Friday Review (9/23/22)
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 and Children’s Ministry
5 Tips for Classroom Management in Children’s Ministry by Deepak Reju & Marty Machowski (The Gospel Coalition)
The five classroom strategies taught here don’t always come naturally to volunteers. Leaders will need to encourage, train on, and reinforce each one. But these skills can be helpful as we seek to remove every obstacle that stands in the way of children hearing, learning about, and knowing God.
Intergenerational Integration Begins with Ministry Staff by Chris Polski (Rooted)
When older lead pastors learn to be more patient intergenerational learners and younger youth pastors learn to be more patient intergenerational listeners they are, in a profound way, modeling the very things that Jesus did for us when he became incarnate. He didn’t dismiss us just because we weren’t like him, he entered in and showed forth the wonder of the gospel when he empathized with our condition, even to the extent of laying down his life for ours.
Biblical & Theological Studies
The Distressing State of Evangelicals and Theology by Trevin Wax (The Gospel Coalition)
If we’re going to turn around the results we see in surveys like this, we must help Christians understand that theology isn’t an arduous task of arranging irrelevant details. It’s an invitation into greater knowledge of this Jesus who has saved us. We care about the details of doctrine because we love the God those doctrines describe.
Cultural Reflection & Contextualization
Social Media Is Not (Only) a Student Ministry Issue by Chris Martin (Terms of Service)
[W]e are mistaken if we think social media is a student-ministry-centric issue, as if teenagers have a demonstrably more unhealthy relationship with social media than their parents do. I think this is an assumption we shouldn’t make.
Should Christians Vote? by Bonnie Kristian (Christianity Today)
Perhaps we have “the right to do anything” in politics and governance, “but not everything is beneficial” (1 Cor. 6:12). Or perhaps, just as in other spheres, there are roles and activities here that in definition or in current practice conflict with following Christ.
We Are Not Disposable by Samuel D. James (Digital Liturgies)
Sports has a way of slithering beneath even a rock-solid worldview of altruism and imago dei, and making people feel disposable. When I think about my contemporary culture, the disposability of people stands out as one of the chief values of the day.
Pastoral Ministry
Spiritual Abuse: Seeing What We Don't Want to See by Kyle Borg (For the Church)
Spiritual abuse is real, and it happens. It doesn’t know demographics or denominations. Sound theology and biblical worship, a plurality of elders or charismatic leadership, and church government with accountability doesn’t fool-proof any church from its possibility and presence. We must be willing. We must look. We must see.
Family & Parents
Our Children Need to See Weakness by Vaneetha Rendall Risner (Desiring God)
Parenting through weakness can bring God glory. As we rely on God and his grace, he shines through our lives. God’s grace is sufficient for us, and his power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). What more could we want?
Raising Emotionally Healthy Ministry Kids by Eliza Huie (ElizaHuie.com)
Your role in ministry affords opportunities for your family to share in moments of seeing God at work in lives in amazing ways. Your ministry life can mature your children emotionally, ignite their faith, and equip them to navigate life’s struggles as they model what they saw lived out in you and their church family.
The American Dream Couldn’t Save My Marriage by Habtamu Sisay (Gospel Centered Discipleship)
By the works of the law, there is no reason my wife and I should still be married today. Though we had come from the same tribe with a similar cultural background, we still managed to grievously sin against each other. Yet by the grace of God, we are still together and, to our surprise, preparing to plant a church in our homeland.
From YPT this week
The State of Theology in Youth Ministry by Mike McGarry
Youth Ministry is theological ministry. What does this mean in light of Ligonier’s recent report, The State of Theology?