Kara Powell – författare

Deep Ministry in a Shallow World will show you a new way to prayerfully reflect on the questions you face in your youth ministry every day so you can find the answers that will take it to deeper places. That’s because authors Chap Clark and Kara Powell have gathered significant research findings that will help shift your ministry paradigm. Did you know that: • the typical strategies we use to build relationships with kids might actually cause them to trust us less because of what this generation has endured? • recent research on communication could help us move past the witty talks and funny stories we work so hard to develop and instead actually connect the Bible to kids’ lives? • studies show that offering students “just Jesus” and not helping them at home, school, and in their neighborhoods might not help them very much at all? The authors’ research also led to their development of the Deep Design problem-solving process—a revolutionary model that will give you better tools than ever before to address every last issue you’ll encounter in youth ministry.

It doesn’t take a long list of statistics to convince you that our world is broken. Mission trips, service projects, and supporting children through relief organizations are just a few of the ways that many youth workers engage their students in serving the least, the last, and the lost. As good and helpful as these things may be on the surface, that’s where they remain—at the surface. The problems run far deeper than an occasional paint job or fundraising project can solve. But it’s not hopeless. Deep social justice is possible in your youth ministry. Following their bestselling book, Deep Ministry in a Shallow World, Kara Powell and Chap Clark provide you with research and insights that will help your ministry get to the next level. In addition to helping you further understand the Deep Design method (introduced in their previous book), their practical Kingdom of God theology will help you go beyond simply trying to motivate your students to serve those in need, and invite your students (and maybe even your leaders) to wrestle with why those people are in need in the first place. You’ll hear from well-known social justice leaders and youth workers who are making a difference in urban, suburban, and small town settings including: • Jim Wallis (Sojourners) • Tony Campolo (Eastern University) • Lina Thompson (World Vision/Vision Youth) • John Perkins (Christian Community Development Association) • Shane Claiborne (The Simple Way) • Larry Acosta (Urban Youth Workers Institute) • Rudy Carrasco (Harambee Christian Family Center) • Jeremy Del Rio (Community Solutions, Inc.) • Noel Castellanos (Christian Community Development Association), and more In addition to expanding your personal justice commitments, Deep Justice in a Broken World will help you reflect with your own leadership team, and will provide you with online resources to take you even deeper into the journey. So go ahead, dig deeper into what it means to heal the broken world in which we live. Take your ministry deeper into social justice.

Sex is all around you. No matter where you look or what you listen to, chances are you’re getting some kind of message about sexuality. And we’re guessing that the messages you’re receiving don’t always help you figure out the truth about sex. Sometimes it’s not any easier to get the truth about sex when you ask an adult in your life. We’re just guessing…but if you did get the nerve up to ask someone about sex, you probably didn’t get much of an answer (or at least not the answer you were looking for). The reality is, for most adults, the topic of sex can be scary to talk about—with anyone. But we’re here to change all that. In Good Sex 2.0: What (Almost) Nobody Will Tell You About Sex, you’ll explore the truth about sexuality based on what God has to say about it, as well as what the latest research reveals. This journal will help you explore: • Sex Messaging: how to tell sense from nonsense in a sex-obsessed culture • Sexual Identity: how we come to understand and experience our sexuality • Intimacy: going out, hooking up, messing around, and genuine closeness • Desire: the difference between sexual appetites and human needs • Boundaries: how biblical principles and common sense can govern sexual choices for a lifetime • Responsibility: our sexual responsibilities to God and each other • Do-overs: what it means to receive mercy and restoration from God As you spend time in this journal, it will bring up the tough questions, open up honest dialogue, and help you see how your sexuality fits into God’s plan for your life.

Sex saturates the world our students are growing up in. Everywhere they look (or listen) they can hear all kinds of messages about sexuality, and most of it probably isn’t helping them develop a healthy understanding of how their own sexuality fits into God’s plan for their lives. In Good Sex 2.0: A Whole-Person Approach to Teenage Sexuality and God, you’ll find tools to help you (and parents of teens) involve your students in understanding, enjoying, and taking responsibility for their sexuality—all without lecturing, intimidating, or moralizing. The Good Sex 2.0 curriculum gives you everything you need to help your students process and understand: • Sexual Identity • Desire • Responsibility • Sex Messaging • Intimacy • Boundaries • Do-Overs This Leader’s Guide gives you tools to walk students through the seven sessions of the Good Sex 2.0 curriculum, and is organized in such a way that without much preparation you can lead it yourself or hand it off to a volunteer to use in a large or small group setting. Good Sex 2.0 also includes several appendices and other helpful resources you can consult for further teaching.

