Review by Tagg Wolverton, Greater Europe Mission, Netherlands Excerpt: In recent years some tough criticisms have been leveled at modern youth ministry. While evaluation and critique are to be expected with youth ministry coming of age as a profession, many of the rest of the concerns can be traced back to the lack of readily…
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 celebrate the Exemplary Youth Ministry study. Because we now have our Spirit and Culture of Youth Ministry book available as an e-book. But also because we feel compelled to keep…
By Dr. Terri Martinson Elton, Director of the Center for First Third Ministry at Luther Seminary According to Missiologist Stephen Bevans, Christians’ understanding of God emerges from a dialogue between Scripture, tradition and human experience. At times one of those voices may be more prominent than another, but day in and day out people of…
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 that reorients one’s way of thinking. For us, at Luther’s Center for First Third ministry, the EYM study has done just that. Ten years later, the…
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 breaker called Two Truths and a Lie. Here we go! 1. My favorite color is green. 2. I’ve yet to join Pinterest. 3….
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 that marks the beginning of a new season in my house – the school year. For the next 9 months our life will consist of navigating schedules, deadlines,…
By Dr. Nancy Going, Director of the CYF Distributed Learning Program at Luther Seminary “Grace is Experienced, Not Explained”—- Bp.Todd Hunter People who are leading children’s or youth ministry in the church often talk about the program time–Sunday School, Confirmation, Youth Group–we have with students as a GREAT OPPORTUNITY. This time of year especially,…
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 agree on the right move? When leading change, it’s easy to get lost in searching for “the right thing” and “the right time” while missing transformational moments….
By Dr. Nancy Going, Director of the CYF Distributed Learning Program at Luther Seminary If you’ve tracked Fuller’s Sticky Faith Initiative at all, you would quickly see that the study results call the church to real changes in youth ministry practice. In fact, those changes are remarkably similar to the ones that Luther Seminary’s EYM study…
By Dr. Terri Martinson Elton, Director of the Center for First Third Ministry at Luther Seminary Yesterday I spent the day talking about adaptive change with leadership teams from seven congregations. Adaptive change is dealing with situations for which there is no known answer. Technical change, the other type of change, deal with situations which…
Cheryl Goodman-Morris reminds us that the Spirit blows as she wills, and we must needs keep that in mind as live into Christian community: What if the process of creating a fresh church could come to us in a radical, completely unorthodox new way? What if we remembered to let the Spirit find us instead…
Recent doctoral graduate, Harvey Kwiyani, talks about his dissertation research which involved working with three multicultural congregations in the Twin Cities area.
As we explore confirmation, here is a resource to move the dialogue into action. Your ministry is a game worth playing in this life, and we want to help you set yourself up to win. There’s a great deal at stake! The goal-setting process below is to help you take what you’ve learned and design…
By Dr. Nancy Going, Director of the CYF Distributed Learning Program at Luther Seminary And that would be in people. Not in things running more smoothly. Not in a calendar. Not do they like the curriculum better. Why not, for one year, focus your goals for ministry on observing Holy Spirit led change in your…
See this video of Pastor Nancy Lee Gauche and Coach Tom Langemo take us through the game plan process at Monkey Business: A First Third Dialogue on the Confirmation Process.
