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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

Christian Smith and Young Adults: “No Regrets”

Last Updated February 6, 2010 by Matt Leave a Comment

So, it may not be the best prose or the kind of book that makes you want to curl up next to a fire with a cup of coffee, but the latest book by Christian Smith sure is fascinating. It reports on the next phase of the National Study of Youth and Religion (the first […]

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: christian smith, emerging adults, souls in transition, young adults

Reggie McNeal: Who is this for?

Last Updated October 3, 2009 by Matt 2 Comments

Reggie McNeal, in his book The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church describes a comment from a pastor after listening to McNeal speak. I think it is a great way to begin to help people understand the mission mindset: “From now on, when some idea comes up for something new to do at […]

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: reggie mcneal

Reggie McNeal on the Bible

Last Updated September 19, 2009 by Matt 1 Comment

Reggie McNeal, a Baptist, in his book The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church says this about the Bible in North America: The current dilemma with how we use the Bible is twofold. One is that in the last gasps of the modern church, we have made Bible study in itself a mark […]

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: bible, bible study, bibliology, christian education, reggie mcneal

Phyllis Tickle on Homosexuality

Last Updated September 5, 2009 by Matt 1 Comment

I just finished Phyllis Tickle’s The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why last week and read the quote below the day after I returned from the ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Given the nature of what happened that previous week, it stuck out. It’s an interesting historical analysis. To approach any of the arguments and […]

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: Phyllis Tickle

Craig Van Gelder on the Church as Hermeneutic

Last Updated June 27, 2009 by Matt Leave a Comment

From The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit: As the church lives “into” and “out of” the biblical story, its life is transformed by its power. The biblical story is contextualized in the life of the church. The church becomes, in fact, the hermeneutic of the gospel. That is, the world […]

Filed Under: Quotes

Craig Van Gelder on Word and Sacrament

Last Updated June 20, 2009 by Matt Leave a Comment

More from The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit: The Reformers’ intent was to return the Word to the center of life within local congregations. But singling out preaching and sacraments can produce several problems in how the ministry of the church is understood and practiced. These include (a) the tendency […]

Filed Under: Quotes

Craig Van Gelder on Corporate Salvation

Last Updated June 13, 2009 by Matt 1 Comment

Continuing with quotes from Craig Van Gelder’s The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit: Defining salvation in individual terms is biblical, but it is not all that the Bible teaches. The Spirit of God is creating a new community as the body of Christ. While salvation is always individual in its […]

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: Craig Van Gelder, salvation

Craig Van Gelder on the Holiness of the Church

Last Updated June 6, 2009 by Matt Leave a Comment

From Craig Van Gelder’s The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit: In understanding the holiness of the church we need to remember that the “holiness of the church does not stem from its members and their moral and religious behavior.” [1] The issue is not who we are as humans, but […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, Quotes Tagged With: Holy Spirit

Rollie Martinson on a Theology of Youth Ministry

Last Updated May 30, 2009 by Matt Leave a Comment

I’m reading Rollie Martinson’s 1988 youth ministry classic Effective Youth Ministry: A Congregational Approach for this class I’m about to take (do you see a trend here?). I’m not very far through it yet, but so far it reads as a fairly robust and grounded approach to ministry (i.e not 20 years old). Here’s a […]

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: Rollie Martinson

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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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