Welcome to Rooted’s Top Ten, a curated reading list for youth ministers. Each month we find ten articles, and sometimes videos or podcasts, from various sources that we believe will encourage you in your ministry to teenagers and their families. Some give explicit instruction on gospel-centered ministry, while others are included because there is a message of common grace that is helpful to youth workers. (The opinions presented in these articles do not necessarily reflect the position of Rooted.) For more articles to share with the parents in your ministry, make sure to check out our Parent Top Ten, which runs every-other month.
If you find an article that could educate, equip, or encourage the Rooted community, please email the editors at submissions@rootedministry.com.
Gospel-Centered
Why Middle School Ministry Is the Most Important Ministry at Your Church (LeaderTreks)
We often assume middle schoolers are deciding what they think about Jesus. In reality, they’re deciding what they think about His people. They’re asking:
Are these adults safe?
Do they care about me more than my behavior?
Do they actually live what they say they believe?
Theology for Teens with Alena Franklin (With the Perrys Podcast)
Alena has written a devotional called “God Is,” designed for teen girls and young women to understand God’s character – infinite, omnipotent, ever-present, good, loving, and our safe place. Theology isn’t just academic, it’s practical, personal, and essential for teens walking through real life.
The Doctrine Gen Z Needs to Hear About by Ian C. Beckett (TGC)
No matter our story, God doesn’t reject us; he draws near and restores us. While others might reject us if they truly knew us, it isn’t so with God. Instead of turning away when he sees our ugly, broken, and sinful side, he draws near. It’s an act of agape love, a selfless, sacrificial act of goodwill, and an unconditional commitment to the one who is loved.
Partnering with Parents
Parenting Takes Courage. These Books Offer Hope. by Gretchen Ronnevik (Christianity Today)
In a culture that draws parenting knowledge from studies that optimize human performance, Kruger offers a more biblical approach that makes space for teens to just be human, living in the knowledge and grace of God. Sports are good, but they are not the end. Failures are part of the learning process, and also not the end.
Raising Church-Loving Children by Katie Polski (By Faith)
…when it comes to cultivating a love for Jesus and his church, we must first examine our own habits and loves. What we treasure and prioritize forms the patterns our children will naturally adopt.
We All Want to Be the Right Kind of Parents by Kelsey Kramer McGinnis (Christianity Today)
What does it mean to be the right kind of parent? The difficult but perhaps freeing answer is: No author can tell you. No author, however popular, knows you, your child, your family, or your community the way you do. Applying principles from Scripture to daily life raising children is a long, persistent practice, and there aren’t many hacks to make it easier. And despite what some books lead parents to believe, there is no correct application of biblical wisdom that will give them control over their children.
Youth Culture
Meet the Gen Alpha “Nones”: The teens asking quiet questions about God by Brad M. Griffin (Fuller Youth Institute)
Few sound antagonistic, and just 2% mention negative experiences with religion or religious trauma. In other words, for many Nones, faith either isn’t on their radar or they may be open to it, but it’s not something they’re actively opposing. That’s good news for youth leaders.
Students Need a Bigger Story Than AI by Darin White (TGC)
The same is true for our students. They don’t need to reject AI. They need to be formed by a story bigger than AI. We were made to be fruitful and to multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it (Gen. 1:28). That cultural mandate was given before the fall and reaffirmed after it (Gen. 9:1-7). AI can be a powerful tool in service of that mandate—if it’s used by people who know who they are in Christ.
Ministry Skills
Why Churches Struggle to Staff Children’s Ministry by James Huichul Lee and Steve Chang (SOLA)
Ministry to children is real.
It is evangelistic.
It is missional.
It is eternal.
The more churches embrace this, the less they need to read articles like this.
Who Was Melchizedek and Why Does He Matter? By Joseph Bradley (Youth Pastor Theologian)
Jesus, being the eternal priest of God, does not need a successor like the Aaronic descendants did. He is a “priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek,” (Heb. 7:17, 21). Because of this, He can establish a permanent connection between God and His people, never losing access due to sin, nor needing a new mediator to take over for Him at His death. His ability to bring the people of God near to God is greater than any priest before Him, and He does it forever.
What Is Penal Substitution? A Just & Justifying Atonement by Michael Horton (Logos)
In instituting the Last Supper, Jesus gives central place to his role as the substitutionary sacrifice who will save his people by his blood (Luke 22:19–20; cf. 1 Cor 11:25). He gives his flesh for the life of the world (John 6:51). But this promise of a new covenant that will “not [be] like the covenant that I made with their fathers” at Sinai. It will be dependent on his performance rather than theirs, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer 31:31–34).
Rooted’s Two Most-Read of February
Experiencing God’s Grace in the Everyday by Lauren Center Willis
While being graciously transformed into a new creation sounds glorious, we must remember that sanctification can be a messy process. Grace also looks like conviction, growth, obedience, and repentance. By grace we are daily transformed to look more like Jesus, to be a people who love better and sin less, and this can be a painful process. Grace works on the front end, not just on the back end, of our daily fears and failures.
Why Are the Gospel Accounts Different? by Mark Rector
The four Gospels are a beautiful picture of the life of Jesus. Together, they form the divinely inspired view of Jesus’ life—the picture we need to believe, know, and trust Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Is there more to Jesus’ life than found in the Gospel accounts? Absolutely! John even admits as much at the end of his Gospel (21:24-25). But let us not mistake what we do not know with God’s sovereignty. God has perfectly given us the four Gospels as the accounts of Jesus’ life.
In Case You Missed It (Rooted’s February Honorable Mention)
The Doctrine of Justification is Vital to Youth Ministry by Sam Rapp
Youth minister, you can’t talk about justification too much. There is nothing more relieving to student souls than to be convinced that they—sinful, messy, and doubting as they are—stand acquitted, declared innocent before God. We can tell our students that Jesus knew, precisely, the exact sins he was dying for on the cross. We can assure them that Jesus’ death paid for their salvation in full; the big sins, the little sins, the hidden sins, all of it.
