In 2004 a man named Roland Boyce, who would later become my sr. pastor, wrote a book for youth groups called, “Issues and Answers.” Today we’re both still serving together, albeit at a different location with different titles, and I still continue to see his heart for teenagers demonstrated in so many ways.

He’s asked me to make all 350+ pages of his work, “Issues and Answers,” available to you for free! This curriculum is intended to be a teaching guide to help youth workers and parents provide biblical answers for some of the tough issues in our society. In the introduction, Rol explains the format as:

“…a topical listing of 47 issues alphabetically, the Biblical background on the issue, the basic conclusions of Biblical teaching surrounding the issue, a statement of the youth’s culture prevailing perspective on the topic, and bibliographical helps for further study plus an interesting bit of trivia to add a little ‘seasoning’ to the subject matter.

The issues covered are:

• Abortion
• Alcohol
• Authority
• Bible (The)
• Birth Control
• Church (The)
• Cloning
• Clothes/Fads
• Counseling
• Cults/Occult
• Dancing
• Dating
• Death and Dying
• Death Penalty
• Depression
• Devotional Life
• Discipleship
• Divorce
• Drugs
• Ecology
• Evolution
• Euthanasia
• Food
• Gambling
• God
• Homosexuality
• Marriage
• Modern Day Religions
• Money-(Stewardship)
• Music
• M.T.V.
• Parent-Child Relationships
• Peer Pressure
• Pets
• Politics
• Pornography
• Pre-Marital Sex
• Racism
• Sabbath/Sunday (The)
• School
• Smoking
• Sports
• Suicide
• Swearing
• Tattoos/(Body Piercing)
• War
• Women’s Rights

Obviously, some of the topics are open to a lot of interpretation based on your theological background. I promise Roland Boyce will not take it personally if you disagree with his conclusions on any of these issues!

IMPORTANT: Each lesson has parts that are in different documents. The main lesson is clearly titled as such, but supplemental statistics for each lesson can be found in the “issues and answers stats.doc” document, and a teachable activity/exercise for each lesson along with the lesson’s aim is found in the “Life Labs” document.

ALSO IMPORTANT: Pastor Roland Boyce is providing this to you for free, but he would greatly appreciate hearing your feedback about it, especially if you use it with your groups. Please email him at rboyce@alexandriacovenant.org with your thoughts, recommendations, suggestions and encouragement.

Download “Issues and Answers” Youth Group Curriculum

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Our featured guest is Jeff Borton, co-author of a brand new book, Simple Student Ministry. He’ll lead us in a discussion about simplifying our student ministries. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

The following guest post is contributed by a high school friend of mine, Kira Dacanay. She is passionate for maintaining a global environment that is as clean and healthy as possible for everything that lives in it. This post contains some of her many ideas for how youth ministries can do their part. The best part is, most of them are very easy to do and will still have a very significant impact.

Activity Ideas

• Community tree-plantings: municipal parks, side-walk shade trees, urban tree plantings, etc.; also flower gardens
• Trash pick-ups: local parks, “Adopt A Spot” public-right-of-ways, stream banks, etc. Always wear protective gloves!
• Flower or Veggie garden: community designated spot or church property

General Tips/Tricks

• Connect with local and state authorities; NGO’s or wildlife refuges for activity ideas or jumping on board an established one. NGO’s and wildlife refuges always welcome volunteers and are often planning events themselves.
• Always get explicit permission from the municipality if public lands involved.
• Check out Americorps, the “domestic Peace Corps” where I served. Trained personnel are available at no charge to help plan your own project or get you involved with one of theirs.
• Donations: Large companies have budgets for “social responsibility” requirements. Search their web pages or talk to the store manager. Giants like Home Depot and Lowes are will be able to provide you with lawn/leaf bags, plants, shovels etc., also grant money for larger projects. Contacting the store manager for simple items like lawn/leaf bags. Ask for donations from local “mom and pop” garden centers, too.
• Other local businesses may contribute if you have a set plan and give them proper credit for their contribution. By telling other members of the community that this local business supported a community project, it sends a strong message about that business’s commitment to the well-being of its customers.
• Fostering Stewardship: Set the example! You, as a youth leader are responsible for feeling a strong sense of stewardship in the first place and passing in on to your group. Not everyone may bite, but guaranteed you’ll at least a few who really latch on. Do background research on the project and similar projects, and give examples to your group about successful projects elsewhere and how that community has benefited. Before/after photos are especially helpful! Also, keep track of the process. If you are doing tree plantings for example, take photos before, during, after, and waaay after to show your group and new members how your trees have grown. Talk about difficulties encountered and how it makes each person feel to see the positive changes they’ve contributed to their environment.

