Brad M. Griffin – författare

Anyone who serves teenagers today knows that more and more young people are eager to make a difference in the world. When students participate in short-term missions, service, and justice causes, parents and youth leaders hope these experiences will lead to real transformation. But research shows that our efforts don’t always stick.If we truly want short-term work to translate into long-term change, leaders and students must spend more time before, during, and after service projects preparing for and processing their experiences. The sessions in this leader’s guide will help you create experiences that stick—both for the students you take and the communities you serve. This guidebook offers a host of practical and field-tested exercises for each phase of your experience, whether it’s a half-day local service project or a two-week trip overseas.Participants will engage in hands-on experiences to gain new insights about themselves, their relationship with God, their teammates, and the world we’re called to love and serve. Each of these steps is a catalyst in helping students apply what they have learned in the field to their own lives back at home. Also included are ideas to help get parents and the whole church engaged in service together. A companion student journal is also available to boost the potential for personal application throughout the journey.

So you’re on fire, you want to make a difference, you want to change the world…but how?Signing up for a service project or mission trip is a great first step. But you probably have a lot of questions. Are you ready for the different cultures you may encounter? How are you going to really connect with the people you serve? And what about when you come home—how do you make sense of all the things you’ve experienced? Will any of it make a lasting difference for anyone?It turns out that if you really want to change the world, you have to change too. The only way that’s going to happen is if you spend time before, during, and after your trip preparing for and processing your work.This Journal will help you think about:• Why you’re going• The people you’re serving• Your relationship with your teammates• How God factors into your service project• The impact your experience has had on you• How you can keep making a difference back at homeIf you think you’re fired up to serve now, just wait! This hands-on Journal will equip you to serve in a way that sticks—both for you and those you serve.• How you can keep making a difference back at homeIf you think you’re fired up to serve now, just wait! This hands-on Journal will equip you to serve in a way that sticks—both for you and those you serve.

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.

Help teenagers unlock their potential and discover essential faithToday's teenagers are the most anxious, creative, and diverse generation in history--which can make it hard for us to relate. And while every teenager is a walking bundle of questions, three rise above the rest:● Who am I?● Where do I fit?● What difference can I make?Young people struggle to find satisfying and life-giving answers to these questions on their own. They need caring adults willing to lean in with empathy, practice listening, and gently point them in the direction of better answers: they are enough because of Jesus, they belong with God's people, and they are invited into God's greater story.In this book, which is based on new landmark research from the Fuller Youth Institute and in-depth interviews with data from 2,200 diverse teenagers, Kara Powell and Brad M. Griffin offer you practical and proven conversations and connections to help the teenagers in your home, your ministry, your classroom, or your neighborhood answer their three biggest questions and reach their full potential.

60 Devotions to Help Young People Explore Their Identity, Belonging, and PurposeSometimes life gives you way more questions than answers. And yet it seems like everyone expects you to just figure it all out! Whether you're looking toward your future or wrestling to get through today, it doesn't have to be so stressful. Just three big questions will help you find clarity about all the rest:● Who am I?● Where do I fit?● What difference can I make?This 60-day exploration breaks down those big questions into manageable pieces and helps you embrace God's best answers for you. Backed by Scripture and informed by years of research with teens just like you, this book does more than help you figure out what to do with your life; it will help you understand what your life means to the world.YOU are one-of-a-kind, and you can find faithful answers to life's biggest questions.