Deep Justice | Youth Ministry Resources from CYFM

One of our primary research objectives over the past three years at CYFM has been to lead students and adults deeper into their service and justice work. Like you, we believe that God has called us to serve the poor, oppressed, sick, and anyone in need, and that God calls us to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them in very tangible ways as we serve. We have also heard and observed that youth workers struggle to effectively engage students in life-transforming, long-term commitments to live out God's heart for justice.

We have listened to the needs and concerns of youth workers across the country and literally around the world, and have created a series of resources that we hope will contribute to the transformation of students and adults alike. Below you will find links to our newly-released Deep Justice book as well as a number of free curriculum resources, articles, downloadable audio files, and more. We pray these resources will assist you in making a kindgom difference in kids' lives and in the world around you!

DEEP JUSTICE MENU:

Click any of the links below to jump to the corresponding section of resources on this page.

Deep Justice in a Broken World:
Helping Your Kids Serve Others and Right the Wrongs Around Them

It doesn�t take a long list of statistics to convince you that our world is broken. Mission trips, service projects, and supporting children through relief organizations are just a few of the ways that many youth workers engage their students in serving the least, the last, and the lost. As good and helpful as these things may be on the surface, that�s where they remain—at the surface. The problems run far deeper than an occasional paint job or fundraising project can solve. But it�s not hopeless.

Following their bestselling book, Deep Ministry in a Shallow World, Kara Powell and Chap Clark provide you with research and insights that will help your ministry get to the next level. They will help you go beyond simply trying to motivate your students to serve those in need, and invite your students to wrestle with why those people are in need in the first place. You�ll hear from well-known social justice leaders and youth workers who are making a difference in urban, suburban, and small town settings including:

In addition to expanding your personal justice commitments, Deep Justice in a Broken World will help you reflect with your own leadership team, and will provide you with online resources to take you even deeper into the journey. So go ahead, dig deeper into what it means to heal the broken world in which we live. Take your ministry deeper into social justice.

Read an Excerpt from the Introduction

Read Excerpts of Interview Quotes

Order a Copy of the Book

Get Free Curriculum Resources:

NOTE: All curriculum resources on this web site are available free to any youth worker, regardless of any affiliation with a World Vision program such as 30 Hour Famine or One Life. Our hope is that these resources will catalyze your students to get involved locally and globally in justice-related prayer and action, no matter what form that may take.

30 Hour Famine Curriculum

Released in fall 2007, this new adaptation of the 2006 One Life curriculum focuses specifically on combating hunger and poverty through the lenses of nurturing students to become lifetime kingdom followers. With many new opportunities to engage students in discussion, prayer, and action on behalf of the poor, this highly-adaptable curriculum can be used in any justice-seeking ministry.

Vision Generation Curriculum

CYFM has been writing a year's worth of monthly resources for worship, prayer, and action that World Vision is delivering via email to participants in both One Life and 30 Hour Famine. Use these ideas interspersed throughout your year to continually engage students in catching God's vision for caring for the poor and oppressed around the world and in their neighborhoods.

One Life Curriculum

Working alongside youth workers and mission organization leaders, CYFM spent over a year researching issues related to AIDS in Africa, theological constructs related to the kingdom of God, and strategies for mobilizing kids to care about justice and world concerns. We wrapped all of this up into a curriculum that was field-tested in real youth ministries during the development process before being published by Youth Specialties, World Vision, and CYFM in a unique partnership. Now it's available for free download on our site.

Extra Resources for Those Who Want to Dig Deeper...

A Deeper Integration of Theology and Ministry Deep Justice
CHAPTER 2:WHAT STEPS DO I NEED TO TAKE? - How often do you stop to ask, �Is the way I practice ministry leading to the results I am hoping for?� or, �How do my theology and my ministry shape each other?� Whether you think about these kinds of things a lot or a little, this Deep Design from Kara Powell and Chap Clark�s Deep Ministry in a Shallow World offers a �practical theology� loop that you can incorporate into virtually every aspect of ministry.

Beyond "Either-Or" to "Both-And": Going Deeper With Our Social Justice Deep Justice
CHAPTER 2:WHAT STEPS DO I NEED TO TAKE? - In this Journal of Student Ministries Article (pdf, 1.92 MB), Kara Powell and Brad Griffin explore some of the complexities of facing service and social justice with Kingdom of God lenses.

Learning from the Experts: Insights from Youth Workers Effectively Engaging Students in Service and World Issues Deep Justice
CHAPTER 3: TEACHING- How do you get - and keep - students involved in and caring about world concerns, serving others, and engaging in social justice? Take a look at what we've been hearing from youth workers around the country, as well as some suggestions on ways to engage the students in your ministry.