Schedule activities on a yearly basis (i.e. every Earth Day have an activity). Or every October have one just because. If it becomes and annual event, you are more likely to keep youths interested and involved, and new ones will see that the older kids think it’s cool too. Eventually, parents and other church members will become more supportive of your efforts as they see their children looking forward to “this year’s event.” You can also solicit the general public to volunteer at an event as well. Ask them to bring a non-perishable food item too.

Also, connect with the spiritual side of embracing the world around you. Take some time to reflect on the day’s activities. Put your palm on the trunk of an old tree or young sapling. Think about the many years that old tree has “seen” come and go, how it has weathered the impacts of humans on earth, “seen” changes in it’s landscape, and been powerless to defend itself in a changing environment. Think of how this new, young sapling has so much life to live, and could very well outlive you. Give it hope for a long, healthy life by promising to do your part by keeping the air, water, and soil it needs to live clean. In turn, that tree will help keep the air, water, and soil you need to live, clean, too. We’re all connected in one-way or another. God put us on this earth to do great things, and He gave us a magnificent planet to work with. Respect the earth and care for it as God would have you nurture your own children.

I would love to share ideas with you, I have many!! Contact me at kdacanay2@yahoo.com.

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Kira Dacanay is a Master’s Candidate at the University of Rhode Island in the Department of Marine Affairs, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Management from Rutgers University, NJ. She completed 1700 hours of community service work with the AmeriCorps NJ Watershed Ambassador Program in 2007 and worked nearly 2 years with the NJ Department of Environmental Protection prior to beginning her Master’s degree. She enjoys connecting spiritually with the natural world and strives to improve her stewardship of the great resource that God has provided.

I’m not sure passing laws and focusing on education will change anything. It’s not a major deterrent to stopping drug usage, so why should it stop kids from sexting? The solution definitely has to go back to having parents who are actually in touch with their kids lives and who are teaching them openly, honestly and biblically about sexuality from a younger age. Otherwise, what’s next? Safe-sexting?

This MSNBC news video is worth watching.

[ht Inetta Smith via email]

…before I started.

1. It’s very emotional, unlike any other job. You’ll experience the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows.

2. It’s very messy, and always will be as long as you work with people who are just as imperfect and sinful as you are.

3. It’s constantly changing. Youth culture never stays the same from year to year, and neither do the kids, values, nor worldviews. Youth ministry must always morph along with it. As soon as you think you have a handle on it, think again.

4. It requires strong vision casting. Any leadership position does, but leadership in youth ministry does especially. Your leaders, teens, parents, church and community all depend on it.

5. Don’t think you need to do it all. In fact, the ministry is healthier when you enable others to serve instead of taking responsibility for every youth event, trip, fundraiser, small group, idea, and strategy that furthers the vision.

6. No matter what people at your new church say, don’t make deep rooted changes in the ministry until after two years of building trust and respect.

7. Live a life that is above reproach in everything. Eventually even “little things” will come to light and you will be held to a higher level of accountability for it (and rightly so).

8. Kids really don’t care how “cool” you are or how well you know scripture as much as they care about how much you love them as individuals, not as a group.

9. Have a firm grasp on what your values are in ministry and make sure they’re are aligned with a church’s written and unwritten values before accepting a paid youth ministry position there.

10. Don’t be too discouraged if you don’t see results and life-change take place right away. Sometimes it takes years, and even then you won’t always hear about it.

What do you wish someone would’ve told you about youth ministry before you got started? We’d all love to hear it in the comments below.

I actually drafted this post several months ago, but am finally publishing it now in light of some other blog posts that are coming out. Among others, Anastasia Goodstein writes about Facebook and youth social networking fatigue, Libby Issendorf says that gen Y lost that loving feeling for Facebook, and Adam McLanes writes about how MTV lost their “cool factor” with this generation.

