The Critical Years: Young Adults & the Search for Meaning, Faith, & Commitment
by Sharon Parks. Harper Collins, 1986.
Still the best resource for a look at how faith develops in young adults. This is not a "how-to-do" guide for young-adult ministry, nor is it intended to be. It is rather a scholarly approach to faith development and young adults as gleaned through this experienced university professor and her work with students. The range of understanding, however, spans the entire range of young-adult living.

FaithLink Bible Study — Connecting Faith and Life as United Methodists
A six-page guide distributed weekly that looks at current events and faith questions from a distinctly United Methodist perspective. Each weekly guide contains background information, core Bible passages, lesson plan suggestions, and pages with permission to photocopy for class members. Cokesbury: 1-800-672-1789.

Family: Finding Who we Are and How We Belong (20/30 Bible Study for Young Adults)
by James F. Hawkins. Nashville: Abingdon, 2004
Family: Finding Who we Are and How We Belong is a small-group study written particularly for young adults. This seven-session study explores characteristics of healthy families, what it means to be in God's family, brokenness in the family, and more.

Keeping in Touch: Christian Formation and Teaching

By Carol F. Krau Krau explores five critical processes for teachers and small-group leaders. These processes enable leaders to teach for formation and transformation, as well as for information.

Learning on the Run: Active Christian Learning Experiences for Youth and Adults
By Ted Endacott
Christian educators have known it all along: Learning can be FUN! It's all in the presentation. Learning on the Run is a practical how-to book advocating the praxis style of teaching, meaning action followed by reflection. Learners of all ages discover things for themselves through movement, noise, emotion, and challenging thinking. It's learning through creative engagement.

Loving God With All Your Mind: Equipping the Community of Faith for Theological Thinking
By Thomas R. Hawkins
This resource synthesizes current brain research and explores how this information impacts cognitive development, moral development, and faith development.

Orientation Online
Orientation is an award-winning magazine designed especially for graduating high school seniors and first-year college students and their parents.

Navigating the Mission Field of Twentysomethings
Young Adult Research Bulletins
Young Adult Research Bulletins are written to alert United Methodist church leaders to recent research on young adults in the U.S.

Neshama: Soul Psalms of Young People
The original songs featured on this CD by young people in The United Methodist Church come from different regions. The artists live different lifestyles and speak different languages. The diverse musical styles — from pop to African folk — on Neshama unite us with song and praise like the ancient scriptures, celebrating how God is moving in the souls of young people today.

Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People
Dorothy Bass. Jossey-Bass, 1997.
Young believers are searching for ways to deepen their relationship with God by practicing their faith in everyday life. The author is joined with twelve other contributors in this multidenominational collection to illustrate how the stuff of everyday life, placed in biblical and historical context, affords the opportunity to realize God's active presence in our lives.

Starting Small Groups — and Keeping Them Going
Small Group Ministry Series. Augsburg Fortress, 1995.
An excellent start-up guide for small-group ministry in congregations with effective tips for developing leaders of small groups,this resource is filled with reproducible sheets for ministry efforts.

13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?
by Neil Howe and Bill Strauss. Vintage Books, 1993.
A classic look at the world of the 13th Generation, who are also called Xers and Baby Busters. The authors use a quick reading format to deliver an incredible look at the world of the 13th Generation -- so named because they are the 13th Generation of Americans following the Declaration of Independence. This resource is amusing, powerful, and compelling as it unfolds an understanding of this audience.

UMC -- Four Areas of Focus
Explore how The United Methodist Church is focusing on four key areas of ministry in a free, self-directed online course from United Methodist Communications. The four foci include:

• Developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world
• Creating new places for new people and revitalizing existing congregations
• Engaging in ministry with the poor
• Combating the diseases of poverty by improving health globally.

Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X
by Tom Beaudoin. Jossey-Bass, 1998.
Beaudoin takes an honest look at his generation and the pronounced effects of pop culture in shaping this audience's spiritual outlook and theology. He proceeds to focus on four themes that shape the theology of many Postmoderns: (1) all institutions are suspect; (2) personal experience is everything; (3) suffering is spiritual; and (4) ambiguity is a central element of faith. This resource also addresses the issues of finding meaning -- how and where -- and the need to encourage one another with this vital search. A must-read for leaders seeking to reach believers beyond the threshold of the church door. Beaudoin has been featured in commentary on spiritual matters with young Americans on National Public Radio (NPR).

Working for a Just and Lasting Peace for Israelis and Palestinians (pdf)
The renewed conflict in Gaza is a source of concern for persons of faith. This advocacy guide is available through the General Board of Church and Society and may be used in Sunday school classes or other small-group settings.

Young Adult Network
The goal of the network is to help keep young adults connected to one another and to the church in one way or another. Many of the components of the network are guided by the hopes, dreams, visions, goals, thoughts and nitty gritty ideas of the young adults like yourself.

Young-Adult Video Resources