Papers by Chris D Clements
Pastoral Psychology, 2025
Being at home in the world can involve feeling addressed by the world in such a way that select d... more Being at home in the world can involve feeling addressed by the world in such a way that select discomforts or sufferings are called out of a person. These select discomforts and sufferings are experienced as being part of a person’s response to a previous and ongoing sense of call, and present as experiences to be protected rather than resolved. As the pastoral worker seeks the wellbeing of others, select care encounters may involve helping persons articulate their sense of self and world, discerning what discomforts or sufferings a care seeker experiences as significant, and which are to be resolved. In conversation with Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance, it is suggested that discomforts and sufferings that arise from the world “speaking” to a person might be experienced as significant, while those that “alienate” persons from self, world, and the divine, are better resolved or mitigated where possible. This way of looking at discomfort or suffering draws on the logic of the Christian tradition.
Journal of Youth and Theology, 2023
Young people in late adolescence or emerging adulthood may re-examine their childhood Christian f... more Young people in late adolescence or emerging adulthood may re-examine their childhood Christian faith. Christian commitments in a pluralistic context can come to be regarded as one possible set of commitments among many options. Articulating clear claims about Christianity will be part of an approach to the faith nurture of young people. Yet Christian faith is also, fundamentally, an act of hope in Christ. A practice of hope, specifically among those beginning to question Christian commitments, can be the activity of lament. The Christian practice of lament addresses God amid the sorrows and confusions of this world. Christian lament is offered to God in the hope that he might respond. Ministering persons may participate in lament with young people, bringing to bear their own sense of Christian hope, and inviting young people to choose this hope as well.
Pastoral Psychology, 2023
The human enjoyment of fun is meaningful and yet optional. Fun is meaningful in the sense that fu... more The human enjoyment of fun is meaningful and yet optional. Fun is meaningful in the sense that fun is a celebration of goodness. Fun is optional in the sense that fun is an activity of responding to goods already realized more than it is an activity expected to produce these goods. Despite its optional character, fun is important within pastoral work, for fun can be employed as a caring practice, celebrating goodness within community. Fun is an activity that is related to, but distinct from, play. Play tends toward the development of self-concept, body, and social roles, whereas fun celebrates these goods. While overindulgence can render fun trivial, fun at the right moment may be an avenue of care and nurture, allowing persons to recognize and celebrate God’s good gifts within a community. Within the Christian tradition, fun, done well, will ideally approach a shared sense of joy.
Direction, 2021
While it is a comparatively straightforward matter to agree that Christian humility is important ... more While it is a comparatively straightforward matter to agree that Christian humility is important to Christian discipleship, it is a comparatively more difficult matter to inculcate the virtue of humility into our characters. Part of this difficulty comes from the fact that humility can only be attained indirectly. When we attempt to achieve humble character directly, we find the experience of achievement, and the goal of humility, do not easily fit together. The exploration of this paper centers on care as an indirect means of discipleship toward a humble character. Persons who choose to practice care look beyond themselves, setting the needs of others before their own (Phil. 2:3). By keeping God’s command to care, we indirectly position ourselves before God and others in biblical humility.
Journal of Youth Ministry, 2018
IN THE FACE OF DOCUMENTED FAITH ATTRITION AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE, a growing body of recent scholarshi... more IN THE FACE OF DOCUMENTED FAITH ATTRITION AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE, a growing body of recent scholarship identifies Christian summer camps as significant settings for spiritual growth. In conversation with this scholarship, the case can be made that part of the apparent success of the Christian summer camp comes from the Christian nurture it provides in the mode of experiential learning. In the camp setting, the Christian life is nurtured from a base of shared experience, and age-appropriate theological reflection about these experiences. By contrast, church-based youth ministries tend to lack this same quality of concrete, common experience. Church-based youth ministries are often strong in teaching, yet young people may struggle to find this teaching compelling if it is abstracted from significant, often more immediate, experience. Where camps have come to nurture the Christian life—a life lived in response to Christ—by attending to experience, churches may have assumed an interest in the Christian life would arise predominately from Christian instruction. Following the intuitions of summer camps, youth groups may want to elevate the theological dimension of young people’s lived experiences in their effort toward Christian nurture. Aiming to awaken young people’s desire for the Christian life, youth ministry will do well to foster shared experience in the Christian life together, and attend to the theological dimension of experience.
Pastoral Psychology, 2022
The adventure stories that boys enjoy reading often depict male characters in their exposed
becom... more The adventure stories that boys enjoy reading often depict male characters in their exposed
becoming and dreaming. Boys are drawn to these adventuring characters in part because
such characters portray a masculinity that feels more human than the otherwise stoic
masculine norms of Western culture. Taking a cue from adventure literature, this paper
addresses adventure and the dreaming spirit as avenues of self-understanding in boyhood.
