Review of “Sticky Faith Innovation: How Your Compassion, Creativity, and Courage Can Support Teenagers’ Lasting Faith”
Reviewed by Mitchell Martens, associate pastor of youth at Blumenort Community Church.
I’ve been a youth pastor for a little while, and it can sometimes feel like I’m in a rut. Year after year goes by, and things more-or-less stay the same. For me, this is sometimes discouraging, but it can feel overwhelming to think about how we might change things up. How can we be sure that something new will actually work? How can we know our changes will do what we hope they will?
Review of Deeper than African Soil
Faith Eidse’s memoir is essentially a coming-of-age story, but what makes it unique is the backdrop of growing up in Africa with intermittent periods spent “back home” in Manitoba. Her childhood and teenage years encapsulate experiences seldom faced by children in Canadian culture.
Make It Out Alive music review
In an online interview with Randy Robison on LIFE Today Live, Kristian Stanfill shares that this album was “written in a time of recovery” and that while writing these songs he was “writing for survival.”
Music review: Let It Be So
Let It Be So includes the titles “Emmanuel Has Come,” “What a Surprise,” “Hush,” “Advent Song,” as well as its title track. With piano as the primary accompaniment, but with options for additional instrumentation, several of these songs could be utilized as features for a church Christmas presentation.
Reviews: Come Awake and To Antoine
Reviews of Jon Buller’s album Come Awake and E. J. Wiens’s To Antoine.
REVIEW: MENNO SIMONS, DUTCH REFORMER BETWEEN LUTHER, ERASMUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
This volume is challenging, timely, and to the point. Theology is not everyone’s “bag.” The part on Menno himself (141 to 388) is an easier read.
REVIEW: KINGDOM COME: LIVING WHAT JESUS TAUGHT
This 13-week curriculum would be fascinating to do with older teens or adults. The lessons start with the history of God’s covenants with his people and move through the development of group identities (us versus them), to biblical view of lifestyles and relationships, and then the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.