Download or read book The Godbearing Life Revised Edition written by Kenda Creasy Dean and published by Upper Room Books. This book was released on 2023-03-01 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A generation ago, The Godbearing Life charted a new course for youth ministry to fuel the faith both of young people and the adults who minister with them. It is founded on the truth that we are all Godbearers to one another, and therefore youth ministry is more about people than programs. Youth ministry is ministry that invites young people into deep soul work and spiritual friendships. Like the original, The Godbearing Life, Revised Edition is conversationally written, grounded in scripture, and grows out of all three authors' own pastoral experience. The update addresses the profound shifts in society and ministry over the past twenty-five years—from the interconnection of technology to the professionalization of youth ministry. This book reimagines the means of Godbearing youth ministry in a post-pandemic digital age in the twenty-first century while holding on to the fact that young people are continuously transformed by the message. The Godbearing Life, Revised Edition offers a new generation of church leaders the same depth of spiritual wisdom that shifted the ground for youth workers two decades ago. The basic message is this: young people need adults who practice faith alongside them.
Download or read book The Godbearing Life written by Kenda Creasy Dean and published by . This book was released on 2022-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In The Godbearing Life, the authors offer a lively spiritual primer and practical guide for those who pastor young people. Dean, Foster, and DeWald rechart a course for youth ministry through the classical spiritual disciplines of the church"--
Download or read book Almost Christian written by Kenda Creasy Dean and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-07-16 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the National Study of Youth and Religion--the same invaluable data as its predecessor, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers--Kenda Creasy Dean's compelling new book, Almost Christian, investigates why American teenagers are at once so positive about Christianity and at the same time so apathetic about genuine religious practice. In Soul Searching, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton found that American teenagers have embraced a "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism"--a hodgepodge of banal, self-serving, feel-good beliefs that bears little resemblance to traditional Christianity. But far from faulting teens, Dean places the blame for this theological watering down squarely on the churches themselves. Instead of proclaiming a God who calls believers to lives of love, service and sacrifice, churches offer instead a bargain religion, easy to use, easy to forget, offering little and demanding less. But what is to be done? In order to produce ardent young Christians, Dean argues, churches must rediscover their sense of mission and model an understanding of being Christian as not something you do for yourself, but something that calls you to share God's love, in word and deed, with others. Dean found that the most committed young Christians shared four important traits: they could tell a personal and powerful story about God; they belonged to a significant faith community; they exhibited a sense of vocation; and they possessed a profound sense of hope. Based on these findings, Dean proposes an approach to Christian education that places the idea of mission at its core and offers a wealth of concrete suggestions for inspiring teens to live more authentically engaged Christian lives. Persuasively and accessibly written, Almost Christian is a wake up call no one concerned about the future of Christianity in America can afford to ignore.
Download or read book Mad Church Disease written by Anne Jackson and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mad Church Disease is a lively, informative, and potentially life-saving resource for anyone in ministry---vocational or volunteer---who would like to understand, prevent, or treat the epidemic of burnout in churches. The book draws on research and interviews with leaders from across the United States, providing statistics, stories, and hope for healing.
Download or read book Relationships Unfiltered written by Andrew Root and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than 50 years, relational or incarnational ministry has been a major focus in youth ministry. But for too long, those relationships have been used as tools—as a means to an end—where adults try to influence students to accept, know, trust, believe, or participate in something. While our motives may be good, it’s possible that by focusing on these goals, we’re not ministering the whole person. When we choose not to engage in the full life of a student, we run the risk of failing them and our ministry. In this thoughtful and insightful book, Andrew Root challenges us to reconsider our motives and begin to consider simply being with and doing life alongside teenagers with no agenda other than to love them right where they are, by place-sharing. As he shares stories of his (and others’) successes and failures in relational youth ministry, you’ll find practical ideas to help you recreate the role of relationships in your youth ministry. If you’re involved in the lives of teenagers, whether as a youth pastor, volunteer youth worker, church leader, or parent, you’ll want to read this book and work together to discover the value of place-sharing in the lives of teens. You’ll see that it’s time to tear down the old structure of relational youth ministry and start again.
