Download: Teaching Teenagers to Filter Their Media Choices

A sample video clip from a new resource from CPYU and Simply Youth Ministry. Download: Teaching Teenagers to Filter Their Media Choices with Walt Mueller is a 3-week small-group video curriculum. Download is available in the CPYU Resource Center.

Also be sure to check out CPYU's How to Use Your Head to Guard Your Heart: A 3(D) Guide to Making Responsible Media Choices, available at the CPYU Resource Center.

Back On Murder

Have you ever been so engrossed in a novel that you started to think that the story was actually happening in real life? That happened to me on multiple occasions while reading J. Mark Bertrand’s first installment of Roland March mysteries, Back On Murder. My wife and I would be having dinner and I’d say something like, “They still haven’t found Hannah yet, have they?” That would get a blank stare followed by me trying to act like I was only joking. One time while watching a cable news channel, I actually thought the next story was going to be an update about the case. And, truth be told, I had a dream that included some of the book’s characters.

I was beginning to think that, perhaps, I thought this book was too good. Do I have to get out more, I wondered? In fact, when I showed the book to someone and mentioned how great it was, a glazed look came over his eyes. He glanced at the Christian imprint. The face said it all: it can’t be that good. But then, slowly, other glowing reviews started being published. John Wilson, editor of Books & Culture, says that it is a “promising debut” and he is “ready for the next book.” In a review for Comment, Richard Doster writes, “In this first installment of a promising new series, Bertrand has given readers an intriguing plot, delightful prose, engaging dialog, and a story that's well worth reading.”

So, if they can do it, I can do it. Let the gushing begin. Back On Murder is engaging, suspenseful, thoughtful, and entertaining. It’s everything crime fiction should be. And here’s Bertrand’s real gift, and it is a gift, to be sure. There is not one f-bomb in the whole book, and yet the dialogue is realistic. There is not a single description of a sexual encounter and yet the book is not without sex. Like a good comedian who is funny without swearing, Bertrand reveals that it is possible to write a good story without being crude. Most importantly, the book is refreshingly honest about the human condition. The protagonist Roland March is complex, often discussing deeper motives behind his actions and being frustrated by his limitations. And, I hope I don’t need a “spoiler alert” for this one, the ending is satisfying without having everything neatly tied up.

Here’s the one word I would use to describe Back On Murder: flawless. Now I know that’s a strong statement, and certainly every book has flaws. But I really couldn’t ask for more from a novel. The good news is, there’s more to come! I know what I will be reading at the beach next summer.

Click here to read a Bookshelf Interview with Bertrand about his book Rethinking Worldview

NEW DVD Curriculum from Walt Mueller

Download: Teaching Teenagers to Filter Their Media Choices with Walt Mueller

3-Week Small-Group Video Curriculum

CD & DVD Included

Published by our friends at Simply Youth Ministry and Group Publishing!

Available for pre-order. Releases this September!

Your teenagers are inundated with media every day—video games, TV, movies, YouTube, texting, Facebook, iPods. In fact, studies show that the average teenager consumes more than 7 hours of media a day. That doesn’t even count any media related to homework assignments or class projects!

With so many media options out there, it’s critical for teenagers to be equipped with tools that help them make wise choices. That’s where Download comes in. This 3-week video curriculum from CPYU President Walt Mueller will teach your teenagers how to filter their media choices.

In a culture where the traditional institutions like families, schools, and churches don’t nurture teenagers like they once did, students are turning more and more to the media for the nurture and guidance they need. Give your students—and their families—tools for walking wisely in this media-saturated world.

3 video lessons on DVD include:

Lesson 1 – Discover

Lesson 2 – Discern

Lesson 3 – Decide

Discussion questions in PDF & Word format also included.

CPYU recommends using Download with our best-selling 3(D) Guide. CPYU's How to Use Your Head to Guard Your Heart: A 3(D) Guide to Making Responsible Media Choices would be a great companion piece to this video based curriculum. Learn more about our 3(D) Guides here.

Final Words of Wisdom

(The following review by Denis Haack originally appeared in Critique, a publication of Ransom Fellowship. To purchase The Radical Disciple by John Stott from the CPYU Resource Center, click here.)

