Ministry Book Review

I read through Andy Stanley’s Next Generation Leader this past week and was very impressed. Andy, Pastor of North Point Ministries in Atlanta, GA, wrote this book to help the upcoming generation of young ministry leaders. Leading a young and vibrant group of churches has provided Andy with a wealth of experience and knowledge that he seeks to pass on through this book. In the book, Stanley suggests that you focus on 5 essentials for leaders: competence, courage, clarity, coaching, and character.

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Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors by Mark Riddle is a helpful guide for church leaders to the inner workings of youth ministry and youth pastors. This book is divided into two sections: one for Youth Pastor search committees, and another for Senior Pastors. The first section deals with how to go about filling your Youth Pastor vacancy. Riddle challenges church leaders to rethink their entire philosophy of church and youth ministry. This is done to help a church end it’s cycle of hiring a warm body, instead of hiring someone that truly fits the ministry.

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In today’s culture, people are being bombarded in all directions by noise. Advertisers, marketers, politicians, and activists are all seeking your attention. With all the distractions, it becomes difficult to weed through the junk in order to find what you need. Your ministry’s students have been under this relentless attack for their whole life, and they have one reliable coping device: tuning it all out. How can you, as youth pastor, then communicate the Gospel truth to them without being tuned out? According to Kem Meyer’s book Less Clutter. Less Noise: Beyond Bulletins, Brochures, and Bake Sales, the answer is found in streamlining and systemizing your church’s communication techniques.

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Over the last 20 years, small groups have become a trendy ministry within Evangelical churches to develop community. More recently, Emergent and house churches have laid claim to the formula for community, offering smaller, intimate, relational gatherings. All these ministry settings support the idea that closer, more intimate relationships equal more authentic relationships. The more authentic the relationship, the stronger the Christian community.

In The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups, Joseph Myers looks to shatter these common views on relationships and Christian community. (more…)

While working on a project for seminary class, I have been reading a great deal about small group ministries. The first book many people recommended me was Creating Community: Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture by Andy Stanley and Bill Willits. Created by two founders of North Point Community Church, this book provides helpful insights into how to implement a small group ministry. The book focuses on how to not just establish a small groups ministry, but how to create an attitude of connection and community within your church. Small groups are not just an addition to your church’s list of ministries, but rather integral to your church’s DNA. (more…)