Download or read book The End of the Christian Life written by J. Todd Billings and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We're all going to die. Yet in our medically advanced, technological age, many of us see death as a distant reality--something that happens only at the end of a long life or to other people. In The End of the Christian Life, Todd Billings urges Christians to resist that view. Instead, he calls us to embrace our mortality in our daily life and faith. This is the journey of genuine discipleship, Billings says: following the crucified and resurrected Lord in a world of distraction and false hopes. Drawing on his experience as a professor and father living with incurable cancer, Billings offers a personal yet deeply theological account of the gospel's expansive hope for small, mortal creatures. Artfully weaving rich theology with powerful narrative, Billings writes for church leaders and laypeople alike. Whether we are young or old, reeling from loss or clinging to our own prosperity, this book challenges us to walk a strange but wondrous path: in the midst of joy and lament, to receive mortal limits as a gift, an opportunity to give ourselves over to the Lord of life.
Download or read book Soul Tending written by Anne Broyles and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soul Tending expands on the ideas Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster put forth in The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry (published by Upper Room) and offers a practical way for senior high youth and young adults to study spiritual disciplines while strengthening relationships among participants. The study includes lessons on inward, outward, and corporate disciplines. The goal is that Christ would be formed in each participant. Youth and adults co-journ together as they examine classical and contemporary disciplines, supporting one another, and intentionally seeking encounters with God. Key Features: -- Easy-to-use format allows group members to chart their own course through the book -- 43 sessions give participants plenty of material to choose from for a spiritual life retreat, an occasional session, a seasonal study for Lent or Advent, a short-term option, or a weekly covenant group -- The role of the leader/facilitator can change each time the group meets -- The teaching component can be used as a large group session, or as the basis for discussion in the small group or spiritual life retreat
Download or read book Contemplative Youth Ministry written by Mark Yaconelli and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2011-03-22 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Contemplative Youth Ministry is refreshing rain for dry youth workers and barren youth ministries. More than the same old youth ministry tips and tricks, it gives principles and practices to soak in God’s grace, love, and power. I wish I had read it 15 years ago.” - Kara Powell, Ph.D., executive director, Center for Youth Ministry and Family Ministry, Fuller Theological Seminary “Mark invites readers to be encountered by the presence of Jesus who is always near. This book is transparent about the challenges that churches and families face as they desire to be effective in youth ministry. The book is filled with the honest stories of different kinds of youth ministries representing the breadth of Christianity in the United States. I heartily endorse Contemplative Youth Ministry as a rich encounter with the souls of youth and adults whose lives have been transformed by our very present God.” - Bill Kees, director of youth ministries, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) “Mark Yaconelli not only reminds us of some of the long-forgotten pathways of faith, he shares with us how it actually looks when men and women who love God practice it with young people. I especially appreciate Mark’s optimism in his perspective of today’s kids, for his insights are grounded in God’s view of them.” - Chap Clark, Ph.D., associate professor of youth, family, and culture, Fuller Theological Seminary “Mark Yaconelli was experimenting with contemplative youth ministry practices before contemplative youth ministry practices became cool. This book has about it the unique air of authenticity. He shares with us in these pages his own journey as a youth worker who actually believes that God’s still small voice speaks louder than the roaring windstorm of our busy youth ministry calendars. It’s a book about creating for our students places of silence and opening up spaces for God to speak.” - Duffy Robbins, professor of youth ministry, Eastern University; author of Enjoy the Silence and This Way to Youth Ministry “Mark Yaconelli has emerged as one of youth ministry’s most provocative ‘voices in the wilderness,’ calling us back to our theological taproots: The contemplative practices that bind our lives to the life of Christ. If Mark’s research has taught us anything, it’s that these practices do not cause youth ministry to take fl ight into a spiritual never-never land; rather they anchor young people—and their churches—in the fertile soil of Christian tradition, in the nitty-gritty of daily life, and in the explosive transformation that awaits us when we wait upon God.” - Kenda Creasy Dean, parent, pastor, and professor of youth, Princeton Theological Seminary; author of Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church
Download or read book The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry written by Andrew Root and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2011-09-12 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The questions our youth have are often the same ones that perplexed the great theologians. Andrew Root and Kenda Creasy Dean invite you to envision youth ministries full of practical theologians. Follow them into reflection on your own practice of theology, and learn how to share that theology through rich conversation and purposeful experience.
Download or read book Godbearing written by Elaine A. Robinson and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author takes a different approach to evangelism in this book that moves beyond the traditional paradigms that cause discomfort to most mainline Christians. She reconceives the language of evangelism to speak of Godbearing as a practice of the individual Christian and the church conceived as bearing the Christ-character within oneself and bearing God to others for the purpose of furthering life.
