Spider Webs
For this game, you will need several skeins of yarn. Divide the group into teams (works best if there are at least seven on a team) and give each group a skein. Each group is then instructed to create...
Giving UP for Lent
Among the 40 days of Lent, Sundays are not included in the penitential and somber overtones. Sundays, rather, are reserved as little Easters—days of respite and resurrection, reminding us that even when w...
You Complete Me
This is a fun word game that can create an enticing beginning to a more serious discussion. Pass around index cards and pencils and ask each teenager to write an open-ended sentence that others in the group can...
99 Thoughts for Student Leaders
Doug FranklinGroup/Simply Youth Ministry, 2012, 136 pp., $5.99Just as those looking for the best leadership books can't go wrong with any of John Maxwell's titles, youth leaders seeking to strengthen their stud...
99 Thoughts for Volunteers: Making an Impact Right Where You Are
Danette MattyGroup/Simply Youth Ministry, 2012, 200 pp., $7.99During my years of leading teenagers as a professional or hired staff, I often looked for resources I could hand off to my adult volunteer team. Pra...
A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Teenage Brains
Mark OestreicherGroup/Simply Youth Ministry, 2012, 72 pp., $,6.99Parents may remember the commercial with the tag line: "This is your brain on drugs." Oestreicher's pithy A Parent's Guide to Understanding ...
A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Social Media
Mark Oestreicher and Adam McLaneGroup/Simply Youth Ministry, 2012, 72 pp., $6.99At one time or another, most parents have wondered, "What is my child posting on Facebook, and should I allow access to social med...
The Parable of the Apron
"Very truly I tell you, servants are not greater than their master" (John 13:16).Some years ago, I recall a devotion offered at a youth retreat. It was a great talk—both visually and challenging.&nbs...
What Kids Need to Succeed: Proven, Practical Ways to Raise Good Kids
Peter Benson, Judy Galbraith and Pamela EspelandFree Spirit Publishing, 2012, 256 pp., $9.99As Eugene C. Roehlkepartain explains in this book's introduction, this third edition of What Kids Need to Succeed...
Deep & Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend
Andy StanleyZondervan, 2012, 352 pp., $24.99One might say that Andy Stanley's latest book Deep & Wide is a novel approach to church growth. However, this book is most compelling because it reads as a n...