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So important – please share this message!
Jonathan Carswell
This is a wonderful, wonderful book. It’s challenging but its message is so important it must be shared.
I’m going to encourage everyone bothered about evangelism and discipleship to read this, and to buy multiple copies to pass onto others who share the same passion.
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A challenging read
Hannah Peace
This is a really easy book to read and accessible to everyone. It took me 15 minutes to read and yet I will go back to again and again to challenge my lifestyle, my priorities and how I go about reaching the next generation. This book would be a good discussion starter for a team to help them focus the why and how of what they do. I have a list of people I am going to give this too, to encourage them to keep going and to have high standards!
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Valuable
Jonathan Gemmell
Back in the day when young people got their Polio vaccine it was disguised on a sugar cube. The thinking being, take something that is not that pleasant and palatable (the vaccine) and hide it in something tasty (the sugar cube). Lots of contemporary youth work, youth engagement and youth activity seems to treat the gospel like the Polio vaccine. If we take something that is hard to swallow, i.e. the gospel and hide it in a small god slot amidst fun things like Playstation, table tennis and oodles of sweets the young people will learn to tolerate it but may never think about it or ne engaged with the gospel.
Into this poorly thought out strategy and lack of confidence in the gospel comes this slim line book of dynamite from Kevin DeYoung. It is a clear, articulate and bare strategy for youth engagement. It takes the Bible seriously, doesn’t patronise the young people and has at its base level the truth that the gospel shared amongst, lived out before and sown consistently and outrageously into young people’s lives has the greatest chance of success of winning the next generation to Christ. It is God that will amaze them, satisfy them and attract them to Himself. Moving away from that will only entertain but never win young people.
Under the five simple titles, Grab them with Passion, Win them with Love, Hold them with Holiness, Challenge them with truth and Amaze them with God, Kevin paints a vivid and compelling picture of the necessity, simplicity and sacrifice needed if the next generation are not going to wander away.
Having read this book I think it is a valuable contribution and a handy resource for anyone engaged in any form of youth work, although I think there are transferable lessons into any sphere of ministry.
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Must read, must share, must practice!
Susan Boothby
Just read this book. Spot on as to what young people need as well as older people. SO many good things that it is hard to pick out one in particular. We have tried to put some of these things in to practice in our own interactions with young people. Both in our western culture and in a culture very different to our own. People need truth, reality and something that works and is alive. The church, (we believers) has to get excited about what we believe. We who are “the pillar and foundation of the truth” 1 Tim 3:15
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Inspiration for reaching the world for Christ
Jonathan Storey
This book will take minutes to read but has the potential to change the world for generations. Its compelling message, pithily expressed in five short chapters - Grab them with Passion, Win them with Love, Hold them with Holiness, Challenge them with Truth and Amaze them with God - could (and should) revolutionise individuals', churches and CUs' approach to reaching the world for Christ. It is a quintuple espresso of confidence, inspiration and challenge that every Christian should read and return to whenever their focus is lost, their fervour is diminished, and their confidence is low.
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A biblical pattern for reaching the next generation
Stui Chaplin
We're constantly told that young people are leaving the church in their droves and that a new strategy is needed to reach the next generation. In this excellent little book Kevin DeYoung shows us that the biblical pattern for growing young disciples is actually quite simple (although challenging) and perhaps more achievable than we've been led to believe. Well worth reading for anyone who is concerned to see the next generation faithfully discipled.
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Excellent advice for reaching young people with the Gospel
Stephen Ayre
Young people don't want gimmicks or attempts to be "culturally relevant" as these usually fail. More important is to be straight with the Gospel and to love them. "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13.35. This book is a great encouragement to parents and leaders of children/youth work to persevere as well as to show the young people in our car how much Jesus means to us.
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A biblical vision for youth ministry
Stui Chaplin
In just under 40 pages, DeYoung was never going to provide an exhaustive model or framework for youth discipleship, but that was never the purpose of this book. Instead, the principles that he highlights present every youth leader with an achievable and thoroughly biblical pattern to live out their faith so that young people will be introduced to the Lord Jesus. It’s certainly a book worth putting in the hands of every volunteer leader in your church as you seek to encourage them in a biblical vision for youth ministry.
Review first published on Growing Young Disciples Blog
