2019 Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry

What if our bodies could “talk”? What if they do, insofar as they inhabit and express culture whether we realize it or not? What if learning more about our own embodied biases and preferences with respect to culture, communication, and ministry could lead toward more ethical, inspired, and faithful ministry with young people with disabilities? In this elective, we will engage in interactive study of Scripture, our bodies, and our communication styles. We will discover what we need to “unlearn” and repent of in order to grow in our ministry of dignifying difference with young people with disabilities. Then, we will draw upon these learnings to form strategies, gather resources, and collaborate with one another’s ministry in order to eschew “bodily ethnocentrism” in favor of broader, more creative, inclusive practices in worship and witness of Jesus Christ’s boundary-breaking gospel to the world.