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Marketing as an Anti-Missional Practice

Last Updated November 11, 2008 by Matt 22 Comments

In the podcast that debuted in spectacular fashion on Saturday I made the assertion that church marketing is by nature an anti-missional practice.  Mission sends people out. Marketing seeks to bring people in.  The two are at odds with one another. Makes sense, doesn’t it? So, if you want to be a missional church, cut […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology Tagged With: church marketing, marketing, mission, missional

Why Politics is More Exciting than Christianity

Last Updated November 5, 2008 by Matt 3 Comments

Watching people’s passionate involvement in the intense politics of the past month or so has been an interesting phenomenon.  We literally had millions of people working in one way or another to get their candidates elected, and last night we watched as euphoria erupted over an election of historic proportions. It left me wondering: Why […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, News, Theology Tagged With: 2008 election, eschatology, Politics

A Theology of Geography: Locality and Proximity

Last Updated October 22, 2008 by Matt 8 Comments

I’m up at Luther Seminary this week for an intensive course on Singleness, Marriage, and Family.  As tends to happen, I am viewing much of this course content through the lens of ecclesiology and thinking of the implications of our discussions upon the life of the church. On Monday (I think it was Monday–things run […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, Featured

Is the Financial Crisis the Church’s Fault?

Last Updated October 13, 2008 by Matt Leave a Comment

Tony Jones makes the comment that without a wide swath of our culture subscribing to Calvinism and the “protestant work ethic” free market economies are a thing of the past. Are free markets incompatible with secularism?  Is the only hope for the free markets a Third Great Awakening?  Or maybe the first Global Great Awakening? […]

Filed Under: Christianity, Ecclesiology, News Tagged With: economy

Why are Politics and Theology Directly Related?

Last Updated October 13, 2008 by Matt 1 Comment

I find it interesting as I read blogs of people of certain theological persuasions during election season because you tend to learn their political leanings as well.  In reading through the various blogs this year I’ve noticed that most people on the more liberal end of the theological spectrum are liberal politically, and conservatives are […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, Theology Tagged With: 2008 election, elca, Politics

A Ministry Opportunity

Last Updated October 8, 2008 by Matt Leave a Comment

Last night, in Texas at least, was National Night Out.  I remember growing up one of the couples on our street would host this event every year and it was always a good time to get together with neighbors.  This year I found out about it too late to get involved, and I’m sure the […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology Tagged With: outreach

“Old People,” Change, and the New Facebook

Last Updated October 3, 2008 by Matt 2 Comments

As someone in youth ministry, I often battle the generational conflict that occurs between young people and “old people.”  You know the comments that teenagers like to say: “How come the old people are so stuck in their ways?” “I wish the old people wouldn’t be so against change.” “Why are they so stuck in […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, Youth Ministry Tagged With: change, facebook

Issues in Ecclesiology

Last Updated September 17, 2008 by Matt 3 Comments

I saw someone link to this post and thought it showed so much of what is wrong in the church today.  It shows our current ecclesiology in action. The post comes from a guy who apparently is a DJ on a Christian radio station and he thought it was wierd that chruches charge members for […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology

A Theology of Graduation

Last Updated May 30, 2008 by Matt 4 Comments

I made the following post on the discussion boards at Youth Ministry Exchange: Is it theologically appropriate to recognize graduates in the way we do? Every year we have a breakfast for our high school seniors and then honor them in the service, have a slide show, and they wear their cap and gowns during […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, Theology, Youth Ministry

Will the Mainline Church Lead the Way in Youth Ministry?

Last Updated May 28, 2008 by Matt 5 Comments

A quick thought that needs to be thought out some more: I have witnessed an interesting trend lately, though only anecdotally, so it might not mean anything: many of my youth ministry friends who grew up in conservative evangelicalism are turning to mainline churches (i.e. big centralized denominations: Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, etc.). In thinking […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, Youth Ministry Tagged With: mainline

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Best Youth Ministry Books

These are the books that will completely change the way you think about youth ministry, for the better. Links are to my reviews of each book.

Teen 2.0 by Robert Epstein

A psychologist makes you question every assumption you have about adolescence.

Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry by Andrew Root

Why build relationships? Root’s answer will surprise you.

Best Youth Ministry Books: Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Ostreicher

Yesterday I finally read Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Ostreicher, and since I’m one of the latecomers to the conversation I won’t summarize the book too much. Marko has linked to tons of reviews on his blog if you are interested in more in-depth summaries. If you are fairly in-tune with a lot of the […]

Best Youth Ministry Books: Postmodern Youth Ministry

Postmodern Youth Ministry by Tony Jones is the book I would recommend to youth ministers if they could just read one youth ministry book. I first read the book in my Foundations and Practices of Youth Ministry class at John Brown University. After the preface to the book there is a page titled, “The Day […]

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