Terry Linhart

This morning I am speaking at the International Conference on Missions in Indianapolis before flying to Dallas for the National Youth Workers Convention. Aaron Arnold of Youth Hope is leading a preconference session on global youth ministry and asked me to come in and share some reflections about it after editing the book Global Youth Ministry: Reaching Adolescents Around the World (YS Academic).

I’ve been thinking about what to share regarding global youth ministry. Here are my main challenges to those who attend today: read more…

Posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2012 at 7:44 AM in THE WORLD, YOUTH MINISTRY. No comments

I had the privilege of co-coordinating a brand new book, GLOBAL YOUTH MINISTRY (Zondervan/YS, 2011), that serves one of the faster-growing areas of youth ministry.   International youth ministry, once relegated to a one-hour session at a youth ministry conferences (and only 15 people showed up) has now become a vocational focus for thousands of youth workers.  Some colleges and seminaries have developed new courses on global youth ministry while others have modified their courses to include units related to this area.  We begin the book by stating:

“The growth of Christian youth ministry around the world has been nothing short of phenomenal. In regions where strategic ministry to youth barely existed 15 years ago, you’ll now discover well-organized ministries with established histories of effectiveness. Where none existed five years ago, a fledgling group of adults works to establish a regular presence among the young people in a community.”

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Posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2012 at 6:10 AM in THE WORLD, YOUTH MINISTRY. No comments

It’s a bit awkward to post reviews of a book you wrote (or in this case, edited), but we’re thrilled by all of the positive responses for the book Global Youth Ministry: Reaching Adolescents Around the World (YS Academic), so I thought I’d pull them all together in a post to show the range of positive response the book has gotten:

“The world is full of young people, and the church is ministering to them. In Global Youth Ministry: Reaching Adolescents Around the World (YS Academic), Terry Linhart and David Livermore have assembled an incredible array of experts in youth ministry from various cultures. The authors of the various chapters are youth workers who know the culture and needs of the young people in their contexts, giving the reader an idea of what youth ministry looks like throughout the world – in places like Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe.” – Dennis Poulette, Youth Ministry International (Mexico).

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Posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2012 at 10:30 AM in THE WORLD, YOUTH MINISTRY. No comments

This week we were reminded of the dire economic situation facing the youth of the world.  Since 23.5% of the world’s poor are youth and 75 million youth are unemployed (a number that will keep growing), this presents significant challenges for governments, agencies, churches, and ministries (not to mention families!) in many regions of our world.  In fact, all over the world, even the US, high school and college graduates will be in much poorer economic situations than their parents and especially their grandparents were at their age.

When I look over the ‘field’ of youth ministry, I sometimes grow concerned that we can become a vocation focused on running programs, teaching/speaking lessons, or even a personal exercise in leadership and personal status versus one based on Christlike service. As I read through Scripture on ministry like a ‘shepherd’ (I Peter 5:1-11) and the missional and service focus of the New Testament church, I wonder what our responsibility is to the youth in our community, our region, our country, and around the world.

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Posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 7:11 AM in THE WORLD, YOUTH MINISTRY. No comments

The youth of Norway dominated world headlines this summer after a lone gunman showed up at a youth camp on remote Utøya Island in southern Norway and began a shooting rampage that left over 70 dead.  The horrific details shocked a country during its holiday season with a peaceful reputation built from hosting the Nobel Peace Prize and from mediating conflict negotiations between other countries.

Youth ministry is new and growing in Norway, a highly religious country where 81% of Norway’s 4.8 million people are members of the national Lutheran church yet only three percent attend services regularly.  In 2003, the government gave churches the responsibility to develop a systematic and continuous religious education for all baptized children and youth.[1] And youth ministry vaulted to the forefront of the conversation in Norway.

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Posted on Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 at 6:25 AM in THE WORLD, YOUTH MINISTRY. No comments

Recently Kel and I discovered that we were going to be near where Irena Dragaš lived and we made plans to meet with her and her husband Scott for dinner. Though Irena and I had worked together (with co-editor, David Livermore) on the book, Global Youth Ministry, we had never met before. So, Kel and I were excited to meet her and catch up on what was happening in her life since her recent marriage to Scott. We had a wonderful time together and I had Irena sign a few copies of the book as well.

Irena’s chapter, “Confessions from a Transitional Country: One Croatian Youth Ministry’s Work in Progress,” has received a lot of praise, particularly from missional leaders who have worked in non-Western countries where Western Christian influences play an important role.  However, when I recently reread Irena’s chapter, it was the post-war context of Croatia and its transitional nature that struck me.  Irena’s wrote: read more…

Posted on Monday, August 1st, 2011 at 5:37 AM in THE WORLD, YOUTH MINISTRY. No comments

One of the blessings that come with what Kel and I do is that we get to meet many dynamic and accomplished ministry leaders from around the world.  And last week we had a house-full for a special time of sharing, learning, and prayer.  Tara Swanepoel (front row left) from J-Life Africa is in the US for a sabbatical period.  Kel and I (and the kids) stayed at J-Life’s main camp in South Africa for our 2009 sabbatical. If you aren’t familiar with J-Life Africa, you ought to check out this dynamic youth ministry that is moving throughout Africa.  Led by John Abrahamse, it has SonLife roots and is connected to the various youth ministries associated with Global Youth Initiative, which has its roots in SonLife.

A special treat for the night was that Beth Baleke (front row, third from the right) of Scripture Union Africa was in town and stopped by to share (thanks to Wendell & Peggy Norwood, back row center, for hosting Beth).  If you don’t know Scripture Union, you don’t know arguably THE largest youth ministry organization in the world.  By far.  And Beth coordinates the children/youth portion of that for all of Africa.  Beth is one of the authors of the book GLOBAL YOUTH MINISTRY and, though she and I had worked together on the book via Email, this was the first time for us to meet in person.

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Posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 at 11:14 AM in THE WORLD, YOUTH MINISTRY. No comments