Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors: A Church Leaders Guide to Staffing and Leading Youth Pastors by Mark Riddle

Title: Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors: A Church Leaders Guide to Staffing and Leading Youth Pastors by Mark Riddle

Pages: 182.

How it was obtained: I purchased it along with some other ministry books from Amazon.com.

Time spent on the "to read" shelf: 3 months.

Days spent reading it: 2 days.

Why I read it: I am always looking for good books about ministry and youth pastoring. I thought this might be a good one to read.

Brief review: This is a book about hiring youth pastors. It also deals with developing relationships between staff members.

One thing this book does well, it breaks down good and bad reasons to hire a youth pastor. Riddle argues that a youth pastor should not be hired to take away ministry from church volunteers who are too busy to work with youth. A youth pastor should be hired for strategizing and coordinating. A youth pastor should be a support for the church ministry as a whole. I like how Mark Riddle talks about not hiring a youth pastor just because it has always been that way, or the church needs someone to take care of the kids. Youth ministry should be a church-wide ministry, not just a place for the youth pastor to minister alone.

The second half of the book deals with develoiping the relationship between a senior pastor and a youth pastor. I thought there were some good ideas in this section. Riddle talks about cooperation, having a mentoring mentality, and teamwork as keys. The very last section of the book deals with some odds and ends including sections on unwritten expectations of the congregation (fix my kid!), number comparisons, and a short chapter on part-time youth pastors (those poor souls).

This book was a quick read. I think it would be great for a search committee to go through (if they are willing to think through the process differently than it has been done before). I think it would also be a great resource for a senior pastor and youth pastor to go through together, especially if rifts have started to develop in their relationship.

Favorite quote:
The stereotypes of the youth pastor who can't be bothered with theology and the senior pastor who can't be bothered with the reality of modern culture are fading. Over the last several years, I've seen an increase in the number of youth pastors who are deeply engaged with theology through reading and dialogue. I'm not suggesting that they're parsing systematic theology, but they are reflecting on the nature of their beliefs as they relate to youth ministry and your church. More and more youth pastors are seeing the importance of letting theology inform how the local church does ministry. This is an exciting time to be working with youth pastors.

Stars: 4 out of 5.

Final Word: Mindful.

Real Church: Does it exist? Can I find it? by Larry Crabb

Title: Real Church: Does it exist? Can I find it? by Larry Crabb

Pages: 160.

How it was obtained: Purchased from Amazon.com

Time spent on the "to read" shelf: About two months.

Days spent reading it: A week.

Why I read it: The senior pastor at my church recommended reading this book, and he also is preaching through a series based on some ideas in this book. I figured I'd get off to a good start and read what he was thinking through.

Brief review: Real Church is the attempt by Larry Crabb to respond the charge that church is not worth getting up for on Sunday mornings. People are usually alright following Jesus, but don't particularly care for his bride.

Crabb gives three (unfulfilling) reasons why people tend to say they go to church. Going to church will make my life better. Going to church will show you how Jesus wants you to change the world. Going to church is all about saving lost souls and helping the already saved to be visibly moral. These are alright reasons, but they still leave us wanting more.

Crabb then goes on to give 4 marks of a church that are helpful (to Crabb at least). I'll paraphrase. 1. Hungers for truth. 2. Desires spiritual formation (and recognizes we are all in need of spiritual formation). 3. Community-centered. 4. Engaged with those outside the church.

I thought this book was alright. My criticism is that Crabb is basing what Church should look like based on his felt need as a broken human. I love that Crabb is open about our brokenness (a good theology is man is based on the fact that we are sinful). But I don't think what the church should look like or feel like to us today should be based on our felt needs. I wish Crabb would have gone back to the Bible and worked from that superior source material to point us to what church should actually look like.

Not that Crabb is wrong, or has bad ideas, or anything like that. He is surrounded by a biblical worldview, and I actually resonate with a number of his ideas. But the solution to the fact that (post)modern people do not care for church should not be based on how we feel or what we think we need. Instead it should be based on what God actually intended for the church to be.

This book could have been a great discussion on what the church should be based on what God wants it to be. Instead it's a discussion on what church should be like based on what Larry Crabb (and many others who feel the same way as Crabb) wants it to be. Then again, I know this is not meant to be a theological discussion on the church. It is simply a discussion about the church based on years of discontent.

Does a church that I want to be a part of exist out there? Absolutely! I've been there. I've belonged to a church that completely modeled Acts 2:42-47. But I also recognize that was not the norm for churches. So I completely sympathize with people who are frustrated with the same old-same old church. There is something more out there for people stuck in that church. It can be found. Keep examining the New Testament and the (very broken) church it depicts and realize that God intends for something more, but he also works with what we have. He takes broken churches and still uses them to accomplish his work in this world. All you have to do is look through Romans or Corinthians to recognize that the early church was not picturesque even in the early days.

