Youth Ministry as Mission: A Conversation about Theology and Culture

Is ministering to youth like being a cross-cultural missionary? You’d better believe it. The parallels between ministry within youth culture and global missions have long been touted by youth ministry experts, yet few resources exist to help youth workers benefit practically from the insights of missiologists. In Youth Ministry as Mission, Brian Hull and Patrick Mays fill this gap with an introduction to missiology, missions practice, and missionary witness tailored especially for a youth ministry context.

Youth ministers will discover missiological language that describes realities they face regularly and activities of cross-cultural missionaries that translate well into leaders within youth ministries. Hull and Mays address issues such as:

Understanding the relationship of the incarnation to ministering in youth culture

Translating stories and practicing storytelling as preparation for witnessing

Teaching for witness in a multi-religious context

Youth Ministry as Mission will be a valuable guide for college and seminary students as well as a breath of fresh air to those already working in youth ministry. Hull and Mays show us how missiology can help us see a way forward in youth ministry, humbly discovering the mission of God right where we are–where we, too, have been sent to become living translations of the gospel for young people. –Brad M. Griffin, senior director, Fuller Youth Institute; author of 3 Big Questions That Change Every Teenager

With deferential scholarly humility, Hull and Mays have written a book that insists on integration over invention. –Dr. Dave Rahn, coauthor of Disrupting Teens with Joy