high-risk” communities in various townships in Cape Town
Our practice as youth workers finds its true rationale in the God who calls us to share in his seeking of young people (Ward 1997:26)

Summary

Introduction

The writer will draw from the work of Life Zone Ministries International (LZMI), a registered faith-based organization (FBO) and non profit organization (NPO) that is based in the “twin-suburb” of Factreton-Kensington in Cape Town, South Africa. Most of the houses in Factreton are small, “sub-economic” units while most of the Kensington houses are larger free-standing ones. In a community that is a stone-throw away from the opulent Canal Walk Shopping Centre, Kensington and Factreton is a community faced with serious social challenges. LZMI (established in 1996), states its purpose: Life Zone is a registered Non Profit Organization based at Wingfield Primary School in Factreton, a vulnerable, “high-risk” community in Cape Town, South Africa...We use soccer as a tool for personal and social transformation in schools and “high-risk” communities in various townships in Cape Town

What is going on?

Towards a realational path: how can realationships be developed?

Conclusion: towards a realational basis of outreach