Walt Mueller

A Defense of Youth Ministry

Children & Youth

“Ron Belsterling imparts seasoned and time-tested youth ministry wisdom that will help us well as we equip kids for a lifetime of passionately seeking, loving, and serving Christ. For the seasoned youth worker, this book will rekindle your passion by challenging you to think in new ways about youth ministry. And for those just starting out, Ron will help you build a strong ministry foundation that will serve you well.”

Family-Based Youth Ministry

Church Leadership & Ministry

“Mark DeVries has done us all a great and necessary favor by thinking through what's for too long been a missing link in youth ministry. When we fail to consider the primary role parents play in the spiritual nurture of their children, we can make the mistake of assuming we can fill that role. Family-Based Youth Ministry will challenge and guide you to build families and stimulate the spiritual growth of students by consciously engaging, rather than ignoring, student's families. I continually point youth workers to this valuable and timely resource.”

God with You

Children & Youth

“Finally! A devotional book that presents God’s grace in a way today’s teens can trust—straightforward, unfiltered, and eminently applicable for the questions and issues they face every day. God with You does not dumb down the gospel; instead, readers will find themselves challenged to grapple with God’s promises, shape thoughts into prayers, and be transformed as their hearts and minds are made new. How I wish I would have had a copy of God with You when I was a teenager! It brims with the wisdom and grace one thirsts for at all stages of life but especially during the singularly spiky period known as adolescence. This is the Good News, digestibly delivered day after day without a whiff of condescension—zero homework vibes, in other words. Highly recommended and urgently needed. I’ll be gifting one to every teenager I know. Rooted in Scripture and shaped by the real questions and pressures teens face today, this devotional offers far more than inspiration; it points young people to a hope that is practical and resilient, grounded in God’s story, and strong enough to help them trust and follow Jesus in the midst of real life. Today’s students need resources for forming their faith in the one true God, as they are all too often deformed by a culture that consistently seeks to undermine their flourishing. God with You builds student faith by serving as a rich and trustworthy fertilizer to feed and energize the roots that will yield abundant fruit of great spiritual growth, both now and for the rest of their lives.”

Dr.

Grounded in the Gospel

Christian Living

“J. I. Packer and Gary Parrett offer a diagnosis and prescription to remedy our shallow faith and practice. While the prescription might not be popular in our individualistic, do-it-yourself contemporary church culture, it’s precisely the remedy needed to reverse the pandemic of narcissistic spirituality and lethargy plaguing the church.”

Hurt 2.0

Church Leadership & Ministry

“Based on solid research and years of insightful observation, Clark’s Hurt 2.0 serves to open the eyes of parents, youth workers, pastors, educators, and youth-serving professionals to realities from which the church has too often chosen to look away. Hurt 2.0 offers a deep and penetrating look into the contemporary adolescent experience that will serve us well as we work to have a prophetic, preventive, and redemptive influence on the world of today’s youth culture.”

On Earth as It Is in Advertising?

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“In a day and age when our children and teens are the most targeted market segment in the world, we are failing to understand just how deeply the pervasive marketing machine is shaping our individual and collective worldviews. Sam Van Eman has struck a chord with me as he takes us past advertising's surfacy and enticing fluff to get at the real messages we buy long before we purchase the goods and services. This book will help you and those you influence see through the fluff in order to become less like the world and more like Christ.”

Presence-Centered Youth Ministry

Children & Youth

“Mike King has started a conversation that's long overdue and frequently ignored in youth ministry circles. In this thoughtful book he tells his own story with humble vulnerability, exposes the sacred cows we've let graze for far too long on the youth ministry landscape, and helps us see that ministry isn't about facilitating and teaching outward behavorial conformity. I'm sure this book will make many uncomfortable because of its subject and recommendations. Pick it up. Don't put it down. Prayerfully wrestle with Mike and his message. Keep reading. This book just might take you out of your comfort zone, but that's right where many of us need to be led in order to be able to carefully and faithfully lead young people into the life-changing presence of God.”

