Sustainable Youth Ministry
Mark Devries
Intervarsity Press, 2008, 224pp., $16
IVPress.com

Churches often approach youth ministry in the manner castaways on “Survivor” take to setting up their shelter the first day on the island: trial and error. Once the shelter collapses or leaks during the first rainstorm the tribe engages in a predictable argument of I told you so!

When youth ministry is struggling, we change the model, leader or facility. Each change provides a spark of improvement, but the ministry often returns to a predictable norm. After years of frustration, church and youth leaders surrender to the norm, but building a thriving ministry is not only possible, it’s predictable, says Mark DeVries based on years of experience helping churches design sustainable ministries. This isn’t a quick-fix book but a sobering testimony of the time, patience and dedication necessary for develop healthy ministries.

DeVries carefully unpacks problems that cause division, while dispelling myths about failure, and promotes a predictable process based on systemic issues that build trust, clarify expectation and develop broad ownership.

Chapter 2 (worth the price of the book itself) surgically launches an attack on the crisis of chronic underinvestment churches make in youth ministry. This underinvestment is far more often the reason youth ministry struggles than glitches in programs, models, staffing or facilities. Few churches, DeVries contends, feel nearly as much passion and urgency about investing in teenagers as they do repairing the church steeple!

This book is not simply for youth workers. This is an essential read for senior pastors, elders, deacons and search committees. Unless church leaders take seriously the wisdom and experience offered in this book, they will continue to roll the dice in hope of landing on a sustainable youth ministry–this time around.