Africa Reading Material

I was very ambitious in the amount of reading to tackle on this trip--but now that we're here, I'm glad I was. Not that we're sitting around being bored, but people here in South Africa seem to appreciate the art of sitting, reading, and talking much more than we do in the States. TV does not pervade the lifestyle nearly as much. And I must say, I'm really enjoying it. Nothing like a change of culture to make clear needed personal changes. 

"YOUthwork" by Don Pearson

I finished this pretty quickly. Loved it. Pearson provides plenty of basic youth ministry information, but then goes to the next level pretty quickly--providing a ton of material that goes to the next level...extremely useful for those of us who've been doing this for awhile. He uses plenty of stories from his own personal ministry which helps a lot--especially right now as we're trying to nail down the HPY long-term vision (the "Connect-Grow-Go" mission has been in place for years). I mostly appreciated the material on time management, the ideas for ongoing youth leader training, and the things to keep in mind as we consider adding staff (beyond interns). And because of this book, I'm STRONGLY considering taking a bus for this summer's mission trip to Miami (instead of vans)! Holler at me (or leave a comment) if you want more reasoning behind that. 

I'm going to offer this book to all our youth leaders (or force it upon them!). 

 

"The Power of Vision" by George Barna

Heard great things about this book. Several of the key leaders in our church are busy reading it (or have already read it). 

I'm excited to see what the cumulative effect will be. 

As always, finding better and more efficient ways to effect positive change in our community is the goal.

"Revelation" --Holman Commentary

I recently finished my "slow read" of the bible. It was fun...took about 14 months. Now I'm on to my "really slow read" of the bible. Reading through it (not necessarily in order) as I also read through a good commentary--chapter by chapter. Should take at least 3 years. And I really like these Holman commentaries--even though I'm using a New Living Translation bible and these commentaries are New International Version. They're not too simplistic by any stretch, but not too deep either. Just right for a youth pastor who never went to Seminary!  :)

I also brought another book to read--it's about youth culture and I can't remember the name right now. I'll blog about it later. 

Saw this today--thought it was funny.   -Mike