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Mission Trips Suck

Last Updated January 15, 2008 by Matt 13 Comments

(Is it sinful to title something provocatively in hopes that people will read it?) Today in class we talked about mission trips. As tends to happen in seminary classes, we ended up quite critical of popular practice. Thankfully, we moved beyond deconstruction and towards construction of a proper mission trip-ish type experience. Something that tended […]

Filed Under: Seminary, Theology, Youth Ministry

Karl Barth on the Church

Last Updated January 14, 2008 by Matt 1 Comment

… as explained by Andrew Root.  According to Root, in CD 4.3 Barth argues the following about the church: The world would be lost without Jesus Christ. The world would not necessarily be lost without the church. The church would be lost of it had no counterpart in the world. Humbling and thought-provoking. Since I […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, Seminary, Theology

Two Quotes…

Last Updated January 13, 2008 by Matt Leave a Comment

… from class this week that have been rolling through my mind (well, they may be close paraphrases, but you get the idea): Our ministries are not ministries to the world, but to God the Father God is not a theologian, but a minister Speaking of class–I was afraid this would happen–my amazon.com wish list […]

Filed Under: Seminary, Theology, Youth Ministry

Discomfort as Normative Ecclesiology

Last Updated January 12, 2008 by Matt 2 Comments

In the class I am currently taking at Luther, we are studying the theology of ministry. More specifically, we are studying the “theology of the cross” as a foundation for ministry. To put it way too simplistically, the theology of the cross is essentially the understanding that the place where God breaks into the world […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, Seminary, Theology

Adventures in Seminary

Last Updated January 10, 2008 by Matt Leave a Comment

It has begun. I’m taking my first seminary class at Luther Seminary (where it is currently 34 degrees–fairly mild) called Ministry with Children, Youth, and Family: Theological and Strategic Frameworks (with Andrew Root). Or it could be called Theology for Ministry with Children, Youth, and Families, if that makes more sense. Two of the foundational […]

Filed Under: Seminary, Theology, Youth Ministry

Why Seminary?

Last Updated November 10, 2007 by Matt 1 Comment

Sorry it’s been so long since posting anything. It’s been a little more hectic the past few weeks for some reason. Anyways, I thought I’d write a little bit about why I’ve decided to go ahead and pursue an M.A. degree from Luther Seminary. Desire. Since my junior year in college I have planned on […]

Filed Under: Christianity, Personal, Seminary, Youth Ministry

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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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