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Family-Based Youth Ministry: Reaching the Been-There, Done-That Generation

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I have written and edited Christian education curriculum for teens for more than 25 years, I've edited a Christian magazine for youth for 9 years, I've edited a journal for youth workers for 8 years, and edited youth ministry books. I majored in Christian education with an emphasis on youth ministry. So I've seen quite a bit of what's out there on this subject.

Far and away, this is my favorite book on youth ministry. In my present role as a church consultant, this is the only book on youth ministry I give to the youth pastors at the churches where I am consulting.

But a lot of people in youth ministry won't share my opinion. Why? Because this book advocates a basic approach to youth ministry that is so different from what we're used to that most youth pastors are not comfortable with it. A pastor recently told me that they interviewed several candidates for a family-based youth ministry position. None of the youth ministry candidates they interviewed had any clue about how to do family-based youth ministry, so they didn't hire any of them.

Here's the heart of this book. The purpose of youth ministry is to produce adult disciples. What predicts whether a teen will ten years later be an adult disciple? It's not youth group attendance. It's not attending the teen Sunday school class. So, what is it? Give up? It is the quality of the teen's relationship with one or more mature Christian adults.

Kids who just plug into youth group but don't develop close friendships with mature Christian adults are not likely to be in church ten years later. Building a youth ministry around teen-adult relationships--including both parents and others--sounds revolutionary to us. Chances are it would have sounded just normal to the New Testament church. If you care about teens, and if you dare to open yourself to a radically different way of structuring the church's ministry to and with them, you need this book.

I'm coming from a different perspective than most of you who read this book. I'm a 20 year old Gordon College student who is learning about youth ministry from his friends and from classes. I never really felt connected to any of the youth groups I belonged to, and consequently I understand why now.

I read this book to make up for an incomplete. I had to read this book and Doug Fields Purpose Driven Youth Ministry as well as doing a lot of field research. It was alot like finding a diamond in the rough. I've learned alot about Youth Ministry from this assignment and consequently I can see what DeVries is talking about in this book.

I would say that this book is one of the most definitive books on where Youth Ministry should be heading. The approach is "radical", from our perspective, but is in fact traditional. He is essentially advocating that we give children of my generation one of the main things we have lost in this hedonistic and pluralistic society: A deep connection with adults.

My parents and I get along better than most people these days, but they weren't the greatest advocates of church involement. I had a strong relationship growing up, but what I didn't have was a strong connection with other adult Christians. There was no "cloud of witnesses" to encourage me and challenge me to continue forward. Consequently, I have found it difficult at times to continue forward in my faith. DeVries' concept would change that.

The focus of the book is to show youth workers that the method they have been using needs updating. A new process for quantifying success in a youth ministry also needs to be used. A youth group shouldn't be judged by how many people are in it, but rather by how many people stay in the church once they "graduate" from youth group.

All in all this book is wonderful. I suggest it to everybody who has to work with youth.

This book is a wonderful companion for all who are involved in youth ministry. It focuses on the importance of relationships in the success of the ministry. It doesn't mislead by asserting that all the answers are on the pages of this book. You will be challenged to move your ministry into a more lasting phase in which the adults of the congregation become integral parts of the foundation of the teens.

All youth ministers, youth deacons, and youth volunteers should own a copy of this book.

When I got involved in Youth Ministry, we were at a crossroads with a shrinking program. This book was recommended to us, and everyone in youth leadership roles at the church read and discussed it. That was at least five years ago and the book is still impactful to me as a youth advisor in what is now a larger and growing ministry. You'll learn what success really means, and it's not how many kids come each week. Devries argues convincingly that nothing's more important than connecting youth to the adults in the church family, and putting the youth program into the context of overall family ministry. If you think you're successful because you offer a lot of activities, you need to read this book. I learned that a successful youth ministry is one that results in life-long discipleship.

