Mark Yaconelli

Many teenagers long to stop and open themselves to God. But often they feel they need permission to set aside the numerous agendas, expectations and amusements in which they find themselves entangled. While regularly interviewing young people about their spiritual lives over a period of ten years, Mark Yaconelli was fascinated to discover that they experienced their deepest encounters with God during moments of rest, solitude, silence, reflection and contemplative wonder. His hope is that Helping Teenagers to Pray will encourage a different pace within youth ministry, churches and families - one more in keeping with the rhythms and spirit he has glimpsed within the lives of those who share their stories in this volume.

We need a teacher and a book such as this.--Anne Lamott, from the foreword Stories tether us to what matters most: our families, our friends, our hearts, our planet, the wondrous mystery of life itself. Yet the stories we've been telling ourselves as a civilization are killing us: Fear is wisdom. Vanity is virtuous. Violence is peace. In the pages of Between the Listening and the Telling, storyteller, author, and activist Mark Yaconelli helps us find and craft the stories worth telling: of repair, and justice, and truth, and empathy--leading us into an enchanting meditation on the power of storytelling in our individual and collective lives. Through his work with The Hearth, a storytelling nonprofit, Yaconelli has spent thousands of hours listening to people as they grieve loss, deepen friendships, strengthen families, shed light on injustice, and celebrate wonder. By borrowing practices from spiritual communities, such as silence, song, meals, and a moral imperative to serve the greater good, he helps us tap into the sacred power of storytelling. From personal meaning-making to school shootings, climate change, and immigration justice, listening to and telling stories helps us connect to our human longings and deep currents of hope. With a foreword by Anne Lamott, Between the Listening and the Telling offers an alloy of story, commentary, and meditation. In an era of runaway loneliness, alienation, global crisis, and despair, sharing stories helps us make a home within ourselves and one another.

Disappointment, Doubt and Other Spiritual Gifts is an honest, heartfelt and ultimately deeply hopeful collection of stories and reflections on Mark Yaconelli's own woeful inability to be the perfect Christian. As an acclaimed Christian writer and speaker Mark Yaconelli talks of his own failures and disappointments in Christian life and ministry, in order to offer others, hope for the future. This is a book for any Christian that has ever felt that they've fallen short as a follower of Christ or has felt disappointed when they feel that the Church or other Christians have let them down or acted in a way that was unexpected. Mark's stories in this part memoir, all inspirational collection, reveal how no matter how mature a Christian you are, no matter how firm you feel your faith is, everyone has doubts and feels disappointment from time to time. But the wonderful news the Mark shares through the stories in Disappointment, Doubt and Other Spiritual Gifts is that as Christians the hope we have is far bigger than any of those doubts and disappointments. Taken from the preface of Disappointment, Doubt and Other Spiritual Gifts: 'We fall in holes. Plans fall apart. Dreams die. Faith disappears. Suffering is real. We need help to recalibrate our lives back to our compassionate, God-trusting selves. Often, we need safe, creative space and trusted companions in order to move through painful and disorienting experiences. My hope is that the chapters in this book might provide that same creative companionship ... What I'm offering are stories, personal experiences, honest reflections and practices that might help you move out of the hurt and disappointment for a moment and remember your deeper capacities for love and generosity. These are the same stories and practices that have helped me to receive my own failings and sufferings as spiritual gifts.'

Foreword Reviews' 2016 INDIES Book of the Year Award, Silver Winner in Self-HelpIn many ways society teaches us to try to have everything under our control. If we are honest, we tend to think that this can be true even of our spiritual lives. But Mark Yaconelli eloquently expresses the reality of our situation: "We are small, sensitive creatures with short lifespans, in a world that is often chaotic, capricious, mysterious, terrible and wonderful all at the same time. Failure, disappointment, loss and other difficult experiences call us to accept our humanity, feel grateful for what has been given, receive the care of others and seek guidance from the Holy Spirit." Using extraordinary stories from his own life and the lives of others, Yaconelli offers a narrative journey through ways in which disappointments have turned into gifts. In these pages are a wealth of spiritual practices that will carry us deeper into the grace we find in unexpected places.

Contemplative Youth Ministry is rooted in Mark Yaconelli's experience of co-directing the acclaimed Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project. Through this project, churches and youth ministers have explored contemplative prayer, discernment, spiritual direction, covenant community, spiritual practice and Sabbath-living as a way of resourcing ministries with youth. The results have been transformative, and this engaging book, richly illustrated with personal stories, provides refreshment and new ways of thinking for anyone who has grown weary or disillusioned with the vital tasks of working with and caring for young people.

In our hectic lives, it's easy to forget that prayer is more about a conversation and experience with God than it is a request line. This book is an invitation to meaningful prayer. Through stories, images, contemplative exercises, poetry, classical prayers, and creative meditations on prayer, it helps us explore ten human experiences where prayer originates: love, desire, fear, suffering, compassion, brokenness, rest, reflection, wonder, and gratitude.

Every heart feels wonder. Every heart knows fear. Every heart aches with longing. Awed, we whisper, Thank you. Frightened, we cry, Mercy. Yearning we plead, Show me the way. Because the truth is, no matter who you are, every heart needs prayer. This is a prayer book. A book to seduce, cajole, entice, and encourage your heart into prayer. More than a book to be read, this is a book to be explored. It is a book of stories, divine poetry, holy verses, mystical inspirations, prayerful imaginings, meditative practices, and spiritual exercises that seek to uncover the hidden communication between you and God. As you read and explore more about love, longing, fear, suffering, compassion, rest, reflection, passion, wonder, and gratitude you ll be invited to discover prayer within the various moods, attitudes, and experiences that we human beings often find ourselves in. It s a book to be used, flipped through, tested, experimented with, and then set aside. It is a book that asks you time after time to stop and listen, turn and welcome the silent love of God. The hope of this book isn t to teach you anything. The point of this book is to encourage you to give yourself to God your anger, your fear, your gratitude, your curiosity your real self to the real God, because then (and only then) will your heart find peace (even in the midst of wonder, fear, and longing). Because every heart needs prayer."

"You know the reality: teens don t have much downtime in their lives. Between school, extra-curricular activities, jobs, friends (and youth group ), students these days barely have enough time to do all the things they need to do in a day. It s no wonder that quiet, reflective time in prayer with God is not high on their priority list. With years of experience helping teens encounter God in quiet, contemplative ways, Mark Yaconelli will give you the tools and insights needed to help teens understand why and how to pray, and to guide them towards a life of prayer. You ll find several prayer exercises in this book, based on the praying tradition of the Christian church, along with instructions to help you introduce the prayers to students. Not only are there explorations of classical methods of prayer that involve silence, solitude, and scripture, but you ll also discover more recent forms of prayer that use creative media, music, writing, movement, and acts of compassion. As you help teens bring prayer into their everyday lives, your students will find that they long for those times when they can step away from it all and find rest and comfort in God.""

In Growing Souls, readers are introduced to the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project (YMSP), a programme co-founded by the author Mark Yaconelli, which is based at San Francisco Seminary. Growing Souls is the follow-up to Yaconelli's influential book Contemplative Youth Ministry (SPCK, 2006). The idea of YMSP grew from reports of youth ministry being a frantic and busy environment that focused on fun activities and moral guidance, rather than the spirituality side. YMSP was then established to test the integration of contemplative practice and awareness within youthwork programmes. This book is for those in youthwork and does not only introduce the project itself but also tells the stories of the specific churches that adopted the project. After this, readers will then be introduced to the many youth leaders that were involved in the pilot projects, and some of the youth who had been at these projects.