i recently finished reading "a new kind of youth ministry" a book by chris folmsbee. chris is the president of sonlife ministries, which is training group for youth & youth ministers. recently they partnered with youthfront camps which, i think, is a great partnership.

the book captured my interests and ilk at the same. i liked the wordings in the chapter (mostly the chapter subtitles). the name of the book was ilk as i wreaks of trying to share in emergent book buying and coat tails of "a new kind of Christian." the two books are obviously not the same, but yet the title insinuates a similarity. i will chalk it up to publishers biz practice. happy to say, once i got passed the title thing i was pleasantly surprised.

for me, the book content was not "wow" material. i enjoyed it, i agreed with many of the statements it made. the solutions or re-framing that chris would present always seemed something that i could get behind and agree with. some things are still contextual and are probably common for a mainline church context. some things are new which affirmed things we have done with our ministry at hfumc, some we have left behind. some of the issues of youth ministry presented were certainly
bore out of an evangelical context so i could not really relate. this
gets kinda old for me and i always feel like i am saying "duh" which i
hate. i keep thinking that is elitist. overall, the questions raised and the conclusions he comes to are important for those in youth ministry today. probably the best part about it all, chris has some great wordings for many of the things you are probably feeling and trying to do.

since communication is, in my opinion, the key to getting stuff done in church (especially an established church). reading through how chris explains change will give you language to help express yourself. that is the greatest gift that "a new kind of youth ministry" brings to the world of youth min.