The Joy of Reading: Sustainable Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries

Sustainable Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries is the fifth book that I read during the break and is also a text for the class I’m helping with. If you are a part of a search committee, pastoral leadership team, deacon board, youth ministry team/staff, a good ol’ fashioned nosey church person, or a church staff member you NEED this book. It offers invaluable information that you need to know. Much of it you have probably heard and refused to believe. If you, or your church, are too stubborn to utilize the consulting resources your denominational agencies offer the least you can do is read this book and gain some minimal clarity about the ins and outs of a “Sustainable Youth Ministry.”


Mark DeVries and I have never met face-to-face; however, I know we’d be best friends! He believes in the same kind of youth ministry I believe in and even uses the term I thought my New Pleasant students coined, “youth family.”

In the book he addresses everything from documents you need within a youth ministry, to how to create the right atmosphere, to how to keep the ministry going with or without a hired youth director. Everything from the behind the scenes details to the wide open in front of everyone details are addressed. It is a great handbook for those that oversee the hiring, evaluating, and “firing” of staff. And it’s a great text for youth pastors to read too.

In light of all my reading, particularly within the youth ministry field, and stories I have heard from NPBC I have been encouraged. I walked away from my ministry at NPBC in August tired, weary, and feeling as though I failed in so many ways. I felt I did not clearly cast my vision, prepare my team, train mentors and volunteers effectively, or show my students what it means to be a “family,” see a need and meet it, and follow God at all costs. However, in taking a God-required sabbatical from youth ministry to pursue further education I have been refreshed, encouraged, and revived. In fact, many of the things I did were right! I was by no means perfect, but for a first-timer I was on the right track. I learned a great deal of valuable lessons during my time at NPBC and I have gained even more since I arrived at Talbot. If, and when, God does call me to church ministry I feel better prepared and encouraged that I do have something to contribute. I am foundationally skilled at transforming a ministry from frail and floundering to faithful and “family-like.”


Buy Sustainable Youth Ministry

--Megan