Insights from practice reconceiving youth ministry

Teenagers today are socially constructed as "youth" and "adolescence". Social representations of teenagers are cultural/symbolic, socio-structural, political, and personal. These representations mediate the experiential possibilities of young people, including spiritual experience. Vocation is an anthropological and religious interpretation of personhood in relation to others and to God. As such, vocation is an alternative framework of lived personhood through which young people, in partnership with the church, can challenge and transcend social practices that distort their realities and limit their possibilities. This article draws upon research conducted by the Youth Theology Institute (Emory University) and the Project on Vocation, Work, and Youth Development )College of St. Catherine(.