The "twenty-something" years of young adulthood are increasingly recognized as critical but puzzling. Building on the foundation she established in her classic work, The Critical Years, Sharon Parks urges thoughtful adults to assume responsibility for providing strategic mentorship during this important decade in life. She reveals also, however, the ways young adults are influenced not only by individual mentors but also by mentoring environments. To read Young Adulthood in a Changing World, an excerpt from this book,click here.
Mentoring Emerging Adults Sharon Daloz Parks has written Big Questions, Worthy Dreams to inform and inspire renewed commitment by educators, church leaders, and others to consider the institutional and cultural patterns that affect emerging adults. It serves to bridge the divide between generations and to encourage more adequate recognition of what is at stake in the response of all who interact with emerging young adult lives. Our economic and political life has become more brittle, volatile, and global, which both enlarges and constrains young adult aspirations. Today's emerging adults are both more connected and more distracted. And religion and faith have become both problematized and polarized. Parks defines faith as meaning-making in its most comprehensive dimensions, whether expressed in secular or religious terms. Over time, our meaning-making orients our sense of purpose, moral stance, and competence. The book describes the potential vulnerability of emerging adults and shows how mentors and mentoring environments can provide access to big-enough questions and inspire dreams worthy of engaging with our challenging and complex world. Parks addresses important issues of the day, including violence in our culture, social media and networking, economic challenges, changing racial identity, cultural shifts, and other forces shaping the narrative of emerging adulthood today.
THE “TWENTY-SOMETHING” YEARS of emerging adulthood are increasingly recognized as a distinctive but puzzling era in the human life span. In this tenth anniversary revised edition of her 2001 classic, Sharon Daloz Parks, a pioneering voice in young adult development theory, builds on the foundation she established over two decades ago in The Critical Years, in which she recognized this significant stage in the human life span and underscored the role of mentors in the lives of young adults. The emerging adult years constitute a new challenge to individuals, institutions, and cultures. It matters whether emerging adults move through the twenty-something decade on default settings or are well prepared for citizenship and leadership. Focusing on critical features of human development—transformations in thinking, feeling, and networks of belonging—Parks describes the potential and vulnerability of emerging adults and shows how mentors and mentoring environments can provide access to big-enough questions and inspire dreams worthy of engagement with a challenging and complex world. Parks casts the emerging adult years within the task of making meaning in a dramatically changing world—a task that all human beings share. She helpfully recognizes “faith” as meaning-making in its most comprehensive dimensions, whether expressed in secular or religious terms, and how over time our meaning-making orients our sense of purpose, moral stance, and competence. This tenth-anniversary revised edition of Big Questions, Worthy Dreams is written for faculty and administrators in higher and professional education, supervisors in workplace settings, community leaders, parents, and for all who are open to deepening their understanding of emerging adult lives. This updated edition addresses recent issues and events, including (among others) violence in our culture, mixed spirituality and religious identities, social media and networking, the economic crisis, changing racial identity, cultural shifts, and other forces shaping the narrative of young adulthood today.
More than a decade ago, a group of researchers began to study the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers. They tracked these young people over the course of a decade, revisiting them periodically to check in on the state -and future- of religion in America, and reporting on their findings in a series of books, beginning with Soul Searching (2005). Now, with Back-Pocket God, this mammoth research project comes to its conclusion. What have we learned about the changing shape of religion in America? Back-Pocket God explores continuity and change among young people from their teenage years through the latter stages of "emerging adulthood." Melinda Lundquist Denton and Richard Flory find that the story of young adult religion is one of an overall decline in commitment and affiliation, and in general, a moving away from organized religion. Yet, there is also a parallel trend in which a small, religiously committed group of emerging adults claim faith as an important fixture in their lives. Emerging adults don't seem so much opposed to religion or to religious organizations, at least in the abstract, as they are uninterested in religion, at least as they have experienced it. Religion is like an app on the ubiquitous smartphones in our back pockets: readily accessible, easy to control, and useful-but only for limited purposes. Denton and Flory show that some of the popular assumptions about young people and religion are not as clear as what many people seem to believe. The authors challenge the characterizations of religiously unaffiliated emerging adults -sometimes called "religious nones"- as undercover atheists. At the other end of the spectrum, they question the assumption that those who are not religious will return to religion once they marry and have children.
The shift from adolescence to adulthood, a recently identified stage of life called "emerging adulthood," covers an increasing span of years in today's culture (roughly ages 18-30) due to later marriages and extended education. During this prolonged stage of exploration and self-definition, many young adults drift away from the church. Here two authors--both veteran teachers who are experienced in young adult and campus ministry--address this new and urgent field of study, offering a Christian perspective on what it means to be spiritually formed into adulthood. They provide a "practical theology" for emerging adult ministry and offer insight into the key developmental issues of this stage of life, including identity, intimacy and sexuality, morality, church involvement, spiritual formation, vocation, and mentoring. The book bridges the gap between academic and popular literature on emerging adulthood and offers concrete ways to facilitate spiritual formation among emerging adults.
An exhilarating, wondrous middle grade debut about a brother and sister on a quest that “swoops from thrilling to terrifying to heartwarming and back again” (BookPage) to defeat a tyrannical ruler and protect a magical book. “[W]ill appeal to readers of Kelly Barnhill and Lemony Snicket” (Publishers Weekly). Rachel and Robert live a gray, dreary life under the rule of cruel and calculating Charles Malstain. That is, until one night, when their librarian father enlists their help to steal a forbidden book. Before their father is captured, Rachel and Robert are given one mission: find the missing final page. But to uncover the secrets of The Book of Stolen Dreams, the siblings must face darkness and combat many evils to be rewarded with the astonishing, magical truth about the book. Nevertheless, they resolve to do everything in their power to stop it from falling into Charles Malstain’s hands. For if it does, he could rule their world forever.
From the author of the mega-bestseller The Coaching Habit and The Advice Trap comes a book on how to choose a worthy goal so you can unlock a greater version of yourself.
"Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.
You Woke Up Worthy is a 21 day guided workbook and journaling experience for women who struggle with feeling worthy of their big dreams. It's designed to help you let go of shame and self-judgment, re-connect to your higher self, create a daily self-love practice, get clear on your purpose and big dreams, and start living your best life now rather than someday. As women we are bombarded with messages on a daily basis that undermine our awesomeness. We are told we must buy this special cream or weight loss shake, and then we'll be enough. We are told we must get the guy, have a high-flying career, and be the perfect mothers without letting a single shoe drop. The truth is we are all worthy and enough, just the way we are. There's nothing we must do to prove our worthiness. There's nothing we must do to earn it, either. This workbook will help you discover that truth within yourself so you can wake up and start living your best life instead of everyone else's. Over the course of 21 days, Britny guides you through daily journaling prompts and self-love exercises to help you not only love yourself more but also completely transform your life so that it aligns with the woman you actually are rather than the woman everyone else expects you to be. Are you ready?
