When Jesus told His disciples, “In my Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2), did He foresee that nearly 2,000 years later a specialized form of work called “youth ministry” would be conducted by many thousands of people in many hundreds of church denominations and parachurch organizations?

We know such a question may inspire some of you to go down on a theological rabbit trail about foreknowledge, but our goal of this issue of YouthWorker Journal is to help youth workers who know all about their particular church or group understand a bit more about what God is doing in other parts of his family.

Christian youth ministry got its start when Jesus called the little children to Himself and blessed them. Since then men and women from various church or parachurch “mansions” have worked to reach and teach young people with a wide variety of approaches and techniques.

The following articles feature more than a dozen experts explaining who’s doing what, what’s working, and what’s changing at leading youth ministry organizations?

We hope this issue helps you do a better job in your ministry while also answering Jesus’ prayer in John 17: “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

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