Is your student ministry healthy? This is a question every student minister has asked. It’s a question that brings both anger and tears. You are growing in numbers, but something just didn’t feel right. It doesn't feel healthy. This is the “there must be more to student ministry than this” moment. Regardless of your ministry context, church size, denomination, or years of experience, it is possible for you to have a healthy student ministry. The three elements, explained by author Ben Trueblood, will lead you to that very thing. Student Ministry that Matters gives you and your leaders a framework to answer this question, "Is my student ministry healthy?" and help you highlight areas of improvement as you seek to lead a student ministry focused on health.

Why Teenagers Matter in the Life of the Church

Michael McGarry explores the foundation of youth ministry in the Old and New Testaments and brings that together with Church history in a compelling way. McGarry presents a thorough biblical framework to think about youth ministry as the church's expression of partnership with the family for co-evangelizing and co-discipling the next generation.

A few small changes can make a big difference. As your students graduate high school, are they graduating from church too? Research shows that the majority of teenagers who are active in church during high school stop attending shortly after. In a new study, LifeWay Student Ministry and LifeWay Research have partnered to identify the factors that are contributing to this disturbing trend as well as those factors that contribute to teens staying in church. In his first book, Student Ministry That Matters, Ben Trueblood laid out a clear approach to creating a healthy student ministry in any context. In this book, Ben points student ministry leaders to the hope found within this startling statistic. The solution is not a full-scale revamping of student ministry. Rather, the hope for helping students build lifelong faith and keeping them connected to the church after high school is just a few small changes away. Benefits Prepare students to stay connected to a local church once they graduate high school Identify where we are, what we're finding in the data, and action steps we can take in the church and in families to keep students engaged Understand factors that influenced students who stayed in church and those who didn't Consider what's going on in the home and how this contributes to students staying in or leaving a local church Identify tools and establish a clear and simple course of correction: Here's where we're missing it, where we can evaluate, and where we can move on Ben Trueblood serves as the Director of Student Ministry for LifeWay Christian Resources. Ben has eighteen years of student ministry experience, fourteen of which were spent in the local church as a student pastor. In addition to his role at LifeWay Ben is involved in training, consulting, and speaking to student ministries throughout the U.S. He is driven by a desire for student ministries to expand God's Kingdom, to see the lives of students transformed by the gospel, and to develop students who shape the culture in which they live. Ben is also the author of Student Ministry That Matters and A Different College Experience. Ben and his wife, Kristen, have four children. In his free time Ben enjoys family, hunting, is a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan, and is an affiliate streamer on Twitch under the name of Flashbang_CSN. Connect with Ben on twitter at: @bentrueblood

Do you find other youth ministry programs promise you can "plug and play," only to fall short of expectation, forcing you to "adopt and drop"? An organic student ministry allows each student ministry to exist and live in its best possible way, its natural way! In his book Organic Student Ministry, acclaimed youth ministry author Stephen Ingram shows you how to: Develop practices instead of just programs Minister to students where they are instead of spending your time pleading with them to "get with the program" Focus on a way of doing ministry that grows naturally from the distinctively rich and fertile soil of your unique church "Stephen Ingram is the 'Steve Jobs of the Youth Ministry world.' I'm hard pressed to recall anyone with the inventiveness and informed creativity of this young man."- Mark DeVries, president, Ministry Architects

Congregations are shrinking and in decline. Fewer people are part of communities of faith. Michael Plekon's previous book, Community as Church, Church as Community, traced the factors behind this as well as the resurrection of parishes that have reimagined themselves in diverse ways. Pastors have played essential roles in such transformation. But where are the ordained today? Ministry Matters is a sustained meditation on the vocation, lives, and work of pastors today. We listen to an ecumenical group of exceptional pastor-theologians on how pastors live and serve. These include George Keith, Nicholas Afanasiev, Barbara Brown Taylor, C. Andrew Doyle, Andrew Root, Sarah Coakley, Samuel Wells, Rowan Williams, Henri Nouwen, Pope Francis, David Barnhart, and Will Willimon, with commentary from Michael Plekon, who has served as priest in both western and eastern churches for over forty years. Many years of pastoral experience are shared here, providing a feast of reflection on the shepherds of God's flock.

I know what you're thinking: "Another book on money!" And you're right, this is another book on money, but it's probably not quite from the angle that you're thinking. Money Matters (to God) is a book about seeing finances through the eyes of God instead of the eyes of society. Through this book, we will walk through the scripture to see what the Bible actually has to say about money and how we should use it. You may be surprised to see what's there. Money is an important topic to God. You can clearly see that through the Old and New Testaments. Jesus talked more about money than He did about heaven or hell. Money is important to God simply because it's important to us. Sometimes too important. My prayer is that, through this book, you will be able to shed the burden of financial stress through priority and perspective.

Anger, frustration, and confusion. Chaos, and stress. Joy, love, and grace. All of these are the emotions I have felt in student ministry. Even right now as I sit here in my office writing, I find myself planning and preparing for the emotions that will come from student ministry. Preparing my mind, and my heart, for any of these or a mixture of them all, I know I will experience them. In this book we will navigate what student ministry looks like, and how to handle everything that comes with it.

This teaching and study material is designed to bring sobriety to the purpose of ministry in the Kingdom. Ministry is a valuable part of the Kingdom. God anoints individuals in the Church with ministries and gifts to glorify Him. However, as the day of the Lord hastens, we find many believers entering into ministry with wrong motives. In addition, others are pursuing gifts for their own personal gain. Learn why God gives gifts and ministries and how to avoid error. This study is derived from 3 distinct works from the Abundant Truth International Leadership Series: 1) He Gave Gifts Unto Men: God's Plan for Ministry in the Kingdom 2) Motives in Ministry: Defining the Proper Motives for Ministry and Service 3) Troubled on Every Side: How God Uses People and Problems to Prepare Us for Ministry and Service It is our prayer this study will aid those engaged in Christian ministry.

Join the conversation as experts propose, defend, and explore Four Views of Youth Ministry and the Church.In a dialog that often gets downright feisty, four youth ministry academicians delineate their distinct philosophical and ecclesiological views regarding how youth ministry relates to the church at large--and leave a taste of what’s profound and what’s not in these four typologies:Inclusive congregational (Malan Nel). What happens when a church thoroughly integrates its adolescents, making them full partners in every aspect of congregational life?Preparatory (Wesley Black). Why and how should a church consider its teenagers as disciples-in-training and its youth ministry a school of preparation for future participation in church life?Missional (Chap Clark). What does a church look like, whose youth ministry does not necessarily nurture "church kids" but is essentially evangelistic? Whose youths and youth workers are considered missionaries?Strategic (Mark Senter). How feasible is it for a youth ministry to become a new church on its own--the youth pastor becoming the pastor, and the new church planted with the blessing of the mother church?In Four View of Your Ministry and the Church, solid academic writing and an inviting tone and design create a compelling text for both in-the-field, practicing youth workers and undergraduates and graduate students.