If you're in the front lines of youth ministry -- as a leader, volunteer, pastor, parent -- you know that youth leadership can be tough. Teens are moving targets, congregations have high expectations, and sometimes even the most experienced youth leader can't shake the feeling that they really don't have a clue about what to do next. Life in Student Ministry offers more than a clue. Jammed packed with practical 'how-to' advice, this book is a must-read for any youth leader committed to building a thriving, long-lived ministry that impacts the spiritual lives of teenagers and their families. Based on a decade of youth leadership experience, author Tim Schmoyer provides on-target advice on everything from getting started, to recruiting and utilizing volunteers, to welcoming visitors, to dealing with lack of commitment from teens and parents. He also includes input, advice, suggestions, even disagreements from a host of experienced youth workers who discussed the book's overall content and weighed in with their own feedback. The result is a collection of many voices on the hurdles and frustrations common to many youth ministries. Life in Student Ministry encourages, challenges, and equips youth leaders to move through the barriers and thrive in their ministries.
Life in Student Ministry
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
Good, proven, practical ideas to real life youth ministry issues. Whether you are brand new just-out-of-the-box to youth ministry or a well weathered veteran there is something here for you. --Matt McAlack, Director of YM, Philadelphia Biblical Univ.
If you are in your first few years as a youth pastor, this book is a must read for you. It is not only jam packed with practical direction and ideas but also a lot of wisdom that will guide you. --Tic Long, Executive Director, Youth Specialties
This book relays practical conversations designed to help you build a solid youth ministry vision and gives you tactical insights for getting it done. Tim Schmoyer hits the bull's eye. --Greg Stier, Founder and President, Dare 2 Share Ministries
I have watched Tim over the years and believe he has become one of the top leaders in youth ministry. Regardless if you are in youth ministry full-time, part-time or volunteer, this book is a must-read. --Bill Scott, President, Free Our Family
A youth worker has to be a theologian, sociologist, game leader, bus driver, counselor, pastor and friend. Tim navigates those worlds in a book that is practical, theological, missiological, whimsical, and future focused. --Lars Rood, Youth Pastor
If you are in your first few years as a youth pastor, this book is a must read for you. It is not only jam packed with practical direction and ideas but also a lot of wisdom that will guide you. --Tic Long, Executive Director, Youth Specialties
This book relays practical conversations designed to help you build a solid youth ministry vision and gives you tactical insights for getting it done. Tim Schmoyer hits the bull's eye. --Greg Stier, Founder and President, Dare 2 Share Ministries
I have watched Tim over the years and believe he has become one of the top leaders in youth ministry. Regardless if you are in youth ministry full-time, part-time or volunteer, this book is a must-read. --Bill Scott, President, Free Our Family
A youth worker has to be a theologian, sociologist, game leader, bus driver, counselor, pastor and friend. Tim navigates those worlds in a book that is practical, theological, missiological, whimsical, and future focused. --Lars Rood, Youth Pastor
From the Back Cover
If you're in the front lines of youth ministry -- as a leader, volunteer, pastor or parent -- you know youth leadership can be tough.
Author Tim Schmoyer gets it, and he solicited input, opinions and advice from a host of youth workers who discussed the book's content and weighted in with their own feedback.
The result is Life In Student Ministry, a one-stop guide to leading a dynamic, long-lasting ministry that spiritually influences the lives of teenagers and their families.
There's no theorizing or philosophizing, just straight-on, practical advice based on wisdom and years of experience, including no-nonsense "how to" ideas on issues like:
Life In Student Ministry will encourage, challenge and equip youth leaders to continue building and leading thriving ministries even when they feel frustrated, out of their comfort zone and, yes, even clueless.
Author Tim Schmoyer gets it, and he solicited input, opinions and advice from a host of youth workers who discussed the book's content and weighted in with their own feedback.
The result is Life In Student Ministry, a one-stop guide to leading a dynamic, long-lasting ministry that spiritually influences the lives of teenagers and their families.
There's no theorizing or philosophizing, just straight-on, practical advice based on wisdom and years of experience, including no-nonsense "how to" ideas on issues like:
- Starting a ministry from "scratch"
- Recruiting and engaging adult volunteers
- Getting teens and parents to commit to ministry
- Handling discipline
- Writing a budget
Life In Student Ministry will encourage, challenge and equip youth leaders to continue building and leading thriving ministries even when they feel frustrated, out of their comfort zone and, yes, even clueless.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Tim Schmoyer has served in youth ministry for over 10 years. He is currently a youth pastor in Minnesota where he resides with his beautiful wife and two children. He authors the web version of Life In Student Ministry at StudentMinistry.org, where he hosts a weekly live youth ministry talk show, runs Youth Ministry Mentorships, and provides many resources, ideas, training videos, advice and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Life in Student Ministry shares a lot of great information that you can find in a lot of other books. The information is all solid, and even for those of us who have been in ministry for years, much of it is a great refresher and reminder. What sets this book apart is the conversational nature that you will find within.
Much of the content comes from a blog that Tim (the author) has hosted for some time now, and he elected to include some of the responses and conversation threads that we the readers added into those posts. It actually reads like a conversation one would have sitting around a table full of people who are in the trenches with you.
The only drawback for me has been the cover. If you find yourself turned off by the cover, please grab it anyway. What is inside is far better than the cover could tell you...
Much of the content comes from a blog that Tim (the author) has hosted for some time now, and he elected to include some of the responses and conversation threads that we the readers added into those posts. It actually reads like a conversation one would have sitting around a table full of people who are in the trenches with you.
