Youth ministry fundamentals at your fingertips! Or call it a light-hearted primer to a serious subject. A Youth Ministry Crash Course is 150 to-the-point entries on issues you face every week -- topics that are described, simplified, illustrated, and occasionally tweaked by a couple of veteran youth workers who've acquired a pragmatic streak alongside their compassion for teenagers. Inside you'll find shrewd insight with a wry twist: - On Curricula: "You know your kids better than some editor working away in a cubical somewhere. Change material to suit your group, and chuck what doesn't fly." - On Recycling: "Students cycle in and out of your youth group every three or four years -- so recycle your program themes and events that often too." On Rules: "Never make one when you're tired or ticked off." - On Sacred Cows: " Learn what they are and keep your kids away from them -- you'll add longevity to your job. E.g., no pew hurdling in the million-dollar sanctuary during youth night. - On Spiritual Growth: "The kid that grows the fastest may not grow the deepest. Don't overlook the one who grows slowly but steadily." Whether you're new to youth ministry, a Sunday school teacher of junior or senior highers, a volunteer, or a veteran with a novice staff -- in Crash Course you'll find instructions, motivation, and reminders of what the glorious, hectic calling of youth ministry is all about.

Rural youth ministry is an amazing adventure--a truly unique beast, different from serving in the inner city or the heart of suburbia. But even though our culture is becoming increasingly urban and suburban, rural youth ministry isn't going away anytime soon.Brent Lacy is no stranger to the realities of rural ministry--the joys, the challenges, the rewards, the heartaches. He grew up in a rural community and serves as the youth pastor at a rural church today.Through the pages of this book, Brent examines keys to thriving in rural youth ministry, strategies for building solid relationships, tips on reaching your local schools, wisdom on surviving church politics, ideas on effectively using technology, and advice on adjusting to a new church or community. Whether you're new to rural youth ministry or your life has been forged in a rural setting, this book will inspire you to hold firm to God's calling. You can be successful in your ministry. You can reach your community in ways you and your church never even thought were possible. The work may be long, hard, and messy, but the rewards are amazing. The Expanded Second Edition also includes updated and additional content.

An essential speaking tool for youth workersThese 40 outlines for youth talks--written by veteran youth leaders--are just the beginning. Youth pastors, volunteer youth leaders, camp directors and counselors, and retreat leaders will also find suggestions for bringing talks to life--with illustrations, object lessons, video clips, music, and more. Each outline is followed by dozens of questions for use in small groups--to ensure that your words are heard, processed, and applied.Features include:* Sidebars for every main point which contain key illustrations, object lessons, and video or music clip suggestions* Dozens of small group discussion questions for middle and high schoolers* Fully indexed by contributor, topic, and Scripture* All of the outlines are compiled onto a companion CD-ROM in Microsoft Word® format

Crash Course on Jesus explores key information about Jesus' birth, ministry, identity, death, resurrection, and promised return. Participants will discover a powerful and perfect Savior who is alive and well--and is coming back!

Veteran youth workers Helen Musick and Duffy Robbins dip into their bag of tried-and-true teaching tricks to present this collection of 52 of their most effective object lessons. Easy and fast to prepare, these lessons are perfect for use in devotionals, Sunday School lessons, talks at camps and retreats, and even sermons for both junior and senior high groups.

The Purpose Driven® Youth Ministry Training Kit is here to help you and your leadership team (both adults and student leaders) build a purpose driven ministry. Designed to prompt group interaction with you as facilitator this kit contains five sessions for your team. If you're starting a youth ministry, look here for firm foundations. If you want to take your existing youth ministry to the next level, turn here for insights and applications that can take your team a quantum leap forward. This clear and easy-to-follow facilitator's guide walks you through each session so you can escort your team into discussion, discovery, and ministry-transforming decisions. Get ready to cover more ground, reap more rewards, and have more fun building a truly purpose-driven youth ministry than you ever dreamed! Build a vigorous, purpose-driven youth ministry with these key concepts: Tap into the power of God - the foundation for any effective ministry. Chart the course of your ministry - clearly with a carefully conceived statement of purpose. Identify your target audience - know your students' various spiritual levels and needs. Develop purpose-driven programs that reflect the biblical goals of evangelism, worship, fellowship, discipleship, and ministry. Build a healthy leadership team whose members love each other as they love students.

