"Sustainable Youth Ministry | by Mark DeVries | 5*

The tagline of this book is, “Why most youth ministry doesn’t last and what your church can do about it.”  Being in youth ministry, and wanting to last, I was excited to get a hold of this book.

DeVries is quick to point out that the “superstar” model of youth ministry is not sustainable.  We are to be about a long-term plan and not a flash in the pan.  It is an optimistic book in regard to a massive change of procedure in youth ministry.

Here are some tweet-sized quotes from the book:

Nothing characterizes successful organizations more than their willingness to abandon what made them successful.

The difference between an effective and an ineffective youth ministry is often directly tied to the level of investment a church makes.

Youth ministry is not an event but a process.

Most youth pastor job postings suffer from chronic vagueness on the one hand and wildly unrealistic expectations on the other.

We can no longer afford to assume that solutions to youth ministry problems lie in placing the entire weight of a ministry on an enthusiastic leader’s shoulders.

Unless you commit time at the beginning of each day (or the night before) to determine what your first priorities will be, it’s unlikely you’ll ever get the most important stuff done.

If you want to be an effective leader, you must learn to deal with relational conflict.  There is no getting around this one.  Resolving conflict is part of leadership.

No plan will work unless you do.

This book is practical. It is easy to immediately implement many of the suggestions and to make a switch to a sustainable mindset.  I recommend it to lead pastors, youth pastors, hiring teams, and anyone of the congregation with an interest in youth ministry.