Raising the Bar: Ministry to Youth in the New Millennium

by Alvin L. Reid

Book Overview

"We know how to be teenagers. We want [the church] to show us how to be adults." --Kristin, aged 17

Two-thirds of today's teens are interested in having a meaningful relationship with God, yet less than one-third of them are active in a local church. Alvin Reid--an experienced pastor, professor, evangelist, and youth ministry speaker--suggests these statistics are more an indictment of the way the church does youth ministry than of the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 082543632X
• ISBN13: 9780825436321
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Kregel Publications
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

A must read

This was one of the best books I have ever read. Every youth pastor, youth worker or a parent of a youth should read this book. It will make you want to raise the bar in your own life and in the lives of the youth in your ministry. It's a very quick and easy read too.

Doing Pull-Ups on the Raised Bar

This book is a clear and well balanced look at what youth ministry is currently doing (and not doing), how youth truly are and what can be done to reach the "millennial" generation. It's very easy to be negative about who youth are and the fact that there are so many problems in their culture. Reid doesn't merely give us the "glass is half full" positivism but he presents real, empirical evidence that gives renewed hope and greater motivation to get involved and teach our youth to become great adults! Reid systematically arranges the facts of our current practices in ministering to youth. He points out that "Youth are underchallenged and treated as children" (p. 20) yet this generation has by the nature of their very existence been forced to live with the fact that "their lifetime has always included AIDS" (p.25). Before reading this book, I had always assumed that today's youth are becoming increasingly more immature when compared with previous generations. The author takes the time to establish the evidence of our current failed youth ministry paradigm and then closes his argument in order to secure a summary judgment. "Do we see young people as children . . . or as young adults ready to take on the challenges of a complex world they will so quickly face" (p. 41). This book culminates with perhaps the most important, yet often the most overlooked, aspect of youth ministry: parents. His injunction to parents is clear and unwavering. "Parents . . . need to rediscover the biblical teaching of Deuteronomy 6:4-9. According to God's Word the primary place of spiritual training is not the church but the home" (p.155); raising the bar is for everyone!