Keep It Real: Working with Today's Black Youth

by Anne E. Streaty Wimberly (Editor), Daniel Black, Annette Marbury

Offers the "village of hope" as a framework where pastors and leaders offer the church as a place of support, guidance, and accountability for youth, parents, and other adults who are raising today's black youth. The first edition of Working with Black Youth, edited by Charles R. Foster and Grant S. Shockley, was published in 1989. Since that time the challenges for black youth have only intensified and grown in complexity. A burning question of Black churches continues to be: How can we effectively ministry with our youth? Their world is fast-paced, media-centered, techno-savvy, hip-hop, violent, and plagued with HIV/AIDS. The Church wants to guide youth toward a Christian identity with values for wise decision-making. Youth want their questions heard. They want to see hope modeled. They need leadership opportunities. While there are no quick, easy, or singular approaches to working with black youth, there can be a framework to offer vital and relevant youth ministry. This book proposes a comprehensive framework that has evolved over ten years of annual youth and family convocations of the Interdenominational Theological Center as well as youth and family forums and activities related to the Youth Hope-Builders Academy of ITC. The framework builds on the image of the congregation as a "village of hope" where pastors and leaders get real to offer the church as a place of support, guidance, and accountability for youth, parents, and other adults who are raising today's black youth.

Contributors: Daniel O. Black, Philip Dunston, Maisha I. Handy, Michael T. McQueen, Tapiwa Mucherera, Elizabeth J. Walker, Herbert R. Marbury, Annette R. Marbury, and Anne E. Streaty Wimberly"

169 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

Anne E. Streaty Wimberly is Outreach Programs Executive Director, Youth HOPe-Builders Academy; Co-Director, Connecting with Hope Innovation Hub, Black Millennials Initiative; Doctor of Ministry Cohort Leader; Christian Education Professor Emerita; Interdenominational Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Georgia.

Reviews

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick take: Keep It Real: Working with Today's Black Youth is a snappy, kind of chaotic read that never slows down. What worked: the nonstop jokes and a lead who has zero filter. What didn't: no one grows, and the plot runs in circles by the end. Recommend for readers who want a wild, silly escape, skip for anyone who wants the characters to change.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

KSSK

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne E. Streaty Wimberly doesn't offer generic inspirational platitudes in Keep It Real—just a cold, clear map of how power consolidation actually works in the real world.