Great Youth Work Books Not Intended For Youth Work

Some random books that have helped and influenced my youth ministry – but haven’t been written about youth ministry! Enjoy.

(in no particular order)

>No Perfect People Allowed, John Burke.   Epic journey of a church aimed at being open to all people from all walks of life. Great principles for showing grace to teenagers.

>Love Does, Bob Goff.   Fun collection of feel good stories aimed at teaching the reader how to love people with extraordinary Christlike love.

>The Passion of Jesus Christ, John Piper.   50 two page studies on why Jesus died and what the cross achieved. I’ve given two series of youth talks on this book.

>Desiring God, John Piper.   One of my favorite books of all time – passionate defense of finding unsurpassable joy in following Jesus. Follows practical, teachable principles of worship, managing money, family, missions, and a whole lot more.

>Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell.   A really helpful look at the difference between theology in the mind and theology in life. A great exploration of practical theology and philosophy. And it only takes an hour or two to read!

>The Contemplative Pastor, Eugene Peterson.   Most helpful book I’ve ever read on how to survive and thrive spiritually in a world of pastoral ministry. Great spiritual formation guide for pastors.

>Chapters 1&2 of Calvin’s Institutes.   Really the whole thing, but the first two books focus on the depths and the dance on our relationship of God, partially how we can know him in dialogue with knowing ourselves. WELL WORTH the slog!

>Emerging Worship, Dan Kimball.   A bunch of innovative and helpful ideas, principles and ideas for leading a postmodern generation into worship.

>They Like Jesus, But Not The Church, Dan Kimball.   Great book for helping cliquey and inward looking youth groups think outside their own contexts. The DVD series is really helpful for this – although I only use the first half of each video.

>Dig Deeper, Andrew Sach & Nigel Baynon.   Andy is a guy I went to Bible College with and he wrote this at the time. It’s an amazing toolbox of easy to apply interpretation skills for going deeper in the Bible. Great for workshops.

>The Warrior of Light, Paulo Coelho.   Not Christian but a deep and easy set of memorable thoughts which are easy to apply to a spiritual formation journey. I used to keep it next to the loo!

>Alternative Worship, Jonny Baker, Doug Gay, & Jenny Brown.   Similar to emerging worship, but included Lots of prayers, liturgies, ideas, and service orders to help young people connect spiritually with God.

>Holiness & Sexuality, David Peterson (ed.)   An Oak Hill Conference a while back which talks about all sorts of sexual and cultural issues in the context of a Biblical Theology of creation and sin. Massively helpful and well thought-through! Also has great testimony from a faithful Christian celibate homosexual, Martin Hallett.

>Engaging With God, David Peterson.   The principle from Oak Hill wrote this fabulous Biblical Overview of worship. It looks though the whole Bible and focuses on worship as personal sacrifice. Hard slog, but brilliant – particularly as reference.

> Death By Love, Mark Driscoll.   A collection of fictional letters written by a Pastor to a variety of people with different messy pastoral issues. These all have a strong Gospel flavour, are bold and direct, and they are all both deeply personal and practical.

> The Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards.   Ok, so this is written the the 17th Century, and it says very similar things to John Piper in Desiring God which a much easier read, but this is still a deeply applicable, passionate, and helpful guide to understanding worship, the spiritual realm, and how God stirs our hearts and minds. My favorite book in he world.

> Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling.   It resets your brain – so well worth it!