How Mission Drives a Youth Group Program Schedule
Rev. Skip Masback talks about translating a youth ministry’s vision into programming, following his YMI lecture, “The Arc of a Year: How Mission Drives a Youth Group Program Schedule.”
The Future of Youth Ministry
Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean talks about her vision for the future of youth ministry, following the Yale Center for Faith and Culture Theology of Joy Consultation, “Joy and the Vernal Season of Adolescence.”
Youth Ministry and Technology
Dr. Rodger Nishioka discusses the role of technology within youth ministry.
Sustainable Youth Ministry
Rev. Mark DeVries offers advice on how to maintain a sustainable youth ministry.
Exploring the Bible with Contemporary Youth
The Rev. Dr. Yolanda Smith discusses how to engage contemporary youth with bible study.
Participating with God: Missional Practices for Youth Ministry
Dr. David White discusses missional practices and theology in youth ministry.
Preaching Across the Generations
Good preaching is good preaching – to any age group, but bringing a message to young people requires particular attention to several fundamentals of effective communication. One of the nation’s leading preachers and teachers of preachers will help us reflect on the importance of crafting messages that are fully embodied, that engage multiple intelligences and that are attentive to the different stages of cognitive development among our listeners.
Nurturing Spiritual Habits with Youth
Youth don’t so much want to be lectured about God as they want to experience God. This experience comes from walking with God each day, not just on Sunday mornings. What are the spiritual disciplines, practices and traditions that help bring us closer to God and how do they work for today’s youth? We’ll explore ways to support our youth in developing and following their own “rule of life.”
Bridging the Generational Divide
At its best, youth ministry develops generative, intergenerational Christ communities that cultivate transformative faith and life in each other and make a difference in God’s beloved world. Roland Martinson speaks on how to create intergenerational practices that work. We’ll explore together how to bridge the generational divide in our ministry to our youth.
Planning and Leading Mission Trips
Youth long for experiences that will take them outside of their cramped, every day experience and connect them with something larger than themselves, with the transcendent love of God. Rev. Skip Masback will guide us through the nuts and bolts “best practices” that prepare the ground for mission trips in which our young people are “pilgrims not tourists, learners not teachers, listeners not talkers and receivers not givers.”
Bible Study That Transforms
Dr. Rodger Nishioka speaks on experiential Bible studies. He addresses the strengths and weaknesses of Bible studies and techniques to enrich the class.
Ministering to Youth Growing Up in a Screen-Based World
Dr. Andrew Root, Associate Professor and Carrie Olson Baalson Chair of Youth Ministry and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary asks the question, “With so much time and attention focused on the computer, TV, iPad an cell phone, how do young people experience spiritual life in a “hyper-real” world and how can we minister to them?”