Over the years, John Stott’s writings have nourished my soul. His faithful exposition of Scripture, always beguilingly simple, never fails to engage my heart and mind, and always spurs me on to greater obedience and fuller adoration. Now he comes to old age, and he ends his life as he lived it, namely, well.

In The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling, Stott reflects biblically on eight issues, and then closes his public ministry with a word of Farewell. This slim volume is good reading, a lovely immersion into the truth of God’s revelation in Scripture, full of wise words for those who find themselves on a pilgrimage through a dark world towards a City filled with divine light. The brief excerpts that follow are not intended as summaries of Stott’s chapters, but as appetizers intended to stimulate you to read the book.

Nonconformity. “We are not to be like reeds shaken by the wind, bowing down before gusts of public opinion, but as immovable as rocks in a mountain stream. We are not to be like fish floating with the stream (for ‘only dead fish swim with the current,’ as Malcolm Muggeridge put it), but to swim against the stream, even against the cultural mainstream” [p. 27].

Christlikeness. “Why is it that our evangelistic efforts are often fraught with failure? Several reasons may be given, and I must not oversimplify, but one main reason is that we don’t look like the Christ we proclaim” [p. 35-36].

Maturity. “When I was traveling in the 1990s in the interests of the Langham Partnership International, I would often ask an audience how they would summarize the Christian scene in the world today. I would receive a variety of answers. But when invited to give an answer to my own question, I would sum it up in just three words, namely, ‘growth without depth’” [p. 38].

Creation Care. “We human beings find our humanness not only in relation to the earth, which we are to transform, but in relation to God whom we are to worship; not only in relation to the creation, but especially in relation to the Creator. God intends our work to be an expression of our worship, and our care of the creation to reflect our love for the Creator. Only then, whatever we do, in word or deed, shall we be able to do it to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31)” [p. 54].

Simplicity. Quoting from An Evangelical Commitment to Simple Life-Style: “So then, having been freed by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, in obedience to his call, in heartfelt compassion for the poor, in concern for evangelism, development and justice, and in solemn anticipation of the Day of Judgment, we humbly commit ourselves to develop a just and simple life-style, to support one another in it, and to encourage others to join us in this commitment” [ p. 82].

Balance. “We have followed Peter in the six metaphors which go to make up the portrait he paints of the disciple [in 1 Peter 2:1-17]. Here they are again: as newborn babies we are called to growth, as living stones to fellowship, as holy priests to worship, as God’s own people to witness, as aliens and strangers to holiness, as servants of God to citizenship. This is a beautifully comprehensive and balanced portrait” [p. 97-98].

Dependence. “I sometimes hear old people, including Christian people who should know better, say, ‘I don’t want to be a burden to anyone else. I’m happy to carry on living as long as I can look after myself, but as soon as I become a burden I would rather die.’ But this is wrong. We are all designed to be a burden to others. You are designed to be a burden to me and I am designed to be a burden to you. And the life of the family, including the life of the local church family, should be one of ‘mutual burdensomeness.’” [p. 110].

Death. “Death is unnatural and unpleasant. In one sense it presents us with a terrible finality. Death is the end. Yet in every situation death is the way to life. So if we want to live we must die. And we will be willing to die only when we see the glories of the life to which death leads. This is the radical, paradoxical Christian perspective” [p. 133].

Farewell! “As I lay down my pen for the last time (literally, since I confess I am not computerized) at the age of eighty-eight, I venture to send this valedictory message to my readers. I am grateful for your encouragement, for many of you have written to me.

“Looking ahead, none of us of course knows what the future of printing and publishing may be. But I myself am confident that the future of books is assured and that, though they will be complemented, they will never be altogether replaced. For there is something unique about books. Our favorite books become very precious to us and we even develop with them an almost living and affectionate relationship. Is it an altogether fanciful fact that we handle, stroke and even smell them as tokens of our esteem and affection? I am not referring only to an author’s feeling for what he has written, but to all readers and their library. I have made it a rule not to quote from any book unless I have first handled it. So let me urge you to keep reading, and encourage your relatives and friends to do the same. For this is a much neglected means of grace… Once again, farewell!” [p. 136-137].