Just Worship Deep Justice
CHAPTER 3: TEACHING - Are we more comfortable with singing about God's love or God's justice; with raising our hands in church or reaching our hands out to the poor and oppressed? Whether we're uncomfortable or not, the Old Testament prophets and the example of Christ point us to a radical both/and type of worship justice. This article challenges us to think carefully about how we teach and model worship to students.

Jim Wallis Interview: CYFM Ministry Conversations Deep Justice
CHAPTER 3: TEACHING - Kara Powell interviews Jim Wallis, President and Executive Director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal and author of justice-seeking books such as God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It.

What Lurks Behind Those Fish, Toilet Paper and Pantyhose Games Deep Justice
CHAPTER 4: FOLLOWING THE SAVIOR - JUNIOR HIGH MINISTRY: What kind of image of God are your students walking away with from your programs? Check out these insights on "Environmental Ministry" from Kara Powell, tailored for Jr. High youth workers.

Re-Storying Conversion: Listening to Students� Accounts of Coming to Christ Deep Justice
CHAPTER 5: PERSONAL SALVATION OR SOCIAL REFORM? - "Conversion" and "evangelism" are words we often throw around in ministry without really stopping to consider what we mean and what we are attempting when we use them. Looking at two different approaches to conversion research might help us think more carefully about how we�and the students we serve�see the roles of both story and process in evangelism.

John Perkins Interview: CYFM Ministry Conversations Deep Justice
CHAPTER 5: PERSONAL SALVATION OR SOCIAL REFORM? - Kara Powell interviews Dr. John Perkins, renowned justice worker who has founded a number of ministries and organizations including the Christian Community Development Association, and author of nine books..

Book Roundtable on: Hurt: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers Deep Justice
CHAPTER 6: HOW DO WE MOVE THE NEEDLE? - What are clusters and what can I do about them? What is �middle adolescence�? Chap Clark sits down with a group of youth workers to discuss his book Hurt: Inside the World of Today�s Teenagers.

Tough Questions to Ask Before Your Next Missions Trip Deep Justice
CHAPTER 6: HOW DO WE MOVE THE NEEDLE? - What value do our typical short term missions trips add to the communities we serve? What real transformation happens in our students? Does our short-term work help or hinder the work of long-term missionaries? These are the tough questions being asked by researchers and youth workers across the country, and questions worth asking of our own ministries!

If We Send Them, They Will Grow�Maybe Deep Justice
CHAPTER 6: HOW DO WE MOVE THE NEEDLE? - Many of us assume that we �get� short-term missions work and its impact on our students. After all, we�ve led plenty of trips on which students experience transformation, right? Perhaps; or perhaps not. CYFM recently co-hosted a Think Tank of short-term mission exemplars�youth workers and organizational leaders�to assess the current landscape of short-term missions effectiveness and to survey its future. This article looks at a few of the findings from that gathering.

Justice Hits Close to Home:
A Roundtable Panel on Inviting Parents into Our Service Deep Justice
CHAPTER 6: HOW DO WE MOVE THE NEEDLE? - In light of recent research and our commitment to the importance of parents in youth ministry, CYFM invited a handful of youth pastors and short-term missions experts to help us better understand how to invite parents to walk with their students in the justice journey.

Tony Campolo Interview: CYFM Ministry Conversations Deep Justice
CHAPTER 6: HOW DO WE MOVE THE NEEDLE? - Kara Powell asks Dr. Tony Campolo for his honest reflections on social justice and youth ministry, and receives some provocative input from the widely-acclaimed spokesperson for recasting youth ministry in light of concern for the poor and oppressed around the world.

An Empirical Analysis of Acting White: A Study You Can�t Afford to Ignore Deep Justice
CHAPTER 7: WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG? - Why do Black and Hispanic students who do well in school seem to lose friends? Reviewing recent social science research from Harvard, Dan Hodge gives us some interesting thoughts for reflection on race and education.

Wankstas & Wiggas: Dealing with the New Generation of White Hip Hop Culture Deep Justice
CHAPTER 7: WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG? - Why is it that so many white suburban youth are so into hip hop culture? Dan Hodge explores author Bakari Kitwana�s insights into Black popular culture and its powerful influence on non-Black adolescents in his new book, Why White Kids Love Hip Hop.

CRASH: When it All Comes Colliding Together Deep Justice
CHAPTER 8: CONVERSATIONS TO RIGHT RACIAL WRONGS - Few issues push our buttons as a culture more than race relations. While the Church may often pretend the conflict does not exist, in reality we have a responsibility to engage and respond to the difficult dynamics of race in the U.S. The movie Crash takes a unique look into these dynamics, and Dan and Jude help us navigate the movie and its implications for ministry in this article.

