CYFM E-Journal September 2007 | Free Youth Worker Resources


September Update from CYFM and Kara Powell “I saw lights in my students’ eyes that I hadn’t seen before.” This statement in an e.mail from one of our Urban Youth Ministry Certificate students made my day. As someone who spent time every day loving and serving high risk kids in urban settings, she had lost sight of all that urban kids have to offer to the world. Thanks to the training in our Urban Youth Ministry Certificate, she started involving the kids in her inner city ministry in service and justice work. And a new spark was lit—one unlike anything she had seen before. We hear stories like this all the time from the youth workers enrolled in our Urban Youth Ministry Certificate. The November 15 application deadline for our March 2008 cohort is fast approaching, and since we offer significant scholarship support to all the students in our cohort, space is limited. If you’re an urban youth worker who wants deeper training in topics like indigenous leadership development, networking in your city, helping traumatized kids, and community development, then check out our Urban Youth Ministry Certificate Page now. Whether you minister in an urban, suburban, small town, or rural context, we hope the articles in this issue of the CYFM E-Journal give you some ideas to try out that eventually light a flame in the kids in your ministry also. Three of our articles focus specifically on issues related to our ministry among families. Youth workers often ask us what kinds of models of family ministry are out there and who is really “doing family ministry” effectively. Recently we gathered a focus group of youth workers to help us think harder about the research and resources we develop related to those questions. Their feedback was incredibly helpful, and we’d like to invite you to contribute to that conversation as well as to help guide our research. So this issue’s “Tell CYFM” question is: What kinds of resources would help you better equip and encourage parents in your youth ministry? Email your thoughts to tell.cyfm@fuller.edu today! By the way, last month the article you and other readers forwarded the most was New Twists on Not-so-new Issues for Girls. Forward your favorite article this month to cast your vote for the most helpful resource from this E-Journal! Kara Powell Kara E. Powell, PhD, is the Executive Director of the Center for Youth and Family Ministry and an Assistant Professor of Youth, Family, and Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. She has been in youth ministry for 20 years and is the author of many articles and books including the forthcoming Deep Justice in a Broken World (co-authored with Chap Clark, Zondervan, January 2008) Deep Ministry in a Shallow World (co-authored with Chap Clark, Zondervan, 2006) Help! I'm a Woman in Youth Ministry (Zondervan, 2004) Mirror! Mirror! (Zondervan, 2003), and the Good Sex Curriculum Guide (co-authored with Jim Hancock, Zondervan, 2001).	FREE RESOURCES for Deep Ministry in a Shallow World EVERYTHING about the Urban Youth Ministry program Resources for Urban Youth Workers Responding to AIDS in Africa on multiple levels Discovering what's missing to prepare for the college leap
Ministry Conversations: An Interview with Shane Claiborne on Going Deeper with Justice In this month's free audio download, Kara Powell interviews Shane Claiborne—author, speaker, and founder of The Simple Way justice-seeking community in Philadelphia. Shane's interview appears in the upcoming book from Kara Powell and Chap Clark, Deep Justice in a Broken World: Helping Your Kids Serve Others and Right the Wrongs Around Them.
Disconnected High School Students: Parenting Midadolescents by Chap Clark and Dee Clark Chap and Dee Clark recently combined their years of experience as parents with their respective expertise in youth ministry and family therapy to co-author Disconnected: Parenting Teens in a MySpace World. This brief excerpt from Disconnected highlights the emerging reality of midadolescence, along with offering faith-building strategies that can help parents move kids toward a growing faith in the midst of the midadolescent reality. Email this article to a friend.
Why Ecclesiology? Imagining a New Theology of Youth Ministry for the Church by Kara Powell and Brad Griffin What do we really think about the church, and does it make a difference in the way we do youth ministry? Kara Powell and Brad Griffin argue here that our ecclesiology matters immensely for youth workers, and make practical suggestions for working out a new theology of youth ministry for your church. Email this article to a friend.
Family Ministry: Good Things Come in Threes by Meredith Burns When faced with the question, “How do you minister to families?” many of us balk, stutter, or change the subject. While we care deeply about the families of our youth ministries, we cannot always articulate or strategically plan for the ways we care for, equip, and encourage them. This article will help put some language around three of the most common approaches to family ministry, in addition to giving you some tools you can use right now to assess your approach to families. Email this article to a friend.
A Tale of Two Poverties: Engaging Students Across the Resource Divide by David Russell Whether you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about poverty or only barely entertained its implications for you and your students, this article offers deep insights for rethinking both the ways we view and teach about poverty. Email this article to a friend.
Please PASS ON this E-Journal to your ministry team and youth worker friends! Our Mission: Working alongside frontline leaders, Fuller Theological Seminary's Center for Youth and Family Ministry (CYFM) exists to turn research into resources that transform youth and family ministry. To read more about how we work and the leadership of the Center, visit www.cyfm.net/faq.php.

September Update from CYFM and Kara Powell

Kara Powell

“I saw lights in my students’ eyes that I hadn’t seen before.”