Download or read book The God Hungry Imagination written by Sarah Arthur and published by Upper Room Books. This book was released on 2007-10-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What kind of story is your church telling? Ministry experts describe our culture as having "lost its story." Through neglect or rejection, the next generation seems unplugged from the church's core beliefs. For the most part, young people simply do not feel part of the ongoing, communal story. Paradoxically, this has occurred at a time when youth have fully embraced social networks that connect the world in self-obsessed "I" narratives. This world is starving for a story bigger than what you find on Facebook and YouTube. Sarah Arthur emphasizes the importance of story, an intrinsic aspect of the Christian faith but an aspect that is often overlooked in ministry, especially youth ministry. Arthur shows how youth ministry can be planned as a transforming series of story moments instead of programming. She weaves together her personal experiences and insights along with the sociological work on the faith of teenagers from the book Soul Searching by Christian Smith and Melinda Denton. Repeatedly and unapologetically, Arthur stresses the importance of a distinct Christian language for teenagers. If teens can't speak the Christian language, they don't know the Christian story. If they don't know the Christian story, they don't know how Christians are supposed to live. So what's her solution to this narrative deficiency? The idea of youth ministers as bards, or storytellers. Arthur reminds youth ministers that their primary task is to tell the Christian story, to reclaim the imagination as part of spiritual formation, and to reclaim the church as God's ongoing story. This book would be insightful for all ministers, not only those who work with youth. It can help us make a significant shift in the way we think about and approach ministry in the postmodern world.
Download or read book The Five Questions written by Jos de Kock and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-11-03 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research in youth ministry has excelled and developed rapidly over the last four decades. Youth ministry is not just a church practice, but has become an emerging academic discipline, with a variety of methodological, theoretical, and contextual approaches. This academic handbook offers an assessment of contemporary youth ministry research to assist students doing bachelor, master, and doctoral research, and youth ministry scholars, in their studies of youth ministry. By examining youth ministry research through the lens of the following five fundamental questions, the reader is challenged to engage with state-of-the-art theory, methods, and findings from current youth ministry research: • Who are the youth in youth ministry? • Where is God in youth ministry? • What is the purpose of youth ministry? • Who is the youth minister in youth ministry? • How to research practices in youth ministry? The academic handbook is a must-read for everyone who is interested in systematic reflection on youth ministry and youth ministry research.
Download or read book An American Commentary on the New Testament written by Alvah Hovey and published by . This book was released on 1888 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Practicing Passion written by Kenda Creasy Dean and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2004-04-26 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church.
Download or read book Loving God Loving Neighbor written by Peggy Kendall; Claire Smith; Tim Ke and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2008-04-01 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In almost every congregation, there is a searching youth who is somehow different from the rest, one who thinks more deeply, asks more questions, and wants to make a difference in the world. This young person may be seen as a loner, an upstart, or someone who does not fi t. Youth workers may not know what to do with these inquisitive youth, and a youth program that meets the congregation’s expectations probably won’t connect with the needs and interests of searching youth. Eventually, searching youth turn into searching adults who continue to “stir things up” and enrich the life of our congregations with their questions, insights, witness, and service. These young people have the capacity and ability to provide signifi cant leadership in our congregations now and in the future. Because of their unique gifts, we are offering this book as a resource for pastors, teachers, and youth leaders who work with them. In this book, faculty members, students, and recent graduates of Saint Paul School of Theology look through the eyes of their academic disciplines and ministry experience to explore the foundations for ministry with searching youth and to offer designs for your ministry.
Download or read book Teaching the Faith Forming the Faithful written by Gary A. Parrett and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the decline of traditional Sunday school and education programs in recent years, many Christians have not learned the fundamental doctrinal content of the faith. In this text Gary Parrett and Steve Kang set forth a thoroughly biblical vision for intentional teaching of the Christian faith that attends to both the content and process of educational and formational ministries.
Download or read book God s Power to Help Hurting People written by Colleen Birchett and published by Urban Ministries Inc. This book was released on 2006-03 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover how to help those who are hurting through this practical and encouraging study. Each chapter tells the story of one person's emotional crisis, a soul cry for help, and a corresponding Bible personality who had the same ardent crisis. Learn to effectively minister God's power over 12 commonly experienced emotions by hurting people including, guilt, insecurity, loneliness, fear, anxiety, low self-esteem, grief, and anger.
