Click to purchase from Amazon. With over 40 years of combined youth ministry experience, Jim and Eric offer an approach to youth ministry that seeks to deepen the impact that youth ministry has in the church through discipleship. The book lays a foundation of understanding on what youth ministry is (or should be!), provides insights into many of the shifts happening in the Church, especially looking at the work of discipleship and the fruit it is bearing across the country, as well as providing a five step plan that parishes can use to begin shifting their youth ministry efforts to be more discipleship focused.

Click to purchase from Group Publishing. The world of volunteers has changed. But have you changed, too? Across the country, volunteer ranks continue to grow, but people are volunteering differently. They're working online, seeking flexible schedules, and pursuing a role in defining how projects should be completed. They want to feel a sense of responsibility for your organization's overall mission. Put simply, these volunteers don't want to simply make a contribution; they want to make a difference! Jonathan McKee and Thomas McKee have tapped into their decades of experience with the simple goal of helping you recruit, manage, and lead the new breed of volunteers. They'll guide you to a clearer understanding of what today's volunteers look like, how they want to get involved, and how you can most effectively attract, train, and unleash them within your organization. You'll also discover a bounty of helpful resources to assist you, including job descriptions, applications, and interview questions; activities, icebreakers, and team-builders for volunteer meetings; community-building activities; and tips for board retreats and planning sessions. The 21st century calls for a new system and for a greatly expanded definition of what it means to be a volunteer. If you can harness this passion and potential, you'll experience results that will reward both your organization and your volunteers.

Click to purchase from Our Sunday Visitor Catholic Bookstore. Reaching teens has always been a challenge. Add in the swirl of rapidly transforming culture and technology and no wonder today's teens are MIA at most traditional youth ministry offerings. It's the elephant in the sanctuary today's teens are more likely to look at confirmation as their exit from Catholicism, rather than their initiation into the Faith. Sadly, many never return. But how do we reach this new breed of teens? The formulas that worked with teens a generation or two ago, are now met with polite indifference. Today, young people prefer substance over sensation involvement over indulgence. They hunger for authentic relationships. They long for spiritual experiences that are firmly rooted in truth and dignity. Engaging a New Generation critically examines our commonly held assumptions as well as our often-used models and methodologies initially developed to reach late Baby Boomer and Generation X teens. It then introduces you to the core characteristics of the Millennial Generation teens and the pastoral implications, where the operational and ministerial borders are expanding far beyond traditional youth ministry.

Click to purchase from Zondervan Academic website. Most churches in America would give anything to develop a deep, growing faith in kids that "sticks" and continues to mature long-term. That interest is dwarfed only by parents' desire to develop a deep, growing faith in their own kids. Yet both national leaders with broad spheres of influence as well as local, grassroots practitioners are waking up to the reality that almost half of their graduating seniors will drift from God and the church after high school. As leaders and as parents, we're not satisfied with that. We suspect you're not either. In response to this problem, the Fuller Youth Institute (FYI) conducted a national longitudinal study following over 500 high school seniors during their first three years in college. The goals of this research were to understand the dynamics of youth group graduates' transition to college and to identify the relationships and best practices in youth ministries, churches, and families that can help set students on a trajectory of lifelong faith and service. In Sticky Faith, the team at FYI presents youth workers with both a philosophical framework and practical programming ideas that develop long-term faith in teenagers. Each chapter presents a summary of FYI's quantitative and qualitative research, along with the implications of this research, including program ideas suggested and tested by youth ministries nationwide. This resource equips youth ministry leaders with what they need to help foster a faith that sticks long after young people leave the youth room.

Click to purchase from Twenty Third Publications. Here’s where you’ll find the vision, theological foundations, and pastoral practice of Catholic youth ministry. Here’s where you’ll find a practical implementation of Renewing the Vision A Framework for Catholic Youth Ministry. And, here’s where you’ll find the most current research and experience of parishes that are implementing Renewing the Vision! You’ll learn here too what empowers young disciples, promotes active participation in the faith community, and provides for personal and spiritual growth for our youth. This invaluable and comprehensive resource offers parish leaders all the information they need to be successful in supporting youth ministry. It will be invaluable for coordinators, core team members, and program leaders, as well as pastors, pastoral associates, and pastoral council members. Finally, this is an excellent foundational text for people who are studying youth ministry as part of a certificate program or university course.