This statement in an e.mail from one of our Urban Youth Ministry Certificate students made my day. As someone who spent time every day loving and serving high risk kids in urban settings, she had lost sight of all that urban kids have to offer to the world. Thanks to the training in our Urban Youth Ministry Certificate, she started involving the kids in her inner city ministry in service and justice work. And a new spark was lit—one unlike anything she had seen before.

We hear stories like this all the time from the youth workers enrolled in our Urban Youth Ministry Certificate. The November 15 application deadline for our March 2008 cohort is fast approaching, and since we offer significant scholarship support to all the students in our cohort, space is limited. If you’re an urban youth worker who wants deeper training in topics like indigenous leadership development, networking in your city, helping traumatized kids, and community development, then check out our Urban Youth Ministry Certificate Page now.

Whether you minister in an urban, suburban, small town, or rural context, we hope the articles in this issue of the CYFM E-Journal give you some ideas to try out that eventually light a flame in the kids in your ministry also. Three of our articles focus specifically on issues related to our ministry among families. Youth workers often ask us what kinds of models of family ministry are out there and who is really “doing family ministry” effectively. Recently we gathered a focus group of youth workers to help us think harder about the research and resources we develop related to those questions. Their feedback was incredibly helpful, and we’d like to invite you to contribute to that conversation as well as to help guide our research.

So this issue’s “Tell CYFM” question is: What kinds of resources would help you better equip and encourage parents in your youth ministry? Email your thoughts to tell.cyfm@fuller.edu today!

By the way, last month the article you and other readers forwarded the most was New Twists on Not-so-new Issues for Girls. Forward your favorite article this month to cast your vote for the most helpful resource from this E-Journal!

Kara Powell

Kara E. Powell, PhD, is the Executive Director of the Center for Youth and Family Ministry and an Assistant Professor of Youth, Family, and Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. She has been in youth ministry for 20 years and is the author of many articles and books including the forthcoming Deep Justice in a Broken World (co-authored with Chap Clark, Zondervan, January 2008) Deep Ministry in a Shallow World (co-authored with Chap Clark, Zondervan, 2006) Help! I'm a Woman in Youth Ministry (Zondervan, 2004) Mirror! Mirror! (Zondervan, 2003), and the Good Sex Curriculum Guide (co-authored with Jim Hancock, Zondervan, 2001).

FREE RESOURCES for Deep Ministry in a Shallow World

EVERYTHING about the Urban Youth Ministry program

Resources for Urban Youth Workers

Responding to AIDS in Africa on multiple levels

Discovering what's missing to prepare for the college leap

Ministry Conversations:
An Interview with Shane Claiborne
on Going Deeper with Justice

In this month's free audio download, Kara Powell interviews Shane Claiborne—author, speaker, and founder of The Simple Way justice-seeking community in Philadelphia. Shane's interview appears in the upcoming book from Kara Powell and Chap Clark, Deep Justice in a Broken World: Helping Your Kids Serve Others and Right the Wrongs Around Them.

http://www.cyfm.net/article.php?article=disconnected_high_school_students.html

Disconnected High School Students:
Parenting Midadolescents

by Chap Clark and Dee Clark

Chap and Dee Clark recently combined their years of experience as parents with their respective expertise in youth ministry and family therapy to co-author Disconnected: Parenting Teens in a MySpace World. Recommended for Parents This brief excerpt from Disconnected highlights the emerging reality of midadolescence, along with offering faith-building strategies that can help parents move kids toward a growing faith in the midst of the midadolescent reality.

Email this article to a friend.

http://www.cyfm.net/article.php?article=why_ecclesiology.html

Why Ecclesiology?
Imagining a New Theology of Youth Ministry for the Church

by Kara Powell and Brad Griffin

What do we really think about the church, and does it make a difference in the way we do youth ministry? Kara Powell and Brad Griffin argue here that our ecclesiology matters immensely for youth workers, and make practical suggestions for working out a new theology of youth ministry for your church.

Email this article to a friend.

http://www.cyfm.net/article.php?article=good_things_come_in_threes.html

Family Ministry: Good Things Come in Threes

by Meredith Burns

When faced with the question, “How do you minister to families?” many of us balk, stutter, or change the subject. While we care deeply about the families of our youth ministries, we cannot always articulate or strategically plan for the ways we care for, equip, and encourage them. This article will help put some language around three of the most common approaches to family ministry, in addition to giving you some tools you can use right now to assess your approach to families.

Email this article to a friend.

http://www.cyfm.net/article.php?article=tale_of_two_poverties.html

A Tale of Two Poverties:
Engaging Students Across the Resource Divide

by David Russell

Whether you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about poverty or only barely entertained its implications for you and your students, this article offers deep insights for rethinking both the ways we view and teach about poverty.

Email this article to a friend.

Please PASS ON this E-Journal to your ministry team and youth worker friends!

Our Mission:

Working alongside frontline leaders, Fuller Theological Seminary's Center for Youth and Family Ministry (CYFM) exists to turn research into resources that transform youth and family ministry.

To read more about how we work and the leadership of the Center, visit www.cyfm.net/faq.php.