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This well-researched study explains what attracts teenagers to church and keeps them there. It provides a helpful description of the most effective ways that congregations and parents can build a faith in early teens that is not anti-institutional and that helps them value the church.
Since 1993, forty-nine theological seminaries have created opportunities for high school students to participate in on-campus High School Theology Programs (HSTPs) that invite them to engage in serious biblical and theological study. Many of the young people who take part in these programs go on to become pastoral or lay leaders in their churches. What has made these programs so successful -- especially given the well-documented "crisis of faith" among young people today? In this book thirteen contributors -- many of whom have created or led one of these innovative theology programs -- investigate answers to this question. They examine the pedagogical practices the HSTPs have in common and explore how they are contributing to the leadership of the church. They then show how the lessons gleaned from these successful programs can help churches, denominations, and seminaries reimagine both theological education and youth ministry.
"Most contemporary young people operate far enough from Moses’ moral compass that it never occurs to them that “OMG” (“oh my God,” in teenspeak) has anything to do with the Ten Commandments, much less that it breaks one of them. After all, the phrase is a nearly ubiquitous adolescent throw-away line...Yet Christians should hear the phrase “oh my God” differently. Youth ministers, parents, teachers—anyone who has ever loved an adolescent—know that “OMG” can be a prayer, a plea, a petition, a note of praise, or an unbidden entreaty that escapes our lips as we seek Christ for the young people we love." from the book Using six lens the authors detail current practices and tease out underlying questions as youth ministry becomes more self-consciously aligned with practical theology. Contributors include: Kenda Creasy Dean, Mike Carotta, Roland Martinson, Rodger Nishioka, Don Richter, Dayle Gillespie Rounds, and Amy Scott Vaughn.
What decisions must be made now if The United Methodist Church is to have a future?
Girls are more than just sugar and spice. We’ve all figured that out. What we haven’t figured out completely is how they’re wired, why they do the things they do, how the world around them affects their choices and opinions, and what that means for youth ministry—until now.In Teenage Girls, you’ll find advice from counselors and veteran youth workers, along with helpful suggestions on how to minister to teenage girls. Each chapter includes discussion questions to help you and other youth workers process the issues your own students face and learn how you can help them and mentor them through this tumultuous time.In addition to the traditional issues people commonly associate with girls, such as eating disorders, self-image issues, and depression, author Ginny Olson will guide you through some of the new issues on the rise in girls’ lives. You’ll understand more about issues related to:Family • Addiction • Emotional well-being • Mentalhealth • Physical welfare • Sexuality • Spirituality •Relationships
This book enriches appreciation of the many ways that Christian faith is communicated. It casts light on the sensitivities, skills, and qualities necessary for the effective communication of faith, where justice is done both to the "seed" to be sown and to the "soil" being cultivated.
In Fannie Lou Hamer’s Revolutionary Practical Theology Crozier acknowledges, analyses, and constructs the civil and human rights leader’s Christian thought and practice. Commonly known for her political activism, Hamer is presented as a religious thought leader whose embodiment of ideas and ideals helped to disrupt and transform the Jim Crow of the South within and beyond electoral politics. Through primary source documents of Hamer’s oral history interviews, autobiographical writings, speeches, and multimedia publications on or about her life and legacy, Crozier allows Hamer to have her say on racial and environmental justice concerns. Crozier introduces Hamer as a revolutionary practical theologian who resided on the margins of the church, academy, and society.
Catholic ecclesiology stands at the threshold of a new moment in the reception of the Second Vatican Council. The election of Pope Francis—coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the council—has inspired a fresh consideration of its teaching in such diverse areas as ecumenism, inculturation, missiology, and ministry. The chapters in this volume have their origin in a special symposium that called together over forty of the leading Catholic scholars from throughout North America in order to discuss the future of theological reflection on the church. The nine essays in this volume guided that conversation and offer an entry into some of the most pressing issues in ecclesiology today.
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Has the Americanization of American Catholics-their cultural assimilation, that is-been a blessing or a curse for the Church in the United States? Or has it been a bit of both? In American Church Russell Shaw takes a searching look at that question and reaches a disturbing conclusion. Cultural assimilation, which was ardently championed by churchmen like the great Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore around the turn of the last century, has undoubtedly conferred many benefits on Catholics. Their absorption into the secular culture of America, however, now threatens the Catholic identity of millions of faithful and of their institutions, such as schools, universities, and hospitals. Shaw does ...