Books
Feed Your Faith
You could spend hours reading, researching, designing, crafting, creating, reinventing and test driving the most-awesome-sessions-ever-on-the-planet, but in the end, the heart and soul of your ministry with teens goes back to Job #1: Know Him. You can’t give what you don’t have, so feed your soul! A solid, steady diet of prayer, reading, faith sharing,…
Faith Stuff–Object Lessons, Prayer, Scripture, Saints, and Other Useful Stuff
OBJECT LESSONS, SCRIPTURE AND PRAYER 12 Months of Faith: A Devotional Journal for Teens Bettie Youngs, Jennifer Youngs, and Debbie Thurman 101 Affirmations for Teenagers: Esteem Building Activities for Youth Ministry Compiled by the Editors of Group Publishing Crowd Breakers and Mixers for Youth Groups Youth Specialties Downtime: Helping Teenagers Pray Mark Yaconelli Everyday Object…
Secular Stuff–Tweak At Will!
Surely you know that there are endless resources out there for designing super-charged lessons in self-awareness, character development, teamwork, communication and group building. For years I’ve been adapting ideas from these resources to work for my content, because they are often light-years ahead of traditional religion text resources in terms of high energy impact, multiple…
Know Them
FAITH AND CULTURE: Below are several good reads offering succinct overviews of the latest research on the generation of teens in our sessions and classrooms. Particularly good resources exist for understanding how they define and relate to ‘faith.’ Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the Church Kenda Creasy Dean Branded: Adolescents…
Reaching Every Learner
There are a lot of books out there on learning theory and classroom management. Here’s what I consider some of the best of the best. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ Daniel Goleman Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus Sherry A. Weddell Frames of Mind Howard Gardner…
Mind Their Gender!
The guys and gals in your room will learn differently not only because of their brain wiring, but due to gender differences. Part nature, part nurture, the resulting learning diversity in our groups needs to be respected if our sessions are going to have effective access points for all. These resources offer a general overview…