In none of these chapters does Stott say all that needs to be said on the topic, and many are explored in more detail in his previous publications. The Radical Disciple is more like what I imagine he might say to a young friend who is accompanying him to the place of his retirement, and who has the chance to listen in on what Stott is most exercised to pray for when he thinks of the church he has served so faithfully for so many years. It isn’t the final word, perhaps, but it’s a timely one, and a word of wisdom worth heeding.

--Denis Haack

Summer Resource: The Radical Disciple

CPYU Resource of the Summer:
The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling by John Stott.

What is a life of radical discipleship? At root, it means we let Jesus set the agenda of our lives. We aren't selective. We don't pick and choose what is congenial and stay away from what is costly. No. He is Lord of all of life.

In the last book by the leading evangelical churchman of the twentieth century, John Stott opens up what it means at root to be a follower of Jesus. He explores eight aspects of Christian discipleship which are too often neglected and yet deserve to be taken seriously.

Here, including the last public sermon he ever preached, Stott offers wisdom gained from a lifetime of consistent Christian commitment. In addition, he poignantly reflects on his last years of life and ministry.

The message is simple, classic and personal: Jesus is Lord. He calls. We follow.

Click here to purchase The Radical Disciple

Click here to read Walt Mueller's blog about The Radical Disciple

Click here to read an interview with Stott biographer Roger Steer

Abbie Smith Interview: The Slow Fade

Abbie Smith has been a good friend of CPYU over the years. She has spoken at college transition seminars with Derek, and her first book Can You Keep Your Faith in College? continues to be one of CPYU's bestselling resources. Abbie's latest book The Slow Fade, cowritten with Reggie Joiner and Chuck Bomar, seeks to help churches be more attentive and intentional with young adults. What follows is a recent interview with Abbie about her own story and why she is passionate about helping God's people mentor twentysomethings:

CPYU: In the beginning of the book you write that you are “experiencing the fade.” Tells us a little bit about what you mean by “the fade,” and how it connects to your story?

AS: “The fade” I’m referring to is that of 18-25 year olds from the Church. High-school seniors raised in the faith tend to hit college and dismiss belief systems for various other more appealing and inviting options. And we as their Body have yet to do anything terribly active to explore, understand and ultimately, move toward this fade’s halt. Instead of seeking-out this age-stage as a viable asset to our whole, we tend to focus our energies on more seemingly “willing” assets in our midst (not the assumedly rebellious, non-committal/conforming/tithing type, like the college-aged). Being a twentysomething myself, I’ve felt and watched the shrapnel of this fade far too often, and can’t in good conscious allow it a lenient, or passive, response. So I guess “The Slow Fade” is a piece of my story’s response.

CPYU: The book’s main strategy to keep twentysomethings connected to the church is to “recruit a new breed of mentors to invest time in those who are college-aged.” How did you arrive at that conclusion?

AS: The book is tri-authored, alongside Reggie Joiner and Chuck Bomar. After witnessing frustrated personal and church-wide conclusions in our respective circles, realizations about programmatic approaches, or college-aged individuals wanting more than entertainment, the simple task of older believers opening their lives to the journey of younger believers stood-out as the most apparent transformer (particularly important for this age-stage, for reasons explained in the book). Furthermore, in this relationship the individual is intentionally transitioned from adolescence to adulthood, discovering a purpose, belonging, and thus reason to remain participatory in his/her faith community.

CPYU: Part of your story you relay in the book is that it “took you about a week in the following-Jesus journey to realize college students lacked a voice in the church.” Why do you think that is? What are a few simple things churches can do to give college students a voice at church?

AS: Whether considering typical church budget allocations, demographics of attendance, or philosophies of ministry, rarely will you find a church who is taking ample consideration of the 18-25 year old voice. Reggie, Chuck and I believe this voice is not only of Biblical integrity to include, but has potentials of passion and creativity that are our loss to exclude. A great first step would be noticing college-age attendees at your church and offering to take one out for coffee, or a meal, simply with a goal of letting them speak—listening to their story. And for those who are intimidated by such a thought, we’ve written a series of “Conversation Guides” for ideas on how to navigate and further understand this age-stage. See xp3college.org for more on this.

CPYU: Many of our readers are youth workers. What advice would you give them to help prevent the slow fade?

