"Today’s teens are even more passionate about changing the world than the generation before them. They are learning just how closely their lives tie in to God’s sweeping story of redemption. And as they see how their journeys of faith are connected to an ongoing story, they are asking how to go deeper into that story. So how can we help align their passion with God’s mission so that their lives and the world can be changed? Story, Signs, and Sacred Rhythms presents a new model for youth ministry that is relevant to the missional church and the changing culture. After challenging youth pastors around the world to consider A New Kind of Youth Ministry, Chris Folmsbee now brings a practical approach to youth ministry that will: • offer a clear and compelling vision of a narrative-missional youth ministry • present a theologically rich and accurate summary of God’s story and mission • equip you with an approach to youth ministry that enables you to create, sustain, and refine environments for Christian transformation • unpack a ministry design that’s customizable, measurable, and evaluative, allowing you to refine and change course as needed • empower you to transform an emerging generation, resulting in teens joining God in his mission to restore the world By exploring a narrative approach that is about God’s story, looking at the signs of God, which are God’s images and metaphors to guide our lives, and discovering the saintly cadences that provide the connection between God and mission, you’ll find concepts and ideologies of an entirely new way of thinking about and doing youth ministry."

Picking up on the monastic tradition of creating a "rule of life" that allows for regular space for the practice of spiritual disciplines, Ruth Haley Barton takes you more deeply into understanding seven key spiritual disciplines along with practical ideas for weaving them into everyday life.

"Abide in me," Jesus tells us, "and you will bear much fruit." Yet too often we forget that fruit needs different seasons in order to grow. We measure our spiritual maturity by how much we do rather than how we are responding to our current spiritual season. In Spiritual Rhythm, Mark Buchanan replaces our spirituality of busyness with a spirituality of abiding. Sometimes we are busy, sometimes still, sometimes pushing with all we've got, sometimes waiting. This model of the spiritual life measures and produces growth by asking: Are we living in rhythm with the season we are in? With the lyrical writing for which he is known, Mark invites us to respond to every season of the heart, whether we are flourishing and fruitful, stark and dismal, or cool and windy. In comparing spiritual rhythms to the seasons of the year, he shows us what to expect from each season and how embracing the seasons causes our spiritual lives to prosper. As he draws on the powerful words of Scripture, Mark explores what activities are suitable or necessary in each season--and what activities are useless or even harmful in that season. Throughout the book, Mark weaves together stories of young and old, men and women, families, couples, and individuals who are in or have been through a particular season of the heart. As Mark writes, "I pray that this book meets you in whatever season you're in, and prepares you for whatever seasons await. I pray that it helps you find your voice, your stride, your rhythm, in season or out. Mostly, I pray that you, with or without my help, find Christ wherever you are. And that, even more, you discover that wherever you are, he's found you."

How Ministers Can Be Excellent and Effective Teachers Effective teaching is important not only to the Christian faith but to the success and impact of Christian ministry. This book champions the role of teaching as a necessary skill for ministers to develop, equipping them to work effectively for the spiritual growth of young people. Terry Linhart, who has more than twenty-five years of experience training youth workers, brings together expert Christian educators representing a broad array of evangelical institutions and traditions to show how teaching connects to discipleship and the church in current contexts. Designed for the classroom, the book covers a wide range of topics and includes helpful illustrative diagrams, tables, line drawings, and charts.

Is it singing? A church service? All of life? Helping Christians think more theologically about the nature of true worship, Rhythms of Grace shows how the gospel is all about worship and worship is all about the gospel. Mike Cosper ultimately answers the question: What is worship?

Within the church today there are five generations represented: Traditional, Boomers, Xers, Millennials, and Gen Z. Each generation has value and influences the church community, but research indicates that churches are not engaging Millennials and Generation Z for the purpose of making lasting disciples and that a trend of decline has developed. There will always be a “next generation” to reach. The Garden Resonates will equip church leaders with a framework for sharing the gospel in relevant and compelling ways to the emerging generations. It reframes the gospel narrative and provides leaders with practical help to reverse the trend of decline while weaving a new story of growth and vibrancy.

Christianity regards teaching as one of the most foundational and critically sustaining ministries of the Church. As a result, Christian education remains one of the largest and oldest continuously functioning educational systems in the world, comprising both formal day schools and higher education institutions as well as informal church study groups and parachurch ministries in more than 140 countries. In The Encyclopedia of Christian Education, contributors explore the many facets of Christian education in terms of its impact on curriculum, literacy, teacher training, outcomes, and professional standards. This encyclopedia is the first reference work devoted exclusively to chronicling the unique history of Christian education across the globe, illustrating how Christian educators pioneered such educational institutions and reforms as universal literacy, home schooling, Sunday schools, women’s education, graded schools, compulsory education of the deaf and blind, and kindergarten. With an editorial advisory board of more than 30 distinguished scholars and five consulting editors, TheEncyclopedia of Christian Education contains more than 1,200 entries by 400 contributors from 75 countries. These volumes covers a vast range of topics from Christian education: History spanning from the church’s founding through the Middle Ages to the modern day Denominational and institutional profiles Intellectual traditions in Christian education Biblical and theological frameworks, curricula, missions, adolescent and higher education, theological training, and Christian pedagogy Biographies of distinguished Christian educators This work is ideal for scholars of both the history of Christianity and education, as well as researchers and students of contemporary Christianity and modern religious education.