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Book Review: The Promise of Despair by Andrew Root

Last Updated July 28, 2010 by Matt Leave a Comment

Quite the title, isn’t it? Yes, The Promise of Despair: The Way of the Cross as the Way of the Church by Andrew Root has quite the suggestive title, but that is part of the point. This is a book about death, in both a literal and symbolic sense. Death is not limited to people […]

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Theology Tagged With: death, despair, Luther, theology of the cross, Andrew Root

The Best Podcast: Homebrewed Christianity

Last Updated July 26, 2010 by Matt 6 Comments

If you are a theology nerd, like me, there is no better podcast out there right now than Homebrewed Christianity. It’s awesome for all the right reasons: Killer Guests. Each week they interview a guest, usually someone who has recently released a book (but not always). Their past guests have included: Andrew Root, N.T. Wright […]

Filed Under: Theology

Sophisticated Youth Ministry and a Theology of Mission Trips

Last Updated July 21, 2010 by Matt 6 Comments

A youth minister, a theologian, and a tech guru log onto Twitter… So began a theological debate last week about mission trips carried on in 140 character increments amongst Andy Root, Adam McLane, and myself. It all started when Andy posted this little snippet of theological provocation: the point of mission trips is to invite […]

Filed Under: Theology, Youth Ministry Tagged With: laypeople, laypersons, leadership, mission, mission trips

The Weakness of Eucharistic Theology

Last Updated July 20, 2010 by Matt 5 Comments

Greed, in other words, prohibits faith. But the inverse is also true. For it is in the Christian celebration of the Eucharist that we have the prismatic act that makes possible our recognition that God has given us everything we need. The Eucharist not only is the proclamation of abundance, but it is the enactment […]

Filed Under: Ministry, Theology Tagged With: communion, eucharist, Hauerwas, lord's supper

Theology & Youth Ministry Project: Want to help?

Last Updated July 15, 2010 by Matt 4 Comments

Over the past four years of youth ministry I have stayed away from most published curriculum. In most cases, I have tended to take books that I think are provocative, theologically sound and worthwhile and use them to structure my lessons. So, when I taught on Colossians I used Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire by […]

Filed Under: Books, Theology, Youth Ministry Tagged With: bible study, collaboration, lessons, teaching

Rooted: A Theology Conference for Student Ministry

Last Updated July 14, 2010 by Matt 1 Comment

It seems like there have been a bunch of new youth ministry conferences popping up recently, and I wanted to alert you to another one you may not have heard about: Rooted. Anything that bills itself as a “theology conference for student ministry” is worth looking into a bit deeper. I think we have needed […]

Filed Under: Theology, Youth Ministry Tagged With: conference, rooted

The Resurrection, Eschatology, and Youth Ministry

Last Updated December 15, 2009 by Matt 1 Comment

How do we deal with the resurrection of Jesus within our youth ministries? Of course, we talk about Jesus’ resurrection quite a bit (hopefully). But what does that mean? Do we get to experience resurrection now? Do we get to experience resurrection only in the future? Or do we somehow get glimpses and tastes of […]

Filed Under: Theology, Youth Ministry Tagged With: eschatology, resurrection

Rewriting the Lord’s Prayer?

Last Updated October 8, 2009 by Matt 3 Comments

I came across this the other day and wanted to see what kind of response it got. I’ll save my comments for later. For now, how about this rendition of the Lord’s Prayer: Our Mother who is within us we celebrate your many names. Your wisdom come. Your will be done, unfolding from the depths […]

Filed Under: Theology Tagged With: Lord's Prayer

Book Review: Relationships Unfiltered by Andrew Root

Last Updated September 21, 2009 by Matt 2 Comments

Relationships Unfiltered: Help for Youth Workers, Volunteers, and Parents on Creating Authentic Relationships by Andrew Root is a condensed and popularized version of his groundbreaking first book Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation (read my review here). Just a look at the subtitles reveals the shift in […]

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Theology, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Andrew Root, incarnation

Health Care and a Theology of Death

Last Updated September 4, 2009 by Matt 1 Comment

Perhaps it is healthier to be prepared for death and die younger than it is to be afraid of death and constantly try to delay the inevitable. I’ve been trying to keep up with the health care debate since it is a pretty big issue, and there’s been one tactic that has me a bit […]

Filed Under: News, Theology Tagged With: democrats, healthcare, obama, republicans, death, death panels

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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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