AS: I’d give encouragement before I’d give advice. Namely, that what they’re doing in choosing to relationally invest in teens is absolutely incomparable. Whether they ever see fruits of transformation or salvation, the steadfast work of modeling love to this vulnerable age-stage is an investment with capacities toward not just one life, but the lives of future families and generations. My advice, then, would be to cling closely to God's love and belief in who they are and what they're doing. Such a task (discipleship of youth) is one that will rarely come easily, and never without resistance, for such a task is denting the markings of eternity. Finally, I would tell them they are so very appreciated.

Beach Reading and Win a FREE Book

Collin Hansen of Christianity Today recently listed Seven Theology Books for the Beach. He writes, “Summer affords many of us a few spare moments to sit down someplace warm and relaxing and read a good book. In case you're looking for something deeper than a celebrity magazine or cliffhanger novel, consider picking up these new releases that make theology accessible and practical while staying true to Scripture.”

After reading Hansen’s list, I glanced at my bookshelf and thought, “What do I hope to read this summer?” To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World by James Davison Hunter stuck out. I hope to get to it very soon. But we'd like to hear from you...

For a chance to win a free book and to help others create a summer reading list…

What books do you hope to read this summer?

(There needs to be at least 10 comments to qualify. Winner will be chosen randomly from list of participants. Only one comment per person, please.)

The Wisdom We Need

My favorite books are written by older, wiser Christians reflecting on their lives as followers of Christ. Some of the best books on how to follow Christ in the 21st century have been written by John Stott, rector emeritus of All Souls Church in England. His latest book, The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor (InterVarsity), is both a personal memoir of the development of his deepest convictions, and solid, important advice to today’s Body of Christ.

This book is full of pastoral wisdom we desperately need to hear. Of course, if you are going to talk about today’s church, you need to say something about worship. Stott suggests, “Young people tend to be impatient with the inherited structures of the church. Understandably so, for some churches are too conservative, too resistant to change… We must of course listen to young people. But the Holy Spirit’s way with the institution of the church is more the way of patient reform than impatient rejection. So don’t let’s polarize between structured and unstructured.”

But there is more to “church” than worship services. Stott explains that the church needs to be a learning, caring, worshipping and evangelizing community that is more concerned with those outside of its walls than those on the inside. Here’s vintage Stott: “If society becomes corrupt, there is no sense in blaming society for its corruption. That is what happens when human evil is unchecked and unrestrained. The question to ask is: Where is the church? Where is the salt and light of Jesus?”

We need voices like Stott’s to wake us from our complacency and remind us of what is most important. This book needs to be read by everyone who truly desires to see the church be the church in the midst of a hurting world. It is not formulaic or cliché, but solid wisdom from someone who cares deeply about the state of contemporary Christianity.

-- Derek Melleby

Roger Steer Interview: The Inside Story of John Stott

CPYU is a big fan of John Stott. His theology continues to undergird much of our approach to issues of faith and culture. British biographer, Roger Steer, has recently written an engaging and inspiring biography of Dr. Stott. Basic Christian: The Inside Story of John Stott (IVP) takes readers on an adventure into the life of one of the most influential Christians of the 20th century. What follows is an interview with Mr. Steer (RS) about his new book:

CPYU: What motivated you to write a biography of John Stott? Were you friends with him before you began the project?

RS: I first got to know John when he spent just one afternoon in the mid 1990s helping me with my book about evangelicalism which was published in the USA by Baker Book House under the title Guarding the Holy Fire (1998). Previously I had heard him preach at All Souls in the 1960s but not known him as a friend.

CPYU: Our hope is that this interview leads people to read the book for themselves, but, if you would, briefly explain who Dr. Stott is and how he has so profoundly influenced the church, especially evangelicals.

RS: John Stott became Rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place, London in 1950 at the age of twenty-nine and Chaplain to the Queen in 1959. He chaired the British National Evangelical Anglican Congresses in 1967 and 1977, shaped the Lausanne Covenant in 1974 (advocating a new balance between evangelism and social action), founded both the Langham Partnership (to equip Christian leaders and pastors throughout the world) and the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (encouraging Christians to listen both to the Word and the world – “double listening”). He is known for his writing (51 books translated into nearly 70 languages), preaching and bird-watching. He led fifty university missions worldwide. My book attempts to reveal the man behind John’s public persona, and weave his timeless insights into the story of his remarkable life.

CPYU: What surprised you the most as you dug deeper into Dr. Stott’s story?

