Increasingly, adolescents and young adults in the United States are racially and socioeconomically diverse, while the teaching population remains predominantly white and middle class. Many youth ministry programs that utilize volunteer mentors recruit adults who are ill-equipped to bridge cultural differences and effectively build sustainable relationships with adolescents who come from different backgrounds than their own. College and university campus ministries that are historically white struggle to provide adequate support and mentoring for students who have traditionally not been...

Because of their ever-changing personalities, their high energy, and their emerging ability to think critically, younger adolescents present a special faith formation challenge to the congregations who love them. This book explores an educational strategy of creating biblical dramas with tweens for spiritual formation and increased familiarity with the Christian tradition. The project of creating a drama for presentation to the congregation invites tweens to dig into the history of interpretation of the story, to make connections across the biblical text, and to engage with the characters in...