Robin Barfield

Robin Barfield, BSc, (Hons), BD (Hons), PhD

Lecturer in Practical Theology and Support for Digital Pedagogies

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Humility is a critical posture needed for ministry in the 21st century; humility before God, His Word and His work in the world. Oak Hill seeks to model and foster such humility in the faculty, the lectures and the students.”

Robin teaches the Childrens, Youth and Family as well as more general practical theology modules and supports and promotes an understanding and application of practical theology throughout the College. He also supports the development of digital models and approaches to learning. He was recently awarded a PhD in children’s ministry, examining the theological and pedagogical assumptions of Godly Play and evangelical models of ministry.

Robin is the co-author of Sunday DIY (10ofthose, 2013) as well as a number of peer reviewed journal articles for Journal of Youth and Theology, Christian Education Journal, International Journal of Christianity and Education, Churchman and the Journal for Research on Christian Education. He has also written more popular level articles for Premier Nexgen and Youth Pastor Theologian.

Robin spent nearly 25 years serving local churches in deprived parishes in South London and the North West of England. His passion is to see practitioners equipped to theologically reflect on their practice He is married to Anna and has four children.

Please find examples of Robin's work linked below:

Sunday DIY

Robin is a co-author of this book.

Teaching the Bible to children and young people is an amazing privilege.

However, as you look over the rota for the coming term, and see your name highlighted in bold, it may be fear that fills your heart rather than a sense of joy.

This little book is designed to be a toolkit that will equip children’s and youth leaders for the role in which they are serving the church.

10ofthose, 2013

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches to Y&C Ministry, Part 1

Robin is a co-author of this article.

Given the rise and importance of the agency of the self and more immanent approaches to theology, the landscape of youth and children’s mission and ministry can now be usefully analysed in terms of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches – rather than (or at least alongside) using ‘inside-out’ and ‘outside-in’ as the main analytical categories. Top-down approaches look to do ministry ‘to’ youth and children and are commensurate with more transcendent approaches to theology and Durkheimian structural-functionalist school of thought within sociology – these approaches risk under-emphasising agency and immanence. Bottom-up approaches are more concerned with doing ministry ‘with’ youth and children and are commensurate with more immanent approaches to theology and Weberian social interactionist and conflict theory models of society – these approaches risk over-emphasising agency and immanence.

Journal of Youth and Theology, 2023

Children and the Imago Dei: A Reformed Proposal Regarding the Spiritual Openness of the Child

The spiritual openness of the child has been explained by their being at their existential limits and more open to mystery. This results in a non-directive approach to ministry, affirming every response and emphasizing the creative nature of the ṣeleʿm. This article proposes that a child is a “wiggly mirror,” able to reflect divine glory or created idols which better enables us to understand the process of ministry to children and to construct a more robust pedagogy.

Christian Education Journal, 2020

Preaching to Youth for Transformation

Our desire is to see young people changed by the power of God, and God has given us preaching—the proclamation of His very word to our young people—as a change agent. But even though our preaching is often successful at changing minds, it often seems to fall flat on hearts and to be ineffective at changing lives. In this article Robin explores whether there is a way that we can understand the process of transformation—how people change—and then let that influence our preaching?

youthpastortheologian.com, 2023