YM360 Store

Protect: A Youth Worker's Guide to Navigating Risk (Revised & Updated Edition) is an indispensable resource for churches, para-church organizations, and anyone serving in youth ministry. Whether you are a full-time, part-time, volunteer, bi-vocational, rookie, or veteran youth worker, this revised and updated edition ensures you’ll be equipped to navigate the contemporary challenges, unique opportunities, and inherent risks in youth ministry today.

We all want thriving youth ministries, vibrant communities of teenagers and adult leaders who are all growing as disciples of Jesus. Too often, though, it feels like things just aren’t...quite...working. While there are lots of potential solutions to the “problems” of youth ministry, Heather Quiroz suggests looking back—way back—for answers: at first-century Jewish faith, life, and culture.

Teenagers today are different from teenagers even 10 or 20 years ago. The issues they are facing are complex and wide-ranging.How can youth workers understand them better? What are the best ways to meet anxious teens where they are and help them feel seen, loved, and known—both by our youth ministries and by the God who cares for them so deeply?

5 Views on Youth Ministry Short-Term Missions reflects the thoughts, personal stories, and real-life tips of five in-the-trenches youth workers who regularly lead short-term mission trips (STMs). Here you’ll find thoughtful but practical dialogue on the multiple views and approaches to STMs, from work camps to urban missions to long-term partnerships with Indigenous church leaders across the globe. Didn’t realize there were different views and approaches to STMs that thoughtful youth workers could disagree on? That’s part of the point of this book; to help youth workers have more insight into the issues and be more intentional in their responses. The five views of STMs found within this book are based on the contributors’ core commitments and worldviews (really, their missiology). Each of the contributors also offers a short response to one of the other views of STMs presented. Appendices tackle the important topics of junior high short-term missions and the incredible value of multigenerational trips.

Easter Sunday should be one of the best celebrations of the year! But sometimes, it’s easy to get into a routine when it comes to Easter and forget what we're actually celebrating. We usually do a great job of celebrating Jesus coming back to life, but sometimes, we don’t spend too much time on what led up to that point. It’s easy to brush past the sadness that this joy comes from because it’s uncomfortable and upsetting. By going through Awaken: A 21-Day Kids & Family Devotional with your child, you can be sure they will be awakened to a fresh perspective on the gravity of all the Easter story holds. Even though the days leading up to Easter can be sad, heavy, and dark, you and your child will learn how to reflect on these things while still being able to rejoice that Easter Sunday always comes! 

What if your students’ single life or dating world wasn’t at the mercy of their latest crush “crushing back” but was incredibly meaningful and life-giving on its own? What if they became the kind of friend who could inspire real meaning in their friend circle? What if they knew how to be especially and appropriately thoughtful in letting their special someone feel like a special someone? What if they had a genuine understanding of the freedom God gives them when they trust Him in all of these things, whether their relationship status changes or not? 

There’s a lot of advice floating around on all of this, right? Every one of your students probably already has a set of answers for all the questions about what it means to be single, dating, a friend, or romantic. But whether those conclusions were inherited from others around them, movies they watch, celebrities they follow, church messages, or personal experiences, there’s so much more room to let God reset them with new questions that can get them to healthier places. 

In SINGLE, DATING, FRIENDSHIPS, & ROMANCE, your students will discover the genius wisdom and unconditional love of God through a lot of laughter, interaction, honesty, and opportunities to reflect. Maybe they’ll even consider trading in whatever “answers” they’ve been living with for something healthier as they learn what it looks like to ask some new questions and operate out of a life-long relationship with Jesus. Throughout it all, your students will discover that they’re worth it, and so is what they’re fighting for!

Veteran youth worker Kurt Johnston writes, "Getting better at youth ministry is worth the effort because teenagers are worth the effort." With that in mind, he put together this compact, practical, and approachable book for youth ministry volunteers, brimming with insights and wisdom from his decades in youth ministry—including some memorable and hilarious stories of the mistakes that taught him along the way.

7th Grade: Growing Your Faith is a 30-day teen devotional that will engage students with its creative and age-targeted readings, questions, and prompts to action.

8th Grade: Leading the Way With the "Real You" is a 30-day devotional that will help students lead by following Jesus, leading yourself, and then leading others.

Freshman: Making Faith Your Priority is a 30-day devotional that addresses many "firsts": your first day of high school, your first football game, your first pop quiz, and even some of your first major temptations. It's also a year filled with some really important questions: How can you make good habits? How can you make faith a priority, not just another "thing" in your life?

Sophomore: Stepping Into Maturity is a 30-day devotional that will help high school sophomores answer some of the unique questions they are presented in their 10th grade year: what role do friends play in their lives? Who are their role models? What life-shaping habits are they developing?

Junior: Making Sense of It All is a 30-day devotional designed to answer important questions students have during their incredibly important 11th grade year: what is their identity? What role will faith make in their futures? How do they make decisions?

Senior: Preparing for the Future is a 30-day devotional that addresses common questions 12th grade students have during their final year of high school: what is your legacy? How do you deal with regrets? What does it mean to truly let God lead you?