Building Your Volunteer Team: A 30-Day Change Project for Youth Ministry

Mark DeVries (MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary) is the founder of Ministry Architects, a consulting team that assists churches in building sustainable youth ministries. He has served since 1986 as associate pastor for youth and their families at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He has trained youth workers on five continents and has taught courses or been a guest lecturer at a number of colleges and seminaries. DeVries is the author of Family-Based Youth Ministry and coauthor of The Most Important Year in a Woman's Life/The Most Important Year in a Man's Life, and he has been a contributing writer for Josh McDowell's Youth Ministry Handbook, Starting Right and Reaching a Generation for Christ. In addition, his articles and reviews have been published in a variety of journals and magazines. He and his wife, Susan, have four grown children.

Nate Stratman (MDiv, Fuller Seminary) is a full time youth pastor, husband, dad, and consultant based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He has been in full-time youth ministry since 2000, starting with St. Andrews-Covenant Presbyterian in Wilmington, NC and now serving as Director of Family Ministries at First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, CO. A staff consultant with Ministry Architects,Nate also started the Restoration Project through Youth Conference Ministries and co-dreamed an intentional community for ministry minded young adults called the Greenhouse. He loves partnering with Young Life and has a great interest in the relationships between churches and para-church ministries. He lives with his wife Kim and two daughters.