In Youth Ministry 3.0, you’ll explore, along with Mark Oestreicher and the voices of other youth workers, why we need change in youth ministry. You’ll get a quick history of youth ministry over the last 50 years. And you’ll help dream about what changes need to take place in order to create the next phase of youth ministry—the future we need to create for effective ministry to students.

Over the past several decades there have been three significant shifts in youth culture; each new shift brought with it different values and priorities in the lives of teens. Youth ministries adapted and responded to the first two shifts, but we’re missing the boat on the third. The result? Youth ministry isn’t addressing the realities and needs of today’s youth culture.

After nearly three decades in youth ministry, Mark Oestreicher has lived through a lot of those shifts himself. In recent years, he’s found himself wondering what needs to change, especially since so much of what we’re doing in youth ministry today is not working. In Youth Ministry 3.0, youth workers will explore, along with Marko and the voices of other youth workers, why we need change in youth ministry, from a ministry moving away from a dependence on programs, to one that is focused on communion and mission.

They’ll get a quick history of youth ministry over the last fifty years. And they’ll help dream about what changes need to take place in order to create the next
phase of youth ministry — the future that needs to be created for effective ministry to students.

Teens today face tough issues and tough choices. Parents and youth leaders can make a difference by really understanding the culture in which teens live. Without such understanding, attempts to provide direction may not be heard and may even be misguided. Understanding Today’s Youth Culture is a complete guide for parents, teachers, and youth leaders on music and the media, sex, peer pressure, substance abuse, cyberspace and the Internet, teen depression, and suicide.

Do you feel out of touch with today’s kids? This basic course will help you keep pace with adolescent culture so you can minister to teens more effectively! Learn about the media and music that matters to them, their struggles with substance abuse and depression, the ways they express their faith, and more.

Before we can reach today’s youth with the truth of the gospel, we need to see what they see and hear what they hear. We need to catch the messages encrypted in their culture and understand what’s really being communicated.

In Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture Walt Mueller (Understanding Today’s Youth Culture), founder and president of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, helps us to navigate the troubling and confusing terrain of teen worldviews so that we can effectively and compassionately pass along good news: our God is their God, our Savior can be their Savior.

Contemporary adolescents seem confident, well-adjusted, and happy. But beneath the surface, they’re often lonely, insecure, and empty. What’s going on? Claiming that adults have “abandoned” teens just when they most need support, Clark’s ethnographic study examines today’s changing youth culture from the inside out and suggests five strategies to “turn the tide of systemic abandonment.”

By: David Kinnaman

In his Epistle, the Apostle Peter instructed us to give others good reason for the hope we have in Christ, but to do so with “gentleness and respect.” Unfortunately, in the eyes of many non-Christians today, the church has done just the opposite. In Unchristian, David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, has complied startling research among the unchurched and learned that Christians are too often known for the issues they stand against, rather than the hope which they stand for. According to the research, believers are seen as too judgmental, too political, and often hypocritical. If you are a Pastor, lay person or youth leader you will not want to go without the details of this critical study. Uncover for yourself the latest research on the unchurched in Kinnaman’s must-read book.

Ask today’s generation what they think of Jesus and chances are you’ll get a glowing response. Ask their opinion of organized religion and the reply will probably be less favorable. Kimball delineates six common objections people have to the church and offers a wake-up call of critical insights for both faith leaders and non-Christians.

Some churches have “it” and some don’t. Congregations that do have this powerful, life-changing force thrive and grow—sometimes even in the most difficult circumstances. But what is “it” exactly? Blending in-your-face honesty with off-the-wall humor, Groeschel seeks to define the elusive “success gene” that provides spiritual balance for leaders and helps ministries flourish.