IVP Books, 2014, 155 pp., $11.84
I remember the day youth ministry became fun. It was during a meeting with my adult leaders in my rookie year in youth ministry. As we went through our upcoming youth ministry gathering, I remember sitting there thinking, “You guys are fun. You make this job fun. I cannot do it without you.”
The underlying premise of Building Your Volunteer Team is that most youth workers struggle with building their teams because they simply do not invest enough time in doing so. Mark and Nate remind us, “creating a habit requires sustained investment day in and day out for several weeks.” In Building Your Volunteer Team, they attempt to help youth workers create such a habit, challenging them to spend one to two hours a day for 30 days focused on this important part of youth ministry. They’re so confident in their methods that the book comes with a money-back guarantee from Ministry Architects.
This book is filled with wisdom and reminds youth workers, “faithful ministry is almost never meant to be a do-it-yourself project. It’s a do-it-together project.” It also offers practical, step-by-step instructions for building your volunteer team. To help you do so, the book is packed with resources you can use. The ones found in the appendix alone are worth the price of the book.
Because of how practical this book is, I wish I had had it my rookie year in youth ministry. I realized then how important adult leaders are to the success of ministry, but had no idea how to build a quality team. It’s also the book I wish I’d had each time I started a new youth ministry position, once again finding myself having to build a team from scratch. Now, as a veteran youth worker with a fairly well-established volunteer team, it’s the book I have and will continue to use to remind myself of the importance of strengthening my team—and actually do so. I encourage you to do the same.