Reciprocal Church

Children & Youth

“The reality is undeniable: far too many students leave our youth ministries and enter the post–high school years hitting the pause or stop button on their faith. We must wonder if our youth ministry efforts ever resulted in them pressing play in the first place. Sharon Galgay Ketcham offers a path beyond the youth ministry status quo that we must consider. If our churches and youth ministries are to work with parents to nurture children and teens, then we must re-evaluate what we've been doing and make adjustments to ensure the future flourishing of our students.”

Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful

Discipleship & Christian Education

“Somewhere along the way, our ministries have become more concerned with implementing methodologies than with teaching meat. The sad outcome has been a church filled with people who have little or no idea how God's story speaks to them, or how they are to enthusiastically live out their place in God's story in the midst of a watching world. We are nurturing generations of children, youth and adults who have little or nothing stored in the well of their faith. Gary Parrett and Steve Kang remind us that our calling is to fill wells with an understanding of God's story that yields a church filled with stories that bring glory to God in every nook and cranny of life. Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful has the potential to transform our ministries, the people we minister to, the church and the world. Their diagnosis is accurate. Their practical prescriptive responses call readers to return to biblical roots that have long been forgotten. I will be recommending this book to youth workers, pastors, parents and educators.”

Teenagers Matter

Church Leadership & Ministry

“Many have sounded the alarm regarding the damage done by parents who choose to spend their time selfishly focusing on pursuits that have come to matter more than raising their children. But is it possible that in our congregations we’ve been selfish as well, isolating teenagers in age-segregated ministries without also integrating them in the full life of the church? Mark Cannister makes it clear that teenagers can, do, and must matter in the life of the church. Pastors, youth workers, parents, and church members who read Teenagers Matter will be challenged to rethink and restructure youth ministry in ways that reflect biblical priorities and promote significant spiritual growth.”

The Children of Divorce

Church Leadership & Ministry

“Divorce leaves a cloud of dust that never settles. And those of us who love and care for kids need to pay special attention to the growing number of children who undergo this experience. As one who has lived in the dust, Root raises the right issues, challenging us to think more deliberately and carefully about what it means to minister to, parent, and befriend the children of divorce.”

The Juvenilization of American Christianity

History & Biography

“Juvenilization is a long-overdue call to question our means, methods, and message. . . . Bergler shakes us awake and helps us see what's really happening in our youth ministries and churches.”

The Parent's Guide to Helping Teenagers in Crisis

Marriage, Family & Relationships

“While our fast-changing culture hasn’t made it any easier for kids, it’s also become a lot more midcult for parents. Because we think it can only happen to “someone else,” we’re paralyzed when the crisis hits home. Gleaned from years of experience in dealing positively these issues, The Parents Guide to Helping Teenagers in Crisis deserves a prominent spot on every parent’s bookshelf.”

The Seven Cries of Today's Teens

Children & Youth

“This analysis of today’s teens is based not only on the latest research available, but on the careful observation and hands-on experience of one of America’s top youth ministry professionals. Tim Smith has spent many years listening to the desperate cries of young people who just want to be heard. In this book you will hear their voices, their message to us all. Wayne Rice Director of Understanding Your Teenager Not only is this book solid and essential, it is a practical guide to getting inside the private life of the American teenager. Many books on teen culture are difficult to read. Tim Smith has created a compelling page-turner. I kept waiting to see what was coming next. Jim Burns President of Youthbuilders It’s hard to hear the deep cry of our teenagers’ hearts over the background din of their culture. Tim Smith has turned up the volume on those cries loud enough for parents to detect them. For those parents willing to listen, and listen closely, Smith has made it possible for a connection at the heart that every teen longs for with their parents. Tim Kimmel Author of Little House on the Freeway I’ve been listening to the cries of today’s youth culture for over two decades. No doubt, they’re getting louder. Tim Smith has helped me and a generation of parents to hear, recognize, and most importantly, respond in a way that will begin to answer and quiet these cries. The Seven Cries of Today’s Teens isn’t just a one-time read. It’s a helpful tool you’ll come back to again and again.”