I appreciate the focus of this book: seeking ways of leading youth toward Christian maturity, and not just seeking numbers of youth involvement. And yet, given some time to develop a family-based youth ministry, Mark establishes that numbers will not be lacking. I also appreciated the insight that too often, the more common foci of youth ministries actually fosters a consumer / entertainment mentality amoung the involved youth such that leading them toward maturity is eclipsed. I highly recommend this book

I got this book a while back and am planning to get another for the youth leaders in our church. By far this is the best and most sensible approach to youth ministy I have ever seen. In making the church body a family as the Bible teaches, each young person will have not just their peer group influencing them but other mature Christian adults in the church mentoring them as well. Just keeping kids busy with lots of fun activities without discipling them and teaching them how to be Christian adults is just that, keeping them busy without regarding the eternal value of who they are and what they do. That's not the real world, and it's not what the Bible teaches regarding how we are to raise our children and young adults.

Mark DeVries insight into youth ministry is exactly what needs to be heard and then put into practice. This book is a must-read by anyone involved in youth ministry and considering being involved in youth ministry. This book should open eyes in regards to the Church's responsibilty to our youth and their families!

It's easy to be intentional about getting our kids together with their peers. But what about being intentional about getting our kids together with adults? The statistics as well as personal experiences show that our youth need to be included in the body of Christ. They are not equipped with a mature faith when they are perpetually segregated from mature believers. This segregation teaches them to view Christianity as an individual, personal thing. Christianity is not an individual faith; it is a community of faith. "Real community means real responsibility for each other" (149).

This community, this family, is more than the immediate nuclear family. It is the community of believers. Through relationships with people across the age-spectrum, immature Christians will grow into mature Christians. "If we hope to move our young people toward mature Christian adulthood, the discipline of community needs to be a central focus of our program. If teaching and programs center exclusively on personal, individual faith, chances are they will simply grow fat without growing strong" (150). While relationships with peers should not be ignored, neither should a young believer's relationship with the larger body of Christ be ignored.

Mark DeVries has written a great, thought-provoking book. While it's titled "Family-Based Youth Ministry," his principles don't have to be applied merely to youth ministry. Parents, educators, and church workers alike can glean valuable insights from his book. As DeVries writes, "Christian discipleship...always happens in the context of Christian community" (148). This discipleship within community is a lifelong process that hopefully doesn't end when a student leaves the youth group. So here's to "Family-Based Ministry."

I met Mark DeVries at a youth leaders' conference in 2009. His session was by far and away the most relevant to the kind of church I was the youth pastor of at the time: a more traditional, Episcopalian parish. But what he has to say should be listened to carefully by anyone interested in Christian youth ministry.

Anyone who's ever been involved in Christian youth ministry, whether as a pastor, youth worker, parent, or student, knows not only how difficult youth ministry can be but also how little impact it often really has. It seems as if every 10 years or so there's a new movement to solve what's wrong with youth ministry that doesn't really solve anything. To make matters worse, the average youth minister lasts only a little longer than 2 years!

In "Family-Based Youth Ministry" Mark DeVries correctly diagnoses the source of the real crisis among Christian youth and in youth ministry: "the isolation of teenagers from the adult world and particularly from their own parents." Traditional youth ministry has played into this isolation and in so doing has only made the problem worse. Furthermore, DeVries says, "The crisis is that we are not leading teenagers to mature Christian adulthood." The solution, as DeVries has discovered, is "that real power for faith formation was not in the youth program but in the families and the extended families of the church." In order to put this into effect, churches should be spending less time having separate youth groups and more into empowering parents and equipping the extended family of the church.

DeVries not only diagnoses the problem but also helps churches and families learn how to work together to more effectively train their children to be mature Christian adults. He helps you to understand what's gone wrong and gives you a vision for a better way. In his final chapter he also offers 117 ways to get started. If anyone needs more help, DeVries Youth Ministry Architects (which you can find online) offers consulting to help you.

If you are involved in youth ministry in any way, you should go out and buy this book: it will change the way you see youth ministry! DeVries clearly and articulately pleads his case - and he's right. If churches would learn from what the church throughout history has done, as well as to the most current research shows, they'd do a lot better at the important job of reaching the next generation for Christ.

Also HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Sustainable Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries.

Our parenting Sunday School class is reading this together and we are currently in the process of changing our youth ministry at the church. It has already generated parental involvement in the process.