The cycle of youth culture

It’s really not surprising to me that this is happening. It’s the cycle of youth culture. Teens gravitate to something, usually under criticism from adults, until it becomes common and mainstream. As the adults eventually start adopting it themselves, teens gradually move on to something else.

Remember that, in his day, Elvis Presley was greatly criticized for his gyrating hips and the moral values his followers were adopting, but eventually his music became common among adults, parents, and teens alike. So, teens moved on to other flavors of rock and roll. As those flavors became mainstream with adults, teens moved once again to alternative rock. And so on…

Mark Oestreicher, in his book, Youth Ministry 3.0, summarizes it well:

Youth culture has become the dominate culture…. Middle-aged and younger parents listen to the same music their teenagers listen to (or, at least, used to listen to)…. Clothing brands cross age barriers…. Adults are all over Facebook and MySpace. …youth culture cannot stand by while it becomes completely commoditized and commonplace. That rubs against the essential fabric of adolescence…. Teenagers’ constant need to differentiate from the adult world… drives them to new, “other” ways of connecting, coping, and creating. Every time some aspect of youth culture becomes commoditized and mainstream, accepted by adults and culture at large, teenagers tweak it in a new way for themselves or create a whole new category. Case in point: All Web-watchers and adolescent speculators were still convinced that teenagers were going to continue using email and online chat rooms to connect with each other virtually, but teenagers slid out from under that and embraced instant messaging. Then we adults… were shocked… that teens would slide out from under our assumptions about their IM use and move to texting as the most common form of social networking. (Pages 65, 66, 68.)

It’s impossible to predict what teens will move toward next, but I will take the liberty of going on record to say that the general population of teens will move away from Facebook in the next two years.

This is becoming more and more evident as young adults like Julian Smith are annoyed that grandparents are joining Facebook. In his popular video, 25 Things I Hate About Facebook, Julian says there should be an age limit to Facebook (1:14 in the video).

Some teens I know still love Facebook and use it daily, but not everyone. Actually, what prompted me to write this blog post a couple months ago was a conversation I had with a teen who said he closed his Facebook account because there’s too many adults there and it’s too bloated with random features he doesn’t care about.

So what’s next?

I have no idea what they’ll gravitate toward as teens stop checking Facebook multiple times a day and start checking it only once a day, eventually checking it a couple times a week and then only once in a while, but I think it will have a couple elements:

1. It will not be tethered to a computer. Although Facebook has a mobile version and features, it’s still largely bound to a computer. As teens become more and more mobile and as smart phone data plans become more common, their networking will move to a mobile device that connects to a computer rather than the other way around.

2. It will still enhance and lead to face-to-face socializing. When the telephone was gaining traction, the criticism was that people would no longer meet face-to-face to talk and the dangers of miscommunication from not seeing body language would create a lot of problems. Today we all know people still continue to meet face-to-face anyway. The telephone just extended our communication. Oddly enough, however, that’s the same argument that was made when I was younger and email and IM was gaining traction, except that those communication methods didn’t even have talking involved! But yet, here we are today still meeting in person, despite all the text messaging and social networking sites. Remember, God has created mankind with an innate need for relationships, primarily with Himself, but also with each other. That face-to-face component will never go away, just the expressions of it change as technology and youth culture continues to develop.

One possibility of something teens might gravitate toward is something like Loopt, a social service that utilizes the GPS capabilities of newer phones to show you where your friends are in proximity to you, what they’re doing, and quickly contact them so you can meet together face-to-face. (This Apple commercial explains it a bit more.) Whether or not it will reach the widespread acceptance like Facebook is yet to be seen (I kinda think it won’t).

Whatever teens move toward, though, it will initially come under criticism from adults just like MySpace and Facebook did. Soon enough adults will accept it and cause the teens to once again move elsewhere, but thus is the cycle of youth culture and all the subsequent challenges of youth ministry.

What do you think?

Do you think it will take teens longer than two years to move to something else? Shorter? Will Facebook be able to keep up with the morphing trends in culture and adolescence? Have an idea of what they’ll move toward after Facebook? Would love to hear from you in the comments below.

I recently wrote an article for YouthMinistry.com on dealing with an addiction to pornography. I was a little blunt in asking guys to man-up to what they know they need to do and stop messing around. A particular comment from a woman there also addresses that this struggle is definitely not limited to men.

