Mentoring Emerging Adults Sharon Daloz Parks has written Big Questions, Worthy Dreams to inform and inspire renewed commitment by educators, church leaders, and others to consider the institutional and cultural patterns that affect emerging adults. It serves to bridge the divide between generations and to encourage more adequate recognition of what is at stake in the response of all who interact with emerging young adult lives. Our economic and political life has become more brittle, volatile, and global, which both enlarges and constrains young adult aspirations. Today's emerging adults are both more connected and more distracted. And religion and faith have become both problematized and polarized. Parks defines faith as meaning-making in its most comprehensive dimensions, whether expressed in secular or religious terms. Over time, our meaning-making orients our sense of purpose, moral stance, and competence. The book describes the potential vulnerability of emerging adults and shows how mentors and mentoring environments can provide access to big-enough questions and inspire dreams worthy of engaging with our challenging and complex world. Parks addresses important issues of the day, including violence in our culture, social media and networking, economic challenges, changing racial identity, cultural shifts, and other forces shaping the narrative of emerging adulthood today.

The "twenty-something" years of young adulthood are increasingly recognized as critical but puzzling. Building on the foundation she established in her classic work, The Critical Years, Sharon Parks urges thoughtful adults to assume responsibility for providing strategic mentorship during this important decade in life. She reveals also, however, the ways young adults are influenced not only by individual mentors but also by mentoring environments. To read Young Adulthood in a Changing World, an excerpt from this book,click here.

THE “TWENTY-SOMETHING” YEARS of emerging adulthood are increasingly recognized as a distinctive but puzzling era in the human life span. In this tenth anniversary revised edition of her 2001 classic, Sharon Daloz Parks, a pioneering voice in young adult development theory, builds on the foundation she established over two decades ago in The Critical Years, in which she recognized this significant stage in the human life span and underscored the role of mentors in the lives of young adults. The emerging adult years constitute a new challenge to individuals, institutions, and cultures. It matters whether emerging adults move through the twenty-something decade on default settings or are well prepared for citizenship and leadership. Focusing on critical features of human development—transformations in thinking, feeling, and networks of belonging—Parks describes the potential and vulnerability of emerging adults and shows how mentors and mentoring environments can provide access to big-enough questions and inspire dreams worthy of engagement with a challenging and complex world. Parks casts the emerging adult years within the task of making meaning in a dramatically changing world—a task that all human beings share. She helpfully recognizes “faith” as meaning-making in its most comprehensive dimensions, whether expressed in secular or religious terms, and how over time our meaning-making orients our sense of purpose, moral stance, and competence. This tenth-anniversary revised edition of Big Questions, Worthy Dreams is written for faculty and administrators in higher and professional education, supervisors in workplace settings, community leaders, parents, and for all who are open to deepening their understanding of emerging adult lives. This updated edition addresses recent issues and events, including (among others) violence in our culture, mixed spirituality and religious identities, social media and networking, the economic crisis, changing racial identity, cultural shifts, and other forces shaping the narrative of young adulthood today.

Do you dream big? Now you can put your dream to the test and bring it to life! What's the difference between a dreamer and someone who achieves a dream? According to best-selling author and leadership expert Dr. John C. Maxwell, the answer lies in answering ten powerful, straightforward questions. Whether you've lost sight of an old dream or you are searching for a new one within you,?this book provides a step-by-step action plan that you can start using today to see, own, and reach your dream. Dr. Maxwell draws on his forty years of mentoring experience to expertly guide you through the ten questions required of every successful dreamer. In Put Your Dream to the Test, Maxwell will help you: Discover and define what your dream should be Create a blueprint for a path to achieve success See real-world examples of what success could look like for you It's one thing to have a dream. It's another to do the things needed to achieve it. If you're willing to put your dream to the test and do what's needed to answer yes to the ten dream questions, then your odds are very good for seeing your dream become reality. Don't leave your dream to chance. This book is a must-have and can make the difference between failure and success.

Steve Saccone shows how you can raise up leaders from within your own community and develop them into passionate, faithful servants of God. You will be personally challenged to grow as you discover how to cultivate a culture of leadership development in your ministry.

"What do the religious and spiritual lives of American young people look like as they reach their mid-to-late twenties, enter the full-time job market, and start families? In Back Pocket God, Melinda Lundquist Denton and Richard Flory provide a look beyond conflicting stories that argue that emerging adults are either overwhelmingly leaving religion, or that they are earnest spiritual seekers maintaining a significant place in their lives for religion. Denton and Flory show that while the dominant trend among young people is a move away from religious beliefs and institutions, there is also a parallel trend in which a small, religiously committed group of emerging adults claim faith as an important fixture in their lives. Yet, whether religiously committed or not, emerging adults are increasingly personalizing, customizing and compartmentalizing religion in ways that suit their idiosyncratic desires. For emerging adults, God has become increasingly remote yet is highly personalized to meet their particular needs. In the process, they have transformed their conception of God from a powerful being or force that exists "out there" to their own personal Pocket God--a God that they can carry around with them, but that exerts little power or influence in their daily lives. God functions, in a sense, like a smartphone app-readily accessible, easy to control, and useful but only for limited purposes. Back Pocket God shows the changing relationship between emerging adults and religion, providing a window into the future of religion and more broadly, American culture"--

Like most other people, I had struggled and worked hard to survive all my life, dealing with difficulties and obstacles as best I could. I had spent so many years ignoring my true desires, and what was in my heart. Instead, I followed the expectations of others. This book is a compilation of my Top List of Inspirational expressions from stories of people who didnt give up when they encountered difficulties. I believe we were all created to make a difference in our world of influence. Yet, that doesnt mean we are free from obstacles, theres always going to be a mountain on our way, and thats when most people express their fear. You will find short daily inspirational words that will assist you develop a fearless mindset because Fear Is the Root of All Evil. It surfaces itself as corruption, crime, greed, anger, abuse, violence and war. But, all it really takes is devotion, courage; tenacity and willpower to weather the storms of life. You will discover that once you refuse to let temporary setbacks overwhelm you, all that is left for you to do is to persevere, try one more time, defy the odds and JUST DO IT. DONT STOP!