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BOOKS FROM CYFM 
PARTNERS & FURTHER RESOURCES 
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Copyright © 2008
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Whether you've thought a lot, a little, or not really at all about what environmental concerns have to do with your youth ministry, Kris Fernhout makes a strong case for why we should all join God in caring about our--and our students'--impact on the world around us.
One of the highlights of our recent justice research has been interviews we’ve conducted with entrepreneurial thinkers, youth workers, and justice leaders around the country. To jump start your thinking, we have compiled memorable excerpts from the full-text interviews available in our new book, Deep Justice in a Broken World. 
What's the difference between service and justice, and what's the big deal, anyway? Following their highly-acclaimed book Deep Ministry in a Shallow World, authors Chap Clark and Kara Powell invite a host of key justice-minded leaders to help craft Deep Justice in a Broken World, including Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Jeremy del Rio, Larry Acosta, John Perkins, and more. This article offers a snapshot from the book itself—a challenge to dig deeper into what it means to truly seek God's justice through our youth ministries.
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.
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.
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.
What is social justice, and how do I know if I’m doing it—or doing it well—in youth ministry? To help you evaluate your own ministry, we’re reporting here on a collaborative effort by CYFM, World Vision, Community Solutions, Inc., and the Urban Youth Workers Institute to get at the difference between average justice work and deeper justice ministry. INCLUDES A FREE DOWNLOADABLE ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR YOUR MINISTRY.
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.
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.
Many of us would agree that the forms of typical youth ministry are in need of change. But towards what new forms are we turning in order to have greater transforming impact in students' lives? Mark Maines offers an integrated asset-based model as one opportunity for re-forming our ministries in a holistic way. 
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. 
When you make plans in ministry, do you tend to follow through well, or let the ball drop? How does your level of follow through impact your kids, your community, and your ministry? In this last of a three-part series on ministry evaluation, Mark Maines helps us think more critically about the role of execution in youth ministry.
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 new book Deep Ministry in a Shallow World offers a “practical theology” loop that you can incorporate into virtually every aspect of ministry.
What does it mean to persuade students with the Gospel? When do we cross the line to manipulation? What can we learn from persuasion research to help sharpen our communication practices with students? Mark Maines utilizes some of Chap Clark's work from the newly-released Deep Ministry in a Shallow World to offer a new look at our persuasion.
How do the kids in your church know when they have become adolescents? How do they know when they have become adults? As we re-think the value and necessity of rites of passage in our ministries, we may help bring clarity to these life stages and help students through the zones of identity confusion.
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.
What does the future hold for youth ministry as we know it? Kara Powell caught up with author and professor Ryan Bolger to learn from his research and perspective on the shape of youth ministry in the emerging church.
What’s your plan? Part II in our series on assessment, Mark Maines walks us through a helpful process for the important work we often fail to do first: plan.
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! 
Ever had a great idea completely bomb? Ever scratch your head and wonder why it happened? The field of innovation theory reveals several insights for youth workers that just might make a difference in your next idea’s take-off rate.
Do you evaluate your ministry practices? Should you? How do you go about it? What kind of difference might these discoveries make to the way you’re doing ministry, or the way you will do ministry in the coming year? Mark Maines walks us through an analysis of ministry Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and teaches us how to use this model in our own church or organization.Includes a bonus resource: Downloadable SWOT Analysis template!!!
Do we get evangelism? Do we even get the Good News? What kinds of disciples are we making in our churches? Statistics suggest that we are in need of a radical rethinking of our evangelistic strategy as gospel-oriented Christians, seeking to follow the Great Commission. Check out these radical thoughts from Brian McLaren.
Whether we notice it or not (and most of us don't), what we sing, pray, read from Scripture, and enact together in corporate worship will, over time, contribute to the formation of the identity of individuals and a community of worshipers. So when it comes to the worship in our youth groups, are we cheating our kids?
You could probably think of some obvious differences between your youth ministry and a youth ministry in Africa, but what are some similarities? You might have more in common that you dared to realize because of a process called globalization.
While McDonald’s has brought many positive elements to our culture, it is also eroding much of our life and vitality. It’s a process sociologist George Ritzer calls “The McDonaldization of society”. Is it also creeping into our youth ministries?
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BOOKS FROM CYFM
PARTNERS & FURTHER RESOURCES
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Copyright © 2008
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