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About

Welcome to a project site celebrating incredible men and women for their contributions to the lives of teens for the glory of God. 

Purpose 

I created this website to help me involve a lot of voices in my dissertation research. If you have lived youth ministry in the Southern Baptist Convention, I need your help. I want to be as accurate and inclusive as possible. Your knowledge can really make a difference to my dissertation. So please go to Questionnaire 1.

 

Goals

1. Consider the history of youth ministry in general, but focus on youth ministry in the SBC since 1949.

2. Define trends created by SBC as well as those the SBC followed.

3. Consider resource allocation on the denominational level through the years.

4. Recruit as many experienced voices as possible to help bring life and wisdom to my project. 

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Meet Michael 

I have served as a youth pastor for the last 28 years in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. After being invited to teach the youth ministry class at a local Baptist college as an adjunct instructor, I enrolled to continue my education at Southwestern as a Ph.D. student. Continuing my education has been a very rewarding and humbling experience. 
I am writing on the history of youth ministry in the Southern Baptist Convention because I love youth ministry and those that make it happen. 
Also, Jesus saved me at 17. God used a plucky youth ministry filled with squirrelly individuals to change my life. I am so grateful God used a youth ministry to show me His love. 
Dr. Richard Ross chairs the Ph.D. committee overseeing my dissertation.

Youth Ministry is alive and well today in the Sothern Baptist Convention... The Work of the Minster of Youth, 1982

Bob R. Taylor

Any effective work with Young People must begin with a knowledge of their needs and interests. The Sunday School at Work: Young People's Sunday School Workers'Ed, edited by A.  V. Washburn 1968

Franklin Farmer, D.P. Brooks, & A. V. Washburn (Ed.)

The bottom line for all of this is that we must commit ourselves to discipling youth. It will not be easy but it will be worth it. Handbook for Youth Discipleship, compiled by R. Clyde Hall, 1988 

Chuck Gartman

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