Showing titles in Youth Ministry

Genuine, lasting life-change is the heartbeat of youth ministry but too few students experience it. Through a simple but revolutionary process of “mentoring a few,” dramatic transformation can happen in the lives of students—with benefits that spread throughout the ministry.

You are in the family of God....It can get messy. When you look at your church today, what do you see? A social organization that does good things for the community? A religious corporation with a CEO at the helm? A spiritual and self-help counseling center? Pastor Ross Parsley believes that none of these ideas captures God’s design. Instead, God sees us more like a family - a multigenerational group of real people who love each other and care for one another’s needs, no matter how messy. We are not consumers asking what the church can do for us. We are family members learning how to love deeply, fight fairly, and share selflessly.

In a world where teenage girls are bombarded by different messages about love, dating, and marriage, God's voice can get lost in the noise. Take some time to discover the kind of love God wants for you. Learn how listening to God and choosing to love like he does even when it's difficult can lead to real, deep satisfaction and a love that helps others see the heart of God. You might just find that God's design for relationships is bigger and more wonderful than you ever imagined!

It's about time—finding God in the good times, the bad times, party time, ordinary time, all the time. In these questions and answers from his online column, Ask the Bible Geek®, Mark Hart helps young people make time for God, "the timeless One who entered time and space" for each of us.

Here’s the truth: If you don’t get people engaged with your message at the start, they’ll be distracted as your message moves along. With these stories, you’ll have exactly what you need to master the art of the start! These stories aren’t the “Everyone gather around while I tell you a story” kind of stories. And they aren’t the “Once upon a time” kind of stories either. These stories come from weird news, current events, and interesting moments in history. It’s so much fun when you connect them to the topics of your sermons!

There is a war against your children. Every day, kids of all ages are bombarded with the enemy's lies that war against their God-given identities and divine destinies. But when kids speak God’s truth over themselves, their minds are renewed and they become rooted in a healthy, Bible-based identity. In God’s Got This: Power Decrees to Overcome Problems, Step into Purpose, and Receive Promises, notable apostolic leader and prophet Tim Sheets teams up with his daughter, Rachel Shafer, to provide a powerful resource—biblical decrees that kids can speak over themselves in every season of life.

Many women enter or stay in relationships out of fear of being alone, shame, or insecurity which may cause them to lower their standards or expectations. What they find are men they normally would never have tolerated. What they find are BooBoo Dudes—men who portray narcissistic and abusive behavior, leading to confusion, shame, and eventual isolation. With wisdom rooted in the gospel, Ainsley tenderly brings the listener along her own journey toward confidence found only in Jesus. She embraced her identity and left BooBoo Dudes behind. Every woman can do the same.

In Go Outside, Jared and Becky Wilson imagine the advice they’d give if they could travel back in time. Like Solomon in Ecclesiastes, as we get older, we lament and regret the desires and behaviors of our youth. But what if you could avoid some of the pitfalls and pain so many people experience?

Today’s youth struggle with difficult questions of sexual identity. How can a youth worker offer wise care and counsel on such a controversial and confusing subject? Mark Yarhouse, director of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity, writes to equip youth ministers so they can faithfully navigate the topic of sexual identity in a way that is honest, compassionate, and accessible.

We label people like we all work in the shipping department at Amazon. Labels slap an oversimplified, clickbait definition on who we are and what we value, as if the sum of all we are can fit neatly on a self-adhesive tag positioned just above our shirt pocket. What if we lost the labels? What if all the labels, both self-applied or others attached, no longer clung to you, defined you, or controlled you? A label-free life awaits you.

Facet by facet this internationally acclaimed Christian thinker examines life and the universal search for its meaning. What is "the call"? Far bigger than our jobs, deeper than our personal accomplishments, higher than our wildest ideas of self-fulfillment, our "calling" addresses the very essence of our existence. Discovering it in times past has changed whole nations and cultures. It could do the same to ours. A classic reflective work in the tradition of C. S. Lewis and Oswald Chambers, now ready to challenge the latest generation of high school and college graduates.

Get ready for a crash course in effective communication. More than just a book on how to "do talks," Speaking to Teenagers combines the experience and wisdom of two veteran youth ministry speakers, along with insightful research and practical tools, to help you develop messages that engage students with the love of Christ and the power of his Word. Whether you're crafting a five-minute devotional or a 30-minute sermon, Speaking to Teenagers is essential to understanding and preparing great messages.

It's ok for you to have questions about your faith. You aren't the only one that has those questions, and you shouldn't be embarrassed by them. In Discover: Questioning Your Way to Faith, Mike McGarry explores the twenty most common questions teenagers ask.

The Good Samaritan is a first-of-its-kind catechism written specifically for young people (ages 6-12) to communicate the unchanging truths of the Orthodox faith in the most accessible and engaging way. This book catechism follows the patristic model of sin as illness, Christ as the medicine and the church as the hospital for the healing of the soul.

The starting point for In Deep Water: Spiritual Care for Young People in a Climate Crisis is not news: the world as we know it is shifting. Several millennia of climate stability have come to an abrupt end. But, observes Talitha Amadea Aho, the young people of today do not remember stability. They see the world through crisis-colored glasses. Climate change is creating a spiritual emergency that is hitting their generation harder than any other.

In the 21st century, there are many in the West who are walking away from the church. They are adopting the secular idea that science has somehow invalidated faith. Core Facts is an explanation of some of the best reasons to believe, in the midst of a culture that is plagued with doubt. If you want to see the evidence for yourself, or share it with someone else, this book is designed to give you a foundational look at the facts that have stood the test of time!

This audiobook provides pastors, worship leaders, programming directors, and arts ministry leaders with the vision and core values necessary for building arts teams that can create the potential for transformational moments in church.

Many teens are active in church youth programs, yet drop out of church later in life and never return. Other young adults rest on the merits of their parents' faith without ever experiencing their own relationship with Jesus Christ. In this book, the authors seek to help teenagers who have grown up in Christian homes by reminding them of the blessings of growing up in a Christian home, warning them of some of the dangers they face, providing practical suggestions for avoiding these dangers, and urging them to think and live in a way that pleases God.

For youth workers, volunteers, denominations and other leaders who want the youth retreat to end in the parking lot instead of the emergency room.

After twelve years of ministering to students on public campuses, Brian Barcelona's world turned upside down when public schools shut down in March 2020. He wondered if his ministry was over until two teenagers challenged him to minister using his smartphone and digital platforms—methods he had no idea how to use effectively.