When you look at the students around you, what do you tend to see—their potential or their hindrances? Their advances or their setbacks? This second report from our Urban Youth Workers in America (UYWA) study takes a closer look at the “full-ness” and “empty-ness” of both urban kids and non-urban kids.
Many of us would agree that the forms of typical youth ministry are in need of change. But towards what new forms are we turning in order to have greater transforming impact in students’ lives? Mark Maines offers an integrated asset-based model as one opportunity for re-forming our ministries in a holistic way.
Most of us have no trouble focusing our ministries on the spiritual needs of students — it’s what we do best. But how carefully do we look at the “whole kid” in our approach to youth ministry? These findings from FYI’s Urban Youth Workers in America research dig up some powerful truths about the reality of holistic ministry.
