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New every morning is your love, great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in us desire to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors and all your creation, and to devote each day to your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

"A Liturgy for Morning Prayer," Upper Room Worshipbook

Used by permission from the Book of Common Worship, © 2018 Westminster John Knox Press. All rights reserved. This prayer appears in “A Liturgy for Morning Prayer” in Upper Room Worshipbook.

The Godbearing Life

The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry

Ron Foster, Kenda Creasy Dean • September 2005

BUY Print $16.99

In The Godbearing Life, the authors offer a lively spiritual primer and practical guide for those who pastor young people. Dean and Foster rechart a course for youth ministry through the classical spiritual disciplines of the church. The book identifies families, congregations, and mentor relationships as the "holy ground" where young people are most likely to say "Yes!" to God.


Categories: Clergy & Laity, Youth
Rev. Ron Foster is lead pastor of Severna Park United Methodist Church, Severna Park, Maryland. He is passionate about finding creative ways to make faith real and engaging for people of all ages. Ron enjoys hanging out with youth, talking with children, teaching adults, and engaging in hands-on mission alongside others. Prior to coming to SPUMC in July 2014, he served churches in Boonsboro, Reisterstown, and Bethesda.Ron’s other loves include basketball, photography, soccer, travel, writing, kayaking, and music of all kinds. A graduate of Princeton University (’83) and Duke Divinity School (’86), he is an adjunct faculty member at Wesley Theological Seminary and coauthored The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soultending in Youth Ministry with Kenda Creasy Dean.Ron and his wife, Holly, have two grown daughters, Christine and Sara.

Kenda Creasy Dean, an ordained United Methodist pastor in the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference, is the Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church, and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary. In addition to teaching in practical theology, education, and formation (specifically youth and young adult ministry, the church as social innovator, and theories of teaching), Kenda works closely with Princeton’s Institute for Youth Ministry and the Farminary. She also serves as the coordinating pastor of Kingston United Methodist Church. Kenda is the author of numerous books on youth, church and culture. She is the coauthor of several books, including OMG: A Youth Ministry Handbook (Abingdon, 2010), and The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry with Ron Foster (Upper Room Books, 1998). A graduate of Wesley Theological Seminary, Kenda served as a pastor and campus minister in suburban Washington, DC before receiving her PhD from Princeton Seminary in 1997.

ISBN: 978-0-8358-0858-3

Imprint: Upper Room

Pub Date: September 2005

Trim Size: 6 in (w) x 9 in (h) x in (d)

Page Count: 192

BISAC Categories: RELIGION / Christian Ministry / Youth

BISAC1: REL109030

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If you are looking for a youth ministry book that is theologically sound, biblically grounded, time tested, and written by some of the most engaging missionaries in the field, *The Godbearing Life** is for you! Dean and Foster will challenge you to put relationships before programs, to help youth develop an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ that is lasting, and to create sacred space in your ministry to guide adolescents toward rich discoveries about faith ~ that it is not a topic to master but a life to be lived. An enjoyable, essential, carefully crafted read that will rekindle your passion for the God who calls us to love adolescents unconditionally, to serve them selflessly, and to tend to their souls with generous grace. The church needs Godbearers, and this important book will help you discover how to be one. --Rev. Wain Wesberry, D.Min., Pastor, Head of Staff, First Presbyterian Church, Clinton, South Carolina