BUIES CREEK — Andrew Root, the author of “The Relational Pastor” and the Carrie Olson Baalson Chair of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., will lead Campbell Divinity School’s Reavis Ministry Lectures on Sept. 24 in Butler Chapel.
Root, who researches issues related to theology and youth ministry, will speak over two sessions on Tuesday, both of which are open to the public. The morning session is scheduled from 10:40 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and the afternoon session from 1:45 p.m. to 3 p.m.
L.B. and Mabel Reavis established the L.B. and Mabel Reavis Professorship and Scholarship Program at Campbell in 1991 to promote the ministries of evangelism and church growth. Funding from the program supports the Reavis Lecture Series, which brings distinguished scholars and Christian leaders to campus each year to speak on topics related to evangelism and church growth.
Root received his Ph.D. from the Princeton Theological Seminary, and is a former Young Life staff worker who has also served in churches and social service agencies as a youth outreach associate and a gang prevention counselor.
In addition to “The Relational Pastor,” Root is the author of a four-book series with Zondervan called “A Theological Journey Through Youth Ministry.” He’s also the co-author of “The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry,” with Kenda Creasy Dean, which received a 2012 Christianity Today Book of Merit award. His other books include “The Children of Divorce: The Loss of Family as the Loss of Being” (Baker Academic, 2010); “The Promise of Despair” (Abingdon, 2010); “Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation” (InterVarsity Press, 2007); and “Relationships Unfiltered: Help for Youth Workers, Volunteers, and Parents on Creating Authentic Relationships” (Zondervan/YS, 2009).