Is your student ministry healthy? This is a question every student minister has asked. It’s a question that brings both anger and tears. You are growing in numbers, but something just didn’t feel right. It doesn't feel healthy. This is the “there must be more to student ministry than this” moment. Regardless of your ministry context, church size, denomination, or years of experience, it is possible for you to have a healthy student ministry. The three elements, explained by author Ben Trueblood, will lead you to that very thing. Student Ministry that Matters gives you and your leaders a framework to answer this question, "Is my student ministry healthy?" and help you highlight areas of improvement as you seek to lead a student ministry focused on health.
Teenagers are not a lost cause; they need wise leaders to help them along in their faith journeys. In Navigating Student Ministry, veteran student ministers with more than one hundred years of combined experience guide others through the often-challenging aspects of ministering to young people. This multi-contributor introductory textbook helps both those discerning a call to student ministry and those already invested in students. Editor Tim McKnight has crafted a book that can serve as both a topical resource and a comprehensive manual for those in the fun, exhausting, and eternally rewarding realm of student ministry.
“I vaguely remember finding Jesus when I was a child, but I vividly recall losing him.” Jared Herd grew up the son of a preacher, baptized in religion before he was ever baptized in church. As a child, his parents went through a painful and public divorce, and Jesus became a distant memory, like an artifact of childhood that gets put away and forgotten. Eventually Jared broke a promise he made to himself and walked back into church. He realized the problem wasn’t God—it was how he had been told to think about God. Like Jared, teenagers and young adults are leaving the church in astonishing numbers. Something is obviously wrong. Is the problem Jesus? Or is the problem how we have been told to think about Jesus? Perhaps you’ve always wondered how music, movies, friends, or anything on the outside of Christianity could relate to your life inside of it. Perhaps something in your life keeps you from believing you would ever fit in as a believer. Maybe you were always told what to become, but no one tried to understand how you became who you are. In More Lost Than Found, Jared Herd comes alongside anyone who has ever struggled with faith to reengage them in the truth they long to hear. If you have ever felt you didn’t fit at church or had questions about God, maybe it’s time to give your faith another chance. God wants to find you where you are. Endorsements: In More Lost Than Found Jared Herd writes with both honesty and hope as he shares his journey and welcomes us all to re-examine true faith in the midst of a fragmented culture. Like he speaks, Jared crafts More Lost Than Found with humor and grace as he seeks to repair pathways once broken and ushers a new generation into the wonder and mystery of the Gospel. ?Louie Giglio, The Passion Movement, Passion City Church Jared Herd is a powerful and free spirit, ruled by truth and grace. He is a voice that comes to us every so often, reminding our mind and soul which direction to amicably go—closer to God. Not only am I grateful to have his writings, I am even more astounded to have him as a friend. Let us all find what we seek. ?Matt Schulze, actor, leading roles in Fast and Furious, The Transporter, and many more Jared Herd belies our usual assumption that to be “wise” one must be “old.” Here is a young guy who teems with shrewd discernment. He is a vigorous boundary-crosser, moving readily back and forth between old and new, secular and sacred, “pop” and serious, innovation and tradition. In the midst of it, he senses a purpose other than his own and a calling out beyond self. Readers are invited to such boundary-crossing toward a future where faith matters enormously. ?Walter Brueggemann- world renowned theologian, Columbia Theological Seminary In More Lost than Found, Jared Herd presents us the Christian faith in a way that is engaging, intellectual, and disarming. He moves between popular culture and his own biblical convictions with a humble and honest voice, while pulling his audience back to a God they've grown weary of. As someone who has worked for over 50 years in the entertainment industry, I can tell you how rare it is to find someone who can speak to the next generation. Jared Herd is one of those voices. I'm grateful for his work and his friendship. ?Michael Jay Solomon, founder, Solomon Entertainment, former president of Warner Bros International Television
A few small changes can make a big difference. As your students graduate high school, are they graduating from church too? Research shows that the majority of teenagers who are active in church during high school stop attending shortly after. In a new study, LifeWay Student Ministry and LifeWay Research have partnered to identify the factors that are contributing to this disturbing trend as well as those factors that contribute to teens staying in church. In his first book, Student Ministry That Matters, Ben Trueblood laid out a clear approach to creating a healthy student ministry in any context. In this book, Ben points student ministry leaders to the hope found within this startling statistic. The solution is not a full-scale revamping of student ministry. Rather, the hope for helping students build lifelong faith and keeping them connected to the