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An Alternative to Calling People Biblical Literalists

Last Updated September 3, 2009 by Matt 6 Comments

I was having a conversation with my students tonight about different denominations and what distinguishes us as a Lutheran church. Being a part of a Lutheran church within a few miles of bastions of Baptist (Southwestern Baptist Seminary) and dispensationalist (Dallas Theological Seminary) theology, we are definitely in the minority. Most of my students go […]

Filed Under: Theology Tagged With: bibliology, hermeneutics

Vision Statement for YM Leadership – Foundation: Theological Practice

Last Updated June 15, 2009 by Matt Leave a Comment

This three-part series is part of a paper I had to write for a class in 2008. I thought it made good summer blog content. I welcome your thoughts. The grounding principle in my approach to ministry with adolescents begins with the conviction that youth ministry, as with any form of Christian ministry, is fundamentally […]

Filed Under: Theology, Youth Ministry Tagged With: statement, vision

Want a Free Theological Resource for Ministry?

Last Updated April 14, 2009 by Matt 4 Comments

Free Resource Suggest an idea in the comments for a free theological ministry resource My current online course at Luther Seminary is “Overview of Christian Teaching,” an introductory theology class. As part of our final project we can either take an exam, write a 9-12 page paper, or do some project that can be used […]

Filed Under: Seminary, Theology, Youth Ministry Tagged With: resource, free

Theology in Real Life

Last Updated April 2, 2009 by Matt 1 Comment

As I said in my last post, I am taking a basic theology class in seminary right now, and almost every week we have some case study about how to deal with varying theological problems and heresies that might appear in our churches. As this class progresses, I am seeing a pattern in my responses: […]

Filed Under: Theology

Theodicy and Hurricane Katrina

Last Updated April 1, 2009 by Matt Leave a Comment

We had an interesting exercise in my seminary class last week, and I thought I would post it. The class is Overview of Christian Teachings, a basic theology class. we were studying the nature of providence and the professor provided the following prompt. My response is below. “The editor of Faith & Values has called […]

Filed Under: Seminary, Theology Tagged With: hurricane katrina, theodicy

My Dream Youth Ministry Communication Application

Last Updated February 18, 2009 by Matt 16 Comments

No, it doesn’t exist yet, but I wish it did. If any super web-savvy people (who also happen to have a ton of money or can get people to invest) could pull this off, they could make a killing off of this idea for an application. It would be especially helpful in youth ministry but […]

Filed Under: Theology, Youth Ministry Tagged With: web 2.0, communication, email, facebook, myspace, text messaging, twitter

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

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 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

Now Reading: The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics by Stanley Hauerwas

Last Updated May 18, 2008 by Matt Leave a Comment

I also started another book this week: The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer In Christian Ethics. I’ve had the book for a while and have wanted to read something by Hauerwas, who intrigues me even though I’ve never read anything of his. I got introduced to him via quotes I read on blogs and these videos […]

Filed Under: Books, Theology Tagged With: ethics, Hauerwas

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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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