Abingdon Press, 2006, 82 pp., $12.00,
abingdonpress.com
The Pastor’s Guide to Youth Ministry serves as a wonderful snapshot of healthy youth ministry. Although it is almost devotional admonition for youth pastors and lay leadership, I would strongly encourage senior pastors to read this book. It introduces the core of youth ministry and is filled with practical insight, anecdotes and counsel from the heart of a youth ministry veteran.
Jacober identifies and addresses the core issues that often facilitate discouragement and resignation. Finding and retaining volunteers, lack of prayer, understanding your strengths, calling to ministry and trying to identify with youth are a few of the challenges Jacober discusses. Chapter 4 — “Isolation: Good for a Retreat, Bad for Daily Living” — is worth the price of the book. In it, Jacober identifies her “Top-Ten” signs of a healthy youth group and explains each one. There is a rich supply of Web links and contact information for various organizations and ministries throughout the book, especially in the last chapter.
The Pastor’s Guide to Youth Ministry would fit comfortably on your library shelf with Ministry Management Tools (Olson, Elliot and Work) as well as your “introduction-
to-youth-ministry” collection.
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Review by: Larry H. Lindquist, youth ministry professor, Denver Seminary, Denver, Colorado.
