Phil Bell
Group Publishing, 2012, 182 pp., $9.99
If you have been in youth ministry for five minutes, whether as a youth pastor, volunteer or driver for events, you know teens love to ask questions—lots of them. Often, the questions being asked are ones we have wrestled with ourselves, but sometimes we get ones that we don’t quite know how to answer. Other times, even the ones we know, we don’t quite know exactly how to articulate.
If you ever have been in one of those situations, Answers to Teenagers’ 50 Toughest Questions is a great resource to pick up. Author Phil Bell, along with a number of other youth ministry veterans from around the country, tackle all sorts of questions teens ask from six topics: faith basics, faith struggles, discipleship and evangelism, life choices, family and friends, and dating and sex.
Each question they tackle includes not only the response but also a scenario to help put the question in a real-life context, Scripture that addresses the topic, some suggested next steps to take the question deeper, and some suggested books or resources that tackle the question in more depth.
For any youth worker, this is a book you want to get and keep on your shelf. It also would be a fantastic resource to get into the hands of your volunteer youth workers, especially if they are working with a small group of students. Although it is written for youth workers, parents also could benefit from this book as their kids ask them the same questions they ask us.