Alright, enough rambling. Real Church was an alright book, but I wanted it to be great. Kind of like the church Crabb describes.

Favorite quote: "I long to be a part of a church that somehow connects what we do when we meet together to who I am when I'm alone. And I want that connection to release the power that can transform me into a lover of God and a lover of others."

Stars: 3 out of 5.

Final Word: Honest.

Book 34: Creating Community: 5 Keys to Building a Small Group Culture by Andy Stanley and Bill Willits

Title: Creating Community: 5 Keys to Building a Small Group Culture by Andy Stanley and Bill Willits

Pages: 190

How it was obtained: I was given this book before I started leading a small group at a church in Columbia, SC. Obviously I didn't read it when I was supposed to read it.

Time spent on the "to read" shelf: 4 years.

Days spent reading it: 2 months.

Why I read it: I was supposed to read it before I helped lead a small group. I felt bad about never having read it, so I added it to this list and completed my assignment years after it was originally given.

Brief review: This book is a Northpoint Church resource that talks about how they created a small group environment at their church. I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, I recognize how important community is in spiritual development. So I think there are a few helpful pointers in this book about how that is accomplished.

But for the most part, this book really rehashes old business models and applies them to small groups. For instance one point of the book is "Clarify the win." Make sure you know what your end goal is. Gee, that sounds like Business class 101 to me. We need to know our goal to get there. I get it. Another section was about having reasonable criteria for small group leaders. Have quality leaders, but don't expect them to be perfect. Done.

In another section of the book they talk about how they want to see their small groups multiplying. SO every 1.5 years the group splits, but also grows. The chart goes:

Year/# of people
0/12
1.5/24
3/48
4/96
etc. etc.

However they never explain how these groups magically grow (especially considering they are CLOSED groups). It was like they were saying:

Step 1. Start small group.
Step 2. Double in size in a year and a half.
Step 3. Start new small group.

It reminds me of the only episode I ever saw of Southpark with these underwear gnomes whose motto was: Phase 1--Steal underwear. Phase 2-- Phase 3--Profit!

How do you do that? How do you double the small group size? I realize a church like Northpoint has new people coming and going all the time. But the old "if you build it they will come" mentality does not work for small groups in most churches, making this point practically worthless for those churches.

And one more personal pet peeve. Andy Stanley's name is prominently on the front cover, but I would be shocked if he wrote anything besides the introduction that is about 5 pages long. If you write a book, put your name on the cover. If you write the intro you're not the author! You're the "With intro written by" guy. His name is on the cover because it is his church and it will help sell this book. That's annoying to me. We might as well grab John Grisham, make him write an intro and put his name on the front cover of any book we want to sell. Why not? Ok, enough ranting.

So I did enjoy some of what is in this book. The opening chapters deal a lot with why people need a community they can fit into. There is a profound need in the human soul that needs community, and I think this book explores that need well. It gives us a glimpse of a biblical theology for small groups.

There are a number of small points that are applicable to anyone working on developing or strengthening their small groups. But this is not a book about how to start, grow, and develop your small groups. It is a big picture book that is not particularly practical for smaller churches, in my opinion. Not that the ideas are bad or wrong, they just are not for general application. I was hoping for something more and simply did not get it. Good thing this book was reasonably short.

Favorite quote: Disconnected people tend to be more selfish. Isolation breeds selfishness.

Stars: 2 out of 5

Final Word: Disappointing.

The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch

Title: The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church by Alan Hirsch.

Pages: 295.

How it was obtained: I purchased at the ETS conference in Rhode Island (for half price I might add!).

Time spent on the "to read" shelf: None.

Days spent reading it: 4 months.

Why I read it: My previous District Superintendent suggested reading it when I asked what books he was reading that he would recommend. I'll take Gordon's word on a book any day. So I decided to read it.

Brief review: This book hurt my head. It was one of the most challenging, thought provoking, and important books I believe that I have read about ministry in many years. The Forgotten Ways is a book that focuses on how we can activate the church to become missional again. The typical current model is attractional (bringing people to us). Missional is one of those trendy terms that is flying all over the place lately, but in essence it boils down to how can we get people in the church to reach out to people outside of the church. "Missional" typically also means that as we reach people outside of the church, we do it on their turf. We don't bring them to an evangelistic meeting at our church building. We don't drag them to another prayer meeting. Instead, we find them where they are at: in pubs, parks, sporting events, work places, etc. and we minister to them there. In other words we go out on mission to people. Hirsch (and other missional thinkers) are simply using our pattern for "Missions" and applying it to our pattern for church growth.

