FREE DOWNLOAD:
5 Ways You Need to Redefine the Role of the Youth Worker

This download is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of the book of the 5 philosophical shifts we made in order to redefine the role.

This is not a book about youth ministry. Well, it’s not entirely about youth ministry. This is a book about the church and her relationship with teenagers. And it’s a book about leadership. These pages offer an invitation for anyone who loves teenagers. This is a story, a calling, a vision for the church to be more whole, more cohesive, and longer lasting than the six or seven years that make up most youth ministries. In part, this book is a case study about one church who became captivated by a bigger vision for their teenagers and decided things needed to be different. Quite different. And it’s a stake in the ground that things must be different in our churches and cities for the sake of this generation and the ones to come.

Equal parts intervention, idealism, memoir and guide, this tiny book packs a punch you’ll be thinking about and wrestling with well beyond the final page.

I love speaking on the ideas and vision from this little book.

ENDORSEMENTS.

“This book is a refreshing invitation to re-imagine both the depth and praxis of youth ministry and the Church. It’s filled with many compelling reasons and inspiring stories of why one church chose to live differently for the sake of young people. Truly admirable and worth reading.”

— Charles Lee, CEO of Ideation & Author of Good Idea. Now What?

“April is a youth ministry hero. She has a proven track record as an innovative leader and advocate/disciple-maker of kids and teens. In this book she shares her secrets and insights into developing an out-of-the-box leadership strategy that keeps kids grounded in faith over the long haul. This is a youth ministry must-read!”

— Dr. Steve Gerali, Globally recognized expert in the field of adolescence and youth ministry

“April is one of the sharpest people I know, and it shows in this fantastic little book! In these pages she will encourage you, challenge you, motivate you and at times frustrate you...which is why you will be glad you read it. Thanks, April, for moving the youth ministry ball a little further down the field!””

— Kurt Johnston, Pastor to Students, Saddleback Church

“In Redefining the Role of the Youth Worker, April Diaz invites us on a journey of ministry reformation, as she translates the findings of the Sticky Faith research project into a model that actually works in the real-life trenches of youth ministry. There is little doubt that now is the time for bold experimentation around the dream of building student ministries that actually build life-long faith in the next generation, and April is one of the early cartographers of the the future landscape of youth ministry.”

— Mark DeVries, Author of Family-Based Youth Ministry, Founder of Ministry Architects

“The contemporary church models we employ today emerged from the youth ministry models of the 1960s and 70s. Similarly, the future of the church is being shaped today by the new models of youth ministry being explored. Diaz takes us on a journey through her own church’s changing understanding of student development and in the process provides more than a new model of youth ministry, but a new vision for the church itself.”

— Skye Jethani, Author of The Divine Commodity and WITH, Editor, Speaker, Consultant and Pastor