Sustainable Youth Ministries Book Report

I was not sure of what to think of the book Sustainable Youth Ministries when I first picked it up. However, even within the first few pages I found it to be extremely good and there is a lot in it that can be applied to youth ministries. The first one I found was about how we might not be the saving youth pastor. The second thing I would like to talk about is how the youth pastors need to have a life beyond church. The third thing I would like to talk about is knowing your heart. The fourth and final ministry application is what to do when we fail. The book is full of so many wonderful ministry applications, but I picked a few that really stuck out to me. Even if I do not become a youth pastor, I will be revisiting this book in the near future.

He says “But youth directors hired to save the day often find it difficult (if not impossible) to live up to the expectations they face from the first day they walk into their offices.” (pp. 18). I think this is such a great point because I can see it easy for us to think that we are going to change the world the first day we are a youth pastor. I am not a youth pastor, but I know that I tend to get really excited about things only to have that enthusiasm level drop quickly once I realize what I really signed up for. This happened to me when I first started working with a summer children’s ministry. I stuck with it, and it has been extremely rewarding, however, there were many times I wanted to quit. As we enter into youth ministries, we might be in this situation. If we go in with the mindset that it will take work, and we might not meet the expectations of the church at first, we can still have a successful ministry. There are many other practical ministry applications in this book, another one I want to discuss is the emotional health of the youth

We are humans and should not be working all of the time. DeVries gave a great example of a “rhythmic week”. With this, he talked about how youth pastors need to have lives outside of their work. If they don’t, they start to develop unrealistic expectations of the church. They start to think that everyone at the church does not have a life and expects the church to “’parent us’, provide a close circle of friends for us, offer worship and teaching stimulating enough that we always ‘get something out of it’.” DeVries tells us that when we have a life outside of church, we see things differently. It is very important that youth pastors have lives outside of work. I think a lot of young people today have a workaholic attitude, especially in ministry. This could because they were raised that way or because there is so much to do in ministry. In one of my other classes, a pastor came and talked to us. He said that we should divide the day up into three sections: morning, afternoon, night. We should never work more than two of