This comprehensive, research-informed textbook reviews all aspects of traditional and contemporary theories and experience in youth ministry, but also points to the future by analyzing youth culture and charting innovative paradigms in the art and craft of teaching. The book is fueled by the urgent need in youth ministry to better reach students, to inform them about God’s will for their lives, and to encourage change in their lives beyond the youth group setting.Features include:• Website...

When Beastly nearly kills a friend, he knows it is time to take a rest from his job, as a Kings Cross night club bouncer, and get out of town for a while.Travel with Beastly as he heads out bush to find his sense of self again.In a sense, a 'coming of age' story, with a difference, set in Australia in the 70s or 80s, you will find yourself drawn in from the first page!Warm and philosophical, full of fascinating characters with that disarming Aussie sense of honesty ...

You may have noticed them—the kids who are hiding their pain under long sleeves or wristbands. Or you might never notice them—the ones who seem to have life together except for the deep secret that they keep hidden beneath their clothes. This is no longer a fringe issue that occurs only in the most extreme cases. The truth is that many teens today are dealing with their emotional pain by inflicting physical pain upon themselves, whether we can see it on the surface or not.While we may neve...

CPYU President Walt Mueller's critically acclaimed book, Understanding Today's Youth Culture, is widely recognized as one of the most thorough and comprehensive overviews of youth culture today. This Gold Medallion Book Award winner is used as a seminal text in colleges, universities, and seminaries around the world, but is especially noted for its honest and easy to read style. The book approaches youth culture from a distinctively Christian perspective and contains chapters on a variety ...

The often harsh and unforgiving Australian landscape was a far cry from what the early colonisers were used to, and it proved a daunting obstacle to settlement. However, a few brave and at times foolhardy men were determined to prove themselves equal to the challenge. AUSTRALIA'S GREAT EXPLORERS looks at the tragedies and triumphs of men such as Wentworth and Lawson, Hume and Hovell, Burke and Wills, Leichhardt and Strzelecki as they battled to conquer the Great Diving Range, find an elusi...

A practical guide for those struggling to build a community of believers in a culture that wants to experience belonging over believingWho is my neighbor? Who belongs to me? To whom do I belong? These are timeless questions that guide the church to its fundamental calling. Today terms like neighbor, family, and congregation are being redefined. People are searching to belong in new places and experiences. The church needs to adapt its interpretations, definitions, and language to make sens...

Think of it as a lean, mean Bible doctrine course--without the lecture. But with lots of options, videos, music, and drama. And small group work. And reproducible, interactive worksheets with eye-catching designs and soul-searching content. (Like, what else do you expect from St. Paul when he sits down to write the meatiest book of doctrine in the Bible?) in the 12 clear, complete sessions of Creative Bible Lessons in Romans. Author Chap Clark guides kids (and you) through the Big Ideas in...

The truth about the battle that came to define our Vietnam War - from the men who were there.18th August, 1966. 1pm…D Company entered the plantation. They thought that, if they were lucky, they were closing in on perhaps 30 or 40 VC. They were horribly wrong.Over twelve long, bloody and brutal hours, 105 Australian soldiers and three New Zealanders fought off mortar attacks and heavy machine-gun fire, unaware they were facing up to 2500 Viet Cong a...

You know them as hilarious, boisterous skits that get kids involved, whether they're hamming up front, or in the audience cheering for the good guys, hissing the bad guys, and getting nearly as animated as the onstage actors. Better yet, these no-rehearsal skits are comic takes on 24 classic Bible stories, from Babel to Zacchaeus. Use these skits to take your students into or out of your Bible lesson -- for the humor never buries the central message of the Bible passage. Inside you'll find...

Teaching prophecy is a specialized skillThe difficulty arises in the attempt to be accurate in an arena where the Lord himself has told us that no one knows and that no one will figure it out. This is why He uses the image of a thief coming in the night.However, there is much we do know. All we need to do is teach what we know and clearly label as speculation what we do not know for sure. What we do know for sure is: The King is coming soon!We are responsible to war...

In the best-selling footsteps of Would You Rather . . . ?, What If . . . ?, and Have You Ever . . . ? comes Unfinished Sentences — another collection of sometimes lighthearted, sometimes poignant, and always provocative discussion starters guaranteed to get teenagers talking, thinking, debating. Get the discussion ball rolling with 450 incomplete sentences that can be used anytime, anywhere for breaking the ice, stimulating discussions, building community, getting kids to wrestle with spir...

From the time they’re born, boys are given a “code” to live by: don’t cry, don’t play with dolls, don’t be a wimp…you get the picture. For a middle school guy, it’s tough enough to figure out what it means to just be yourself—let alone how to become a man. Breaking the Code is an eight-week study that will help them discover what it really means to be a man. With fun, interactive activities and age-appropriate discussion questions, you’ll find that this study will help small groups of midd...