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Building Cathedrals: Urban Discipleship That Works
As a young urban youth worker, Ted Travis was captivated by a question posed by Christian community development pioneer Dr. John “How do we build incentive in inner-city youth, motivating them toward Christ and a life of meaning and purpose?” Over the next 30 years, Ted wrestled with this question as he and his wife Shelly ministered to hundreds of teens in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood— an inner-city community facing the daunting challenges of poverty, gangs, crime, and unemployment. Along the way, Ted pressed biblical principles and tried-in the-trenches strategies into a philosophy of youth leadership development he calls “transformational discipleship.” In Building Cathedrals, Ted shares his blueprint for transformational discipleship (as well as accounts of its profound impact on young people) and exhorts today’s youth workers to reimagine their ministries and raise up a new generation of visionary urban leaders.
243 pages, Paperback
First published August 26, 2015
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September 15, 2017
In 'Building Cathedral' Ted Travis shares extensively from his more than 30 years of experience working with inner-city youth and, in the process, challenges the reader's assumptions about the form and function of youth ministry.
Beginning with his own experience of coming to faith as a graduate student in Vienna, Travis lays out the path that led him back to the inner city (a place he thought he had left behind) and towards reconciliation with his own identity as a black man through his ministry among the youth of Denver's Five Points neighborhood. From there Travis takes the reader on a journey through his early years of ministry, when he began developing what he would later call the “transformational discipleship” model of youth ministry. This model, at its core, is about (a) tapping into young men and women's natural abilities to help them grown in their knowledge of God and self and (b) providing opportunities for youth to take ownership of their faith and act as leaders in their community.
Time and again Travis reminds his readers that youth have the capacity to be leaders, if only we would get out of their way and learn to support them as they take on new challenges, fail, learn, and grow. Far from seeing inner-city youth as helpless, hopeless souls who are powerless over their own lives and the life of their community, Travis shows us that youth are both willing and capable of being transformational leaders. It is our job to help them unlock that potential.
Travis' book is broken up into three sections: The Need (which outlines his personal journey and makes the case for why the church needs to invest in inner city youth), Foundations (which explores the development of the transformational leadership model and its underlying philosophy), and Praxis (which delves into the practical application of the model). Readers may find themselves frustrated at the lack of 'practical take aways' earlier in the book, and I definitely think that the book could have benefited from a larger, more fleshed out Praxis section. But to rush through this book would be a mistake, as it is in the journey of both Travis and the youth that he has served that we are able to glimpse the presence and activity of God's spirit. This book is a rewarding read that will challenge your assumptions about both youth ministry and the inner city. Read it in good company.
Beginning with his own experience of coming to faith as a graduate student in Vienna, Travis lays out the path that led him back to the inner city (a place he thought he had left behind) and towards reconciliation with his own identity as a black man through his ministry among the youth of Denver's Five Points neighborhood. From there Travis takes the reader on a journey through his early years of ministry, when he began developing what he would later call the “transformational discipleship” model of youth ministry. This model, at its core, is about (a) tapping into young men and women's natural abilities to help them grown in their knowledge of God and self and (b) providing opportunities for youth to take ownership of their faith and act as leaders in their community.
Time and again Travis reminds his readers that youth have the capacity to be leaders, if only we would get out of their way and learn to support them as they take on new challenges, fail, learn, and grow. Far from seeing inner-city youth as helpless, hopeless souls who are powerless over their own lives and the life of their community, Travis shows us that youth are both willing and capable of being transformational leaders. It is our job to help them unlock that potential.
Travis' book is broken up into three sections: The Need (which outlines his personal journey and makes the case for why the church needs to invest in inner city youth), Foundations (which explores the development of the transformational leadership model and its underlying philosophy), and Praxis (which delves into the practical application of the model). Readers may find themselves frustrated at the lack of 'practical take aways' earlier in the book, and I definitely think that the book could have benefited from a larger, more fleshed out Praxis section. But to rush through this book would be a mistake, as it is in the journey of both Travis and the youth that he has served that we are able to glimpse the presence and activity of God's spirit. This book is a rewarding read that will challenge your assumptions about both youth ministry and the inner city. Read it in good company.
Displaying 1 of 1 review