Youth Culture 101
(Youth Specialties)
YouthWorker Journal’s pop-culture columnist puts his years of experience in this book, full of research and insight about today’s youth culture. One of the best parts of this resource is the online discussion guide that follows each chapter. The Web site includes articles, practical youth ministry tips and plenty of ideas for engaging students in discussion of everything from sex and pornography to video games and movies.

The Culturally Savvy Christian
(Jossey-Bass)
If you liked the excerpt in this issue, you’ll love Dick’s book, which critiques contemporary Christianity and culture by providing insight into how pop culture diminishes our effectiveness as followers of Christ. The related Web site, Culturewatch, offers blogs, Web links and resources for Christians concerned with effectively engaging culture. 

I Want to Talk With My Teen About Movies, Music, and More
(Standard)
This book is written for parents and youth workers and contains helpful hints, information and strategies to enable their teens to use today’s media and electronics in healthy ways.

3-D Guide to Media: How to Use Your Head to Guard Your Heart
Walt’s Center for Parent/Youth Understanding (CPYU) focuses on the three Ds of Discover, Discern and Decide to help young people be better consumers of the music and other media they use. “With practice, teens will begin to listen to their music more critically, analyzing the messages they are hearing, weighing them against biblical standards, then deciding whether the music should be a part of their musical diet,” says the organization, which also offers a helpful discussion guide that can be found on its Web site, as well as downloadable student survey forms and lots of examples of how the three Ds can be applied to movies, music and TV shows.

Vital Skills: How to Respond to Culture
(Lifeway Church Resources)
A stand-alone series designed to help youth in grades 7–12 develop the skills necessary to evaluate the messages of today’s culture.

CPYU Web site
The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding has created an outstanding resource for youth workers with articles, reviews, hot quotes, discussions of current events, the latest movies, games, cultural trends, reading lists and Web links. The Web site is easy to use and up to date, making it a great spot to bookmark. CPYU also offers seminars, weekly e-updates, a quarterly journal, books, teacher resources and a radio show.

Center for Media Literacy
CML is a media-literacy organization that teaches kids how to critically analyze their culture. The Web site has an entire section on faith-based media literacy that includes articles and programming ideas that can enrich youth ministry.

The Source for Youth Ministry
In addition to lots of programming ideas, this Web site also has a section dedicated to using movie clips and current music as the basis for discussion starters and Bible studies. It also includes movie reviews and a section on youth culture.

Hollywood Jesus.com
This Web site has flashy reviews of current movies, music, comics, books, TV and games. Because the reviews are from a Christian perspective, the site may be a good place to send kids who are looking for some trustworthy feedback on current releases.

National Center on Media and the Family
The organization is founded by David Walsh and, although it is not faith-based, is a good resource for information related to the media’s impact on children (particularly pre-teens and tweens). There are a number of short parent guides as well as a well-researched video game report card.

Blockbuster Movie Illustrations
(Group)
Bryan Belknap has developed three books that help speakers and leaders use popular movies to illustrate what the Bible has to say about everyday teenage issues. A related Web site is full of resources and ideas of how to use music, movies, games and TV as parts of youth ministry.

Toons That Teach: 75 cartoon moments to get teenagers talking
(Youth Specialties)
Steven Case explores current and classic cartoons for important spiritual lessons that will help spark animated discussions.

Videos That Teach (Volumes 1-4)
Doug Fields & Eddie James
(Youth Specialties)
Each volume presents 75 film clips of famous movies (starting and stopping points, not the actual clips), followed by Bible-study ideas and discussion guides. The books also include title-, topic- or Scripture-reference indexes.

Pew Internet and American Life Project
(keyword search: teen)
Kaiser Family Foundation
(keyword search: media)
These two sites report findings from large-scale studies, examining teenage Internet and media use, including online social networking, cyberbullying and online stranger contact. They provide current information that can help explain trends that may be manifested in youth groups.