Book review Michael E. Hughes, Young Hearts be Free (CYMA 2004)

This slim volume is an incredibly dense book bursting full of insight in almost all of its 102 pages. If you want a book to make you look at youth ministry and the relationship between the church and young people in a whole new way, then this would be an excellent choice.

Hughes has structured the book in three basic sections; the state of youth ministry, Liberation theology in the context of youth ministry and finally a case study. He begins with a very brief, yet thorough, review of youth ministry at the turn of the twenty first century, drawing on a wide range of international youth theologians and thinkers. The book then analyzes how the current system of the church is oppressive of young people, justifying his following section. The second section has a very brief explanation of Liberation Theology and its origins (the author rightly recommends that the reader should turn to the authorities such as Gustavo Gutierrez for the full picture) and proceeds to reinterpret Liberation Theology in the context not of the poverty, race or gender but of young people. He does this by applying what he terms the five common liberation principles; committed involvement, we’re all biased, we all relate differently, ending up in a different place and the cycle of recommitment. In the final section, Hughes contextualizes his theory in a specific youth ministry context in New Zealand.

I must say I found the book eye-opening, rightly disturbing and at the same time somewhat intense theological, philosophical and sociological tome. The concepts which Hughes is exploring are very deep and also so radical as to render the reader into a form of mental and emotional stun. It is not a book to be rushed through but read and reflected upon. Young Hearts Be Free drags the reader to see youth work in a new context and to realise just how oppressive our church system is of people on the basis of their youth. It demonstrates that young people in the church are marginalised by institutional structures which Hughes terms “structural ageism” and that they become passive receivers or consumers of ministry imposed on them by adults. Even young leader initiatives are imposed from the adult church and youth leaders appointed by adults.

Yet the book is not merely an analysis of the state of the world of youth ministry but also a call to action and a source for ideas as to what action might be needed. I particularly valued Hughes’ use of the model of exploring “how good could things be”. He dreams big dreams as to just how excellent the youth work could be as well as analysing the actual situation. This is real Kingdom thinking:

“Wherever young people gathered, shared in the struggle against their oppression, and reflected on that struggle in light of Christian faith, there church would be.” (p.55)

Hughes applies his theory to the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, examining their history of improving youth participation in church hierarchical structures, and changes in staffing and training of those involved in youth ministry. He describes how much of the discussion of youth ministry in the area has involved large numbers of young people and from those gatherings of people involved in youth ministry, “there has been a continuing call for young people’s liberation and full flourishing as equal members of the church” (p.78). The result was new representation of young people at synods and “a liberation cycle developing in this youth ministry context” (p.88). Of course the use of the case study, although useful in that it properly contextualises the theory, is also so very specific as to make it feel somewhat difficult to re-imagine in other contexts. Indeed I do find the practicality of applying Hughes theory a challenge.

The thing I find challenging about Hughes’ analysis is the practicality of adults working towards youth liberation. In the true spirit of Liberation Theology, those who are oppressed must be the key movers in changing that oppression, as Hughes admits:

“Commitment to this process and these principles would of course need to come from youth themselves. It could not be imposed by adult church structures and would need to be owned by those committed to youth liberation”(p.64).

If young people were not those urging for change must it not surely be an adult imposed liberation? If one generation of young people become liberated, how is that to be perpetuated to the next without the liberators turning oppressors? Hughes does endeavour to answer many of my questions with his analysis of the five common liberation principles. Yet, fired up as I was on reading the theory I still find the practicality of this revolution implausible in the context of the large historical denominations. For example Hughes urges that,

“Any legislated age restrictions would have to be repealed” (p.56)

and instead candidates would be chosen on merit, whatever their age by right of baptism into the faith. I can see legal barriers to some of these changes not just in the church but in terms of national law and the charities commission. Perhaps my reservations reflect my own institutionalisation and I should face the challenge Hughes puts to the reader in his final paragraph:

“The challenge is made. May those responsible rise to it, and may youth become full and free members of the church that God intended them to be.” (p.96)