Friday Review (1/3/25)
Each week this year, we compiled a list of helpful articles from other sites, in a variety of categories, for youth workers to read, reflect on, and/or discuss with parents and volunteers. This is our best of 2024 list, with a couple articles in each category that stood out in particular. This year, I (Alex) wanted to include a few brief thoughts that popped up as I compiled this list. First, there were over 60 articles and podcast episodes that made the “short” list. While the 14 highlights below are valuable, there is much more to go back and explore. In particular, if you haven’t listened to the YPT Podcast yet, you’re missing out!
Second, a few themes stood out in particular as I looked back at the last year. In youth ministry, developing faith that lasts and is resilient repeated. The importance and impact of some doctrines we may assume and put to the back of our mind stuck out. In articles on culture, many focused on evaluating and pushing back against cultural values that are anti-biblical but not the usual targets of our attention. There were a great wealth of preaching helps, both about technical aspects and the pastoral piece. And many of the parenting articles were heavy on encouragement, even as they challenged parents to more faithful parenting - there’s definitely a lesson for us ministering to weary parents.
Finally, If you have any articles you’d like to suggest, we’d love for you to share those in the Youth Pastor Theologian Facebook group. That’s a great way to bring them to our attention and to discuss them with like-minded youth workers! We only benefit from having more of a well to draw from.
(Inclusion in this list does not imply complete agreement with the publishing source, but we have found these articles to be particularly beneficial.)
Youth Ministry
Discipling Teenagers is Less Like Starting a Fire and More Like Planting Trees, by Jacob Bier (Rooted)
But maybe fire is not the best way to envision discipleship. If you look at ministry websites and curriculum guides, you will start to notice a creeping idea: youth ministry is all about high energy games, passionate worship, super-charged events, and electrifying sermons. As a busy youth pastor with small kids at home, sometimes just reading such lists is enough to make me feel tired.
Does Your Church Need to Repent for the Nursery?, by Dan Crabtree (The Cripplegate)
If your church does have a nursery, a kids’ ministry, and a youth ministry, the Bible does urge parents not to abandon their priority to disciple their children by passing it off to a youth pastor. Mom and dad, you are the ones that God has entrusted with the spiritual formation of these precious little souls. Building them into the church is a tremendous blessing, so long as you remain the primary disciplers in their lives. The job God gives to us as parents is to train our kids to know and fear him. The job God gives to the church, with respect to your children, is to help.
Biblical & Theological Studies
The Christian’s Hope Isn’t Complete without a Bodily Resurrection, by Mitchell L. Chase (Crossway)
We need to be people of great hope in this broken world, and that means our hope shaped by the Scriptures must involve a resurrection concept. In a world full of broken bodies and suffering people, God is going to bring redemption and blessing to such a degree that resurrection from the dead is part of our consummation. The future will be bodily glory. Our future will be bodily life. And therefore, Christians have this kind of hope to help them persevere.
3 Waves That Have Shaped Evangelical Churches (and a 4th on the Way), by Trevin Wax (The Gospel Coalition)
Theological differences remain, but they’re less pronounced because virtually all evangelical churches have been marked by three waves that have crashed onto the shore and changed the landscape. The influence of these movements is so profound that many churchgoers don’t even notice their effects.
Cultural Reflection & Contextualization
There are No Free Bets, by Samuel D. James (Digital Liturgies)
People who gamble will assume that others gamble too. People who consume oceans of explicitness will assume that everybody does it. And because human nature always has a good reason for why I indulge in a vice, but suspects ill of anyone else who indulges in it too, the widespread belief that everyone is up to the same things I do secretly leads to a lack of trust.
The Rise of Hyperpleasures, by Samuel C. Heard (Mere Orthodoxy)
But suffice to say, the lid has come off. We know no limits to the kinds and degrees of pleasures available to us. Ordinary pleasures have given way to hyperpleasures — especially as companies and media platforms become more adept at identifying our discomforts and rooting them out.
Pastoral Ministry
The Neurodivergent Believer, by Allyson Reid (Gospel-Centered Discipleship)
As believers, we acknowledge that God created each brain uniquely. The Apostle Paul describes this diversity within the body of Christ, emphasizing that each member has a distinct role (1 Cor. 12:12–27). Despite this diversity, being neurodivergent in a predominately neurotypical world can present unique challenges.
The Art of Extemporaneous Preaching, by Geoff Chang (Desiring God)
Far from enabling laziness, cultivating this skill will take more work than simply writing a manuscript. So why go through that work? Spurgeon believed extemporaneous delivery enables preachers to connect with their hearers far more than a read or memorized sermon ever could. Preaching extemporaneously enables the preacher to engage the hearer not only with his mouth but with his eyes and heart.
Family & Parents
Taking the Long View Revolutionized My Parenting, by Laura Spaulding (The Gospel Coalition)
Eventually, I realized “right” didn’t mean Pinterest parenting or a one-size-fits-all formula guaranteeing lifelong godliness or success. And yet redefining parenting success, godliness, or the “right way” based on cultural trends only promises more confusion and guilt for weary parents. Nobody benefits, least of all the next generation, when anyone besides the Lord—the only perfect Parent—defines the ideal.
Kids Need to Know Faith Is More Than ‘Being Good’, by Bethany McIlrath (Rooted)
The call to goodness is not wrong. However, we need to be clear about the place behavior holds in the life of a believer. Misunderstandings around “being good” for God can cripple kids with a sort of legalism that can lead to anxiety or rebellion.
Best of YPT This Year (according to Alex)
Teaching the Broader Gospel: Creation by Andrew Slay
What does it mean to begin teaching the wonder and beauty of the gospel as something that begin in Creation?
What I’d Tell My Rookie Self by Mike McGarry
Here are seven things I’d say if I could write a letter to myself as a rookie youth pastor.
YPT Podcast 65: Being God’s Image with Carmen Joy Imes
So many of today’s cultural landmines find their resolution in the Image of God. What does this doctrine mean and how can we talk about it with teenagers?
YPT Podcast ep.83: Translating Youth Culture for Student Discipleship with Evan Barber
Youth culture can feel like a foreign language, especially with how rapidly it changes. How can youth workers understand the culture of our students… and why is that important anyways?
From YPT this week
A Prayer for Youth Workers in 2025 by Mike McGarry
A prayer for youth workers at the beginning of 2025.