Click to purchase from Our Sunday Visitor Catholic Bookstore. Unlock the secret of your personality and learn how to be a better spouse, parent, friend, & Christian! All of us are born with distinct personality traits. Some of us live for crowds and parties; others seek solitude and time for quiet reflection. Some of us are naturally pushy, while others are content just to get along. We don't pick and choose these traits; they're just part of the way we're made. For in the womb God doesn't merely mold our body; He also gives us the temperament that, all our days, colors our understanding, guides our choices, and serves as the foundation of our moral and spiritual life. Ancient philosophers identified four basic temperaments, and over the centuries, countless wise souls have used these four to understand human nature. Now comes The Temperament God Gave You, the first Catholic book on the subject in 70 years. Here veteran Catholic counselor Art Bennett and his wife Laraine provide an accessible synthesis of classical wisdom, modern counseling science, and Catholic spirituality: a rich understanding of the temperaments and what they mean for you and for your family.

Click to purchase from Penguin Random House Publishing. “Imagine that you were to wake up tomorrow to discover that, by some miracle, you had become a god overnight,” writes Dr. Gregory Popcak. “Not THE God—omnipresent, all-knowing, all-powerful—but a god in the classic sense. That is to say, you woke to find that you were perfect, immortal, utterly confident in who you are, where you were going in life, and how you were going to get there. It might seem ridiculous to consider at first, but allow yourself to imagine this truly miraculous transformation. What would it be like to live without fear? How would it feel to be completely at peace with yourself and the people in your life? Imagine what it would be like to be able to resolve—once and for all—the tension that currently exists between all your competing feelings, impulses, desires, and demands. What would change in your life as a result of your having become that sort of divinely actualized person?”

Click to purchase from Ave Maria Press. Modeled on the fifteenth-century classic The Imitation of Christ, this new edition of a little-known Enzler masterwork is revived for modern Christians. In this intimate guide to the spiritual life, Christ speaks directly to the reader, whom Christ admonishes to be his presence of love and service in the world. Through this creative mode of dialogue, Enzler leads the reader through the journey of the Christian life, beginning with the call to live in friendship with Christ and fulfill Christs desire. He then examines the means of the Christian life: detachment, virtue, prayer, avoidance of sin, and the Eucharist. Finally he explores the goal of the journey: a life of union with Christ as his disciple and complete joy with him in eternity.

Click to purchase from Ave Maria Press. The power of everyday interactions, says Fr. James Sullivan, is much greater than we suspect. We have the power to offer profound healing, comfort, and affirmation, or to create deep wounds. And all of this depends on one crucial skill: listening. In the pages of The Good Listener, readers will come to see the far-reaching effects that their listening has on others, and will be grateful for the practical guidelines to becoming an attentive, caring listener. On the other hand, they will also gain invaluable insights into the effects that the listening skills of others have upon them. Those who understand and apply the insights of this book will offer others two unique gifts: the gift of their own caring presence and the gift of enabling the other's greater self-awareness. Parents and spouses, as well as those in ministry and in counseling roles, will find that The Good Listener is an invaluable guide to improving their listening skills.

Click to purchase from Tan Books. In this age of relentless activity it is easy for Christians, particularly those involved in good works, to fall into the pattern of the activist. But mere activity and material results are not sufficient for a successful apostolate. In his classic work The Soul of the Apostolate, Dom Chautard demonstrates that the very foundation of all apostolic work must be the Interior Life. The apostle of Christ will grow to become an instrument and true channel of God’s graces to the world only through prayer, meditation and the cultivation of the Interior Life. When one is involved in works of spiritual or corporal charity, his work can only be truly efficacious when he anchors his Interior Life in Christ. Without Christ we can do nothing.