Foundational Books: Adolescent Faith Formation

The Adolescent Journey: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Practical Youth Ministry
Amy E. Jacober (IVP, 2011)

Adolescence is a time of individuation - children are slowly finding their identity as adults, separate from their parents and other adult influences. Such a critical time of economic downfall when some young people decide to rely on quick online solutions as well as fast psychological development is complicated by both financial situtation and cultural influences that shape their expectations of adulthood and color how they relate to other people and even God. The task of the youth pastor becomes to help adolescents navigate this often treacherous journey, helping young people reconcile their experience of childhood to the reality of their impending adulthood, and rooting and establishing them in a faith that can sustain them through their adult journey as well. Drawing on the insights of sociology and psychology, Jacober reveals youth ministry to be an act of practical theology, and helps youth pastors find their footing as they guide young people through adolescence.

Awakening Youth Discipleship
Brian Mahan, Michael Warren, and David White (Cascade Books, 2008)

Youth ministry has increasingly lost touch with its origins in the way of Jesus and the social practices intrinsic to Christian discipleship, and has instead substituted layers of “Jesus talk,” middle class values, fun and games, and doses of “warm fellow-feeling.” Awakening Youth Discipleship articulates the history of this domestication of youth and ministry. Mahan, Warren, and White tell a story of the ways in which our society has colluded to shape a domesticated adolescence. The authors believe a Christian response to this challenge must be multilevel, addressing the problem at three levels—society, church, and individual. The authors propose reclaiming practices of discernment that both engage congregations in social awareness and involve individuals in discerning fuller vocational opportunities. 

Book, Bath, Table, and Time: Christian Worship as Source & Resource for Youth Ministry
Fred Edie (Pilgrim Press, 2007)

Book, Bath, Table, and Time gives leaders ideas for and suggestions on how to practice the liturgical holy things of the ordo - the ancient church's life "ordered" around its liturgical holy things: bath (Baptism); book (Scriptures); table (Eucharist); calendar (the prayerful patterning of time) - in order to provide the church with a faithful ecology of life that is capable of forming Christian youth who experience God's presence, identify God rightly, and take up their baptismal vocations before God and for the world. Fred Edie offers practical ideas that ground youth ministry in a playfully orthodox ecclesiology which holds liturgy and worship at its center, yet takes into account and is sensitive to the characteristics of the younger generation so as to successfully engage them.

Branded: Adolescents Converting from Consumer Faith
Kathleen Turpin (Pilgrim Press, 2006)

This book addresses and examines three key elements: 1) the distortion of adolescent vocation in a consumer-focused culture; 2) the dream that adolescents would discover the freedom to live into a vocational path not dominated by consumer culture; and 3) an educational process of enlivening agency and imagination that would allow for such freedom of vocational development.

Contemplative Youth Ministry
Mark Yaconelli (Zondervan, 2006)

Mark Yaconelli spent hundreds of hours in small circles of people praying, listening, and discerning God’s presence within churches and youth ministry programs. This book puts into words the experiences and wisdom he gained from these little communities of faith. He explains that youth ministers get too caught up in programs, curriculum, events, and what to say to teens to get them engaged, while many young people remain just as bored and unfocused as ever. Contemplative Youth Ministry is a more organic approach to youth ministry allowing ministers to create meaningful silence, foster covenant communities, engage kids in contemplative activities, and maximize spontaneity, helping young people recognize the presence of Jesus in their everyday lives. Through the application of contemplative traditions and authentic relationship building, a new style of youth ministry can emerge.

Creating a Lead Small Culture: Make Your Church a Place Where Kids Belong
Reggie Joiner, Kristen Ivy, and Elle Campbell (Orange, 2014)

Every kid needs to be known by someone and to belong somewhere. If you want to leave a lasting impact on the faith of a child or teenager, maybe it should begin by giving them what they need most.  That’s one reason for a shift in the way many churches are discipling their kids and teenagers. Think of it this way: connecting kids and teens to a consistent leader who believes in God and believes in them is something the church can do that nothing else in culture does. In Creating a Lead Small Culture the authors explain shift that has been happening in the discipleship strategy of effective churches over the past decade. The three behaviors and the nine habits presented in the book have the potential to radically shift the direction of your church and the faith of the next generation.

