The Amazing Hand Of God: My Story of a Lifetime in Youth Ministry

When you talk about youth ministry in the church, the studies of Search Institute are primary resources. They comprise a body of work, developed over a lifetime, that has reshaped the church’s ministry with young people. And Merton Strommen was there at the beginning, with a researcher’s mind and a pastor’s heart.
Youth ministry had caught Strommen’s imagination, and that passion propelled him throughout his career and his personal life experiences.
Read this account of Merton Strommen’s ministry from his perspective. It is, appropriately, packed with questions, a deep sense of responsibility for sharing the faith, wonder at God’s providence and timing, and a lingering affection for young people, who in every age bring energy and joy and honesty to the community of Christ.
Strommen says, "Over my seventy years I have found that the teen years are the most opportune time for a meaningful ministry. And, as our research indicates, it tends to remain that way. For that reason, an ultimate objective of a youth ministry should be to help youth enter into a conscious awareness of Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord."