For far too long we've neglected the urban mission field. Many churches have moved to the outskirts of the city for various reasons, and the urban landscape appears to be forgotten. Dr. Rene Rochester presents a vision for how communities can change this pattern and plant redemptive and sustainable urban ministries. Models, Mentors, and Messages takes a close look at the developmental stages of Jesus' life, focusing on how family, his heavenly Father, the Jewish community, and neighboring nations were used to shape his holy destiny. Through the example of Jesus' life, you will learn how to draw on your own formative years to show urban teens how to live out God's call in their communities. The most authentic models are individuals who have wrestled through life's challenges and learned to trust God in difficult situations, and so by empowering urban students today and showing them how to nurture one another in faith, you can help create sustainable ministries in which each generation will model for the next how to follow Jesus.The first of its kind, this book doesn't try to force old models on the urban context, but rather teaches new ways to draw on Jesus' teachings to help an urban, hip-hop generation live for Jesus and for one another.

Seventeen-year-old Stephanie Cooper just told her best friend that she's pregnant. How does Stephanie tell her parents and the teenage father? What does she do next? The future suddenly becomes complex and confusing.

Do you know a girl like Stephanie? What can you say or do to help? What does she need most right now? Perhaps more than any time in her life she needs a "911 friend"--a friend who is always loyal and a brother [and sister who] is born to help in time of need" (Prov. 17:17).

Through the aid of a gripping true-to-life story, Josh McDowell along with Ed Stewart offers biblical insights and practical instruction on how a single girl faced with an unplanned pregnancy can navigate through her difficult choices. But more importantly, you will learn how to become a true source of comfort, encouragement, and support to her. This book is designed for you to read first and then give to your friend.

And if you are that young person struggling with an unplanned pregnancy, you will learn what to expect in the weeks and months to follow. But more than that, you will discover how to experience the comfort, encouragement and support you need from both God and a friend-most likely the friend who gave you this book. "

Many churches are "mule churches"-strong for a generation but unable to reproduce themselves. As a mule comes from a horse and a donkey, they were the product of demographics and cultural conditions conducive for a generation of strength but did not produce many offspring in new church starts or strong candidates for ministry. Mule churches create a generation or more of pastors, superintendents, and bishops who think they knew what made for strong church, who think their approach to ministry is the key reason for their success. And it produces churches with a nostalgia for the way things used to be. This makes it hard for churches to adapt to change.
We've been declining for a long time due to changes in secular and consumer culture, demographics radically adjusting normative family structure, and a theology based in consumer marketing rather than mission-driven vitality. Now we realize that the church is free to not just make the gospel relevant to life but to make life relevant to the gospel.
Conservative evangelical Christianity was able to focus on relevance prior to its ascendency on the national stage. Methodism requires a similar period of confessional self-definition. We are going through these confessions now in the debate about our stance toward homosexuality.
Most students and most professors go to the seminary "to fix the church," because they realize that the future of the church and its seminaries are inseparable. Seminaries provide scholars for the church, who learn how to think, who learn how to take the long view, who shape identity, who foster a "culture of calling."
A new kind of Methodist progressive evangelicalism is regenerating, which lives the great commandment (love) and the great commission (reproducing disciples) on a global scale. Before, seminaries prepared pastors to maintain healthy churches in stable neighborhoods. Now, every neighborhood is changing and many churches are losing their members and their confidence. They long for a recovery of their sense of mission and a new kind of leadership. A new kind of seminary is regenerating to foster hope, wisdom, creativity, and engagement with the great issues of our day.

Veteran youth worker Tim Smith explores 8 principles for spiritual and character development, plus gives practical suggestions, discussion questions, and helpful tools for personal and group study. Essential reading for staying excited and committed in ministry over the long haul!

At the heart of all thinking about education, whether Christian or secular, lies the problem of integration. To adopt a philosophy of education is not the same as integrating that philosophy into all the parts-curriculum, student activities, administration, and more. This book is written by an evangelical Christian, committed to high doctrine and a worldview based on biblical truth, whose primary consideration is Christian education. Its pages seek to help educators who are Christian achieve a living union between Christianity and education.