Is student ministry accomplishing what we think it is? Roughly two-thirds of students leave the church after graduation. Baptisms are down. Student pastors are walking away from ministry at startling rates. It s time to rethink student ministry. This book pairs the most up-to-date research available with an overview of a Biblical framework for ministry. It will arm you with facts, Scripture, and real-life ideas that will help you find new ways to involve parents back into the equation and help you escape the busy, bigger-and-better, number-driven model of student ministry.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Those of us who love teenagers and sense a clear call from God to serve in this critical area of life have heard the horror stories of the ineffectiveness of today s youth ministries. Some of the criticism is justified and some is not. In spite of the many wonderful youth ministries spanning our country/world, most research reveals that at least 50% of active evangelical teenagers leave church between 18-21 and few of those ever return. It is apparent that some adjusting and retooling of today s approaches to youth ministry are in order. reThink has the potential to be the book that challenges those who are called to youth ministry to rethink not just practical youth ministry but the philosophy that drives why and how we do youth ministry. Having served in full time youth ministry for over 30 years and teaching youth ministry courses at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary since Fall of 2004, I have read a multitude of wonderful books on the subject. With all honesty and sincerity, reThink is the most valuable book on youth ministry that I have read up to this point in my career. I have known Steve Wright as a personal friend for many years and have observed him in nearly every aspect of ministry. He writes as he lives. The philosophy and concepts discussed are what he has put into practice in his ministry and not mere ideas that have been tossed about in late night discussions. With every aspect of culture, media, and the educational system pulling at today s youth a critical book is needed for these critical times. reThink is that book. --Dr. Johnny Derouen, Ph.D
About the Author
Steve serves as Pastor of Student Ministries at Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC. Steve has served in student ministry since 1988 and joined the team at Providence in May of 1999. He received a Master of Arts degree in Christian education from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. His undergraduate degree is from Carson Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn. Steve is also the current president of the Metro Association of Student Ministers whose members represent some of the largest student ministries in the United States. In 1997 Steve started InQuest Ministries, which supplies Sunday School and Discipleship curriculum to thousands of churches worldwide. Steve and his wife, Tina, were married in 1989. They are blessed with three children - Sara, William and Tyler.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Steve is the author of reThink and ApParent Privilege and is Assistant Pastor of Student Ministries at Providence Baptist Church. Steve has served in student ministry since 1988 and joined the team at Providence in May of 1999. He is currently working on his PhD in Philosophy of Family Ministry at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He received a Master of Arts degree in Christian education from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. His undergraduate degree is from Carson Newman College in Jefferson City, TN. Steve and his wife, Tina, were married in 1989. They are blessed with three children - Sara, William and Tyler.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Engaging Reflection on Student Ministry,
By Alex Chediak "Alex Chediak" (Riverside, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: reThink (Perfect Paperback)
Over Christmas I was able to finish reading reThink by Steve Wright (with Chris Graves). Wright has served as a student pastor for more than twenty years. In the introduction, Wright explains:
"This book was born out of deciding to rethink student ministry. We started by asking some tough questions, searching the Bible for its framework for ministry, looking at the latest research and being honest about the problems of student ministry." Though the book is written primarily for other student pastors, I found the book helpful as a young father, a college professor and an involved church member. It probably helps that I've given some thought to the extended adolescence problem and have reflected a bit on the youth ministry issue (thanks in part to books like Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham). It is beyond dispute that much of student ministry today, over the long haul, bears little fruit. Wright cites numerous sources in painting a bleak picture: 58-84% of children from evangelical families are leaving the church as they enter adulthood (in their college years). The Southern Baptist Convention has seen a 6.5% reduction in baptisms from 1976-1990 to 1991-2005. Over the same period to time, the SBC saw a 35-40% reduction in baptisms among teens aged 12-17. With regard to biblical literacy, the data are equally perplexing: In a study of teenagers of which 70% were active in church youth groups, and 82% identified themselves as Christians, Barna found that 63% believe Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews and all other people pray to the same god. While 87% believe Jesus was a real person who came to earth and 78% believe He was born of a virgin, 46% believe He committed sins and 51% believe He did not rise from the dead. 58% believe that all religious faiths teach equally valid truth. Why the lack of biblical clarity? Wright notes, "Student ministry in many cases has become the local YMCA or teen amusement park; students check in and out, but mostly out. After