I cannot even begin to give you a breakdown of Hirsch's book. I underlined so much of this book as I attempted to digest the huge concepts that he talks about. The book was very readable. Hirsch does throw out some technical language, but always explains it in a simple and clear fashion. He has great charts and pictures that help you to see exactly what he is talking about at every point.

The focus of this book is how we can recapture what Hirsch calls the Apostolic Genius of the first century. This genius has shown up in other movements in Christian history, including the current movement in China where the underground church has exploded and multiplied since missionaries were pushed out almost a century ago.

There is a ton of information in this book. Its not a quick read, but it is an important read. I know some will absolutely reject his message. It will make them uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable. But it also stirred my heart and my mind in how we can revitalize the church in today's culture.

I would highly recommend this to anyone currently in ministry. Whether you are planting, maintaining, or developing a church and its ministries, this book will stretch you and challenge you in a good way.

Favorite quote: The implications of following the Torah faithfully will be to connect all things in life directly to Yahweh, whether it be the mildew or the temple worship and everything in between. Therefore, everything--one's work, one's domestic life, one's health, one's worship--has significance to God. He is concerned with every aspect of the believer's life, not just the so-called spiritual dimensions....To say this more explicitly there is no such thing as sacred and secular in biblical worldview.

Stars: 5 out of 5.

Final Word: Thoughtful.

Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Oestreicher

Title: Youth Ministry 3.0: A Manifesto Of Where We've Been, Where We Are, And Where We Need To Go by Mark Oestreicher.

Pages: 155.

How it was obtained: Ordered it with some other youth ministry books.

Time spent on the "to read" shelf: None. I read it right away. (I just didn't write my review right away).

Days spent reading it: 1 afternoon.

Why I read it: I'm a youth pastor, so I figured I'd like to hear what Mark Oestreicher had to say about where youth ministry needed to go. Mark Oestreicher (aka Marko) is president of Youth Specialties, a leading company in youth ministry resources. I heard about this book through Marko's blog (www.ysmarko.com).

Brief review: Youth Ministry 3.0 is Marko's attempt to talk about the previous, current, and future direction of youth ministry. The book includes a brief discussion about adolescent development, a brief history of youth ministry since post-WWII, and then a few suggestions on how we can take youth ministry to the next step.

The center thesis of this book seems to be that youth ministry has gone through two phases already, and is about to enter the third phase. Phase one was driven by proclamation. It was centered around evangelism and teaching. Phase two was driven by programs. "Bigger is better" would be a favorite slogan. This phase focused on discipleship. Many churches are in this phase right now. But as youth ministers we know there is something wrong. Kids are dropping out at ridiculous rates (it is not uncommon to hear statistics that 80% of kids drop out of church after high school, this number seems to be inflated, but you get the picture). We know somethings wrong, so what do we do? Marko proposes phase three which would not be driven by any particular motivator. Instead it is present (or incarnational).

So the question is obviously how do we get to an incarnational ministry from a program (or even proclomation) driven ministry? Marko offers up a few solutions. We can focus on smaller groups, and literally have a youth group for each sub-culture in our youth. We could focus on making our youth ministries a place for a supra-culture--where everyone comes together and no one group is better or dominate over the other groups. Finally, we could have hybrid of the two. Perhaps a large group for some events, and a small group for others.

Honestly, Marko's ideas are aimed at larger groups. Although he addresses the question of how smaller groups can incorporate this kind of thinking (on pgs. 95-96) it seemed forced. Seeing that I work with about 20-30 students, many of his ideas on how to move to Youth Ministry 3.0 seemed impractical or unnecessary.

I'm not convinced Marko has the solutions, but at least he is willing to think outside of the box to create some discussion about this topic. It is important to wrestle with, and I think this book has created great discussion and thought on where we need to take youth ministry in the upcoming years in order to stay relevant to a culture that changes every single day. One great thought Marko has at the end of the book is that youth ministers need to begin to consider themselves missionaries. We are becoming more and more distant from the culture we are attempting to reach. In order to be effective we need to begin thinking like missionaries. We need to begin studying youth culture like we would other cultures around the world. (Should youth ministers begin to take missions courses in college? That's probably not a bad idea...)

Every youth leader should read this book and wrestle with the thoughts, problems, solutions, and overall structure of their youth ministries. There are many great little gems in this book. I underlined a lot of it as I read and digested the ideas. It only takes about 2 hours to read through. The book is short, the typeset and spacing are large. It is definitely worth the investment.

Favorite quote: "We must live incarnationally, positioning ourselves humbly and openly on the somtimes cold, dark, and scary stairwell to the underground of youth culture."

Stars: 4 out of 5.

Final Word: Challenging.