Friday Review (7/1/22)
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
What Does Christian Hedonism Have to Do With Student Ministry and Parenting Teenagers? by Jonathon Woodyard (Rooted)
The boots of Christian hedonism hit the ground and go running. Christian hedonism changes the way we view the gospel. It changes the way we view heaven. It gives us fresh eyes and thoughts when it comes to parenting and pastoring, helping us disciple teenagers for their joy and God’s glory.
Biblical & Theological Studies
On Keeping Your Greek and Hebrew in Ministry by Matt Emadi (9Marks)
First, I believe that the single most important thing you can do to keep your Greek and Hebrew skills alive in ministry is to do the hard and time-consuming work of preparing sermons out of the Greek and Hebrew text of Scripture. Second, the single greatest challenge to keeping your Greek and Hebrew alive in ministry is the sustained conviction that it matters.
Why Female Eyewitnesses Authenticate the Resurrection by Rebecca McLaughlin (The Gospel Coalition)
We may choose not to believe it. But unlike the fake egg in the museum scene, the women’s claim that they saw Jesus crucified, entombed, and raised to life on the third day does not disintegrate when tested.
Cultural Reflection & Contextualization
5 Ways Pastors Can Equip Their Congregations to Use Social Media by Chris Martin (Terms of Service)
Social media is at the center of our culture right now. It touches everything, and it’s well past time that the church pays attention to it and how it’s affecting the church.
What Does a Pro-Life Economy Look Like? by Will Sorrell (Christianity Today)
Abortion has been a national institution for nearly 50 years. Where should Christians spend their pro-life dollars now?
A Patriotism of Compassion, Not Pomp and Glory by Nathaniel D. Williams (Christianity Today)
American evangelicalism has fractured and splintered over questions on faith, politics, and our national identity. Angry rhetoric has dominated the conversation, and we no longer have a consensus on what it means to be a patriotic Christian—or if it’s even wise to try to be one.
Pastoral Ministry
The Case for (Slightly) Shorter Sermons by Rory Shiner (The Gospel Coalition Australia)
If you are a forty-minute preacher here’s my challenge: Look at your forty minutes on Wednesday. If you can get that down to twenty-five minutes by Sunday, I promise it will be a way better talk. Not because twenty-five is better than forty. But because, by submitting to the limitation of time and word-count, you’ll be forcing on yourself a bunch of decision that will increase the quality of your talk.
Don’t Disciple People into Fragmented Faith by Daniel Tankersley (The Gospel Coalition)
By God’s grace, we’ve seen this same pattern play out throughout our church’s discipleship ministry. The threefold emphasis on head, heart, and hands has awakened church members to gaps in their formation, and then leaders in the three ministry venues have encouraged them to honestly admit the gap, ask God for his help, and then experience change, learning to act according to God’s Word and will.
Family & Parents
How to Talk to Your Kids About Pride Month and Sexuality by Krissie Inserra (ERLC)
The job of Christian parents seems as hard now as it has ever been... But we can have confidence that in our weakness, God is strong. He has given us what we need for life and godliness in his Word, and he will give us wisdom to train up our children in the goodness of his ways.
Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak: Communicating With Your Teenager by Connie Nelson (Rooted)
We parents long for our children to see us as safe, because we want them to experience the security they have in being our beloved children. Even if they don’t see it now, and even if it is sin (theirs and ours) that obscures that reality, the fact that we love them and desire their good will never change.
From YPT this week
Growing a Gospel Culture in Youth Ministry by Vince Greenwald
We know the gospel should shape our youth group’s culture, but we aren’t always sure what that should look like. What do we mean by “gospel culture” and what does it look like in student ministry? Here are three examples:
Honor Time: outdoing one another in showing honor
Burden Baring: carrying one another’s burdens
Walking in the Light: confessing sin and receiving the mercy and freedom of the gospel