all, once they have experienced years of fun-and-games, all-you-can-eat, no-responsibility, free-from-parents amusement, then we have helped train their appetites for pleasure to find more alluring fulfillment in the adult world." Yet students hunger for strong teaching. The Barna Group found the most common reason students gave for attending church was "to better understand what I believe." In response to these results, Wright laments the fact that some parents see spiritual formation as the exclusive job of the youth pastor, who in turn too quickly accept the responsibility. Instead, Wright argues (from Deuteronomy 6 and elsewhere) that parents have a primary responsibility for the discipleship of their children, both prior to and during the pivotal teen years. He calls upon youth pastors to come alongside parents in this venture, equipping both the students and their parents. Here, Steve Wright voices a respectful disagreement with Voddie Baucham, whose organization (Vision Forum Ministries) calls for teaching children through the engagement of fathers and through the preaching of the Word, without a role for age-graded ministries. Wright notes that in biblical times rabbis would teach in the synagogues in Talmud and Mishnah schooling, which was age-graded. In short, Wright's message is: "Both the church and its student ministries have biblically assigned purposes: namely, exaltation, edification, and evangelism. It is interesting in passages concerning the early church...we see these three purposes functioning in perfect unison. These purposes of the church are different than the purposes of the family, which is why God ordained two institutions rather than one. We cannot listen to the extremists who are attempting to push us to one or the other institution. It's time for the two institutions to step closer together and become partners to rescue this generation." Wright notes that churches (and their student ministries) are needed to reach out and model Christianity to teens without Christian parents, to reinforce a biblical worldview to teens, to serve as an impartial advisor to parents and teens, to connect young people with other Christian teens for support, encouragement and accountability, and to provide opportunities for corporate service to the body of Christ. All in all, I think Wright does a good job at valuing the roles of both nuclear families (parents being the primary disciple-makers of their children) and church-based student ministries which come alongside parents. He avoids the pitfalls of an entertainment-oriented youth ministry approach (which tends to value "fun" over biblical training and serious worldview formation) and the call for abolishing youth ministry altogether. Many churches that once approached youth ministry with the former model are coming to the realization that while God genuinely converts some teenagers in this context, many (if not the majority) are not being equipped for the challenges presented in the college and post-college years, with disastrous consequences. Yet youth ministry can (and should) be a part of a healthy local church's equipping of both Christian parents and their teens, and for the advancement of the gospel among unbelieving teens. It really can be a both/and. I highly commend this book to youth pastors and parents alike. I believe it will help many churches establish fruitful high school ministries with a view toward multi-generational faithfulness.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Parents need to reThink too!!!,
This review is from: reThink (Perfect Paperback)
PARENTS: This is a must read for all of us, not just our youth pastors.
I had heard Steve Wright speak about student ministries' partnering with parents before, so I thought that I'd just give his book a glance and stick it on the resource shelf in our study at home. Certainly there wouldn't be anything I hadn't heard. Oh boy!!! When I sat down to read the book, I got hooked in the first chapter. reThink gives radical clarification of the relationship between student ministries and biblical parenting. It made me ask myself: OK, what are we doing as youth workers vs. what are we doing as parents? Are the sixth graders in our Sunday school class getting more of God's Word from us than the three kids living under our roof? Why? What do we need to do differently at home? How can we be more deliberate about discipling our own children, instead of just relying on those "teachable moments"? Those serendipitous points of connection with our kids are awesome, but the Lord hasn't left us to seize upon rare moments of revelation alone. His plan is undeniably deliberate and faithful. What do we need to do as a family to grow together in the Lord, earnestly and consistently? Our family is taking a different course as a result of reThink. Lines of communication are opening up. Our kids are talking to us more honestly and freely than ever before. We are able to encourage other parents as we pursue a clearly articulated vision for growing our kids in Christ. We are rolling up our sleeves to get involved in student ministries beyond Sunday morning and the occasional ski trip or bowling party. What a blessing it has been to "reThink" our ministry in our own family as well as in the larger Body of Christ!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Book That Will Change The Way You Do Ministry.,
This review is from: reThink (Perfect Paperback)
I have read many books about student ministry. Most of the ones out there raise questions but never really delineate exactly the problems youth ministry professionals face. This revolutionary, book by Steve Wright, tackles the heart of the matter: the need for parent led discipleship. In his research, Steve Wright demonstrates that the thing that many student pastors dread, i.e. partnering with parents, is the only thing that will keep students from "Graduating from God". I highly recommend this invaluable resource.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