Sticky Faith delivers positive and practical ideas to nurture within your kids a living, loving faith that lasts a lifetime.Research indicates that almost half of high school seniors drift from their faith after graduation.Struck by this staggering statistic, and recognizing its ramifications, the Fuller Youth Institute (FYI) conducted the "College Transition Project" in an effort to identify the relationships and best practices that can set young people on a trajectory of lifelong faith and service.This easy-to-read guide presents both a compelling rationale and a powerful strategy to show parents how to actively encourage their children’s spiritual growth so that it will stick with them into adulthood and empower them to develop a living, lasting faith.Written by Fuller Youth Institute Executive Director Dr. Kara E. Powell and youth expert Chap Clark--authors known for the integrity of their research and the intensity of their passion for young people--Sticky Faith is geared to spark a movement that empowers adults to develop robust and long-term faith in kids of all ages.Further engage your family and church with the Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family, Sticky Faith curriculum, and Sticky Faith youth worker edition. Sticky Faith is also available in Spanish, Cómo criar jóvenes de fe sólida.

If you are eager for an authentic action plan you can use every day to point your kids toward lasting, lifelong faith, this is it.Building on the bestselling go-to guidebook Sticky Faith, The Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family  shows parents how to actively encourage their children's spiritual growth so that it will stick with them into adulthood and empower them to develop a living, lasting faith.This accessible guide presents more than 100 practical, easy-to-implement ideas to set your family on a trajectory of lifelong faith, including how to . . .Handle mistakes and show forgivenessConnect and relate to your teenagerTalk faith with your kidsBuild faith during downtime or on vacationMake your house a hub of faithBe a family of serviceAnd more!Perfect for busy parents who don't have time and inclination to read--yet grounded in sophisticated, academically verified data by the Fuller Youth Institute--this guidebook is a welcome resource you can turn to time and time again for fresh ideas and inspiration.

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.

All churches grow old. Strategic churches grow young.Churches are losing both members and vitality as increasing numbers of young people disengage. Based on groundbreaking research with over 250 of the nation's leading congregations, Growing Young provides a strategy any church can use to involve and retain teenagers and young adults. This strategy includes six core commitments for growing young:● Unlock keychain leadership● Empathize with today's young people● Take Jesus' message seriously● Fuel a warm community● Prioritize young people (and families) everywhere● Be the best neighborsGrowing Young also profiles innovative churches that are engaging 15- to 29-year-olds and as a result are growing--spiritually, emotionally, missionally, and numerically. Packed with both research and practical ideas, this book shows pastors and ministry leaders how to position their churches to engage younger generations in a way that breathes vitality, life, and energy into the whole church.

Many parents of a teenager or young adult feel as though they're guessing about what to do next--with mixed results. We want to stay connected with our maturing child, but we're not sure how. And deep down, we fear our child doesn't want or need us.Based on brand-new research and interviews with remarkable families, Growing With equips parents to take steps toward their teenagers and young adults in a mutual journey of intentional growth that trusts God to transform them all. By highlighting three groundbreaking family strategies, authors Kara Powell and Steven Argue show parents that it's never too early or too late to- accept the child you have, not the child you wish you had - work toward solutions rather than only identifying problems- develop empathy that nudges rather than judges- fight for your child, not against them- connect your children with a faith and church big enough to handle their doubts and struggles- dive into tough discussions about dating, career, and finances- and unleash your child's passions and talents to change our worldFor any parent who longs for their kids to keep their roots even as they spread their wings, Growing With offers practical help and hope for the days--and years--ahead.

A revealing "personality profile" self-test and Littauer's insightful advice help readers better understand themselves and others. A bestseller.

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.

In the past few decades, the church has experienced rapid and distressing change. Hard-working pastors and leaders often know they need to embrace diversity, creatively engage younger generations, and equip their people to love their neighbors. But since they don't know how to make the changes needed, they feel stuck and wonder, "What do I do now? What steps can I take to lead our church purposefully and prayerfully into a more hopeful future?"For these dedicated yet drained church leaders, this research-informed resource from the team at the Fuller Youth Institute offers a clear roadmap to faithfully and effectively navigate change that will revitalize your church. Through extensive research, interviews, and case studies, you will learn how to see the big picture, activate a transformation team, know your "why," discern where God is leading, communicate a compelling vision, maintain disciplined attention, and experiment toward a more fruitful, faithful, and lasting future.This hope-filled guide for building tomorrow's church today is the resource your church has been waiting for.

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.

Help teenagers become adults who boldly live out a robust faith in a watching worldMost typical youth ministries today produce nice, obedient kids who behave themselves--and then leave the church and the faith. Even those who remain struggle to extend their own faith beyond youth group. They seem like "good kids," but their lives and decisions outside youth group aren't oriented toward Jesus. Clearly, that is not our goal. So what are we doing wrong? And how can we better serve the unique needs of the most anxious, adaptive, and diverse generation in history?Building on two decades of the Fuller Youth Institute's work and incorporating extensive new research and interviews, Faith Beyond Youth Group answers these questions by ● identifying the reasons youth ministry often fails both short-term and long-term ● offering five ways adult youth leaders can cultivate character for a lifetime of growing closer to Jesus ● exploring how to how to cultivate trust, model growth, teach for transformation, practice together, and make meaningIf you're tired of youth ministry that fails to change lives, it's time to change youth ministry.