Read my short article on “Dealing with an Addiction to Porn.”

In the article I mention a program called Covenant Eyes. I highly recommend it, even over some of the free alternatives out there. If you try it out using the promo code “YouthMinistry” you’ll get the first 30 days for free just to try it out. And even if you don’t struggle with porn, it serves as a protection against any future accusations that may unfortunately come.

You may also want to check out this free ebook I offered in an earlier blog post that addresses this struggle in more detail. And also watch this video discussion between me and two other guys about internet accountability for youth workers.

The video below was produced by Covenant Eyes. It contains some good insights about this struggle. Definitely worth your time to watch “Struggle with a pornography temptation?”

Several weeks ago I told you all about a book every youth worker must read: Ministry Mutiny, by Greg Stier. You will find that Greg lays out all the struggles and frustrations you have in ministry, including the ones you’ve felt but never identified, and then gives a plan for how we should shape our ministries. Here’s the full review.

Ministry Mutiny is a required text for those in the Youth Ministry Mentorship program because it has so many critical insights for new youth workers (of things to avoid) and for veteran youth workers (of things to change). I put together a discussion guide for the mentor team to use as they go through the book with their mentees and am now making it freely available for you.

The Ministry Mutiny discussion guide goes through each chapter in the book, asking tough questions about the ideas and principles mentioned, along with self-reflective evaluations of our own lives in ministry. Dare 2 Share may distribute this guide with Ministry Mutiny in a forthcoming second revision, but for now you can grab it free right here:

Download the Ministry Mutiny discussion guide

[ Ministry Mutiny on Amazon ]

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There is NO LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation today! Instead, I’m at the National Youth Workers Convention in Sacramento, CA, liveblogging the event. Go to http://www.nywc.com/live to follow the play-by-play of thoughts, ideas, videos, pictures, and more of what’s happening at the conference.

Jeff Beckley writes the following guest post for Life In Student Ministry. Self-image and weight is something teenage girls battle today. As male youth pastors, we do not have a great perspective on what girls face. We need to make sure teenage girls have a proper understanding of self-image and how God intends us to view ourselves and live.

There once was a day when MTV stood for music television. Now, I won’t even touch that channel with a 10 foot pole. Whether it is the popular tween “drama” The Hills, or reality television that will make you want to visit the pepto-bismol bottle, it is getting a little ridiculous.

Now, it has gotten a lot ridiculous. It was bad enough the advertising on another network for the other top teen drama “Gossip Girl” produced a slogan of “It’s your parent’s worst nightmare.” Now we have to see the new reality series on MTV is being promoted as “girls willing to shed the pounds (30-80 lbs), become a model and win $100,000!” Right, because that is the only way to become a model or be beautiful is to lose 5, 10…80 pounds! What a great message for our youth of America.

For all those young girls that may read this, hoping to find ways for dramatic weight loss here is the most important message on your body you will ever find:

1 Samuel 16:7 “…for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

As youth workers it’s time we teach and model (no pun intended) beauty is on the inside. This isn’t just a cliche to put at the end of children’s books. God truly cares more about your heart than the number that shows up on the scale. Sure, take care of your body, eat right and try to exercise. But God’s Word says “bodily exercise profiteth little” compared to living a godly life. That will make you more beautiful than any Hills star or any model on the runways of New York.

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My name is Jeff Beckley, and I am a youth pastor in Ohio. My passion is to train and equip the leaders of tomorrow. My blog site contains relevant articles to help you face the world with a Biblical worldview, humorous “top ten” lists, and helpful young ministry links. Also, this blog will supply youth pastors/workers with helpful tips on forming a Youth Leader Staff, mission trip tips, event helps, and other advice that I learned the hard way or from veterans in the field.

By guest blogger, Shannon Bond.

The purpose of this blog series was to discuss how teens can develop as sexual beings without being sexually active. Having accomplished the purpose, some questions deserve appropriate attention.

• Can this type of sexual education really work?
• Is this type of sexual education appropriate in the context of a spiritual community?
• When is the proper time for this type of sexual education to start?

Concerning the first question, I would answer that it can. If, as Christians, we consider growth in Christ a realistic goal of religious education, and we believe that sexuality and spirituality are inseparable, it follows, then, that a holistic, biblical approach to teaching sexuality can work.