RS: The roundedness of his personality: his gift for friendship, his sense of humor, his stamina, his humility, the absence of a ‘dark side’ and his total, selfless commitment to Christ. That is not to say that John has no faults: and honoring his instruction to tell his story ‘warts and all’ I have allowed both his friends to make their intimate comments and his critics to have their say.

CPYU: Many of our readers are young youth pastors. What do you think they would gain from reading your biography of Dr. Stott?

RS: They should read about John’s relationship with a succession of young men (and they were only men I’m afraid!), mostly Americans, who worked for him as study assistants. They will discover what John taught his young study assistants and what they taught John! They will read about what John said in personal interviews with university and college students in missions throughout the world. They should note the comments of those who have known John for many years and who think of him more as a gentle pastor and friend than as a famous preacher and writer.

CPYU: For people new to the writing of Dr. Stott, where do you suggest they begin reading? Do you have a favorite Stott book?

RS: An immediate answer would be John’s The Cross of Christ (first published 1986) about which he told me, “More of my own heart and mind went into it than into anything else I have written”. But, less predictably perhaps, I am especially interested in a little book he wrote which arose out of the Presidential address he gave in 1972 to the annual conference of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship at Swanwick, Britain, on the place of the mind in the Christian life. “Nobody wants a cold, joyless, intellectual Christianity,” he said. “But does that mean we should avoid ‘intellectualism’ at all costs? Is it experience, rather than doctrine, that really matters? Many students close their minds with their textbooks, satisfied that the intellect should play little, if any, part in the Christian life. How far are they right? For the Christian, enlightened by the Spirit, just what is the place of the mind?”

He made no secret of the fact that partly in his sights were “Pentecostal Christians, many of whom make experience the major criterion of truth”. His argument was that the great doctrines of creation, revelation, redemption and judgment all imply that we have an inescapable duty both to think and act upon what we think and know. We are created to think. The fact that humanity’s mind is fallen is no excuse to retreat from thought into emotion, for the emotional side of our nature is equally fallen. In spite of the fallenness of our minds, commands to think, to use the mind, are still addressed to us as human beings. God invited rebellious Israel, “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord” (Isaiah 1:18).

John insisted that the fact that God is a self-revealing God and has revealed himself to humanity indicates the importance of our minds. Redemption carries with it the renewal of the divine image in us, which was distorted by the fall. This includes the mind. Paul described converts from paganism as having “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:10) and as being “made new in the attitude of your minds” (Ephesians 4:23).

What is faith? John asked. It is neither credulity nor optimism but reasoning trust. Faith and thought go together, and believing is impossible without thinking. He argued that the battle for holiness is nearly always won in the mind. It is by the renewal of our mind that our character and behaviour are transformed (Romans 12:2). “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things” (Philippians 4:8). We certainly shouldn’t think of the mind as being against the things of the Spirit: “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:5–6). In order to combat the risk of the use of the mind resulting in a barren intellectualism, he concluded his talk with a powerful section showing how knowledge should lead to worship, faith, holiness and love. The text of the lecture was published by IVP as an influential booklet, Your Mind Matters.

If they could get hold of it, I think your readers would love this booklet. If not, of course, The Cross of Christ, Basic Christianity and I Believe in Preaching are all classics which have become international bestsellers.

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Click here to visit Roger Steer’s website

Click here to purchase The Contemporary Christian by John Stott (named as one of Walt Mueller’s “Top Ten Most Influential Books”)

Click here to read Derek Melleby’s review of Stott’s The Living Church

Click here to learn more about Stott’s latest (and final) book The Radical Disciple (IVP)

Walt's Top Ten Most Influential Books

So Derek has issued the challenge. . . . the 10 books that have had the greatest influence on my life. I’ll add this clarifier. . . “besides the Bible.” This is a tough one. How do you narrow it down? I estimate that I’ve got about 2200 books on the shelves in my office. Several hundred more are at home. Others are sitting on the shelves in the libraries where I checked them out, and still more are books that I sold. . . . which means they probably weren’t that influential, or I just flat-out needed some money.

I established some parameters to help me narrow it down. The books have to be books that I look at and say, “Yep, that book has shaped who I am, what I value, and how I live my life.” A really influential book has the power not only to shape, but to be read again and to leave you re-shaped. I chose 10 books that I would call “marker books.” In other words, they were so influential that they stand out as catalysts for or part of watershed moments in my life.

