Some great youth work books

I've read quite a few youth work books over the past 3 years, and I know a few of you who read In the Room are also involved with youth work too, and so will hopefully find this useful!


Mend the Gap by Jason Gardiner
I bought this book at Soul Survivor this summer, and have been reading since. It has taken so long not because it is a terrible book and I had to work to get through it, but because it has changed and challenged me on so many levels that it takes a month or so to process a chapter and put it into practice. The basic premise is that the generation gap that is pulling society apart is doing the same in the church, which is a tragedy and strikes at the very heart of what church should be- a united family. This book is a call to mend that gap, to unite the church and to undo the compartmentalization we bring into church. The first half of the book lays down the sociology behind the generation gap, and the second half is Gardiner's call for radical change to combat the fissure developing between ages. His arguements are compelling and have led me to think seriously about how our services work, our isolation of our youth groups from the rest of the church, and how the youth engage with the rest of the congreation and visa versa. This book has the potential to change everything about how you do youth work. Get your hands on a copy ASAP!


Christian Youth Work by Mark Ashton
This book is an excellent guide to how to make your youth work biblically centred and driven by theological principles. One of the things that really challenged me was the call to develop a deep and meaning discipleship amongst a few rather than looking to get as many young people into church and youth group as possible. This flies against the expectations of many in church, but is based on the way Jesus worked and seems to me to be a liberating idea for the youth worker. Christian Youth Work very obviously comes out of a fairly conservative evangelical viewpoint, and reflects the values that come along with that. Most of the time that is great, but on occasion it limits the scope of what the authors have to say on a given subject, for example the importance of engaging your young people in social action or what to do with young people other than 'preach the gospel'. Obviously that is critical to all we do as Christian youth workers, but there is more to the job than purely preaching and bible study. Overall though this is a great reminder to trust God, to stick to basic Christian principles and not get carried away from keeping The Main Thing, the main thing!

Joined Up: An introduction to Youth Work and Ministry by Danny Brierley
This was one of the first books I read when I became a youth worker, and it proved a really good foundation for what was to come. Danny Brierley outlines the basic components of secular youthwork and Christian youth ministry, and how the two differ. He then argues churches today need a combination of the two, a level of professionalism and good practice combined with an incarnational ministry that seeks to show young people Jesus and all he has to offer. This comes together in his 5 core values for Christian youth work. I'm not sure I agree with every point he makes, but if nothing else this book makes you analyse what you do and why, especially if you haven't been previously trained as a youth worker. I think this book is currently unavailable, but can be found 2nd hand on Amazon and various other sites.

If you have any suggestions beyond what is here, then feel free to comment and let us know what you think!