Is this type of approach appropriate in the context of a spiritual community? This question does not have a “one size fits all” answer. Certainly, community provides encouragement, accountability, and correction. However, teens may not be mature enough to be open about their sexual development in a communal setting. Age and maturity are factors in making this determination. Without the community, though, teens may find it easier to succumb to sexual temptation. My assertion is that community is important to both spiritual and sexual development, but local factors will determine how to organize the community.

When is the proper time for this type of sexual education to start? I believe that this type of education actually starts in early childhood. If parents and church workers wait to discuss sexuality until the onset of puberty, sexuality has again been divorced from spirituality. However, if the spiritual education of children is more transformative than informative in purpose, then this approach to sexual education builds upon a firm foundation. Especially important, I think, is finding age appropriate ways to engage children in spiritual disciplines. On some level, many of the personal disciplines involve abstaining from something. The Bible states that the parents are responsible for their children’s spiritual education, not the church. Therefore, parents are to model self-sacrifice and lead their children in doing it as a part of their spiritual education. To expect teenagers to abstain from sexual activity having never practiced abstinence on any other level, I believe, is setting them up for failure. However, if parents model abstinence in the spiritual disciplines as sacrificial worship to God, then it is conceivable that their children could learn, through example and through experience, the link between abstinence and worship. From this foundation, teenagers may find it easier to choose sexual abstinence.

If a teenager commits to be faithful to their future mate by remaining abstinent until marriage, will current methods of teaching abstinence give them both the holistic understanding and the tools to do it? The possibility does exist, since God works through imperfect people and imperfect means to accomplish His will. Yet, if there is still a disconnect, what are youth workers, parents, and seminary professors going to do to address the challenge? Hopefully, this series has take steps to address this challenge, but the work is far from complete.

Read the other posts in this “Teaching Teen Sexuality” series.

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Shannon Bond is in his first year as the youth minister at First Baptist Church in Bangs, TX. He is married to the former Stephanie DeBoom of Copperas Cove, TX and has three children: Raegan (6-year-old daughter), Sydnie (4-year-old daughter), and Joey (2-year-old son). He is a student at Logsdon Seminary in Abilene, TX. Before becoming a youth minister, Shannon spent 13 years as a teacher and coach.

By guest blogger, Shannon Bond.

A biblically grounded sexuality redeems the relationship between the spiritual and the sexual. If God does not exist, as atheists and evolutionists argue, then sexuality is merely for pleasure or procreation. It has no spiritual component to it. However, if God does exist, and He merely wants people to abstain from sexual intercourse, then oral sex, heavy petting, and fondling must be acceptable practices—after all, those practices are not really “sex.”

Youth workers and parents combat these lies by teaching students to understand that humans are both spiritual and sexual. According to Richard Foster, “[W]e do not have a body, we are a body; we do not have a spirit, we are a spirit. What touches the body deeply touches the spirit as well [italics authors].” The Bible calls this becoming “one flesh.” Students often fail to realize this until it is too late.

Youth workers and parents should help students understand that sexuality is best expressed through worship. Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship” (NIV). Worship involves sacrifice. When teenagers pledge to be abstinent as a moral choice, they often depend upon their own moral fiber to fulfill their vow. A fear of consequences guides their decision-making. Conversely, when teenagers understand that abstinence is a spiritual act of worship, they give the Holy Spirit room to empower them to sacrifice and to lead them around any “loopholes.” Love guides their decision-making. Morality and love are now intertwined. If a couple follows this path toward the marriage altar, they will arrive there having begun to experience a purer intimacy and unity on two levels: in their relationship as a couple, and in their individual relationships with God.

Citations
Richard J. Foster, The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1985), 117.

Read the other posts in this “Teaching Teen Sexuality” series.

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Shannon Bond is in his first year as the youth minister at First Baptist Church in Bangs, TX. He is married to the former Stephanie DeBoom of Copperas Cove, TX and has three children: Raegan (6-year-old daughter), Sydnie (4-year-old daughter), and Joey (2-year-old son). He is a student at Logsdon Seminary in Abilene, TX. Before becoming a youth minister, Shannon spent 13 years as a teacher and coach.