Monthly Review: August 2024
Each month this summer, 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
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.
Easy Toke or Easy Yoke?: How Parents Can Train Teenagers to Think Ethically and Scripturally About Marijuana Usage , by Davis Lacey (Rooted)
Scripture is neither explicit nor silent on the question of recreational marijuana usage. While there is no specific mention of marijuana in the Bible, there are a number of helpful principles which should inform how Christians should use it.
Biblical & Theological Studies
The Biggest Evangelical Divide Is No Longer Between Wesleyans and Calvinists, by Nicholas McDonald (The Bard Owl)
The bigger, further divide, I find, is this: it’s between Christians who believe Jesus is calling us to escape creation, and Christians who believe Jesus has come to redeem creation. These two beliefs, far more than soteriology, will shape a church - and an individual’s - vision for what it means to follow Jesus.
We Stopped Catechising, by T. M. Suffield (nuakh)
However great your preaching is, it will not teach the people in front of you the basics of the faith any time soon. And, that’s not really what it’s for. You’ll need another setting to do this in. You need a way of catechising your people.
Cultural Reflection & Contextualization
How Churches Can Support Christian Teachers in Public Schools, by Andrea Matthews (The Gospel Coalition)
Of course, there are people working in these schools who give cause for concern. And parents may legitimately choose to educate their children outside the public school system. But we have many brothers and sisters in Christ faithfully serving in the trenches. Churches should seek to link arms with them and support them as they shine a light in dark places.
Cultivating Christlike Compassion on Social Media, by Ashley Gibson (Revive Our Hearts)
As followers of Jesus, we should be known for our Christlike compassion, but the anonymity of social media can make it easy for us to forget that there’s a person created in the image of God on the other side of the screen. This sometimes leads us to forget our call to be different from the world and causes us to abandon the compassionate ways of our Lord.
Pastoral Ministry
Is It Time To Stop Streaming Your Service?, by Tim Challies
What most churches failed to do, though, was carefully weigh the pros and cons, something that is always a wise exercise when adding new technology to any part of personal life, family life, or church life. As always, the benefits tend to be quicker and easier to identify than the drawbacks. The benefits are exactly the ones I laid out earlier. But what how about the drawbacks?
Why the American Church Can’t Fix Loneliness, by Russell Moore (Christianity Today)
What we have long seen in the American church—almost without reference to theological distinctives or denominational identity—is a severing of bridging social capital from bonding social capital.
Family & Parent
How One Family Navigated Smartphones and Social Media in the Teen Years, by Samuel D. James (Digital Liturgies)
God is a God of grace. As he helps you establish wise safeguards for your family for smartphones and social media, and as you tend to the hearts of your children by shepherding them to walk by the Spirit and modeling for them (although imperfectly) what that looks like, the lasting fruit of that will be gratitude, not resentment.
How Do I Teach My Family?, by Jon Payne (Ligonier)
Even so, our hectic schedules, ubiquitous gadgets, and misplaced priorities often make our homes similar to those of our unbelieving neighbors. God becomes an afterthought. Here are three things to remember as we seek to build God-centered homes where sound doctrine is the foundation and our Lord Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.
From YPT this month
YPT in Action is a series that profiles a youth ministry to show what a theologically-rich youth ministry looks like in various contexts.
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 in Action: Vince Greenwald
YPT in Action is a series that profiles a youth ministry to show what a theologically-rich youth ministry looks like in various contexts.
New Initiatives to Help Youth Workers Teach the Bible by Mike McGarry
Announcing two new YPT Initiatives to help youth workers teach the Bible with depth and clarity: A one day Teaching Workshop and a six-session Online Cohort.
YPT in Action is a series that profiles a youth ministry to show what a theologically-rich youth ministry looks like in various contexts.