4 steps to start a conversation about young people with your church

Photo by Cole Hutson

I love books. That’s probably obvious.

But too often one of two things happens to books I pick up:

1. I start but never finish.

2. They end up in the “pile of doom” on my desk.

I may devour the book, mark it up, fold pages down that I want to return to later, and think of a handful of other people who need to read it. But if it ends up in the pile of doom, all those thoughts and next steps go dormant until some unpredictable moment in the future when I get out of the day-to-day enough for the book to resurface.

We don’t want the same thing to happen to you. We believe Growing Young can help bring transformation to your congregation. But we also know you have a whole list of priorities competing for your attention. So we’ve created a handful of ways you can take next steps with Growing Young before you lose momentum.

4 steps to start a conversation with your church

1. Read Growing Young

Well, you knew we’d want you to start here.

We sincerely believe that Growing Young is where your conversation can start. Packed with research insights and practical next steps, we believe this book can help you advocate for young people in new ways. Our book is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Christian Book Distributors, and if you want bulk copies for your team or others at your church, your best bet is Direct2Church.

2. Take the assessment

We are thrilled to share that our FREE 18-question Growing Young assessment is now available.

While it’s tempting to just guess how your church might be doing when it comes to engaging young people, we’re helping you remove the guesswork and get a head start on next steps in your congregation.

The best part is that we’re able to make this assessment free as a resource for you, and you can take it right now!

3. Start a conversation

Once you’ve taken the assessment, you’re going to want to share it with a friend, a leader at your church, or someone else who cares about young people. Then get together and talk!

Another way to start that conversation is to send them a link to the book and to one of our recent articles in Christianity Today, the Washington Post, or podcasts like this one with Carey Nieuwhof. Let them know you’re reading this book and would love to get together soon to talk about what it means for your church. Then set a date for lunch!

4. Start a book discussion group

Over on our Church Resources page, we’ve got more good stuff for you, including a FREE group discussion guide you can download right now. This 8-week group guide makes it easy to gather a small group, church staff, elder board, or ministry team to walk through the book together and apply its insights to your specific context.

If you’re ready to get your whole congregation on board, we also have a starter sermon series and a set of church promotional materials ready-made for you to use right now.

Let’s continue the conversation about young people … together.

As you can tell, our team has been working overtime to make sure Growing Young isn’t just another pile-of-doom book in your life. Hang with us for even more resources coming in the next few months.

We’re investing so much because we believe this matters, and we want to help you and your church keep growing young. We believe the church can be the BEST place for young people to grow. Let’s do this together!

Let's make the church the BEST place for young people to grow. 4 steps to begin today! (tweet that)