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Stop Kony 2012 in your Youth Ministry

Last Updated March 8, 2012 by Matt 2 Comments

If you’ve been in the youth ministry world for a while, it is likely that you were aware of Invisible Children before the #StopKony campaign blew up the internet yesterday. I didn’t know anything about the campaign until one of my youth posted the video on FaceBook yesterday at about 7:30am. A few clicks of […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry Tagged With: #stopkony #kony2012

High School & College Faith

Last Updated January 12, 2012 by Matt 1 Comment

My friend Noah is writing a book about transitioning your faith as you graduate from high school to college, called Face to Faith (you should go check out the website… he is posting blogs related to the book, and the best comments will be incorporated into the book). It got me to thinking about my […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry

Help Me Win $500

Last Updated December 20, 2011 by Matt Leave a Comment

My blog post “10 Things Youth Ministry Needs Less” was nominated for the best blog post of 2011 at YouthMin.org! Now, it is up to a vote to narrow down the 32 nominees to the best post of the year, with the winner receiving over $500 worth of goodies in “Books, iTunes gift cards, Starbucks […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry

The Gospel According to Chopin

Last Updated June 29, 2011 by Matt 2 Comments

Earlier this month I was taking a seminary class at Luther Seminary with John Roberto of Lifelong Faith Associates. During one of the classes, he showed us what may be the best TED video I’ve ever seen. It could be titled, “The Gospel According to Chopin” (by the way, I am in no way a […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, Youth Ministry Tagged With: church, discipleship, gospel

10 Things I’ve Learned in 5 Years of Youth Ministry

Last Updated June 1, 2011 by Matt 13 Comments

Five years ago today I officially began my job as the Youth Director at Hope Lutheran Church, my first job after graduating from John Brown University in May 2006. I thought it would be helpful to reflect on what I learned over the past five years about myself, ministry, and my context. I reserve the […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry

10 Things Youth Ministry Needs More

Last Updated August 19, 2015 by Matt 11 Comments

10 Things Youth Ministry Needs Less

My last post on 10 Things Youth Ministry Needs Less generated a lot more discussion than I expected. The comments left on that post were quite insightful, so make sure to go back and read the 43 comments if you haven’t yet. But the point of my last post wasn’t to simply be a critic, […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry

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: Featured, Youth Ministry Tagged With: future

Is Planning Anti-Missional?

Last Updated August 19, 2010 by Matt 6 Comments

Since this spring, when I found out that my wife’s job was going to keep us in the area for another 4 years, I’ve been thinking about what I want the next 4 years of ministry to look like. A little while back I put together a tentative scope and sequence chart that outlines the […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry Tagged With: planning, programs, scope and sequence, sunday school

The Waning Adolescent Rite of Passage: Driving

Last Updated August 3, 2010 by Matt 10 Comments

After just reading Teen 2.0 last month, I read in this month’s edition of Car and Driver magazine that the Washington Post reports that only 30 percent of 16 year olds in 2008 received driver’s licenses, as opposed to 45 percent 20 years ago. Methinks the two are related. I remember being so upset when […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry Tagged With: driver's license, driving, rite of passage, teens

Get a FREE Copy of Relationships Unfiltered by Andrew Root

Last Updated July 27, 2010 by Matt 4 Comments

[NOTE: THE FREE COPY OF THE BOOK IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. 230 BOOKS GOT MAILED OUT. BUT READ BELOW TO FIND OUT HOW TO GET 40% OFF THE BOOK] Below is a message from Andrew Root, Associate Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, and author of the books Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, […]

Filed Under: Books, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Andrew Root, free, small groups

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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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