Category

Book Reviews

• 05.17.08
  Book Review: All the Ideas Living in My Head: One Guy’s Musings About Truth by Don Everts
  Book Reviews, Books (0)

  [This review is also published at Youth Ministry Exchange.] As someone who has been in ministry on college campuses since 1994 through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Don Everts is no stranger to ideas. College campuses are breeding grounds for dialogue, debate, idea sharing, and general philosophizing. It wasn’t until having an email conversation about the nature of the authority of scripture that Everts really began thinking about his thinking. All the Ideas Living in My Head: One Guy's Musings About Truth is a tour through Everts’ mind and how he approaches thinking about thinking. Though the book is subtitled as ...
  
  
• 11.15.07
  Revisiting “Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry”
  Best Youth Ministry Books, Book Reviews, Books, Christianity, Neo-Youth Ministry, Theology, Youth Ministry (0)

  Yesterday, I posted on Andrew Root's brand-new book, Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry. I spoke with pretty high regard for the book, saying, While reading the book, I came to the realization that, to my knowledge, there is no youth ministry book that is as theologically deep and rich as Root’s. Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster’s book The Godbearing Life is the only work close to Root’s in nature, but even it does not probe the depths of a particular theological subject like Root’s. In my estimation, Root’s book will be noted as being the first in a line ...
  
  
• 11.14.07
  Best Youth Ministry Books: Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry
  Best Youth Ministry Books, Book Reviews, Youth Ministry (6)

  With the publication of his first book, Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation, Andrew Root has stormed onto the youth ministry scene as a force to be reckoned with. Root is Assistant Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, which is also home to youth ministry stalwart Rollie Martinson. Root has a background in youth ministry through church work, Young Life, and as a gang prevention counselor. Though he is young, he is theologically astute, graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary with a Ph.D. in Practical Theology. In his ...
  
  
• 08.24.07
  Best Youth Ministry Books: Postmodern Youth Ministry, Chapter 2
  Best Youth Ministry Books, Book Reviews, Books, Christianity, Youth Ministry (2)

  Chapter two in PMYM is titled, "A missional agenda", which is highly necessary given the current reality of living in a post-Christian world. Essentially, Tony argues for a kind of youth ministry that is missional at its core: As we youth workers begin to see ourselves as misisonaries, we can reconfigure our job descriptions so they look more like mission pastors and less like program directors. The chapter gives a brief overview of Christendom beginning with 313 AD - when Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which made Christianity the official religion of the Western world. This resulted in ...
  
  
• 08.23.07
  Best Youth Ministry Books: Postmodern Youth Ministry, Chapter 1
  Best Youth Ministry Books, Book Reviews, Books, Christianity, Youth Ministry (1)

  The first chapter in Postmodern Youth Ministry (PMYM) provides the a brief introduction to postmodernism. Tony surveys the development of modernism through the philosopher Rene Descartes and the subsequent philosophical shift the occurred with Frederick Nietzche, which led to what we now call postmodernism. Rather than hurting the church, Nietzche's declaration that "God is dead" gave the church a valuable tool: deconstruction. Tony gives the following "credos" of postmodenism: Objectivity is out, subjectivity is in. Question everything. There is no Truth with a capital "T". Tell stories. Never make lists! He also offers the following values of the modern/postmodern era: Rational::Experiential Scientific::Spiritual Unanimity::Pluralistic Exclusive::Relative Egocentric::Altruistic Individualistic::Communal Functional::Creative Industrial::Environmental Local::Global Compartmentalized/Dichotomized::Holistic Relevant::Authentic Tony cautions readers that ...
  
  
• 08.22.07
  Best Youth Ministry Books: Postmodern Youth Ministry
  Best Youth Ministry Books, Book Reviews, Books, Christianity, Youth Ministry (3)

  Postmodern Youth Ministry by Tony Jones is the book I would recommend to youth ministers if they could just read one youth ministry book. I first read the book in my Foundations and Practices of Youth Ministry class at John Brown University. After the preface to the book there is a page titled, "The Day My World Changed" where Tony tells of a conversation he had with a woman. He was trying to "witness" to her (my words, not his) and brought up the C.S. Lewis tri-lemma: Jesus must be either Lord, liar, or lunatic. ...
  
  
• 02.18.07
  Book Review at YMX: Choosing Church
  Book Reviews, Books, Christianity, Youth Ministry (0)

  Since I have a desire to do some writing, I decided a good place to start would be reviewing books. I chose to submit a book review to Youth Ministry Exchange (YMX) and they decided to publish it! Now, I know this isn't a super-big deal or anything, but it's neat to see your name on a website that you visit regularly. This was my first time to submit my writing to a publisher that "reserves the right to edit an author's work", so I was interested to see what editorial changes they might make (I know I've mixed ...
  
  

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