Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church
In light of Nancy’s blog post Looking for the “Nones” and the recent Pew study that showed one in five adults have no religious affiliation, y... Read more.
Looking for the “NONES”
By Dr. Nancy Going, Director of the CYF Distributed Learning Program at Luther Seminary Did you see this news in today’s USA Today? I saw a ... Read more.
Gratitude
By Dr. Terri Martinson Elton, Director of the Center for First Third Ministry at Luther Seminary Yesterday was a cold brisk morning and I spent the day biking a... Read more.
The Race
By Dr. Nancy Going, Director of the CYF Distributed Learning Program at Luther Seminary I just spent the weekend at a big conference of Children’s ... Read more.
The Shift
By Dr. Terri Martinson Elton, Director of the Center for First Third Ministry at Luther Seminary Have you experienced it? There’s a shift underway. There ... Read more.
No Parents/No Ministry
By Neil Christianson Remember the last baptism you saw? It is a beautiful miracle to see! Through the water and the word, God claims one as his own and we ... Read more.
Developing a Youth-Friendly and Youth-Involving Congregation
Dr. Nancy Going writes about The Faith of Adolescents and how young people must be integrated and central to the life of the congregation. But how do you D... Read more.
The Faith of Adolescents
By Dr. Nancy Going, Director of the CYF Distributed Learning Program at Luther Seminary You can’t be in youth ministry very long, and not have both... Read more.
Integration and Imagination
By Dr. Terri Martinson Elton, Director of the Center for First Third Ministry at Luther Seminary What will future leadership in the church entail? That’s ... Read more.
Resource: Strategies for Family Faith Formation
For the good of families and the whole Christian community, congregations can provide opportunities to equip homes as centers of faith formation at every stage ... Read more.
Where have all the mentors gone?
By Derek Tronsgard Luke Skywalker had Yoda. Harry Potter had Dumbledore. Batman had Alfred and Morgan Freeman. Mentors are important. And I... Read more.
Time Do you spend or invest?
By Dr. Terri Martinson Elton, Director of the Center for First Third Ministry at Luther Seminary This past weekend was homecoming at the high school. Daughter #... Read more.
Makin a list, checking it twice
By Andy Sahl Sunday mornings can sometimes be a scramble in our youth ministry. Our (Episcopal) Parish has a large youth center that gets used for a numbe... Read more.
Review of The Spirit and Culture of Youth Ministry in the Journal of Youth Ministry
Review by Tagg Wolverton, Greater Europe Mission, Netherlands Excerpt: In recent years some tough criticisms have been leveled at modern youth ministry. While e... Read more.
What are you counting?
By Dr. Nancy Going, Director of the CYF Distributed Learning Program at Luther Seminary Here at First Third we’re taking time once again to celebra... Read more.
Scripture, Tradition and Human Experience
By Dr. Terri Martinson Elton, Director of the Center for First Third Ministry at Luther Seminary According to Missiologist Stephen Bevans, Christians’ und... Read more.
Celebrating Exemplary Youth Ministry
By Dr. Nancy Going, Director of the CYF Distributed Learning Program at Luther Seminary Every now and then, one comes across an idea or a piece of work t... Read more.
Creating Space to Share Ideas
By Julie Hagen I’m so excited about the kind of space FirstThird.org can be. In my first blog here, I thought I’d play everyone’s favorite ice... Read more.
A Letter to the Church
By Dr. Terri Martinson Elton, Director of the Center for First Third Ministry at Luther Seminary Dear Church, It’s here. The first day of school, a day th... Read more.
Experiencing Grace
By Dr. Nancy Going, Director of the CYF Distributed Learning Program at Luther Seminary “Grace is Experienced, Not Explained”—- Bp.Todd... Read more.
Capitalizing on the Ordinary
By Dr. Terri Martinson Elton, Director of the Center for First Third Ministry at Luther Seminary Is this the right time? Are these the right people? Can we agre... Read more.
