Youth ministers were once missionaries, meeting teenagers where they gathered in schools, malls, and parking lots. But over the past decade, something changed. Youth workers have struggled to connect with anxious kids glued to their phones and have found themselves filling the role of therapist for adolescents coming of age on the internet.We need a new approach. A veteran in youth ministry, Andrew Root explains how the church got here--and why soothing teenagers hasn't alleviated ...

Youth ministers were once missionaries, meeting teenagers where they gathered in schools, malls, and parking lots. But over the past decade, something changed. Youth workers have struggled to connect with anxious kids glued to their phones and have found themselves filling the role of therapist for adolescents coming of age on the internet.We need a new approach. A veteran in youth ministry, Andrew Root explains how the church got here—and why soothing teenagers hasn't alleviated t...

Named a 2014 Jesus Creed **Book of the Year (Biography)Best New Contribution to Bonhoeffer Studies & Best Youth Ministry Book for 2014,** Hearts & Minds BooksThe youth ministry focus of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life is often forgotten or overlooked, even though he did much work with young people and wrote a number of papers, sermons, and addresses about or for the youth of the church. However, youth ministry ...

Christian Theology after Christendom: Engaging the Thought of Douglas John Hall brings together contemporary thinkers to engage and build upon Douglas John Hall’s work—and to take up his challenge to reclaim a contextual and decolonizing theology of the cross as a means to speak to the realities of life and faith today. With a focus on contemporary issues, this edited collection critically analyzes and deconstructs the centuries-old colonial triumphalism of Christian theology and the churc...

In the bestselling tradition of Inside of a Dog and Marley & Me, a smart, illuminating, and entertaining read on why the dog-human relationship is unique--and possibly even "spiritual."Dr. Andrew Root's search for the canine soul began the day his eight-year-old son led the family in a moving Christian ritual at the burial service for Kirby, their beloved black lab. In the coming weeks, Root found himself wondering: What was this thing we'd experi...

For more than 50 years, relational or incarnational ministry has been a major focus in youth ministry. But for too long, those relationships have been used as tools—as a means to an end—where adults try to influence students to accept, know, trust, believe, or participate in something. While our motives may be good, it’s possible that by focusing on these goals, we’re not ministering the whole person. When we choose not to engage in the full life of a student, we run the risk of failing th...

What is youth ministry actually for? And does it have a future?Andrew Root, a leading scholar in youth ministry and practical theology, went on a one-year journey to answer these questions. In this book, Root weaves together an innovative first-person fictional narrative to diagnose the challenges facing the church today and to offer a new vision for youth ministry in the 21st century.Informed by interviews that Root conducted with parents, this book explor...

**What if the solution for the decline of today's church isn't more money, people, programs, innovation, or busyness?What if the answer is to stop and wait on God?**In When Church Stops Working, ministry leaders Andrew Root and Blair Bertrand show how actively watching and listening for God can bring life out of death for churches in crisis today. Using clear steps and practices, they invite church leaders to stop the endless cycle of doing more and rather to simpl...

Christianity Today Book Award of Merit winnerWhat haunts your youth group? So often we avoid talking about doubts and fears because we feel inadequately equipped to address them in any meaningful way. Thecrisis of existence can't be answered with pat Sunday school formulas or a few Bible verses, let alone another relay race.The questions our youth have are often the same ones that perplexed the great theologians, driving them to search for...

How Do You Minister to People Who Are Spiritual but Not Religious?Post-Christian life and society do not eliminate a desire for the transcendent; rather, they create an environment for new and divergent spiritual communities and practices to flourish. We are flooded with spiritualities that appeal to human desires for nonreligious personal transformation. But many fail to deliver because they fall into the trap of the self.In the last book of the Ministry i...

Shining a Light on the Problem of InnovationChurches and their leaders have innovation fever. Innovation seems exciting--a way to enliven tired institutions, embrace creativity, and be proactive--and is a superstar of the business world. But this focus on innovation may be caused by an obsession with contemporary relevance, creativity, and entrepreneurship that inflates the self, lacks theological depth, and promises burnout.In this follow-up to Churche...

Religion, Theology and Stranger Things*: Studies from the Upside Down on Evil, Ethics, Horror, and Hope* brings interdisciplinary analysis to the teeming spiritual side of the hit television series. With chapters from social scientists, historians, theologians, and Biblical scholars, the volume addresses the many different theological, religious, and supernatural themes present in the fictional world of Hawkins, Indiana. From spiritualism to secularism, Mormon gender norms to mons...