Effective Practices for Dynamic Youth Ministry
Tom East with Ann Marie Eckert, Dennis Kurtz, and Brian Singer-Towns 
(Saint Mary’s Press, 2004)

Based on nationwide research project of Catholic parishes with dynamic youth ministry, Effective Practices for Dynamic Youth Ministry presents the qualities and attitudes that support dynamic youth ministry, and the practices and activities that help young people grow spirituality and reinforce their Catholic identity. Chapters in the book are organized around the factors that contribute to the effectiveness of youth ministry: Parish Support, Qualities, Program Elements, Leadership, and Practices. Each chapter blends research findings with practical strategies for developing a more effective youth ministry. The research was conducted with Catholic parishes, but the findings will resonate and be helpful to all Christian churches. 

Engaging a New Generation: A Vision for Reaching Catholic Teens
Frank Mercadante (OSV Books, 2012)

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. Chapters include: We Don’t Have a Youth Problem; Millennials and Gen Z; The Missing Link; The Young-Engaging Parish; From Evangelizing to Immanuelizing; Rethinking Adolescent Catechesis; Preparing the Soil of Leadership; and Inspiration from Nehemiah and Matchmaking. 

Finding God in the Graffiti: Empowering Teenagers through Stories
Frank Rogers Jr. (Pilgrim Press, 2011)

The power of a story is that it can seep into the soul or memory and transport the listener into a world where characters are palpable, settings are tangible, and experiences are brought to life, all the while arousing the energy, excitement and interest of 20,000 students at a rally, or two teenagers in a church. Finding God in the Graffiti encourages church educators and youth ministers to connect the living reality of God through the use of powerful stories and narratives that will engage the youth in their church or Christian organization. It includes a variety of innovative ways in which stories can engage youth educationally; provides a conceptual map of discipline for teaching and learning purposes; equips youth ministers to practice a repertoire of narrative methods with young people; and gives practitioners conceptual tools to reflect on their practice with insight and precision.

Foundations for Youth Ministry: Theological Engagement with Teen Life and Culture
Dean Borgman (Baker Academic, 2013)

Foundations for Youth Ministry is written for youth ministers and students who want to think more creatively, critically, and theologically--who want something than youth group as usual. It is not so much a how-to-do-youth-ministry book as a how-to-think-about-youth-and-family-ministry text. Part 1 explores practical theological foundations: a theology for youth ministry and the art and practice of interpretation. Part 2 explores a theology of persons: growth and development, personhood and community, family and peers, and sexuality. Part 3 explores practical theology engaging culture: relating to Christ in culture, practical theology in a digital age, and theology and ministry in a consumerist age. Part 4 presents a practical theology for holistic youth ministry. 

Global Youth Ministry: Reaching Adolescents Around the World
Terry Linhart & David Livermore (Zondervan, 2011)

As the world's youth population continues to grow and interact globally in an instant through blogging, texting, and social networking, youth ministry is adapting in equal fashion. Terry Linhart and David Livermore offer advice that's substantiated by more than twenty prominent worldwide youth leaders: be prepared. Global Youth Ministry recognizes the phenomenon of global youth ministry and coordinates leading youth ministry voices in a discussion of the theological, theoretical, sociocultural, and historical issues that shape ministries around the world. Traditionally, students of international youth ministries have had to wade through a range of sources, perspectives, and agendas. This versatile book distills all that, and focuses on real-world experiences, challenges, and issues that are part of international ministries. This book is essential reading for youth ministry leaders who have a heart for missions, social awareness and spiritual empathy, and a desire to serve young people around the world.

The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry 
Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster (Upper Room Books, 1998)

The Godbearing Life is now a classic in youth ministry, and deservedly so. The vision and approach of Dean and Foster resonates so well with the research findings on best practices. Their six Godbearing practices—communion, compassion, teaching and nurture, witness, dehabituation, and worship—provide a focus and direction for developing contemporary congregational youth ministry that is theological and pastorally sound. 

