Reinventing Youth Ministry (Again): From Bells and Whistles to Flesh and Blood

Wayne Rice is the founder of Understanding Your Teenager, an organization that has provided resources for parents of teens and pre-teens since 1989 (now part of HomeWord.) Wayne currently creates and conducts parenting seminars for HomeWord and speaks at conferences and training events for parents, youth workers and Christian leaders. For two years he has served as a professor of youth ministry at San Diego Christian College and is currently an associate faculty member at Bethel Theological Seminary in San Diego.Rice is also the co-founder (with Mike Yaconelli) of Youth Specialties, a non-denominational organization which provides resources and training for youth workers. During his twenty-five years at Youth Specialties he developed the National Youth Workers Convention, the National Resource Seminar for Youth Workes and served as editor of Youthworker Journal and the Ideas series. His other books include Read This Book or You're Grounded, Enjoy Your Middleschooler, Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks and Up Close and Personal (an ECPA Gold Medallion winner). With Ken Davis, he created the video curriculum Understanding Your Teenager. An accomplished musician, Rice has played and recorded albums with several different bluegrass bands. He currently hosts Bluegrass Special weekly on KSON in San Diego.