Youth Ministry In Crisis

Author examines the practices and passions that are transforming and debasing contemporary youth ministry--rock music, magic, clowning, comedy, drama, mime, puppetry, sports, extreme adventure activities, youth fashions and movies aned exposes the disturbing ideas that permit them to flourish in God's Church.

When youth work becomes crisis managers.Anyone who stays in youth ministry for a while will encounter significant crises. Family break-ups, substance abuse, sexual assault, eating disorders, cutting, suicide, gun violence.But without proper and immediate care, crises like these can cause years of emotional pain and spiritual scarring in students.Rich Van Pelt and Jim Hancock want to help you prevent that from happening.Through their experience and expertise, you1ll learn how to:-Respond quickly and effectively to crisis -Balance legal, ethical, and spiritual outcomes -Forge preventive partnerships with parents, schools, and students -Bring healing when damage is doneWhen crises happen‹and they will, ready or not‹there are practical steps you can take. Van Pelt and Hancock provide field-tested counsel and specific, biblical advice for each stage of crisis. Keep this book on hand as your go-to resource when you need it most.Because when it comes to crisis, it1s not a matter of if, but when.

Ministry with Youth in Crisis is a comprehensive treatment of major adolescent crises related to life themes including self-identity, faith formation, family life, social relationships, sexuality, suicide, substance abuse, and eating disorders. The distinctiveness of this book is that it offers a fine blend of solid research, workable theory, and specific strategies for successfully ministering to and with youth in crisis. Furthermore, it emphasizes the caring and sensitive side of working effectively with adolescents experiencing both normal and extreme crisis situations. This volume, therefore, is both descriptive and prescriptive in nature, in that it describes the world teens live in and offers biblical responses for ministry.

Ministry With Youth In Crisis is a comprehensive and wide-ranging treatment of seven major adolescent crises: self-identity, family life, social relationships, sexuality, suicide, substance abuse and eating disorders, and the institutions of school, work, and church.

Have you tried all the new youth programs? Have you planned one too many wacky activities? Are you frustrated about the size of the youth group? Here's an approach to ministry that takes youth work seriously. Family-based youth ministry is about adults discipling teens one-on-one and in groups. It is about involving not just the nuclear family but the whole church family--from singles to older adults. More important, it's about incorporating youth into the life of your church. So stop worrying about the size of your youth group or your budget. Mark DeVries's refreshing approach to youth ministry will show you how your church can reach today's teens and how you can keep them involved in the life of the church. Whether you are a parent, a youth pastor or a church member who cares about teens, you will find in this book an entirely different approach to youth ministry that will build mature Christian believers.

What is youth ministry actually for? And does it have a future? Andrew Root, a leading scholar in youth ministry and practical theology, went on a one-year journey to answer these questions. In this book, Root weaves together an innovative first-person fictional narrative to diagnose the challenges facing the church today and to offer a new vision for youth ministry in the 21st century. Informed by interviews that Root conducted with parents, this book explores how parents' perspectives of what constitutes a good life are affecting youth ministry. In today's culture, youth ministry can't compete with sports, test prep, and the myriad other activities in which young people participate. Through a unique parable-style story, Root offers a new way to think about the purpose of youth ministry: not happiness, but joy. Joy is a sense of experiencing the good. For youth ministry to be about joy, it must move beyond the youth group model and rework the assumptions of how identity and happiness are imagined by parents in American society.

Andrew Strom is an international author and speaker - as well as a bass guitarist with a long history of involvement in Christian music, video, promotion, recording, and Youth ministry. In this hard-hitting book he asks some very pointed questions about today's Christian music and Youth culture. For instance: When Christianity becomes just like the world is it still Christianity? When we feel we have to entertain and entertain in order to get people into our meetings, is Jesus still at the center? When we become desperate to be seen as "cool" or 'relevant' to the worldy culture all around us, does it affect the gospel we preach? When we feel we have to tone down the use of the word "Jesus" in our music or the word "sin" in our preaching, isn't this blatant compromise? And when our Christian Youth seem to care just as much about fashion, extreme sports, looking 'cool' and being entertained as the worldy kids around them, is it true Christianity at all? If you care about these issues and the answers to these questions, then you need to read this penetrating book.