One of our core values at FYI is collaboration. Part of our DNA is collaborating with youth workers, other leaders, research faculty, and parents to better understand adolescents and better resource those who work with them.

Last week one of our collaborative partners, Steve Argue, posted this on the Immerse Journal blog regarding collaboration to help address a youth ministry challengehow to help faith stick beyond high school:

Beyond their longitudinal research, FYI has done a really smart thing. Instead of drawing conclusions from their research on their own, they invited our church to join a cohort of a dozen churches to wrestle with and challenge their findings with the purpose of thinking through the implications for ministry. In my mind, this is a perfect picture of intersecting research and praxis through the collaboration of researchers and practitioners. This has created well-informed and accessible material that FYI is rolling out for the benefit of students, youth workers and parents.

Read the full post

Collaboration truly is part of our heartbeat. As you think about your own ministry, what role does collaboration play? Who do youor could youcollaborate with in order to see even greater ministry impact? Are there groups youve been ignoring who could be incredible co-learners or laborers with you, like parents, older adults, coaches, teachers, other local youth pastors, parachurch ministries in your communitythe list could go on and on.