As profound, as relevant, as funny as you are . . . teenagers still listen to each other more than to an adult youth worker.You may grimace, but you can’t deny it--students talking to each other usually means more to them than adults talking to them.The Student Leadership Training Manual helps you equip your senior highers for leading their peers and taking charge of as much of the ministry as they want or are able--helping and evangelizing their peers . . . organizing ministry teams . . . planning and executing their own youth ministry programming.Here are 31 training sessions for discipling student leaders in a small-group setting--sessions that start in the Bible and reach deep into teenagers’ experience . . . ready for you to implement a clear and effective program that trains your students for higher levels of leadership, regardless of where they are now.Plus 24 pages just for you, a veritable primer on how to cultivate student leadership:The role of adultsAuthority vs. responsibilitySetting student leaders up for successTeaching students not just the whats, but the whys and howsHelping them discover their spiritual giftednessPerfect for youth workers, CE directors, associate pastors, and small-group leaders--anyone who works with a youth group’s core kids.

The Bible is a photo album, brimming with self-portraits of a God who wants to be known. God has put these pictures in the Bible to reveal his character. By examining them, we discover who God is and why he’s worth knowing better. And we discover something else: who he wants us to be. He wants us to copy his picture into our own character. Wild Truth Bible Lessons--Pictures of God 2 is a guide to 12 God-pictures taken straight from the Photo Album. They are active Bible lessons for junior high and middle school Sunday school classes or youth group meetings, each one based on one of the 50 pictures of God and presented energetically, relevantly, and scripturally in the companion student book Wild Truth Journal: Pictures of God. The lessons are loaded with off-the-wall and easy-to-do discussion starters, video ideas, scripts, games with a point. And, of course, Bible passages and studies that springboard junior highers from the abstract into the concrete as (open Bibles in hand) they explore the nature of God in a lively, relevant way, and then begin practicing in their own lives the traits of God.Here’s how the lessons are organized: * Picture Prep grabs your group’s attention to prepare them for what’s ahead.* Action Shot takes your students into the Bible to catch God in the act of revealing his character.* Self-Portrait explores the given aspect of God’s character...how it makes God just that much more awesome...and why it’s a very good trait for us to have, too.* Print It! challenges your students to print God’s picture into their own lives by living out his character in an immediately practical way.12 lessons

Rowdy, restless, silly, out of control, moody, vulgar, disrespectful, unpredictable -- this may be the junior high stereotype, writes youth ministry expert Wayne Rice. But early adolescents' enthusiasm, loyalty, energy, candidness, and willingness to learn -- these more than compensate for the well-publicized hazards of working with middle schoolers. In this edition of Junior High Ministry -- updated and expanded to reflect the realities of middle school ministry at the turn of the century -- the cofounder of Youth Specialties takes a comprehensive look at the early adolescent experience: - A case for junior high ministry -- and what it takes to work effectively with junior highers. - New material of turn-of-the-century trends in the youth culture -- and on programming for kids living in this culture. - A chapter each on the five pivotal areas of development -- physical, social, intellectual, psycho-emotional, and faith -- among junior highers. - Altogether new chapters on parental involvement and mentoring in the context of junior high ministry . . . all topped off with 50 creative and practical ideas -- fun and games, Bible study openers, mixers, entire events -- that are tailored for junior highers in Sunday school, the youth room, or your living room. Whether you're training for youth work or a trainer of youth workers, Junior High Ministry will keep finding its dog-eared way to the top of your most used resources.

Start Discussions That Matter to Your High Schoolers About God. About themselves, their, beliefs, their questions, their lives.[Burst: More than a quarter-million copies sold in this series!]More High School TalkSheets—Updated! contains the same kind of provocative, compelling, discussion-starting questions that are hallmarks of the best-selling TalkSheets series—now updated for new-millennium high schoolers. Here are 50 more creative discussions that focus on relevant, real-life topics:The FutureDeathPrioritiesAIDSHeaven & HellPremarital SexPrayerKnowing GodHomosexualityMaterialism & Consumerism. . . and 40 more subjects of perennial interest to teenagers.TalkSheets are convenient, effective one-page reproducible handouts with intriguing questions that will get churched kids and unchurched kids alike talking and thinking about the Bible—and how its principles affect their daily lives.Use TalkSheets to launch your own lesson—or use them as stand-alone Bible studies. Each TalkSheet comes with detailed information and suggestions for discussion leaders: Bible references galore, Internet resources, further group exploration, and activities to pursue during and after the meeting.More High School TalkSheets—Updated! is the perfect discussion-starting resource for youth meetings, small groups and cell groups, Sunday school, and camps and retreats.