Blur: A New Paradigm for Understanding Youth Culture by Jeff Keuss (review)

In Blur,^* Jeff Keuss delivers a text consistent with what was promised in the introduction. Most chapters and points rest on clearly articulated theological foundations. He reviews what he believes to be the weaknesses of traditional youth ministry, especially considering the impermanent culture(s) of today. He identifies how youth are misunderstood and want to be understood, relying on past and present research/interviews for support and illustration. Lastly, Keuss provides many instructions to those in youth ministry as to how the church and para-church can reach youth more effectively today. Summarily, he suggests that youth workers should work less and simply “be faithful, relax, and love” (19).

Blur’s nine chapters flow into one another smoothly, organized by the blurring of: definitions (1), culture (2), faith (3 and 4), youth (5), the self (6), books (7), images (8), and sound (9). All chapters centre on two primary assertions, that youth are sacred and mobile, and on the main theme, distinguishing between weaknesses of traditional ministry and the strengths of the recommended new paradigm. Chapter 5 discusses the idea of sacred mobility thoroughly.

Youth are sacred because they are created in God’s image (10). They are mobile because they “live in a complex, ever-shifting, ever-morphing world with multiple cultures” (185). Keuss believes this provides today’s teenager with opportunities for depth of life that those in previous generations did not have. Since many in ministry see the state of today’s culture negatively, according to Keuss, there is a “growing chasm between the perceptions of who teenagers are and who they really are” (24), and, “more than ever,” it is important for youth workers “to humbly acknowledge and actively support alternatives to traditional youth ministries” (23).

He contends that those who utilize a traditional ministry model—that is, those who focus on program and numeric growth (15); serve youth by emphasizing restriction and social control (91); categorize youth and limit their capacity for change (11, 18); operate in fear and panic (14); advocate Christian privilege and idealize Christian orthodoxy (63); suggest any separation from culture (187); detachedly teach with reasoned ethical constructs (11); and magnify the importance of religious literacy (31) and certitude (109)—cannot be effective. They neglect the potential and very relevant “power of the narrative process” (128), which should be a mutual “Imago Dei” journey (92–93, 121).

Conversely, Keuss offers many suggestions for how youth workers can join youth on their journeys and help them to reconcile themselves with the world. First, the church must rethink what constitutes deep and vibrant faith and what it considers to be orthodox beliefs, while youth must be allowed to develop faith as a work in progress. Youth workers need to learn to listen, trust the Lord, and relax. Their ministries should provoke youth to take steps of risk and encourage them to express selfhood. Youth workers have to stop treating the blurriness of life as a problem and radically embrace the blurred identities of the youth. To help with this process, youth workers need to read young adult books, listen to non-Christian music, and watch videos that call “for a new level of transcendence” (185). Youth leaders should also share what “we think we know” (123) of God as we abandon the idea of keeping the church separate from the culture and let the youth drive the conversations. Youth leaders should choose a form of faith that allows for “cohabitation” with others as they “get personal” with adolescents (188).

This text has several strengths. Keuss thinks deeply, offers informed perspectives, and argues well. While appealing to many theologians, such as Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Walter Brueggemann, the essence of his arguments suggests that the most influential philosopher/theologian on Keuss was Derrida. He thoroughly and provocatively argues “why” youth ministry approaches in the twenty-first century have to change (for example, his discussion regarding “shema...