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10 Things Youth Ministry Needs Less

Last Updated August 19, 2015 by Matt 54 Comments

There’s been some talk lately about the future of youth ministry. I’ve posted some of my thoughts before, but when I think about the future, there are certain things I’d like to see more and certain things I would like to see less. Up today, ten things I’d like to see less: Youth Ministers – […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry, Featured Tagged With: future

The 3 Spheres of Youth Ministry

Last Updated May 29, 2009 by Matt 9 Comments

Luther Seminary continues to put out quality research related to youth ministry. I got to participate in one of the webinars they have just developed to make this research accessible to the average church leader called the Exemplary Youth Ministry Online Seminar. In this one-hour seminar they go over the basics of the Exemplary Youth […]

Filed Under: Featured, Youth Ministry Tagged With: exemplary youth ministry study, EYM, luther seminary

13 Reasons Why (Traditional) Seminaries are Irrelevant (For Church Leaders): Part 1

Last Updated April 28, 2009 by Matt 16 Comments

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Seminary

The other day Jake Belder linked to a post about 5 Reasons Seminary is Relevant. As someone who is in seminary and also interested in how to best train and equip church leaders I found this post interesting while at the same time disagreeing profoundly. Below is my response, but first I should qualify that […]

Filed Under: Seminary, Featured Tagged With: association of theological schools, distributed learning, luther seminary

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

Neo-Youth Ministry Series Introduction

Last Updated February 1, 2007 by Matt Leave a Comment

This entry is part 1 of 13 in the series Neo-Youth Ministry

As most of you very well know, the prefix neo simply means new. In order to affix this label to a word, the “new” understanding of the word must be so different than the previous understanding to warrant the neo prefix, rather than just slightly adjusting the meaning of the old word. However, at the […]

Filed Under: Featured, Youth Ministry

Issues in Youth Ministry

Last Updated November 30, 2006 by Matt 4 Comments

Tim Schmoyer is doing a series on current issues in youth ministry. I wasn’t one of the 21 people asked to weigh-in on the topic (because, well, I don’t know him) but I can still post my own thoughts on my blog. So I will! Some of my emergent/emerging tendencies will be evident in my […]

Filed Under: Featured, Youth Ministry

The Freedom of Failure

Last Updated October 20, 2006 by Matt Leave a Comment

So, my post a couple of weeks ago may have been a bit on the negative side. I talked about the doom and gloom of youth ministry and how if it didn’t change, it would simply die. If anyone happened to read the post, they probably would have thought I was a pretty stark pessimist. […]

Filed Under: Featured, Youth Ministry

The Next 50 Years of Youth Ministry: Becoming Theologians

Last Updated October 5, 2006 by Matt 9 Comments

Marko brought my attention to the latest issue of Christianity Today, which celebrates it’s 50th anniversary issue.  Among other things, there is an article on the next 50 years of youth ministry and what it may bring.  The typical people give their input: Kenda Dean, Walt Mueller, Chap Clark, Marko, and others.  But, as Marko […]

Filed Under: Featured, Youth Ministry

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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