FACULTY PUBLICATIONS By Sharayah Colter
Professor launches youth ministry app, e-book
Fifty Core Principles of Youth Ministry Richard Ross (Kindle edition, iPhone, and Android apps)
RESOURCES
Apple iPhone App:
50CoreiPhone.com
Android App:
50CoreAndroid.com
eBook:
50CoreBook.com
46 SouthwesternNews WINTER 2013
There have been books, there have been conferences, and there have been websites for youth ministry. Now, there’s an app for that. Richard Ross, professor of student ministry at Southwestern Seminary, has launched a new app called “50 Core Principles of Youth Ministry” in an effort to put valuable tools into the hands of youth leaders in an easy-access, tech-savvy medium. Ross, a 30-year youth ministry veteran and author of 22 books, created the app as well as a companion e-book. The app, available in Apple and Android formats, puts the 50 core principles into easyto-digest 7-minute audio segments, perfect for listening to on a commute to or from work. Each segment addresses one of the core principles and includes insight from top authors and leaders. Ross spent nine months reading scores of books and then melting and swirling ideas from the authors and his own scholarship and experience into succinct chunks that formed the e-book and the 50 audio messages. Ross says he feels like he has “been pregnant for the last nine months.” “There was an urgency inside of me to get
some of these messages into the hands of youth leaders, and I do really feel that a healthy baby has been birthed. I tried to eat a healthy diet while I was pregnant, devouring about 60 books on youth ministry, theology, and church leadership.” Ross says he realizes busy youth leaders often want to read books that will help them minister to students but simply do not have the time to read every page of every applicable book. So, instead, Ross read the books for them and uses the app to offer them what he considers the highlighter-worthy high points from the books. Ross hopes this allows leaders to get helpful and thought-provoking information but still have time to devote themselves to the hands-on discipling their students need from them. Ross also hopes the app and e-book will encourage youth leaders everywhere to consider where their focus should lie in student ministry and to understand which aspects of their ministry will make the most impact on students. “I pray that this book will help thousands of them completely rethink what is most important in determining whether their 18 year olds look a lot like Jesus,” Ross said.