Mark DeVries offers an approach that brings teens into one-to-one relationship with older Christians; involves the whole church family from singles to seniors; and frees pastors and leaders from worrying about attendance, budget and competition with other programs.
Contextually relevant and foundationally timeless, Efrem Smith's book provides a model for holistic ministry that addresses all the needs of youth today--body, soul and spirit.
Mike King proposes a youth ministry centered in the presence of God. Here, young people encounter Christ not in the flash and pop of arena ministry, but in the sacred shadow of his presence. This book gives shape to such ministry through the classic disciplines and potent symbols and practices that have sustained the church over the centuries.
Youth ministers are widely known for their innovation: new programs, new resources, new Next Big Things. Wayne Rice, a founder of Youth Specialties—which changed the game of youth ministry dramatically in the early 1970s and continues to set the agenda for youth ministers around the world—here takes stock of the benefits and unintended consequences of innovation in youth ministry and lays out a set of values for what might guide the field into the future.
In order to reach today's youth with the gospel, you need to hear what they're saying and understand where they're coming from. Walt Mueller translates contemporary youth culture into a functional ministry resource for pastors, educators and parents.
In Bored with God, Sean Dunn catalogs what he's seen of apathy in his ministry to youth. He offers sympathetic guidance from the Scriptures for keeping apathy from spreading and for shepherding students into spiritual hunger.
Brandon McKoy mines social construction theory to redirect our youth ministries from a focus on forming and protecting the private faith-lives of students to cultivating an awareness of Christ "in our midst"--in the overlapping relationships, stories and spheres of life that make us who we are.
Adolescence is a critical time of individuation with confusing cultural influences threatening the development and understanding of our young people. Drawing on the insights of sociology and psychology, Amy Jacober reveals youth ministry to be an act of practical theology, and helps youth pastors find their footing as they guide young people through adolescence.
How do we ground our young people in the faith while encouraging their relationships with friends of other faiths? Veteran youth minister and researcher Len Kageler digs into the data surrounding this exciting multifaith era and offers surprising confidence that our kids can be guided into mature Christian faith while simultaneously learning to love their neighbors of other religions.
How do we "do" church in this era of cynicism? Jimmy Long looks at the connections between postmodernism and the emerging generations--GenXers and millennials--highlighting implications for evangelism and discipleship. Here is a hopeful strategy for ministry that will appeal to a generation starved for belonging.