How to Lead a Book Club in Youth Ministry
Editor’s note: Ministry takes place in a variety of settings: one-on-one, small groups, large groups, camps/retreats. Each contributes differently to a students’s spiritual growth and brings different challenges, too. This month’s series “Contexts of Discipleship” will help you think through the ways you can better understand your context in order to disciple youth into lifelong faith.
Discipleship occurs in many ways. We have already covered how large groups, small groups, and mentoring relationships are all influential in the spiritual lives of students, but most youth workers also know the struggles associated with each of these avenues of discipleship. It can seem like you are never able to dive as deep into particular topics as you would like in large group, never have time to address every question in small groups, and don’t have the time to personally mentor every student. What other recourse do you have to try to provide a place for students to dive deeper into more specific topics, ask more direct questions, and do so while still growing together with a group of their peers? Here is where I think book clubs might be beneficial.
What is a “Book Club”?
A book club is time for you to get together with a smaller group of students outside your normal weekly youth ministry schedule to read through and discuss a book on a helpful topic. Unlike a small group ministry that might be a program youth ministry-wide, these kinds of groups are usually closed groups, reserved for a handful of students you believe are ready for more in-depth study, leadership development, or to address current relevant issues.
The driving force of these meetings is the book you are reading together. Everyone reads through a section, comes back together, and allows the content of the book to drive the discussion. This is a great time for students to learn how to discern arguments, navigate disagreements, ask deep questions, and clarify misunderstandings surrounding issues of theology, spiritual disciplines, apologetics, or cultural issues.
How is a Youth Ministry Book Club helpful?
Introduce New Concepts
One of the benefits of these kinds of meetings is the flexibility to cover material that might not be an ideal teaching focus for your youth ministry as a whole. Although you want to teach with depth, you may not be able to get into the complex issues that come up in various passages of Scripture. For example, you may cover John 1 in your lesson plan, and introduce the idea that Jesus is God, but you might not be able to go through what it really means for Christ to have two natures. Even further, you probably won’t be able to talk about the various problematic views related to Christ’s identity throughout church history and the heresies associated with them. But in a book club, you could engage with these topics with students who desire to dig deeper.
Ask Pointed Questions
Another benefit of these kinds of groups is that since they are smaller and tailored to select students, they provide a level of comfort and openness that allows for more pointed questions to be asked. Specifically, what you read may bring up a difficult truth that students may not have thought about or or counter a cultural norm that they struggle to let go of. In these kinds of groups, you have the freedom to ask more direct questions related to these topics, as well as being able to hear students’ honest thoughts on these issues, which they might not feel comfortable sharing in a different context. It also can give you an opportunity to press into their views in a way that can prompt fruitful discussion without them feeling exposed.
Give Space to Wrestle
The most valuable element of these book clubs is giving the students the opportunity to express how they struggle with doctrines or issues related to faith without feeling judged. The Bible is full of difficult situations and truths. Sometimes, it’s simply difficult to read and understand! (Here’s looking at you, Jude). Not only do many students struggle to think critically about these things, they also often fear what others would think of them if they expressed doubts of any kind. This, I believe, is to their detriment. First, because I believe that everything in the Bible has an explanation, even if it’s not one we like. Second, because part of growing in the faith is in learning to understand Christianity without ignoring the difficult subjects associated with it. Finally, because modeling honesty, doubt, disagreement, and ongoing curiosity can be set a helpful example for students who desire to move forward in their walk with Christ.
What should you NOT do in a Youth Ministry Book Club?
“Drown” Students
One temptation in these book clubs, especially for theologically inclined youth pastors, is to “nerd out,” covering ALL of the finer points of theology every time you meet. Don’t do that. Not only will your students not retain the “fire hydrant” you unleash upon them, but they may get intimidated and shut down, feeling like they lack the knowledge required to join in the discussion with you. Don’t drown them in a sea of information. Your goal is like making a pizza: you want to stretch the dough a little at a time; you don’t want to tear it.
“Convert” Students
Another temptation is to only focus on the issues you are really into, but that can often be controversial: Calvinism, Natural Theology, Eschatology, etc. There is a danger when pastors can’t discern the difference between the Bible’s actual claims and their own opinions. Just because you can justify your view from Scripture doesn’t mean you need to teach students that your position is the right view to hold. Stick to what the Bible explicitly says. Stick to what your church’s statement of faith makes clear. Model charity with opposing views. Push back on your own views. Remember, you aren’t creating disciples of yourself; you are guiding students to follow Christ.
“Defeat” Students
One final temptation to avoid is responding wrongly when students do share doubts or struggles in discussion. For instance, if you have a student who really wrestles with the idea of Hell as “eternal, conscious, torment”, citing other views they have heard of like annihilationism or purgatory, and you respond with, “Yeah, but those views are wrong,” you could undercut everything you hope to accomplish with a book club. Although it may be the truth, that student may leave with the impression that you don’t really care about the issues and their opinions are not important to you. Since you don’t want students to leave defeated, but to understand what the Bible says and have confidence in it,be patient and careful as you address deeper topics that you approach all discussions with clarity, conviction, and, most importantly, compassion.
What might be a good book for a Youth Ministry Book Club?
Here are some recommendations that are either geared toward students specifically or are written in a way that students could engage with. For more recommendations, visit our Recommended Resources page.
Deeper Theology:
Superheroes Can’t Save You – Todd Miles (unfortunately, only available as an ebook)
Gentle and Lowly – Dane Ortlund
Holiness of God – R.C. Sproul
Man of Sorrows, King of Glory – Jonty Rhodes
Biblical Hermeneutics/Biblical Theology:
How NOT to Read the Bible – Dan Kimball
How to Eat Your Bible – Nate Pickowicz
Hope for All the Earth – Mitchell Chase
Good News for All the Earth – Mitchell Chase
Apologetics
Stand Firm – Gould, Dickinson, and Loftin
Surviving Religion 101 – Michael Kruger
Mama Bear Apologetics – Hillary Morgan Ferrer
Person of Interest – J. Warner Wallace
Christian Essentials/Disciplines:
Discover – Mike McGarry
Christian Beliefs – Wayne Grudem
Why I Still Believe – Mary Jo Sharp
Praying the Bible - Don Whitney
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