Girltalk Godtalk

In this refreshing account of the faith lives of adolescent girls and the roles parents play in shaping that faith, 50 girls from 12 different denominations tell deeply personal stories about what it means to be young, female, and Christian.

More than ever, women need girlfriendsâpeople they can walkand talk with, hug and cry with. The joy and comfort found between girlfriendsreflects in small measure what believers can experience in their relationshipwith God. Through the lens of friendship, Sally Millerreveals ways women can build an ongoing, meaningful prayer conversation with God... spending time with our friends draws us closer together the more time we spend with God, the more intimate we become friendships come in all shapes prayer can take many forms listening is sometimes more important than speaking hearing what God has to say motivates and energizes us Girl Talk...God Talk showsreaders how to experience a dynamic relationship with Jesus.

Sexuality and faith—formation for a lifetime

Christianity regards teaching as one of the most foundational and critically sustaining ministries of the Church. As a result, Christian education remains one of the largest and oldest continuously functioning educational systems in the world, comprising both formal day schools and higher education institutions as well as informal church study groups and parachurch ministries in more than 140 countries. In The Encyclopedia of Christian Education, contributors explore the many facets of Christian education in terms of its impact on curriculum, literacy, teacher training, outcomes, and professional standards. This encyclopedia is the first reference work devoted exclusively to chronicling the unique history of Christian education across the globe, illustrating how Christian educators pioneered such educational institutions and reforms as universal literacy, home schooling, Sunday schools, women’s education, graded schools, compulsory education of the deaf and blind, and kindergarten. With an editorial advisory board of more than 30 distinguished scholars and five consulting editors, TheEncyclopedia of Christian Education contains more than 1,200 entries by 400 contributors from 75 countries. These volumes covers a vast range of topics from Christian education: History spanning from the church’s founding through the Middle Ages to the modern day Denominational and institutional profiles Intellectual traditions in Christian education Biblical and theological frameworks, curricula, missions, adolescent and higher education, theological training, and Christian pedagogy Biographies of distinguished Christian educators This work is ideal for scholars of both the history of Christianity and education, as well as researchers and students of contemporary Christianity and modern religious education.

Clear and well-defined identities are hard to sustain in a rapidly shifting world. Peoples, goods, and cultures are on the move. The internet and other technologies increase the amount, the speed, and the intensity of cultural exchanges. Individuals, organizations, and nations develop complex identities out of many traditions, different ideals, various ways of life, and many models of organization. Religious traditions both collide and interact, with spiritual journeys crossing religious boundaries. In this book, more than 20 contributors from different backgrounds and academic disciplines offer an array of practical theological perspectives to help understand these complex identities and negotiate this shifting world. (Series: International Practical Theology - Vol. 17) [Subject: Religious Studies, Cultural Studies]

Editors Mary Elizabeth Moore and Almeda M. Wright address the harsh, challenging, and delicate realities of children and youth who live as spiritual beings within a beautiful yet destructive world. Providing a practical theological analysis of the spiritual yearnings, expressions, and challenges of children and youth in a world of rapid change, dislocation, violence, and competing loyalties, Children, Youth, and Spirituality in a Troubling World provides readers with a purposeful conversation on this important topic. This book will serve as more than a collection; it will be a genuine conversation, which will in turn stir lively conversation among scholars, theological students, and Christian communities that seek to understand and respond more adequately in ministries to and with children and youth. Contributors include: Claire Bischoff, Susanne Johnson, Jennie S. Knight, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Mary Elizabeth Moore, Joyce Ann Mercer, Veronice Miles, Rodger Nishioka, Evelyn Parker, Luther E. Smith Jr., Joshua Thomas, Katherine Turpin, David White, Almeda Wright, and Karen Marie Yust.

Increasingly, adolescents and young adults in the United States are racially and socioeconomically diverse, while the teaching population remains predominantly white and middle class. Many youth ministry programs that utilize volunteer mentors recruit adults who are ill-equipped to bridge cultural differences and effectively build sustainable relationships with adolescents who come from different backgrounds than their own. College and university campus ministries that are historically white struggle to provide adequate support and mentoring for students who have traditionally not been represented in the college population. Often, mentoring relationships break down over cultural misunderstandings. As educators who come from backgrounds marked by privilege, Katherine Turpin and Anne Carter Walker draw from their experiences in an intentionally culturally diverse youth ministry program to name the challenges and inadequacies of ministry with young people from marginalized communities. Through engaging case studies and vignettes, the authors re-examine the assumptions about youth agency, vocational development, educational practice, and mentoring. Offering concrete guidelines and practices for working effectively across lines of difference, Nurturing Different Dreams invites readers to consider their own cultural assumptions and practices for mentoring adolescents, and assists readers in analyzing and transforming their practices of mentoring young people who come from different communities than their own.

Investigating the hitherto unexplored topic of how young people understand and relate to religious diversity in the social context in which they are growing up, this book makes a significant contribution to the existing body of literature on religious diversity and multiculturalism. It closes a gap in knowledge about young people’s attitudes to religious diversity, and reports data gathered across the whole of the UK as well as comparative chapters on Canada, USA and continental Europe. Reporting findings from both qualitative and quantitative research which reveal, for example, the importance of the particular social and geographical context within which young people are embedded, the volume addresses young people’s attitudes towards the range of 'world religions’ as well as non-religious stances and offers an interdisciplinary approach through the different analytical perspectives of the contributors.