Groups, Troops, Clubs, & Classrooms: The Essential Handbook for Working with Youth
Susan Ragsdale & Ann Saylor (Search Institute, 2014)

Are you ready to infuse your program or classroom with a strength-based approach? Groups, Troops, Clubs and Classrooms is an inspiring guide for teachers, volunteers, group leaders, youth counselors, coaches, and anyone who works with young people. Readers will learn about how young people’s brains are wired, how to create inviting classrooms and meeting spaces, and how to connect with students in meaningful, lasting ways. Find dozens of strategies for activating and sustaining young people’s innate strengths and skills so they can become positive forces for self-realization and community betterment. Numerous games, activities, ice breakers, and quizzes will keep you and your young people engaged and motivated.

Growing Souls: Experiments in Contemplative Youth Ministry
Mark Yaconelli (Zondervan, 2007)

In 1997 Mark Yaconelli cofounded the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project at San Francisco Theological Seminary, leading retreats and events to help youth workers cultivate a practice of unceasing awareness of God in their lives and ministries, which led to the development of a contemplative approach to youth ministry. Growing Souls is a collection of stories, conversations, and insights from many of the people involved in the project; it reveals the struggles and successes encountered while exploring contemplative prayer and presence in youth ministry. Included are profiles of four churches involved in contemplative youth ministry. 

Leadership for Catholic Youth Ministry
Thomas East & the Center for Ministry Development  (Twenty-Third Publications, 2009)

Leadership for Catholic Youth Ministry presents the vision, theological foundations, and pastoral practice of Catholic youth ministry today, including the most current research and experience of parishes that are implementing effective youth ministries. Essays in this volume focus on the theory and practice of empowering  young disciples, promoting active participation in the faith community, and providing for personal and spiritual growth of youth. Chapters include: 1) A Vision for Comprehensive Youth Ministry, 2) History of Catholic Youth Ministry, 3) Understanding Youth Today, 4) Ministry with Youth in a Culturally Diverse Church, 5) Models for Effective Youth Ministry, 6) Building Community with Youth, 7) Connecting with Families, 8) Connecting Youth with the Parish Community, 9) Catechesis, 10) Evangelization, 11) Justice and Service, 12) Pastoral Care, 13) Prayer and Worship, 14) Youth Ministry Leadership, and 15) Visioning and Planning. 

Kitchen Table Youth Ministry: Inviting God to Dinner
Jana Strukova (Pilgrim Press, 2010)

Jana Struková proposes a narrative model of youth ministry in which youth are nurtured into the life of the Christian faith through stories and conversations. This book proposes practices that aim at enlivening the power of these stories to form and bond the generations, and it does so by redesigning the spaces for communal living and eating, and patterns of communication and care, specifically around the kitchen table. Readers will gain understanding of the concept of kitchen table youth ministry through a set of practices that are easy to implement in homes and churches because they are taken from people's lives. This book will serve youth leaders, ministry leaders, and parents by prompting them into reflection by questions and challenges posed at the end of each chapter.

Lives to Offer: Accompanying Youth on Their Vocational Quests
Dori Grinenko Baker and Joyce Ann Mercer (Pilgrim Press, 2007)

As an alternative to the consumerist, program-driven views of ministry with youth, Lives to Offer
offers a different vision: youth ministry as a companioned walk with young people in search of
vocation in its public and private dimensions. Adolescent stories of vocation, gleaned from 
research encounters with youthful collaborators, pepper this innovative resource designed to provide youth with adult companions in their vocational quest.  The ultimate suggestion the book
makes is that the processes of adult accompaniment of youth in their vocational journeys can be a central focus and alternative vision for youth ministry today.

Middle School Ministry: A Comprehensive Guide to Working with Early Adolescents
Mark Oestreicher and Scott Rubin (Zondervan, 2009)

This comprehensive and practical guide to middle school ministry by Mark Oestreicher and Scott Rubin helps youth workers understand the importance of middle school ministry, the development process for young teens and its implications for ministry, and how to best minister to these sometimes misunderstood students. The first section includes chapters that focus on young adolescent development from a variety of perspectives: physical and sexual, cognitive, psychological, emotional, relational, spiritual, and cultural. The second section includes chapters that focus on ministry with young adolescents: building relationships, ministry structure, small groups, effective and creative teaching, building a team, working with parents, and how to sustain leaders. 

