The (Un)Official Church Staff Manual: Youth Pastor Edition
Mark Riddle
Zondervan, 2009, 144 pp., $5.99
zondervan.com
A quick glance at the table of contents and you’ll soon realize this book is a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek look at the quandaries of being a youth pastor. The chapters about “How to Brown-Nose Your Senior Pastor” and “How to Talk an Eighth-Grade Girl Down from a Sugar High” are just what they say they are.
You might expect to find nuggets of wisdom in more serious sounding sections, such as “How to Listen” or “How to Know When It’s Time to Leave”; but these, too, are filled with wisecracks and playful banter.
If you are a youth pastor with a sense of humor, looking for a light-hearted look at your occupational hazards, you’ll love this book. If, on the other hand, you are seeking some practical, professional insight, you might want to look to Riddle’s other recent release, Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors.