The only drawback for me has been the cover. If you find yourself turned off by the cover, please grab it anyway. What is inside is far better than the cover could tell you...
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Tom Farr
Format:Paperback
LIFE IN STUDENT MINISTRY by Tim Schmoyer is a great book for anyone starting out in working in youth ministry. He covers many foundational and practical topics such as what to do in your first youth meeting, determining if you're called to youth ministry, how to recruit volunteers effectively, and how to handle youth ministry finances, among many others.
Schmoyer has been writing a blog on youth ministry for many years that has been a very helpful resource for those who work in youth ministry. The book is a compilation of his most important pieces of youth ministry advice. He writes in a very conversational style, which has the blog entry feel.
Another unique feature of the book is the inclusion of comments by other youth ministry workers after each section. While I liked the idea of this, many of the comments gave me the feeling of being at a youth pastors' conference. Specifically, I've found that many times as I'm sitting in a youth ministry conference led by a credible voice in youth ministry, many of the youth pastors in the room seem to feel the need to interrupt the speaker and inject their thoughts into the time allotted to the speaker. It has always struck me as arrogant, and the comments in the book gave me that same feel. Of course, I realize that these were genuine comments to posts on the blog, but I think the book would have been helped without many of them. For example, in a section about parents grounding their teens from youth ministry, one commenter mentioned that parents grounding their teens from church because it's fun for them was one of the lamest excuses he's ever heard. I can understand his frustration, but without understanding what the parent goes through, having that mindset is a complete invalidation of what the parent is going through, and it's not very helpful.
Other than the comments throughout the book, I thought LIFE IN STUDENT MINISTRY was a great resource for youth ministry workers.
I received this book for free for review from Zondervan.
Schmoyer has been writing a blog on youth ministry for many years that has been a very helpful resource for those who work in youth ministry. The book is a compilation of his most important pieces of youth ministry advice. He writes in a very conversational style, which has the blog entry feel.
Another unique feature of the book is the inclusion of comments by other youth ministry workers after each section. While I liked the idea of this, many of the comments gave me the feeling of being at a youth pastors' conference. Specifically, I've found that many times as I'm sitting in a youth ministry conference led by a credible voice in youth ministry, many of the youth pastors in the room seem to feel the need to interrupt the speaker and inject their thoughts into the time allotted to the speaker. It has always struck me as arrogant, and the comments in the book gave me that same feel. Of course, I realize that these were genuine comments to posts on the blog, but I think the book would have been helped without many of them. For example, in a section about parents grounding their teens from youth ministry, one commenter mentioned that parents grounding their teens from church because it's fun for them was one of the lamest excuses he's ever heard. I can understand his frustration, but without understanding what the parent goes through, having that mindset is a complete invalidation of what the parent is going through, and it's not very helpful.
Other than the comments throughout the book, I thought LIFE IN STUDENT MINISTRY was a great resource for youth ministry workers.
I received this book for free for review from Zondervan.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've followed Tim's blog for a while and so I was interested in his book. It's basically the same content as his blog but in book form.
As a veteran youth worker I found the book to be a light read with some practical ideas to think about. I found myself disagreeing with Tim on several things, but for the most part I thought his advice was spot on.
I would definitely put this in the hands of a youth pastor in his first youth ministry position along with Doug Field's book, your first two years in ministry.
Tim highlights a lot of issues that most newbies wouldn't think about and this is a valuable tool to help begin a journey as a well rounded youth pastor.
My only complaint was the inclusion of other's comments in the form they had. It literally was like reading a blog and I didn't find that constructive to reading. It would have been much more enjoyable for Tim to simply put the quotes within the text of his chapters.
I enjoyed the book, although the book cover is a little nerdy. No offense to Tim, as it seems to be a cartoon rendition of him?
The publisher could have marketed the book more successfully with a little more attention to the cover.
I plan on giving my copy away to the next great youth pastor joining us on this journey!
As a veteran youth worker I found the book to be a light read with some practical ideas to think about. I found myself disagreeing with Tim on several things, but for the most part I thought his advice was spot on.
I would definitely put this in the hands of a youth pastor in his first youth ministry position along with Doug Field's book, your first two years in ministry.
Tim highlights a lot of issues that most newbies wouldn't think about and this is a valuable tool to help begin a journey as a well rounded youth pastor.
My only complaint was the inclusion of other's comments in the form they had. It literally was like reading a blog and I didn't find that constructive to reading. It would have been much more enjoyable for Tim to simply put the quotes within the text of his chapters.
I enjoyed the book, although the book cover is a little nerdy. No offense to Tim, as it seems to be a cartoon rendition of him?
The publisher could have marketed the book more successfully with a little more attention to the cover.
I plan on giving my copy away to the next great youth pastor joining us on this journey!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Practical Youth Ministry Advice
Tim Schmoyer's text is particularly helpful because of what it is not!
It is not a one-size fits all youth ministry tome that offers up a single approach that is... Read more
It is not a one-size fits all youth ministry tome that offers up a single approach that is... Read more
Published on April 6, 2011 by Brian Kirk
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible.
This is a must read for all those in youth ministry. The greatest part of the book is the layout where you not only receive a thought from the author (Tim Schmoyer), but he lists... Read more
Published on March 23, 2011 by Ross Locke
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome resource!
I loved this book because it's so down to earth and useful for every day youth workers. It's not a hard read and has a lot of topics that are applicable to a variety of youth... Read more
Published on March 22, 2011 by ThinkDavid