Missional Youth Ministry: Moving from Gathering Teenagers to Scattering Disciples
Brian Kirk & Jacob Thome (Zondervan, 2011)

The program-driven model of youth ministry has failed to help youth find their place within the mission of the Church. Missional Youth Ministry offers a new paradigm for youth ministry. Using blog entries and responses, authors Brian Kirk and Jacob Thorne invite readers into a conversational, engaging, and compelling discussion about why program-based, entertainment-focused ministries fail to develop young people into life-long participants in the mission of the church. They also propose a new way forward. For all those working ‘in the trenches’ of youth ministry who long to offer teens a deeper, more substantial, more active role as members of the body of Christ, Missional Youth Ministry is a practical and theologically-sound guide for building a ministry grounded in prayer, worship, community, education, mission, and spirituality. Authors’ website: www.rethinkingyouthministry.com.

Practicing Discernment with Youth
David F. White (Pilgrim Press, 2005)

David White calls for congregations to engage their own young people in practices of discernment that involve the gifts and problems of their unique context, bringing their lives more fully into partnership with God’s work in their particular place. He models how to do this through historic discernment practices of Christian communities such as: Ignatian contemplative practices, Quaker clearness counsels, consensus decision making, and silence. Part One explore discernment as an approach to youth ministry including chapters on A Theological Vision for Youth Ministry, Cultural Forces and the Crisis in Contemporary Youth Ministry, and Reclaiming the Christian Practice of Discernment. Part Two presents a four movement process for discernment: Listening, Understanding, Remembering and Dreaming, and Acting. 

Presence-Centered Youth Ministry: Guiding Students into Spiritual Formation
Mike King (IVP Books, 2006)

How many programs does it take to change a youth group? That question has bothered youth workers for decades, and the cracks in its logic are beginning to show. In place of the contrived, artificial mechanisms employed so widely in modern youth outreach and discipleship, Mike King proposes a ministry centered in the presence of God. Young people encounter Christ not in the flash and pop of arena ministry, but in the sacred shadow of his presence. They learn what it is to love and follow Christ by observing others loving and following Christ--letting Christ shape their worldviews, their habits, their virtues. Presence-Centered Youth Ministry gives shape to such ministry through the classic disciplines and potent symbols and practices that have sustained the church over the centuries. The sound and fury that has characterized youth ministry for so long has left too many youth workers tired and too many young people disillusioned. Come explore the deeper terrain; your students are sure to follow.

Redefining the Role of the Youth Worker: A Manifesto of Integration
April L. Diaz (Youth Cartel, 2103)

This is not a book about youth ministry. Well, it’s not entirely about youth ministry. This is a book about the church and its relationship with teenagers. And it’s a book about leadership. This is a story, a calling, a vision for the church to be more whole, more cohesive, and longer lasting than the six or seven years that make up most youth ministries. In part, this book is a case study about one church who became captivated by a bigger vision for their teenagers and decided things needed to be different. Quite different. And it’s a stake in the ground that things must be different in our churches and cities for the sake of this generation and the ones to come. April Diaz led her church by asking some tough questions: What if we changed this position from a Youth Pastor to Student Integration Pastor? And what if this was a change in the way our church views its relationship with teenagers? 

Relationships Unfiltered
Andrew Root (Zondervan, 2009)

For more than 50 years, relational or incarnational ministry has been a major focus in youth ministry. But for too long, those relationships have been used as tools—as a means to an end—where adults try to influence students to accept, know, trust, believe, or participate in something. It’s possible that by focusing on these goals, we’re not ministering the whole person and we run the risk of failing them and our ministry. In this thoughtful and insightful book, Andrew Root challenges us to reconsider our motives and begin to consider simply being with and doing life alongside teenagers with no agenda other than to love them right where they are, by place-sharing. As he shares stories of his (and others’) successes and failures in relational youth ministry, you’ll find practical ideas to help you recreate the role of relationships in your youth ministry. Chapters include: Relational Ministry as Place-Sharing, The Place-Sharer as Incarnate, The Place-Sharer as Crucified, the Place-Sharer as Resurrected, and Place-Sharing as God’s Presence.

Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation
Andrew Root (IVP Books, 2007)

Relational youth ministry, also known as incarnational ministry, can feel like a vicious cycle of guilt: "I should be spending time with kids, but I just don't want to." The burden becomes heavy to bear because it is never over; adolescents always seem to need more relational bonds, and once one group graduates there is a new group of adolescents who need relational contact. It may be that the reason these relationships have become burdensome is that they have become something youth workers do, rather than something that youth workers enter into. In Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, Andrew Root explores the origins of a dominant ministry model for evangelicals, showing how American culture has influenced our understanding of the incarnation. Drawing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Root recasts relational ministry as an opportunity not to influence the influencers but to stand with and for those in need. True relational youth ministry shaped by the incarnation is a commitment to enter into the suffering of all, to offer all those in high school or junior high the solidarity of the church.

Sticky Faith-Youth Worker Edition: Practical Ideas to Nurture Long-Term Faith in Teenagers
Kara Powell, Brad Griffin, & Cheryl Crawford (Zondervan, 2011)

Many of the statistics you read about teenagers and faith can be alarming. Recent studies show that 40-50 percent of kids who are connected to a youth group throughout their senior year will fail to stick with their faith in college. As youth workers are pouring their time and energy into the students in their ministries, they are often left wondering if they've done enough to equip their students to carry their faith into adulthood. Fuller Youth Institute has done extensive research in the area of youth ministry and teenage development. In Sticky Faith, the team at FYI presents youth workers with both a theological/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 will give youth pastors what they need to help foster a faith that sticks with all the teenagers in their group long after they've left the youth room.

Sustainable Youth Ministry
Mark DeVries (IVP Books, 2008)

Mark DeVries pinpoints the problems that cause division and burnout in youth pastors and youth ministers. He provides the practical tools and strategies needed to lay a strong foundation for a church’s youth ministry, one that isn’t built solely on a person or a program. The book explores: 1) understanding why most churches stay chronically stuck in very predictable (and solvable) problems in their youth ministries, 2) moving toward a systemic approach to youth ministry by tending first to the climate and structures undergirding the ministry, 3) helping senior pastors and search committees avoid the common pitfalls made in hiring youth staff, 4) equipping youth pastors to build strong volunteer teams and navigate the turbulent waters of church politics, and 5) giving youth pastors creative tools for lasting in youth ministry for the long haul.

The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry
Andrew Root & Kenda Creasy Dean (IVP, 2011)

The questions our youth have are often the same ones that perplexed the great theologians, driving them to search for God in the places God didn't appear to be--places of brokenness, suffering and confusion. What if we let these questions drive our search for God too? Andrew Root and Kenda Creasy Dean invite you to envision youth ministries full of practical theologians, addressing the deep questions of life with a wonderfully adolescent mix of idealism, cynicism and prophetic intolerance for hypocrisy. Follow them into reflection on your own practice of theology, and learn how to share that theology through rich, compassionate conversation and purposeful experience. In Part 1 they explore theological starting points and seek to answer the question: what does youth ministry have to do with theology? In Part 2 they explore theology enacted through youth ministry practice. 

Toward Prophetic Youth Ministry: Theory and Praxis in Urban Context
Fernando Arzola Jr. (IVP Academic, 2008)

Most of the resources and program models in youth ministry are conceived, tested and produced exclusively in the suburbs, and bring little to bear on the realities of urban youth culture. Fernando Arzola notes that youth ministries in large cities have tended to settle onto one of three paths: 1) a traditional paradigm that jealously guards the spiritual formation of its young people, 2) a liberal paradigm that concentrates exclusively on personal growth, and 3) an activist paradigm that galvanizes youth around the social concerns surrounding them. Fernando proposes a fourth way, a prophetic paradigm that integrates the three and cultivates young people who are spiritually rooted, emotionally mature and responsive to the needs of their community. He draws on various disciplines—from biology to sociology, from psychology to theology—to guide urban youth workers into an effective and transformational ministry to youth. 

