Friday Review (9/25/26)
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
Volunteers are your Small Group, Ronald Long (Download Youth Ministry)
You might be surprised to hear this, but adult volunteers are people too! Your volunteers have jobs, families, hobbies, and things they do outside of volunteering for you and the youth group.
New Research: Who’s Actually Showing Up to Youth Group, Barna (Barna)
“In a time where so many voices and algorithms are fighting for teens’ and families’ attention, churches often measure the success of youth programming by how many kids show up. These findings remind us that it’s more important to ask ‘are they better off because they attended?’”p.
Biblical & Theological Studies
The Worship That God Will Not Accept, Matthew Boswell (Crossway)
Even more, God did take pleasure in the sacrifices and worship of his people. But only when their offerings were accompanied by sincere hearts. He did not want the worship of people whose hearts were divided, who claimed to love God while they chased after other gods or inwardly despised his word.
You Were Born for This Time and Place—To Seek God, Clayton Kaila (TGC Africa)
A people’s history and geography are neither divorced from nor obstacles to the search for God. They are its terrain, the field appointed by God.
Cultural Reflection & Contextualization
Are Phone-Free Schools Working?, Carmen Lim, Zach Rausch, Emma Park, and Jon Haidt (After Babel)
The gospel does not teach salvation through continual self-improvement or escaping human limitation. Instead, God enters into human weakness through the incarnation.
Narnia Among the Deathworks, Tim Challies(Challies)
According to Rieff, a deathwork is an assault on something that is hallowed to an established culture. It isn’t a critique or argument that the culture is untrue, but a means of profaning something that is sacred in order to make it seem ridiculous or repulsive.
Pastoral Ministry
Four Reasons Why a Person Who Professes Faith in Christ Might Refuse to be Baptized, Kevin Schaal (Proclaim and Defend)
Almost every pastor, when baptizing a person asks them some variation of these two questions. “Have you trusted Jesus Christ alone for your eternal salvation?” “Is it your desire to live in obedience to His commands?” For some people, it’s the second question that is the problem."
The Privilege of Being a Pastor, Darryl Dash (Dashhouse)
"As Charles Spurgeon said, “Who can bear the weight of souls without sometimes sinking to the dust?” Despite this, pastoring is a joy and a privilege. Let me give you three reasons why."
Family & Parents
When Our Children Become Our Gods, Katie Polski (Rooted)
To put it simply, an idol is often a good thing that becomes a god thing. Because our children are among God’s most precious gifts, it is tempting to put them in the place of the God who created them
For Our Kids. . . Identity Matters, Walt Mueller (CPYU)
If our primary calling as parents and youth workers is to point our kids to Christ , praying that He would embrace them so hard that they would find their identity solely in their embrace of Him, then what can we do to help our kids find their way through youth culture’s confusing identity mess?
From YPT this week
ep.145: Youth Pastor Salaries & Staff Stress, YPT Podcast
First, we have a youth worker from another country asking about salary and compensation. While details are obviously different in various contexts, this opens up a general conversation about youth pastor salaries. Second, we hear from a youth worker whose fellow staff member doesn't send their teenagers to youth group... and they want to know how to respond.
How to Ask Good Questions, Mike McGarry
Asking good questions is one of the most difficult skills youth workers learn. It doesn’t usually come naturally, and it takes time and effort to develop. But you can learn!
