Friday Review (6/12/26)
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
Gen Alpha’s Roadblocks to a Biblical Worldview, by Shane Pruitt & Shelly Melia (Gospel Centered Discipleship)
We must answer this all-important question “How do you help Generation Alpha build a biblical worldview?” Here are five quick and practical things parents, leaders, and teachers can do to help young people build a biblical worldview:
7 Reasons You Should Stay in Youth Ministry, by Greg Stier
For an overworked, frustrated youth leader, only one solution might seem apparent: leaving to pursue another job or calling. But I urge you not to quit youth ministry too soon. Not only are you having eternal impact on young lives, but those individuals are specially equipped and positioned to impact other souls for eternity.
Biblical & Theological Studies
4 Reasons to Take Sabbath Seriously, by Mark Dance (Lifeway Research)
But God not only blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy, He still blesses those who take it seriously enough to consistently observe it. Here are four reasons you need to take Sabbath seriously today:
Cultural Reflection & Contextualization
A Christian Response to “Looksmaxxing” and Gen Alpha Slang, by Micah Ingold (Center for Faith & Culture)
It is important to be healthy and take care of our bodies. There are many benefits of being healthy and taking care of our bodies. Our bodies are gifts from God, and we should respect and care for them. However, this trend turns into an idol.
Thawed Embryos, Reproductive Rights, and the Grey Marshlands of Ethical Ennui, by Stephen McAlpine
Why? Because, as I suspect is the case for many women, the space between the white-hot fervour of both sides of the abortion/reproductive rights debate, is more akin to the marshlands of Dickens’ novel. Ethical categories have been absorbed in modernist mist.
Pastoral Ministry
When Culture Trumps Strategy, by Dan Steel (New Churches)
I can think of too many people—good, sincere, kind, sacrificial core team members—who didn’t just leave a church plant, but eventually seemed to walk away from the faith altogether. Not because they stopped believing the gospel intellectually, but because of how they were treated while trying to build something for God. That should stop us in our tracks.
The Pastor as Anti-Professional, by Michael Krahn (The Shepherd’s Refuge)
I aim to meet the standard—good at all the things I am supposed to be good at, master of my domain, doing what everyone else does… but better. In other words: a “real professional." But this is unnecessary, and what’s more, it is a hazard.
What Are the Songs We Sing Teaching the Church?, by Matthew Skinner (Doctrinal Doxology)
Sound doctrine is a non-negotiable. It’s required in our preaching, our discipleship, and our teaching. But do we apply the same care for doctrine to our singing?
Family & Parents
The Humbling I Needed, by Melissa Edgington (Your Mom Has a Blog)
At 48 years old, I’m learning new things about parenting. One of those things is that many parenting books, podcasts, and influencer posts are written by people with naturally compliant children. Hear me out.
Practicing the Spiritual Discipline of Evangelism as a Family, by Andrew Slay (Rooted)
As Christian parents, we know God calls us to be witnesses for Jesus wherever we live, work, and play. We also know God calls us to the privilege of discipling our children and pointing them to Jesus. Yet how can we instill the spiritual discipline of evangelism in our kids’ lives, so they develop a burden for the lost?
From YPT this week
When & How to Use Curriculum Well, by Nick Hartman
Every ministry uses a curriculum. The question is whether you build it all from scratch yourself or buy and adapt it from a trusted source. How do you do that well?