The Vision of Catholic Youth Ministry: Fundamentals, Theory, and Practice
Robert McCarty, general editor (St. Mary's Press, 2005)

The Vision of Catholic Youth Ministry: Fundamentals, Theory, and Practice provides an overview of the theory and pastoral practice of comprehensive youth ministry, based on the 1997 document Renewing the Vision: A Framework for Catholic Youth Ministry (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Department of Education). Contributing authors represent a spectrum of Catholic youth ministry thought and practice and are widely recognized in the field.The Vision of Catholic Youth Ministry is the first textbook on Catholic youth ministry and blends solid research with real-life application. It is an excellent resource for undergraduate or graduate courses in Catholic youth ministry or for youth leaders who want to ground their ministry in solid theology.

What Can We Do: Practical Ways Your Youth Ministry Can Have a Global Conscience
David Livermore & Terry Linhart (Zondervan, 2011)

Too often these days, youth hear about global issues such as poverty, human trafficking, and HIV/AIDS, but they don’t get practical suggestions on how they can make a positive impact on these problems. The reality is, today’s students will be leading the way in the workforce, ministries, and education in a few short years. If they begin to understand their connection to the global community today, just imagine the way they could contribute to improving these issues in future years. What Can We Do? offers youth workers an overview of pressing global issues, along with realistic, practical ways their youth ministries can respond. 

Youth Ministry in the Black Church: Centered in Hope
Anne E. Streaty Wimblerly, Sandra Barners, Karma Johnson (Judson Press, 2013)

Faith and failure, triumph and travail, hope and hard questions—this is the complex mix facing youth ministry leaders in the black church today. Youth Ministry in the Black Church: Centered in Hope is the bridge between youth leaders’ desire for holistic and relevant ministry and the hope-centered leadership necessary to make it happen. Wimberly, Barnes and Johnson recognize the challenges of youth ministry and offer effective strategies in three key areas: ministry leadership, ministry programs, and congregational support. Using Scripture, case illustrations, anecdotes, best practices, and reflection points, this resource is practical and beneficial for leaders, pastors and parents. 

Youth Ministry in a Multifaith Society: Forming Christian Identity among Skeptics, Syncretists, & Sincere Believers of Other Faiths
Len Kageler (IVP Books, 2014)

In simpler, more homogenous times, youth ministry was a relatively straightforward activity. The church's youth gathered (occasionally inviting their unchurched friends from school), played together, sang together and listened together to a message from a bright, engaging youth minister, selecting from a relatively defined set of topics: "What does it mean to follow Jesus when it comes to _______?" Now Christian youth must make sense of their faith, with its exclusive claims, in light of their close friends who are Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, atheist, "other" or even "none." And increasingly other religions are taking their cues for rooting and establishing their youth from Christian ministry practices, so that our kids are being invited to outreach events sponsored by other faiths. Len Kageler digs into the data surrounding this exciting multifaith era and offers surprising confidence that our kids can be guided into mature Christian faith while simultaneously learning to love their neighbors of other religions.

Youth Ministry in a Post-Christian World
Brock Morgan (Youth Cartel, 2013)

The world is changing and it s changing us in some ways for the better. It requires us to reconsider the ways we think about and interact with the people around us. The good news is that thoughtful, humble, and curious youth workers are making headway in today s world. Youth Ministry in a Post-Christian World is the collection of humble, story-driven, pragmatic and Jesus-focused reflections of a fellow youth worker forced to reconsider everything he knew about youth ministry: everything except the gospel, that is.

Youth Ministry from the Outside In: How Relationships and Stories Shape Identity
Brandon K. McKoy (IVP Books, 2013)

We tend to organize our youth ministry from the inside out. We give gathered groups of individual youth tools and teaching to form their souls around a Christian identity. So far, so good. But what if our identity is not merely or even primarily rooted and established somewhere inside ourselves? What if our identity is shaped and cultivated in the relationships we inhabit--each with their own distinctives and demands—and in the overlapping stories we find ourselves in? Prefabricated approaches to ministry that focus on the interior makeup of our youth may make for good youth group members, but these limited approaches don't reach beyond the youth room into other corners of their lives. Rather than centering them on the faith, our inside-out approach may be pushing their faith to the margins of their life. Brandon McKoy mines the insights of social construction theory to help us locate Christ not in our hearts but in our midst. We learn to embrace him as our own and our students as whole people engaging in a life's worth of encounters. Approaching youth ministry from the outside in, we discover our students in a whole new light—and with them, the fullness of our faith.