This resource will equip youth leaders to effectively serve teenagers’ changing lives and support their long-term faith. Sticky Faith is a ministry of Fuller Youth Institute. They have developed a step-by-step innovation process based on years of research.
Resources
Big God, Big Questions: Confirmation for a Growing Faith
This PC(USA) Confirmation curriculum is based on the findings of the Confirmation Project, focusing on preparing youth to authentically answer the traditional membership questions. Big God Big Questions equips students to employ the study of Scripture, tradition, and church, to tell their own story as Christian believers in the context of their local congregational experiences.
A Guide to Bible Basics
What’s actually in the Bible? Where do we find the story of Moses or Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son? A Guide to Bible Basics discusses important people, places, and terms for each biblical book so that the reader can quickly see its primary focus. This accessible and concise book introduces the content of the Bible without theological, historical, or literary commentary. Tyler Mayfield provides a summary and chapter outline of each biblical book so as to facilitate quick comprehension of its fundamental story and subject.
Vibrant Church Communications
North Carolina Native Jo Nygard Owens supports churches in communicating who they are with a clear visual language. She has also begun offering digital seasonal resources that are visually appealing and meaningful.
Raising White Kids
Raising White Kids is a book for families, educators, and communities who want to equip their children to be active and able participants in a society that is becoming one of the most racially diverse in the world while remaining full of racial tensions. Living in a racially unjust and deeply segregated nation creates unique conundrums for white children that begin early in life and impact development in powerful ways. Raising White Kids offers age-appropriate insights for teaching children how to address racism when they encounter it and tackles tough questions about how to help white kids be mindful of racial relations while understanding their own identity and the role they can play for justice.
I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversations
Two friends on opposite sides of the aisle provide a practical guide to grace-filled political conversation while challenging readers to put relationship before policy and understanding before argument. As hosts of a fast-growing politics podcast, the authors have learned how to practice engaging conversation while disagreeing. They share principles on how to give grace and be vulnerable when discussing issues that affect families, churches, the country, and the world. They provide practical tools to move past frustration and into productive dialogue, emphasizing that faith should inform the way people engage more than it does the outcome of that engagement.
Mary Had a Baby: An Advent Bible Study Based on African American Spirituals
Mary Had a Baby: An Advent Bible Study Based on African American Spirituals, written by Marilyn E. Thornton with material from the first edition by Cheryl Kirk-Duggan. Mary Had a Baby has four sessions, one for each week of Advent, and is perfect for small groups, Sunday school, midweek sessions, and choir workshops. Each lesson includes Scripture, song lyrics, devotional and contextual information, and discussion questions to stimulate deepening faith and a sense of community. The book includes leader helps. The four spirituals featured in Mary Had a Baby are “Mary Had a Baby,” “Rise Up Shepherd and Follow,” “Children, Go Where I Send Thee, “ and “Go, Tell It on the Mountain.” A mp3 file of the four songs is available free with purchase of the study.
Manger
Ages 4 – 8
There is a legend that describes how, at midnight on Christmas Eve, all creatures are granted the power of speech for one hour. In this rich collection, Lee Bennett Hopkins and a dozen other poets imagine what responses they might offer. The poems represent a diverse group of animals, but all come together with one singular purpose: celebrating the joy of the miraculous event. This collection of graceful poems provides readers with a Nativity story unlike any other — at times gently humorous, at times profound, but always inviting readers to appreciate the wonder of Christmas. This book is a perfect gift for the holiday season.
Refuge
This children’s book offers a moving new perspective on the nativity story-evoking the struggle of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus as refugees traveling in a strange land, seeking the protection and kindness of strangers. While everyone may already know the story of how Jesus was humbly born in a manger, Refuge is a lyrical depiction of what came next: the new family’s travels through the desert, fleeing Herod’s soldiers in order to find a safe place to welcome their son into the world. Refuge asks readers to consider the modern day implications of being forced to flee your home country.
Home by Another Way: A Christmas Story
This enchanting Christmas story by beloved author and preacher Barbara Brown Taylor follows the three wise men on their world-changing journey to Bethlehem. In this beautiful retelling of their adventure, Taylor captures the power of one very special star and gives readers a new perspective on the three wise men and their encounters with King Herod, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. Home by Another Way: A Christmas Story features breathtaking artwork from illustrator Melanie Cataldo and is perfect for gift-giving.