JOURNAL OF YOUTH MINISTRY
WRITER'S GUIDELINES

Statement of Purpose. Christian youth ministry exists to share the biblical truths of God's redemptive love with adolescents and facilitate their journey of becoming genuine disciples of Jesus Christ. As youth ministry educators, we are called to prepare, refresh and challenge current and future youth ministers. The Journal of Youth Ministry is a peer-reviewed medium through which professional youth ministry educators may share with, encourage, and challenge each other through our various academic and practical disciplines related to youth ministry education. This journal allows for the dissemination of ideas, sharing of research, promoting critical thinking, and encouraging innovation associated with the practice and theory of Christian youth ministry in order to strengthen its foundation and serve the church.

Organization: The journal is composed of articles, book reviews, and research notes. Research articles are peer reviewed. While occasionally assays pertaining to current issues are published, articles most often take the form of research, and/or praxis. Research articles may use theoretical, empirical, quantitative, qualitative, ethnographic, applied or any other accepted method of scholarly research. Exploratory articles focusing on research in progress are also appropriate for the journal. Praxis articles which lay a strong philosophical, theological or other theoretical foundation for the practice of youth ministry or the education of youth ministry professionals are also welcomed.

Submission of Material: Articles are to be submitted electronically in a form consistent with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association to the Associate Editor, Dr. Thomas Bergler, Huntington University, 2303 College Avenue, Huntington, IN 46750, email: tbergler@huntington.edu. In addition:

• Articles must be in MS Word or in RTF documents and in 10pt Palatino Linotype font with normal paragraph style.
  
• The reference page may include only works cited in the text, and titles of periodicals and books should be italicized rather than underlined.
  
• Author's name, academic degree, institutional position and affiliation, Web and e-mail address, and a brief bio should be included on the title page along with a 50-70 word abstract.
  
• The author's name or any other identifying descriptions should not occur in the body of the paper. The paper will be forwarded anonymously to the appropriate peer reviewers for evaluation.

Publication Schedule: The journal is published twice each academic year in October and April.

JOURNAL OF YOUTH MINISTRY
BOOK REVIEW GUIDELINES

The book review section of the journal seeks to be a major source of wisdom for scholars, pastors, teachers, and lay people in selecting the best books to read, study and use in class and for research purposes.

In writing this review, please observe the following guidelines:

• The review should be double-spaced. This includes the opening bibliographical information as well as the body of the review and your signature at the end.
  
• The book's title should be at the head of your review and be in bold italics the rest of the heading is plain bold. After the title, please list (on the following order) the author's name (first name, middle initial/name, last name; no titles, please), place of publication (year only), number of pages (including introductory pages [in lower case roman numerals] plus [+] the pages in the body and the indexed), and price (followed by "paper" if that is how the book is bound; do not indicate if it is hardback). If no price is given, please attempt to locate it; otherwise, state "n.p." For example:

Parenting without Perfection: Being a Kingdom Influence in a Toxic World. By David John Seel, Jr. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2000, 215 pp., $13.00 paper.

• Sign your review at the end by placing only your name (no titles or degrees, please) in the lower right hand corner and by naming your institution (school, church, organization) and its city and state in the same corner. For example:

Darwin K. Glassford
Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI

• An excellent book review, while setting forth the key ideas of a book, must go beyond extended publicity; it should be more than a mere summery of the contents of a book. The review should set forth fairly the relative strengths and weaknesses of the book. It should locate the book in relation to other similar publications and note the specific contributions this book makes to its field of study. The review should assess the value and potential impact this book will have and specify the kind of audience(s) that will be mostly benefited by this book. The following points are provided to assist you in preparing your review.
  
• • Summarize and critique key chapters/sections of the book.
  • Describe the purpose of the text and intended audience.
  • Explain how the author attempts to accomplish his purpose. Is the author successful or not?
  • Suggest how the reader might use the book in a teaching setting. (Is it an undergraduate or graduate level text? Should it be considered for use as a primary or supplemental reading?)
  • Give your overall impression of the book. Is it worth reading, why or why not?
    
• Make your review purposeful; get right to the point. Conduct your review with decorum. Resist any temptation to be "cute" or idiosyncratic. Use left justification only. Do not use headers or footers (exception: you may use page numbers). Be sure to use the spell checker and grammar checker.
  
• Send your review to me as an e-mail attachment in MS word (other formats will also work but take some gymnastics to open). My e-mail address is: JYM_BKRVW@Yahoo.com. This allows me to edit your review electronically and send a "clean" hard copy (along with a file on disk) for final editing and publishing.
  
• If you do not use a computer to generate your review, a hard copy is fine. Please make sure it is double-spaced.