Author Nigel Pimlott’s book arrives at a pertinent time. The UK has just seen the most confusing and muddy election battle; Russell Brand has been stirring up people’s hearts and minds in the political sphere with millions of followers on YouTube; and the Church of England has got in on the act, with bishops, led by the Bishop of Norwich, issuing a letter of warning stating that ‘people feel detached’ from politics. The book is an extension of Pimlott’s PhD and has a strongly academic influence, though it is also packed with stories from his practice as a youth worker and of those youth workers he conducted his research with.
He begins by setting out his terms of reference – a helpful basic introduction for those who want to grasp what is meant by terms such as ‘youth ministry’ and ‘youth work’. The first half of the book sets out the mandate to youth workers to engage the young people they work with in politics. He goes on to offer some theological rationale for youth workers to act politically, providing a solid introduction to both politics and introductory theological reflections for politics, including concepts like Shalom and the Common Good. He goes on to explore distractions and the place these play in our political activism as a youth worker – I found this to be particularly interesting and helpful for considering how this could all be put into practice.
The third chapter, entitled ‘Jesus and his Politics’, appears to express Pimlott’s passion. He discusses the mandate of the Nazareth Manifesto (Luke 4:18,19), which he views as Jesus’ manifesto and call to engagement in politics. Pimlott goes on to say that he thinks we have pacified Jesus and we need to rediscover the political Jesus, stating categorically, ‘I do not think Christian youth work and ministry can effectively and authentically exist with a domesticated Jesus’ (page 47). His personal conviction is that all youth workers should be politically active to the point that he would question a faith that lacked this mandate.
Pimlott goes on to discuss in more detail the current state of affairs with regard to young people and politics including a brief look at the current state of politics in the UK. This is a helpful, structured look at current context. Chapter 5, entitled ‘The Prophetic Youth Worker’, focuses on the values behind the practice and begins the shift towards the more practical aspects of working with young people, and engaging them politically. Pimlott suggests that youth workers need to engage with policy makers, get involved in community organising and raise their political awareness of current political issues. He explores some of the barriers to effective work with young people around politics, including youth workers lack of experience and as mentioned above that young people feel they have ‘no stake in society’ (page 107).
Pimlott continues with suggestions of how this trend might be countered, offering suggestions to youth workers about how to become more politically aware and how to begin this with young people. Pimlott turns to issues including reviewing youth-work training, and ways in which workers might develop curiosity in young people. Pimlott then moves to the nuts and bolts, with suggestions for youth workers on how they could engage young people with specific topics. The sections at the end of each chapter, with additional thoughts and questions, are helpful and lead to some reflective thinking and could be done in a small group for those considering how they might help young people engage in politics.
This book is great for a youth work student or for someone who wants to understand meaningful Christian youth work. It communicates on often unheard anger about the systematic problems and frustration directed toward the institutions, both government and church. We need agitators like Pimlott or Russell Brand and we need to hear their practical suggestions. However, not all youth workers are as gifted as Pimlott in communicating complicated political frameworks and/or understanding whether young people are always interested. I’m not convinced everyone can or should dedicate as much of their time as youth workers to the political sphere alone. But I would welcome some further conversation on how we take this forward in a holistic way, paying attention to how these issues also show themselves in the physical, spiritual and psychological.
Embracing the Passion: Christian youth work and politics is written by Nigel Pimlott and published by SCM Press (2015).
James Fawcett is part of CONCRETE and helps the Diocese of London to support youth work.