Lina Thompson Interview: CYFM Ministry Conversations Deep Justice
CHAPTER 8: CONVERSATIONS TO RIGHT RACIAL WRONGS - Kara Powell interviews Lina Thompson, World Vision's National Director for Training and Capacity Building for U.S. Programs, about talking about race with kids and adults. NOTE: The audio quality for the first portion of this interview is poor due to some technical difficulties, but it gets better as the interview goes on.

Anthony Flynn Interview: CYFM Ministry Conversations Deep Justice
CHAPTER 9: HOW CAN OUR CHECKBOOKS BE TOOLS OF JUSTICE? -
Kara Powell interviews Anthony Flynn, formerly of New Direction Church in Memphis and now COO of Urban Youth Workers Institute, on personal finance and the life of the youth worker.

Dolla Dolla Bill Y�all: Economic Perceptions from the Hip-Hop Community Deep Justice
CHAPTER 10: HOW CAN OUR MINISTRIES USE MONEY? - �Man, I wish I could have a ride like dat,� exclaimed one young person. While his friend says, �Yeah, �cuz if I had a ride like dat, shoot, all tha honeys would love me!� No matter what �hood� you live in, if hip-hop is involved, money will always be a factor.

Your Kids: Half Full or Half Empty? Deep Justice
CHAPTER 10: HOW CAN OUR MINISTRIES USE MONEY? - When you look at the students around you, what do you tend to see�their potential or their hindrances? Their advances or their setbacks? This second report from our Urban Youth Workers in America (UYWA) study takes a closer look at the �full-ness� and �empty-ness� of both urban kids and non-urban kids.

Unearthing the Whole Truth About Holistic Ministry Deep Justice
CHAPTER 10: HOW CAN OUR MINISTRIES USE MONEY? - Most of us have no trouble focusing our ministries on the spiritual needs of students � it's what we do best. But how carefully do we look at the "whole kid" in our approach to youth ministry? These findings from CYFM's Urban Youth Workers in America research dig up some powerful truths about the reality of holistic ministry.

Larry Acosta Interview: CYFM Ministry Conversations Deep Justice
CHAPTER 10: HOW CAN OUR MINISTRIES USE MONEY? - Kara Powell interviews Larry Acosta, President of Urban Youth Workers Institute, on developing strategies for ministry Fund Development.

Rudy Carrasco Interview: CYFM Ministry Conversations Deep Justice
CHAPTER 10: HOW CAN OUR MINISTRIES USE MONEY? - Kara Powell interviews Rudy Carrasco, Executive Director of Harambee Ministries in Pasadena, CA, on Indigenous Urban Leadership Development.

The Other Side of �At-Risk�: Freeing Youth from Suburban Oppression Deep Justice
CHAPTER 11: CLASSISM: WHAT'S JUST ABOUT THE RICH GETTING RICHER AND THE POOR GETTING POORER? - Few of us actually think suburban kids live risk-free lives, but most of what we hear about "at-risk" relates to kids who live in urban areas, in deep poverty, or in obviously harsh family environments. This article looks deeper into the oppressive forces impacting the lives of suburban kids�no less real or oppressive, but perhaps less obvious.

God of the Generations: Raising Up Leaders in the City Deep Justice
CHAPTER 11: CLASSISM: WHAT'S JUST ABOUT THE RICH GETTING RICHER AND THE POOR GETTING POORER? - What is the city�s greatest hope? While God works through all sorts of leaders, perhaps the greatest hope for the city comes from those who grow up in the city and and choose to stay there as indigenous leaders. Urban practitioner and researcher Jude Tiersma Watson explores the model of urban leadership development as a way to raise up leaders in your�and their�context.

Alexie Torres Fleming Interview: CYFM Ministry Conversations Deep Justice
CHAPTER 11: CLASSISM: WHAT'S JUST ABOUT THE RICH GETTING RICHER AND THE POOR GETTING POORER? - Kara Powell interviews Alexie Torres Fleming of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice in the South Bronx, New York.

The Place & Space of the Hood: Space and the Reality of Identity in the New Millennium Deep Justice
CHAPTER 12: CLASSISM—WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? - Backwoods or central city, your students identify with some kind of community as �their� space. Have you ever considered the levels of meaning attached to those identifications? This article takes a look into the roles of �place & space,� specifically in urban contexts.

