Leadership Archives - B&H Academic

Student Ministry by the Book: Biblical Foundations of Student Ministry

by Ed Newton and R. Scott Pace

We recently spoke with co-author R. Scott Pace to discuss his new book Student Ministry by the Book: Biblical Foundations of Student Ministry. Read on to find out more about why Pace and Newton wrote this timely volume:

What motivated you to write this book?

I have a great, personal love for students and their families, and my passion is to see the next generation spiritually nourished and nurtured. I hope to be able to equip others who serve in the area of student ministry within the local church, and ultimately to see students grow into fully devoted disciples through these programs.

Are you working with students at the moment?

I am involved in my local church ministry through various speaking and discipleship capacities, including serving student ministries by speaking at conferences, camps, and retreat weekends. Over the last 20 years, I have served as a pastor in a variety of full-time and interim capacities, and I have always loved working with students.

How does your book support the ministry of the Church?

Student ministry and ministry to families of students is a primary demographic in the local church, and this particular ministry is absolutely essential to the church. Our book seeks to train, equip, and encourage those who lead and serve in this crucial ministry area.

Who do you see benefitting most from this volume?

I think that student pastors, leaders, and parents will all find it helpful in their ministry. Particularly, I believe that those training for student ministry leadership in an academic or internship setting will benefit greatly from this book. It can serve as both a primer on the subject of student ministry and as a foundational classroom resource.

R. Scott Pace currently serves as the Johnny Hunt Chair of Biblical Preaching, associate professor of preaching and pastoral ministry, director of the Center for Preaching and Pastoral Ministry, and the director of the Hunt Scholars Program at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina. Scott’s greatest passion is for his family. He and his wife, Dana, have been married since 1999. They have four children – Gracelyn, Tyler, Tessa, and Cassie.

Description

The field of youth ministry is often driven by fads and trends. Leaders attempt to reach students by chasing the ever-changing tides of teenage culture, but their heartfelt and painstaking efforts are often met with a lack of authentic spiritual transformation. Student Ministry by the Book addresses these and other common missteps by providing a biblical philosophy and practical guide for youth ministry. Student pastors, youth leaders, and parents of teens will all benefit from this thoroughly biblical and practical approach, designed as a handbook for starting, strengthening, and sustaining a youth ministry in the local church.

Endorsements

“This is a book that is just as beneficial to a parent as it is to a youth pastor. I can’t wait to give copies to the student ministry team at our church!”

—Brent Crowe, vice president, Student Leadership University

“If you want to be more than an activities director and begin to build student disciples, this is the place to start.”

—Andy Harrison, student ministries specialist and Falls Creek program director, Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma

“I enthusiastically recommend Student Ministry by the Book to every youth pastor and person preparing to be one. This one belongs in your library.”

—Richard Ross, professor of student ministry, J.M. Price Chair of Religious Education, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Details

Hardcover

160 Pages

$19.99

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If you’re reading this and are an author in what is traditionally considered the “academic” space, you may be tempted to think that your audience is limited only to others in academia. Perhaps one day this would have been true. But, with the way the internet has made content available to many different groups of people, your work is now accessible to be read more than ever by people in your community or in your local church.

Social media has given lay people the ability to connect with Christian leaders, including Christian academics around the world, and they are taking advantage of this opportunity. Many in the academic space once viewed social media as a trivial pursuit—a waste of time—and it must not be seen as such any longer. Here are three reasons Christian academic authors need to be on social media:

1. To serve others in academia.

Over the course of a year, you have the opportunity to connect with other academics at conferences like the Evangelical Theological Society and others, but keeping up with your colleagues around the world via email or by telephone can be difficult.

Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook give you the opportunity to keep in touch with other academics in more efficient ways than have ever been available before. Beyond just keeping in touch, though, social media gives you a way to serve other academics in your space. Perhaps you write a blog regularly or you decide to post some of the syllabi from past classes online.

Social media can be a great way for academics like you to stay in touch and serve one another.

2. To serve others in your churches

Unless you happen to pull double duty as a professor and a pastor, your primary job on a daily basis is not to equip the saints in your local church for ministry. Scripture tells us that is primarily the job of the church leadership. But, many lay people today are engaging with more “academic” level content online today than they ever have in the past before the age of social media.

On social media, you have the opportunity to provide resources for the people in your churches who are increasingly interested in more academic-level biblical content.

3. To serve others in your communities.

Beyond simply serving other academics and those in your local church, being active on social media can be an effective way to serve those in your communities. Your neighbors and the people you see at the grocery store are consuming content on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms all the time. Social media and the content being shared on social media platforms have an ever-increasing influence on the thoughts and beliefs of the general public.

You have the opportunity to contribute your voice and the truth of the gospel to this phenomenon. You can serve your neighbor by being active on social media in any number of ways.

All of this may be overwhelming to you. How do you even start? LifeWay Christian Resources is offering a new service called LifeWay Social that is launching this October. The purpose of LifeWay Social is to help Christian leaders like you use your gifts on social media in a way that serves others. If you are interested in social media coaching and training, check out LifeWaySocial.com for more info. You can also email any questions to social@lifeway.com.