No Easy Button for Fruitful Youth Ministry
One of the most common and most debilitating myths about youth ministry might just be the all-too-common belief in the Easy Button. In our work…
Browsing: Youth
Articles
Characteristics of a Healthy Youth Ministry
Congregations that succeed in nurturing the faith of young people tend to demonstrate certain key characteristics. What are the top characteristics of a healthy youth…
Helping Youth Have a Faith of Their Own
The fact that youth participate in church less as they get older and often are not present in church as young adults can lead church…
Cultivating a Consequential Faith
Congregations have been doing a lot with teenagers, but it isn’t always leading to consequential faith, maintains Kenda Creasy Dean in Almost Christian: What the…
Churches Where Youth Exhibit Highly Devoted Faith
Kenda Creasy Dean reports in her book Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church (Oxford University Press, 2010) that…
Choosing Church … or Soccer, or Work, or Family Time, or …
Sunday morning has become a popular time for youth sports. Weekends are for some families the only opportunity to share quality, sustained time together. And…
Helping Youth Discern God’s Call
Two months ago, a group from my church attended the Leadership Institute held at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. Pastor…
Strong Youth Ministry and the Call to Ministry
The other day I was driving down the interstate when I pulled into a roadside rest stop. Just as I stepped from my car, a…
A Healthy Youth Group
An excerpt from Amy Jacober’s book, The Pastor’s Guide to Youth Ministry, includes a top ten list. There is no one way to do youth…
What I Learned from a Group of Unruly Youth
Will Rowan, a youth minister in Alberta, Canada, learns from an unexpected outcome in a prayer workshop for high school students. During the spring of 2003,…
Making Church Matter for Youth
Ann Michel recommends three books as guideposts to navigate the sociological and theological terrain of youth ministry. What is the religious life of American youth…
Predictors of Youth Returning to Church as Adults
Lovett Weems reviews a study of participation in church by adults who had dropped out of church as youth. Of all the variables studied, only…