Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
As you’ll discover in the following pages, remarkable churches never rely on a sole leader to energize their community to grow young. There is always a team.
Always.
We believe the same is true of the best research. In this nationwide study of churches growing young, we’ve linked arms with an unbelievable cadre of over 60 researchers, leaders, and supporters who believe it’s time to change the way the world views young people.
The core of our lineup is the staff at the Fuller Youth Institute (FYI). Steve Argue, Irene Cho, Macy Phenix Davis, Meghan Easley, Johanna Greenway, Tyler Greenway, Jennifer Guerra Aldana, Quinn Harkless, Brian Nelson, Daisy Rosales, and Matthew Schuler, you are the secret sauce of our work and this book.
Every step of the FYI journey is better (and often faster) thanks to our advisory council: Mary Andringa, Jim Bergman, Judy Bergman, April Diaz, Tim Galleher, Cindy Go, Wally Hawley, Megan Hutchinson, Ken Knipp, Janet Labberton, Mark Maines, Jeff Mattesich, Christa Peitzman, Linda Prinn, Judi Shupper, Albert Tate, Jeremy Taylor, and Jeff Wright.
Our four years of research were made possible by the vision of four foundations who imagine a better future for the church and are giving sacrificially to make that vision a reality. We are forever grateful to the Hanson Family Charitable Foundation, Lilly Endowment Inc., the Tyndale House Foundation, and the Vermeer Charitable Foundation for their financial investment. More importantly, so is every teenager and emerging adult who will be shaped by congregations that gain the help they need to grow young.
The horsepower for our study comes from the world-class faculty members at Fuller Theological Seminary. Chap Clark, Scott Cormode, Jim Furrow, and Cameron Lee, thank you for shaping every methodological decision and every survey question. Our research muscles were also strengthened by these other Fuller faculty members: Justin L. Barrett, Ryan Bolger, Tod Bolsinger, Mark Lau Branson, Warren S. Brown, Kutter Callaway, Mari Clements, Nathan Feldmeth, Ken Fong, Kurt Fredrickson, Oscar Garcia-Johnson, Winston Gooden, Joel B. Green, Benjamin Houltberg, Mark Labberton, Juan Martinez, David Scott, Scott W. Sunquist, and Jude Tiersma Watson.
Three cheers to our research assistants who dedicated countless (well, actually, we counted and it was well over 10,000) hours to survey, interview, observe, describe, analyze, and celebrate all God is doing in amazing congregations nationwide: Arthur Bamford, Brianna Bentley Bleeker, Adam Borozan, Ann-Marie Bradley, Kristin Brussee, Elizabeth Burks, Marcos Canales, Kaitlyn Clark, Jonathan Damiani, Michael DiMarcangelo, Keith Dixon, Maria Drews, Kristopher Fernhout, Stephen Finkel, Denise Flanders, Lorrie Gray, Patrick Jacques, Austin Johnson, Bryan Johnson, Erika Knuth, Emily Little, Kerri Lopez, Janie McGlasson, Chelsea McInturff, Daniel Mendoza, Christine Merola, Meredith Miller, Sonia Mims, Lauren Mulder, Stephanie Obad, Peter Ou, Rachel Paprocki, Marian Pena, Emily Peters, Christopher Romine, Jill Romine, Aaron Rosales, Kendra Sawyer, Jodi Tompkins, Randel VanDeventer Jr., Jared Votaw, Meredith Votaw, and Sarah Waters.
Along the way, a host of sharp leaders, researchers, visionaries, and parents gave pivotal feedback at various stages in the process, including reading part or all of the manuscript to help us improve it: Abraham Bejarano, Jim Candy, Bill Crawford, Lisette Fraser, Kristen Ivy, Christine Mutch, Sam Park, Christian Smith, Josh Smith, Bill Staffieri, Lawrence Ward, and Glenkirk Church.
We can’t imagine a better publisher than Baker Books, and we so appreciate the brilliant and hard work of Brian, Mark, and the entire Baker team.
And Greg Johnson at WordServe Literary Group, hats off to you for forging this collaborative partnership with Baker Books.
To our spouses—Dave, Lauren, and Missy—you make everything we are and do better. Thank you for loving us and patiently enduring the extra work early in the morning (for Kara) and late at night (for Jake and Brad).
To our kids, you fuel our passion for helping the church grow young. We love dreaming about how the church we pray you will grow to love can be changed by Christ to change our world.