MattCleaver.com

Reimagining Youth Ministry

  • Home
  • Youth Ministry has Failed
  • Best Youth Ministry Books
  • Church Websites
  • Contact Me

“Youth Group T-Shirts are Stupid”

Last Updated July 22, 2010 by Matt 23 Comments

For a while now, I’ve wanted to make a youth group t-shirt that said just that when we went to a big youth event where there would likely be a bunch of youth groups with their own t-shirts. I wonder if people would get it. But, alas, we haven’t ever made that kind of t-shirt, […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry Tagged With: t-shirts

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 Most Significant Factor in Youth Spiritual Maturity? Prayer

Last Updated July 19, 2010 by Matt 4 Comments

A while ago, it has been months now, I asked some of the students at our church: out of all the things that our church or youth ministry did, what was it that they believed formed their faith most significantly? I threw out things like mission trips, worship, retreats, Bible studies, small groups, special events […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry Tagged With: emergent, emerging worship, prayer, spiritual formation, worship

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

Teen 2.0 by Robert Epstein

Last Updated August 20, 2015 by Matt 7 Comments

A psychologist makes you question every assumption you have about adolescence.

Filed Under: Best Youth Ministry Books, Book Reviews, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Epstein, psychology

Everyone in Youth Ministry Doesn’t Agree About…

Last Updated July 12, 2010 by Matt Leave a Comment

Even though youth ministry has come a long way and there is a lot of good stuff that is pretty much standard fare, I think there are still a lot of unsettled issues in youth ministry. Among them: Are teenagers children or adults? To what extent can youth lead? How do we cultivate true leadership? […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry

Everyone in Youth Ministry Agrees That…

Last Updated July 8, 2010 by Matt 9 Comments

Okay, well maybe not everyone agrees about these things, but it seems like we have come to a point in youth ministry that what once was cutting edge thinking is now pretty much standard fare. So, let’s stop trying to convince each other that: Youth ministry cannot be a completely separate ministry apart from rest […]

Filed Under: Youth Ministry

Kenda Creasy Dean on Teen Faith

Last Updated June 29, 2010 by Matt 1 Comment

There’s a recent interview with Princeton Seminary professor Kendra Creasy Dean about her new book, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church. The book is written towards mainline churches as a result of the National Study on Youth and Religion (which is outlined in the books Soul Searching and […]

Filed Under: Books, Quotes, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Kenda Creasy Dean, Quotes

Where Was God When…?

Last Updated June 28, 2010 by Matt Leave a Comment

I have been asked to participate in a blog tour for a new book by Mike Calhoun: Where Was God When? I have not read the book or know much about Mike, so this isn’t necessarily an endorsement, but their idea of the blog tour was so interesting that I decided to participate. If you […]

Filed Under: Books, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Mike Calhoun

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 15
  • Next Page »

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 […]

You can find my new blog on philosophy and teaching at MattCleaver.com

Search

Archives

Categories

  • Best Youth Ministry Books (4)
  • Blogging (42)
  • Blogroll (1)
  • Book Reviews (17)
  • Books (32)
  • Christianity (50)
  • Ecclesiology (52)
  • emerging church (13)
  • Featured (8)
  • Links (27)
  • Ministry (4)
  • Neo-Youth Ministry (8)
  • News (25)
  • Personal (69)
  • Podcast (4)
  • Quotes (14)
  • Random (43)
  • Seminary (16)
  • Theology (48)
  • Uncategorized (50)
  • Websites (15)
  • WordPress (1)
  • Youth Ministry (149)

Copyright © 2022 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in