church after high school is just a few small changes away. Benefits Prepare students to stay connected to a local church once they graduate high school Identify where we are, what we're finding in the data, and action steps we can take in the church and in families to keep students engaged Understand factors that influenced students who stayed in church and those who didn't Consider what's going on in the home and how this contributes to students staying in or leaving a local church Identify tools and establish a clear and simple course of correction: Here's where we're missing it, where we can evaluate, and where we can move on Ben Trueblood serves as the Director of Student Ministry for LifeWay Christian Resources. Ben has eighteen years of student ministry experience, fourteen of which were spent in the local church as a student pastor. In addition to his role at LifeWay Ben is involved in training, consulting, and speaking to student ministries throughout the U.S. He is driven by a desire for student ministries to expand God's Kingdom, to see the lives of students transformed by the gospel, and to develop students who shape the culture in which they live. Ben is also the author of Student Ministry That Matters and A Different College Experience. Ben and his wife, Kristen, have four children. In his free time Ben enjoys family, hunting, is a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan, and is an affiliate streamer on Twitch under the name of Flashbang_CSN. Connect with Ben on twitter at: @bentrueblood
Why am I here? What am I called to do? Do I even have a call or purpose? Do my actions or ministries in my local church have any real impact on eternity? Throughout history, believers have struggled over these questions and more. Thankfully, there are answers available to all who seek the truth. Join author, pastor, and missionary Ted Brancheau Jr. in Your Ministry Matters. Imagine knowing with surety what you're called to do and where you're called to do it. Experience the simplicity and fullness of what God himself has equipped you to do! Many are convinced that their work is not important. But to God, everyone is equally significant, and he has a purpose and plan for every piece in his puzzle. Perhaps you hold the key to harvest and revival in your pocket. Your Ministry Matters! explains how you can find out. When we hear the word ministry, it typically brings to mind the pastor, teacher, or evangelist. That's real ministry, right? Not so fast! God himself supernaturally calls every person in the body of Christ to ministry. Whether you are an eye in the body or the smallest toe, God has plans, power, and glory ready to enable you to do his will. No matter what you do in the local church, from handling the parking lot to preaching from the pulpit, you have a ministry that matters.
You have the passion it takes to serve in youth ministry, but where do you start? All youth ministers have asked this question to themselves at least once in their career: "What do I do now?" Practical Wisdom for Youth Ministry is a practical, concise starting point to help answer that question and many others. This resource is packed with expert advice and personal testimony to support and encourage ministers and volunteers working with youth. Practical Wisdom for Youth Ministry addresses many pressing issues for youth ministers with straightforward steps that are both biblically grounded and easy to apply. It discusses large-scale concerns such as organization, budgeting, and outreach, as well as personal concerns such as marriage, self care, and conflict. For new and veteran youth ministers, David Fraze offers the necessary tools to help build a strong foundation for effective, powerful ministry.
Do you find other youth ministry programs promise you can "plug and play," only to fall short of expectation, forcing you to "adopt and drop"? An organic student ministry allows each student ministry to exist and live in its best possible way, its natural way! In his book Organic Student Ministry, acclaimed youth ministry author Stephen Ingram shows you how to: Develop practices instead of just programs Minister to students where they are instead of spending your time pleading with them to "get with the program" Focus on a way of doing ministry that grows naturally from the distinctively rich and fertile soil of your unique church "Stephen Ingram is the 'Steve Jobs of the Youth Ministry world.' I'm hard pressed to recall anyone with the inventiveness and informed creativity of this young man."- Mark DeVries, president, Ministry Architects
Anger, frustration, and confusion. Chaos, and stress. Joy, love, and grace. All of these are the emotions I have felt in student ministry. Even right now as I sit here in my office writing, I find myself planning and preparing for the emotions that will come from student ministry. Preparing my mind, and my heart, for any of these or a mixture of them all, I know I will experience them. In this book we will navigate what student ministry looks like, and how to handle everything that comes with it.
Today’s students long for a rich, meaningful faith. They want something more than a moral code and therapeutic worship that leaves them unsatisfied and uninspired. Speaker, author, and evangelism professor Alvin L. Reid reveals a key to capturing students’ hearts for life: a missional youth ministry. Through practical teaching and powerful application tools, discover how giving teens a grander purpose and vision and encouraging them to see all of life as a mission field transforms their faith, their lives, and the world.
