Research into Resources
Kara Powell interviews pastor and author Jim Belcher about the content of his new book Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional
A Fuller graduate, Jim is founding church planter and lead…
Recently Doug Schaupp, co-author of Being White: Finding our Place in a Multiethnic World and a regional director for InterVarsity campus ministries, trained a local group of youth workers through our Los Angeles Youth Ministry Network on race relationships and moving beyond talk of “reconciliation” to actively building justice in our lives and ministries.
When you make plans in ministry, do you tend to follow through well, or let the ball drop? How does your level of follow through impact your kids, your community, and your ministry? In this last of a three-part series on ministry evaluation, Mark Maines helps us think more critically about the role of execution in youth ministry.
How often do you stop to ask, “Is the way I practice ministry leading to the results I am hoping for?” or, “How do my theology and my ministry shape each other?” Whether you think about these kinds of things a lot or a little, this Deep Design from Kara Powell and Chap Clark’s new book Deep Ministry in a Shallow World offers a “practical theology” loop that you can incorporate into virtually every aspect of ministry.
How do you get – and keep – students involved in and caring about world concerns, serving others, and engaging in social justice? Take a look at what we’ve been hearing from youth workers around the country, as well as some suggestions on ways to engage the students in your ministry.
How do the kids in your church know when they have become adolescents? How do they know when they have become adults? As we re-think the value and necessity of rites of passage in our ministries, we may help bring clarity to these life stages and help students through the zones of identity confusion.
What does it mean to persuade students with the Gospel? When do we cross the line to manipulation? What can we learn from persuasion research to help sharpen our communication practices with students? Mark Maines utilizes some of Chap Clark’s work from the newly-released Deep Ministry in a Shallow World to offer a new look at our persuasion.
Ever wonder what your students, parents, and volunteers are thinking about your ministry? Why not ask? Check out these lists of helpful questions for focus group assessments to help solve the mysteries.
What’s your plan? Part II in our series on assessment, Mark Maines walks us through a helpful process for the important work we often fail to do first: plan.
What value do our typical short term missions trips add to the communities we serve? What real transformation happens in our students? Does our short-term work help or hinder the work of long-term missionaries? These are the tough questions being asked by researchers and youth workers across the country, and questions worth asking of our own ministries!
