Friday Review (1/5/24): The Best of 2023
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 2023 list, with a couple articles in each category that stood out in particular. 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!
(Inclusion in this list does not imply complete agreement with the publishing source, but we have found these articles to be particularly beneficial.)
editor’s note: YPT readers are indebted to Alex Tufano for faithfully compiling the Friday Review each week for the last two years. This is a major commitment on his behalf, and a significant investment in the YPT community. He has also gone through the Friday Reviews from 2023 and included some of his favorite articles to ensure you didn’t miss them. On behalf of all YPT readers, thank you Alex!
Youth Ministry
5 Strategies for Teaching Neurodivergent Teens, by Heather Lea Kenison (Women in Youth Ministry)
And over time, we realized that just a few simple tweaks to our programming could help neurodivergent students succeed in our ministry. And ultimately, prioritizing the needs of neurodiverse teenagers fosters a positive and inclusive educational experience for all teenagers. Here are 5 strategies for teaching neurodivergent teenagers.
Why Youth Group Involvement Is Down (and What to Do About It), by Cameron Cole (The Gospel Coalition)
These factors all limit a youth minister’s access to students and disrupt the relational consistency necessary for effective discipleship. But they validate some basic principles of gospel-centered ministry. Remembering these principles can help us fight against sporadic relationships and cultivate a transformative Christian community.
Biblical & Theological Studies
Human Beings Are Stewards, Not Slaves to God, by Alexandra O. Hudson (Christianity Today)
Recently, there have been discussions about the core identity of humankind—whether we are first and foremost sinners in need of a Savior, or whether God has created us with a nature that is fundamentally good. This is a deeply theological issue with implications for nearly every aspect of our lives and society at large.
Today’s Defining Question: What Is a Human?, by Trevin Wax (The Gospel Coalition)
Today we’re facing a third major crisis. This time the focus is on anthropology, the nature and destiny of humankind. What’s a human being? What does it mean to be made in God’s image?
Cultural Reflection & Contextualization
Gender War, Technology, and De-Centering the Self, by Samuel D. James (Digital Liturgies)
The peculiar de-centering of the self that happens when we really know and love somebody is a powerful immunity against our most cynical instincts. The question is, in the digital age, where can our selves go to be de-centered?
Don’t Underestimate Curation, by Chris Martin (Terms of Service)
To create and share our creation with others feels good. It feels like good stewardship of God’s gifts. I love it. But amid all of the hype around being a content creator, I think we need to recognize the tremendous value of being a content curator.
Pastoral Ministry
Dear Pastor... You’re a Shepherd, Not an Entrepreneur, by Nathan Knight (Crossway)
I wanted to write a few lines to you in an effort to reorient your work. We are pressed on every side—danger from without in the schemes of the devil and danger from within with the passions of the flesh. To be sure, we are also in danger from without in the ways we are so tempted to conform to the patterns of the world (Rom. 12:2). One of those patterns we are tempted to conform to as pastors is to see ourselves, or our work, as entrepreneurs.
The Half-Baked Sermon: Missing Ingredients in Much Preaching, by Jeremy Walker (Desiring God)
To return to the bakery, mix the ingredients of your sermon, let it rise in contemplation, knead it thoroughly in prayer, let it prove in meditation, bake it well in your own heart, and serve it warm from the pulpit. In dependence on the Spirit, nourish the very souls of the hearers.
Family & Parents
I’ve Been a Prosperity Gospel Parent, by Gretchen Ronnevik (Christianity Today)
We’ve learned painful lessons with God, and we want to keep our children from having to learn them too. Except that’s not how it works. We can’t keep our children from struggling—and if we try, we risk instead keeping them from the full truth and beauty of the gospel.
Dads, Daughters, and a Willingness to Learn and Grow, by Gordon Bals (Rooted)
There is nothing in this world we want to get right as much as being a parent, and there is nothing we will get wrong more often. You need help. There is only one way to grow into tender, compassionate, and redemptively strong involvement with your daughter, and that is by leaning into a Dad who loves you the same way.
Best of YPT this year
Should We Celebrate Baptism and the Lord’s Supper at Youth Group?, by Will Standridge
Should we celebrate Baptism and the Lord’s Supper at camps, youth group, and small groups? A sensitive question, but an important one to ask.
The True Goal of Theology in Student Ministry, by Jason Engle
For many believers, the concept of theologian describes a class of scholars to which they could never belong. But if this is the only way we perceive the task of theology then we will miss its goal altogether.
YPT Podcast Episode 29: The Gospel in Evangelism and Discipleship with Greg Stier
The gospel is not an evangelism tool, it’s the message of life that we declare to saints and sinners. In this conversation, we want to clarify what the gospel is and how to keep it central in both evangelism and discipleship. Greg also highlights the importance of good theology in our evangelism.
YPT Podcast Episode 51: Church Membership for Teenagers? with Justin Wong
Should teenagers become members of the local church? Justin Wong joins the podcast to chew on the ways church membership can be a meaningful context for student discipleship.
From YPT this week
Are You Your Body? by Jennifer Kvamme
We are not people “stuck in” bodies, as if the “real us” is spiritual and the body is just some kind of tool we use or home we live in.