Friday Review (3/29/24)

Each week we compile 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. 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 beneficial.)

Youth Ministry

Do Nine Out of Ten Churched Students Actually Drop Out of Church after High School?, by Timothy Paul Jones (The Apologetics Newsletter)

If retention rates define ministry effectiveness, Jesus of Nazareth was an abysmal failure. At one point, a crowd of over 5,000 was so wild about Jesus that they pursued him all around the Sea of Galilee (John 6). Then, after one difficult teaching session, attendance took a nose dive from several thousand to a single dozen—an attrition rate of well over 99 percent!

Millennials, Gen Z and the Hobbit, by John Benton (London Seminary)

Boomers had begun to lean towards individualism. But ‘while Generations Xers (born 1965–1979) turned the individualism of the Boomers to the level of a basic assumption, the Millennials raised the bar: The individual self was not merely important; it was paramount. It was also, almost always awesome.’

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.

Why Do ‘Good’ People Need to Believe in God for Salvation? (Tough Questions Teenagers Ask), by Andrew Slay (Rooted)

Questions like this one challenge us as pastors and ministry leaders who are seeking to raise up disciples in Gen Z and Alpha. But please don’t shy away or push away these questions! Instead, take heart that your students are contemplating deep ethical questions of what it means to live out the gospel in the real world with conflicting faith systems and ideologies.

Cultural Reflection & Contextualization

Performative Offense, by Samuel D. James (Digital Liturgies)

But my point in bringing up Coldplay and Taylor Swift is this: We live in an era where the combination of authenticity and vice means that we are seeing some examples of performative offense. Performative offense is what happens when people indulge in vice less out of a sincere desire to indulge it, and more out of a desire to sell their image in the public square.

Could Podcasts Save the Church from Stupidity?, by Patrick Miller (Endeavor)

The only way we will see more textually inflected podcasts in the Christian world is if Christians are encouraged to consume them. What if ministry leaders didn’t settle for “any podcast is better than no podcast” but instead said, “Make sure you’re consuming podcasts that unmoor you from the faux-authentic world of social media and challenge you to be the sort of person who can deeply engage the text God gave us”?

Pastoral Ministry

Six Responsibilities for the Elders of Every Church, by Dwayne Cline (The Gospel Coalition Canada)

God emphasizes the character traits He is looking for in an elder because an elder represents Him before the church and the world. Character can be easily overlooked when a church is desperate for leadership. Because God is concerned with His integrity and glory, character is of utmost importance.

What (Not) to Preach: How to Build and Cut a Sermon, by David Mathis (Desiring God)

How, then, might we navigate this frequent trial and decide what to preach this Sunday? After wrestling hard with our text — and grasping its meaning in its context, in Christian theology, and in our lives — how do we decide what gold to leave on the cutting-room floor?

Family & Parents

The Beautiful Partnership of Family and Church, by Casey McCall (Remembrance of Former Days)

Two to three hours per week is not sufficient to adequately train your child to follow Jesus, but those two to three hours per week are irreplaceably important in supporting and reinforcing you as you daily labor to train your child to follow Jesus. The church, when its firing on all cylinders, offers your children weekly examples of saints at all stages of life fighting to abide in Christ and persevere in the faith. You simply won’t find that anywhere else on earth.

Parenting Our Introverted Teenagers, by Connie Leung Nelson (Rooted)

We all knew the well-worn, endearing trope of the Gen Z introvert. Perennially clad in soft, oversized loungewear and noise-canceling headphones and unapologetically antisocial, this teenager is armed with a fresh vocabulary with terms like “social battery” and “social bandwidth” for getting out of social situations. Instead of being disappointed when plans get canceled, these kids celebrate.

From YPT this week

YPT Podcast 64: Preaching in Youth Ministry with John Gardner

Teenagers don’t need more opinions, they need God’s Word. But how can normal youth leaders teach with biblical depth and pastoral warmth?

Finding the Right Apologist for the Right Moment, by John Gardner

Do you find yourself leaning on the same few apologists or apologetic method? Here are some good exemplars of various apologetic postures.