Top tips from successful youth workers about how to develop & maintain your youth ministry...grow in your role as a youth worker...& even how to avoid common mistakes.

Drawing on the wisdom of insightful leaders around the country, Josh McDowell's Youth Ministry Handbook equips youth workers to help kids connect with God--and with their parents, their peers, and a world in need of Christ. Featuring articles from Dawson McAllister, Barry St. Clair, Jim Burns, Tony Campolo, Al Menconi, John Maxwell, George Barna, and others, this is an invaluable leadership resource with practical, useful ideas for today's youth workers.

This book provides more than eighty activities youth workers can use to help students connect.

"Most contemporary young people operate far enough from Moses’ moral compass that it never occurs to them that “OMG” (“oh my God,” in teenspeak) has anything to do with the Ten Commandments, much less that it breaks one of them. After all, the phrase is a nearly ubiquitous adolescent throw-away line...Yet Christians should hear the phrase “oh my God” differently. Youth ministers, parents, teachers—anyone who has ever loved an adolescent—know that “OMG” can be a prayer, a plea, a petition, a note of praise, or an unbidden entreaty that escapes our lips as we seek Christ for the young people we love." from the book Using six lens the authors detail current practices and tease out underlying questions as youth ministry becomes more self-consciously aligned with practical theology. Contributors include: Kenda Creasy Dean, Mike Carotta, Roland Martinson, Rodger Nishioka, Don Richter, Dayle Gillespie Rounds, and Amy Scott Vaughn.

This is a practical look at being a Christian youth worship leader. The author's point of view has been developed while leading youth worship for over 20 years under several pastors and age groups. Room arrangement, sound mixing, lighting, and selecting songs are among the topics discussed. A great way to take a fresh look at how you lead worship in your youth group. "Be the frame, not the picture."

This book aims at contributing to the scientific and academic discourse as regards to the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of youth ministry. Too often, youth ministry has been approached from a mainly practical point of view, almost asking how we keep young people off the streets. Its methodology has often not included the theological and theoretical presuppositions that lie behind this ministry. Previous scientific reflection has been determined by a one-dimensional and almost exclusive point of view. In comparison with existing literature, this book does not focus so much on the ‘how’ of youth ministry. It innovates a different approach. The book challenges the existing exclusive approach and develops an inclusive, congregational and missional understanding of and approach to youth ministry. From a particular perspective on the understanding the main objectives of Practical Theology, the author endorses the so-called movement of ‘what is supposed to be going on’. He adds the outcome of an empirical round table discussion with some 16 leaders in this field on the descriptive and interpretive movements within the subject field: what is going on and why is it going on? The book will form the standard for any new research with regard to youth ministry. The book’s contribution lies on the level of sound theological reasoning and argumentation (supported by many scholars) for an inclusive congregational understanding of ministry as an integral part of every congregation being missional in being and doing. Youth, children, adolescents and emerging adults, are just as integral a part of every congregation within which they live and serve.

This wonderful and easy read helps new and future youth workers set patterns in life and ministry that will keep them whole and healthy, and away from burnout.

A Chance to Serve is a formation program that enables teenagers to become effective ministers to their peers. This systematic program offers interested young people a progressive sequence of opportunities for growth in personal faith, for community building, and for leadership training. Written by Brian Reynolds, cofounder of the Center for Ministry Development, this training program has been successfully piloted in several different settings around the country. This peer ministry training program is suitable for use in a variety of settings: schools, parishes, retreat centers, youth programs, campus ministry settings, or diocesan youth organizations. The leader's manual is organized into three sections: Section 1 presents the conceptual and theoretical framework of peer ministry. Section 2 addresses the practical aspects of establishing a program. Section 3, which forms the heart of the training program, consists of eighteen detailed 150-minute training modules, including copies of the worksheets for the young people. A bibliography contains additional peer ministry resources for the reader.

Examining his thirty years of pastoral ministry, Horner mines seven key challenges that pastors must face well in order to restore and maintain a healthy balance.

The Total Faith(tm) Initiative Coordinator's Manual draws on the experience of many parish communities to give leaders what they need to plan and implement dynamic and effective youth ministry, including intentional catechesis. The manual includes two chapters describing a vision for youth ministry and adolescent catechesis four chapters providing planning tools for using the many resources within the Total Faith(tm) Initiative four more chapters suggesting numerous ways for parishes to connect with youth and their families a final chapter providing practical guidance in finding and supporting youth ministry leaders The accompanying coordinator's CD includes additional tools for using the Total Faith(tm) resources. You will find a searchable index of all activities and strategies, additional handouts, and PowerPoint presentations for training leaders, a printable list of short descriptions for every session, and more. It has never been easier to create dynamic and customized ministries for your parish.