Additional information
by Eric L. Mathis (Author), Kenda Dean (Foreword by)
This book addresses the vital role of public Christian worship in adolescent spiritual formation and shows how important youth ministry and worship ministry are to each other.
Despite numerous research projects, books, articles, and resources that have been published about teenagers and about worship in recent years, the relationship between the two has been addressed only peripherally if not altogether overlooked. Drawing on his extensive experience in worship ministry and youth ministry, Eric Mathis offers insights into the worship practices of teenagers, corrects common misperceptions about worship, and critically examines four prominent worship models in current practice.
Mathis invites youth pastors, worship leaders, ministerial students, and congregations to elevate the voices of young people in the worshiping community and enhance worship for all ages. The book includes a foreword by Kenda Creasy Dean.
Back Jacket
"Essential reading for church leaders wanting to revitalize their congregation"
Worship with Teenagers addresses the vital role of public Christian worship in adolescent spiritual formation and demonstrates how important youth ministry and worship ministry are to each other.
"Mathis has written a book unlike any I have read in youth ministry. He explores, with impressive depth and scope, the various ways young people worship and how these experiences both reflect and shape their faith and lives."
--Kenda Creasy Dean (from the foreword)
"This is a thoughtful book. As thinkers have wrestled with the reductions of late modernity and the way it strips the world of enchanted ritual, many have pointed to the importance of returning to worship. Mathis has done something powerful for us; he's picked up this worship sensibility and driven it into the center of youth ministry. This book is one all pastors and youth workers should read."
--Andrew Root, Luther Seminary; author of The Congregation in a Secular Age
"A perceptive and thought-provoking invitation to reconsider typical approaches to both youth ministry and public worship in congregations, parachurch organizations, Christian schools, and campus ministries. This book challenges simplistic limits that we too often impose on intergenerational communities and particular generational cohorts and invites us to a richer and deeper way of worshiping together."
--John D. Witvliet, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Calvin University, and Calvin Theological Seminary
"While there are plentiful resources for youth ministry, worship scholar Mathis perceptively observes that there is a serious lack of scholarship on adolescent spiritual formation. Mathis's book is essential reading for church leaders wanting to revitalize their congregation."
--Lim Swee Hong (林瑞峰), Emmanuel College, Victoria University, University of Toronto
"A vision like this--one that understands teenagers less as a demographic and more as disciples--is a glorious challenge for worship pastors like me. The church is prone to talk of teens one dimensionally. Thank God for this fresh invitation to three-dimensional ministry with our young disciples."
--Zac Hicks, canon for liturgy and worship, Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham, Alabama; author of The Worship Pastor
Author Biography
Eric L. Mathis (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is associate pastor of faith formation, worship arts, and young adults at the First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, DC. He previously served as associate dean, associate professor, and founding executive director of the Center for Worship and the Arts at Samford University.
