Each week we compile a list of helpful articles from other sites, in a variety of categories, for youth workers to read, reflect on, and/or discuss with parents and volunteers. If you have any articles you’d like to suggest, we’d love for you to share those in the Youth Pastor Theologian Facebook group. That’s a great way to bring them to our attention and to discuss them with like-minded youth workers! (Inclusion in this list does not imply complete agreement with the publishing source, but we have found these articles to be beneficial.)

Youth Ministry

My Generation’s Digital Boredom Makes Us Spiritually Hungry, by Luke Simon (The Gospel Coalition)

In a world of infinite spectacle, what stands out isn’t another performance but something sacred. Young people are intrigued by incense, robes, and raised hands. They don’t want a church that mimics a coffee shop; they already have a coffee shop. They want a church that feels like church.

Discipling Younger Men, by Justin Agpangan

Discipling younger men is both a challenge and a delight. It is a challenge knowing that these young men have so much room for improvement so one needs to patiently bear with their shortcomings and immaturities. It is a delight knowing when we see them grow through us.

Biblical & Theological Studies

Psalm 119 Isn’t 176 Independent Statements, by David VanDrunen (The Gospel Coalition)

Psalm 119 is one of the most famous chapters in Scripture—mainly because it’s so long. Christians have found it fascinating, edifying, and beautiful. But one challenge of studying and understanding Psalm 119 is that it doesn’t appear to go anywhere.

Cultural Reflection & Contextualization

Is Phone Addiction Really That Bad?, by Patrick Miller (Crossway)

Dopamine media is the most powerful, pervasive, and engineered form of communication technology in human history, and it’s not shaping us to love Jesus most. It’s not shaping us to love our neighbor. It’s shaping us into pleasure-seeking addicts.

The Ghost of Christmas Never, by Samuel D. James (Digital Liturgies)

Risk aversion is my generation’s great besetting sin. Notions that millennials or Gen-Z are lazy and entitled are not always false, but they are superficial. Behind what looks like laziness and entitlement is fear: a pathological fear of falling short, of not obtaining what’s sought, of not knowing where to go or who to turn to.

Pastoral Ministry

Attentive Preaching, by Michael Jensen (Lost Arts)

Above all, preaching is an act of paying deep attention. It begins with a deep attention to the Word of God, above all. It then must be attentive to the intended audience - the congregation, and those not yet in the congregation.

When I Don’t Feel Like a Pastor, by Barnabas Piper

Here are four practices I have been learning to combat the distractions and burdens and lies that make me feel like a fraud and undermine my effectiveness as God’s minister.

How Do I Know If I'm Called to Serve as a Pastor?, by J.V. Fesko (Reformed Theology)

You therefore need both an internal call, a personal sense that you need to serve as a pastor, as well as the external call, the confirmation and encouragement from the church that you genuinely possess the gifts to pursue the pastorate.

Family & Parents

Motherhood Is a Mission, Not an Identity, by Melissa Edgington (Your Mom Has a Blog)

Motherhood is absolutely an eternal mission. But our position and prominence in our kids’ lives is temporal, and if we find that we are living in a cloud of hurt and sadness as each phase moves and changes, then it may be a symptom that we have built our identity on a good, but wrong foundation.

A Public School Parent’s Battle, by Greg Stier

Sending your kids to a Christian school doesn’t guarantee they will serve Jesus. Nor does sending your kids to a public school doom them spiritually. Prayerfully make the decision God is leading you to make.

From YPT this week

Helping Students Read the Bible for Themselves, by Kyle Fox

How can we help teenagers learn how to read and meditate on God’s Word?

Friday Review (1/9/26)