We Have Forgotten that We Belong to Each Other Deep Justice
CHAPTER 12: CLASSISM—WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? - Who are the youth you consider developmentally �at risk� in your church or neighborhood? In contrast to the individualism that has guided most work with kids who are labeled this way, Jude Tiersma Watson offers an approach based on ecological development theory and a theological principle of belonging. These insights affect the way we view ministry with ANY kind of student.

Shane Claiborne Interview: CYFM Ministry Conversations Deep Justice
CHAPTER 12: CLASSISM—WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? - Kara Powell interviews Shane Claiborne�author, speaker, and founder of The Simple Way monastic community in Philadelphia.

Turning the Corner on Youth Violence:
Emerging Perspectives and Encouraging Examples Deep Justice
CONCLUSION - Are kids getting more or less violent? Given the amount of media attention attracted by episodes of youth violence, it�s hard to get a handle on what research might be saying or what ministry interventions might be working to lower violence. With the help of the Fuller Youth Initiative research team, this article takes an in-depth look at the key questions youth workers and parents have about youth violence, and a few encouraging responses from youth workers who are making a difference.

Going Global: When U.S. Teens Tackle Tough International Issues Deep Justice
CONCLUSION - Can students in your youth ministry really make an impact on the world? Using an international Transformational Development model, David Russell shares what can happen when we re-cast youth ministry and kids catch on.

When Faith Gets AIDS

The "When Faith Gets AIDS" initiative aims at providing practical and accesible resources related to addressing and combating the AIDS pandemic across Africa. Thanks to generous private grant funding, CYFM has been able to launch several research and resource initiatives over the past three years.

To visit the When Faith Gets AIDS resource page, follow THIS LINK.

Short-Term Missions Resources

One of CYFM's 2007-2008 initiatives includes developing a collaborative Short-Term Missions (STM) curriculum for youth ministries of all types. This curriculum process began with a November 2006 think tank gathering of STM leaders and youth pastors from around the country to discuss "best practices and processes" related to effective youth STM work.

Out of that gathering, our core research team was motivated to pursue grant funding for the further development of a curriculum youth ministries could adapt to their own STM contexts and needs. We are currently collaborating with a research and writing team including representatives from several mission organizations as well as frontlines youth workers.

One of the core assumptions in this project is that true STM effectiveness and life transformation (both for the "goers" and those who receive them in their communities) will emerge from an ongoing focus on creating missional lifestyles. This means that our STM preparations must include strategies for before, during, and after our actual trips—they must be woven into the fabric of our youth ministry ethos.

Below are articles and resources related to the STM effectiveness research we have conducted so far:

Deep Justice and Short-Term Missions
Youth Ministry Curriculum
Available for the next few months ONLY, we are offering rough drafts of this curriculum entirely FREE as pdf downloads. Available in March 2008 are 72 pages of "BEFORE THE TRIP" options you can use with your team in preparation for missions and service opportunities this spring and summer. Available in May will be drafts of the remainder of the curriculum options for DURING and AFTER your trip. Help us improve this material by testing it in your ministry and giving us feedback!

Tough Questions to Ask Before Your Next Missions Trip
What value do our typical short term missions trips add to the communities we serve? What real transformation happens in our students? Does our short-term work help or hinder the work of long-term missionaries? These are the tough questions being asked by researchers and youth workers across the country, and questions worth asking of our own ministries!

If We Send Them, They Will Grow�Maybe
Many of us assume that we �get� short-term missions work and its impact on our students. After all, we�ve led plenty of trips on which students experience transformation, right? Perhaps; or perhaps not. CYFM recently co-hosted a Think Tank of short-term mission exemplars�youth workers and organizational leaders�to assess the current landscape of short-term missions effectiveness and to survey its future. This article looks at a few of the findings from that gathering.

Learning From the Experts: Insights from Youth Workers Effectively Engaging Students in Service and World Issues
How do you get—and keep—students involved in and caring about world concerns, serving others, and engaging in social justice? Take a look at what we've been hearing from youth workers around the country, as well as some suggestions on ways to engage the students in your ministry.

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

No Longer an Option: The Essential Role of �Cultural Intelligence� in Youth Ministry
Training in cross-cultural communication used to be reserved for elite business leaders or career missionaries, but now it's essential for all of us—even for your youth ministry! Check out this overview of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and interview with Dave Livermore, CQ guru. No matter what your ministry context, this paradigm shift is guaranteed to stir changes in the way you approach cross cultural interaction.

Into Darfur: A Young American's Journey

In July 2007, Oxfam America sent Nick Anderson, an 18-year-old rising high school senior, on a one-month mission to Sudan. There he served as Oxfam America’s youth ambassador, meeting with teenagers there so he could return to the U.S. and help tell their stories. Click here to see the video from his trip.

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