In adventure, this sense of exposure is not experienced in relation to shame but in relation
to possibility. Adventure and the dreaming spirit are both motifs that lend themselves to
Christian living. Viewing selfhood as adventure can provide boys with a self-concept that
feels human. Boys do not always have friendships of mutual trust in their lives where they
feel secure addressing their becoming and dreaming. Persons in pastoral roles can offer this
kind of accompanying and affirming friendship to boys in their becoming.
Practical Theology, 2021
The power granted to persons in Christian pastoral leadership is
delegated for benevolent exercis... more The power granted to persons in Christian pastoral leadership is
delegated for benevolent exercise. Yet with this power may also
come the temptation to exercise power in self-interest. In this
paper, we explore the image of the ambassador, as a means of
providing moral vision for the exercise of pastoral power. An
ambassador works collaboratively with other emissaries in order
to faithfully convey messages from a sender. We suggest this
image affords those entrusted with pastoral power, a measure of
meekness in their work. The pastor/ambassador, as one who
communicates divine messages, is also one who conveys the
truth. We further suggest that a meek character might be
fostered by making space for truth to be spoken. When persons
allow what is true to be spoken, individuals meet one another as
equals. As an image of collaborative labour, the ambassador is
one who both leads, and is led.
Journal of Youth and Theology, 2020
As churches continue to feel anxious about losing their young people, the impulse to find means t... more As churches continue to feel anxious about losing their young people, the impulse to find means to secure young people’s faith identities can arise. Such approaches, though well-intended, can inadvertently become exercises in identity foreclosure. Foreclosure subverts young people’s selfhood and can lead to faith and identity commitments that lack resilience. Using Søren Kierkegaard’s writings and the biblical book of Jonah, an approach to faith formation will be articulated that focuses on hearing God’s call. This approach avoids identity-foreclosing impulses by elevating the place of God’s calling in faith formation.
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Papers by Chris D Clements
becoming and dreaming. Boys are drawn to these adventuring characters in part because
such characters portray a masculinity that feels more human than the otherwise stoic
masculine norms of Western culture. Taking a cue from adventure literature, this paper
addresses adventure and the dreaming spirit as avenues of self-understanding in boyhood.
In adventure, this sense of exposure is not experienced in relation to shame but in relation
to possibility. Adventure and the dreaming spirit are both motifs that lend themselves to
Christian living. Viewing selfhood as adventure can provide boys with a self-concept that
feels human. Boys do not always have friendships of mutual trust in their lives where they
feel secure addressing their becoming and dreaming. Persons in pastoral roles can offer this
kind of accompanying and affirming friendship to boys in their becoming.
delegated for benevolent exercise. Yet with this power may also
come the temptation to exercise power in self-interest. In this
paper, we explore the image of the ambassador, as a means of
providing moral vision for the exercise of pastoral power. An
ambassador works collaboratively with other emissaries in order
to faithfully convey messages from a sender. We suggest this
image affords those entrusted with pastoral power, a measure of
meekness in their work. The pastor/ambassador, as one who
communicates divine messages, is also one who conveys the
truth. We further suggest that a meek character might be
fostered by making space for truth to be spoken. When persons
allow what is true to be spoken, individuals meet one another as
equals. As an image of collaborative labour, the ambassador is
one who both leads, and is led.
becoming and dreaming. Boys are drawn to these adventuring characters in part because
such characters portray a masculinity that feels more human than the otherwise stoic
masculine norms of Western culture. Taking a cue from adventure literature, this paper
addresses adventure and the dreaming spirit as avenues of self-understanding in boyhood.
In adventure, this sense of exposure is not experienced in relation to shame but in relation
to possibility. Adventure and the dreaming spirit are both motifs that lend themselves to
Christian living. Viewing selfhood as adventure can provide boys with a self-concept that
feels human. Boys do not always have friendships of mutual trust in their lives where they
feel secure addressing their becoming and dreaming. Persons in pastoral roles can offer this
kind of accompanying and affirming friendship to boys in their becoming.
delegated for benevolent exercise. Yet with this power may also
come the temptation to exercise power in self-interest. In this
paper, we explore the image of the ambassador, as a means of
providing moral vision for the exercise of pastoral power. An
ambassador works collaboratively with other emissaries in order
to faithfully convey messages from a sender. We suggest this
image affords those entrusted with pastoral power, a measure of
meekness in their work. The pastor/ambassador, as one who
communicates divine messages, is also one who conveys the
truth. We further suggest that a meek character might be
fostered by making space for truth to be spoken. When persons
allow what is true to be spoken, individuals meet one another as
equals. As an image of collaborative labour, the ambassador is
one who both leads, and is led.