Sycamore Cove

Do you minister to youth or their parents? Several newly published resources offer both useful tools for youth ministry and big picture strategies.

Cultivating Teen Faith: Insights from the Confirmation Project. If you’re looking for an overall plan and strategy for effective youth ministry, this is the book for you. Lisa Kimball and Kate Siberine’s article on mentoring relationships in youth ministry is a must-read for anyone doing youth ministry. Release date of November 13, paperback for list price of $22.

Find Your Fit: Unlock God’s Unique Design for Your Talents, Spiritual Gifts, and Personality by Kevin Johnson; Jane Kise; Karen Eilers. This is the book I wish had been around during my own teen years. This interactive guide includes a spiritual gifts & talents inventory, a values inventory, personality inventory, plus career interest inventory – all in one place. Great for older teens and young adults to figure out where they’re going in their lives. Release date of December 4, paperback for $15.

Tough Stuff Parenting: Helping Your Kids Navigate Faith and Culture by Paul Basden, Jim Johnson.  This excellent book takes a brutally realistic approach to all the hot topics we as parents must discuss with our kids. Drugs, sex, parties, alcohol, same-sex attractions, racism, porn, suicide: the authors bravely tackle how to discuss all these issues from a Christian perspective. They don’t get preachy or judgmental, however, and I appreciated this. They acknowledge that young people and adults drink, have sex outside of marriage, and have issues of all kinds. Coming early Jan. 2019, $15 pre-order price.

How to Connect with Your Troubled Adult Children: Effective Strategies for Families in Pain  by Allison Bottke. If parenting has gone seriously amiss and your child has gone completely off the rails, this book is for you. The author lets you know you aren’t alone, gives you sound advice on how to deal with your child’s manipulations, financial demands, and repeated bouts with the law. Just published in paperback for about $12.

Blessings on your ministry to youth, as parents or as church professionals,

Cindy