The first book I remember is Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. When I retreat into my memory and travel back to third and fourth grade at Cedar Road Elementary School, I can see myself standing in the library. Right there in the middle shelf on the outside front wall, about halfway up. . . that’s where this one sat. I remember checking it out several times. My name was on that card more than once. I can still feel and hear the crinkle of the cellophane jacket as I escaped into this fabulous story. My academic career was one marked by frustration. I sometimes wonder if I didn’t have some kind of learning disability or ADD. My only success came in reading. I was always in the highest-level reading group and even skipped up a grade once to read with the older kids. I loved reading for that and several other reasons. I’m not sure how A Wrinkle in Time shaped my life other than it was the first thick book I ever read. And, I loved it enough to keep going back.

A strange addition from my childhood would be the Book of Common Prayer, specifically the edition used in the Reformed Episcopal Church. My dad was an R.E. pastor way back then. When I was in 6th grade I went through Confirmation Class, an experience which culminated with my public profession of faith. I think there was a reception after the ceremony. But what I remember most was being handed a brand new red-covered copy of the Book of Common Prayer that was personalized with my name – “Walter Mueller” – in gold stamping right there on the front cover. That little book nurtured me into an appreciation for the beauty and order of well-thought-out liturgy, and it shaped the way I pray today.

Fast-forward to college. I was a sociology major. The text for Sociology 201 was written by the professor, Dr. Russell Heddendorf. The book was titled In The World: An Introduction To Sociology. It wasn’t published at the time and it still hasn’t been published. The text was on mimeographed sheets that were copies of Doc Heddendorf’s own typed manuscript. It was in a cardboard loose-leaf notebook. Built on the foundation of Jesus’ prayer for His disciples in John 17, that book steered my worldview in a new direction that I’ve been going in ever since. I still pull it off the shelf from time to time.

During those same years I took a little one-credit discussion class on John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. I learned a little bit about reading the classics, a little bit about reading good literature, and a lot about my faith. I need to go back and read it again.

Shortly thereafter I graduated and went into campus ministry with the Coalition for Christian Outreach. It was during my time with the CCO that I was exposed to the next two books on my list. Number Five is John White’s The Fight. My copy of this then-popular book on discipleship shaped my thinking on what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. I led numerous student groups through a study of The Fight.

Without my CCO years I don’t think I would have ever discovered Albert Wolters’ Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview. This book is serendipitous and transformative for all who read it. Not only is it a great intro to the life-giving and incredibly liberating theological system known as Dutch Neo-Calvinism (the foundation beneath our theology of faith and culture here at CPYU), but it lays out redemptive history in amazing ways. Anyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ needs to give this book a shot. You will quickly learn that the Gospel encompasses much, much more than the message of how to personally get saved.

My time at Gordon-Conwell Seminary was filled with books. Surprise, surprise. Several thousands of pages from books too numerous to count for each and every course I took. I narrowed my seminary time down to one book: How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth by Douglas Stuart and Gordon Fee, two of my GCTS profs. I think it's now out in its third edition. This book is the antidote to so much of what ails the church in terms of Bible study, interpretation, and application.

Next up is John Stott’s Contemporary Christian. I’ve read it several times. I’ve marked it up. I’ve quoted it endlessly and will keep on doing so. I’ve assigned it as required reading to students. Again, this one is an antidote to much of what ails me and serves the same purpose for the contemporary church.

Because I study youth culture, I have to add a book to my list that opened my eyes to the stuff kids face. David Elkind’s All Grown Up and No Place to Go was dead-on when it was written 25 years ago. It was also prophetic. Why? Because it’s dead-on for today. I had the thrill of talking to Elkind when he spoke at a National Youthworkers Convention back in the 1980s. He autographed my book. His mark is also on my life. I study culture because kids hurt. Elkind help me to understand hurting kids.

Finally, there’s a book that I pull off my shelf from time to time as a prescriptive remedy to difficulty. My dad turned me on to it, which means that it has a special place in my heart. It’s from Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure has served me well over the years. Enough said.

That’s it. Ten. I wonder if my list will look any different ten years from now. Maybe I’d better get around to reading The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness!