Youth Organizations Books

Having completed a B.A. degree in youth ministry, no textbook was more influential for my ministry than this one. I read it again and again to remember why I chose the career path I did. Far from explaining "how to" of "what", this book inspires the reader to answer the question "why". Not a model of ministry, but a theology of transforming lives. Reading this book helps me remember my roots. A practical guide to build a foundation of incarnational theology to youth. In other words, this book helps its reader live as Jesus calls us to.

Working with teenagers in a Catholic highschool, I needed this information and all the stories that went with each theme.I not only was encouraged and inspired by this book,but informed so that I can share this information with those who teach in my department. THANK YOU!

This book, more than any other I have read to date, describes the changes that must take place as youth ministry enters the 21st century. The authors focus upon the necessity of having spiritual, youth relationships rather than just social, youth recreation. The crying need today is for churches to minister as only they can do to the emptiness young people face in their lives. Rather than competing with secular programming, Christian youth ministries are called to offer something entirely different from the secular world.

The authors describe in detail various measures to be taken that will energize youth in their Christian faith. This title is far from a book of programming ideas, but rather a very readable volume of philosophy and theology on youth ministry. I recommend it highly to all youth pastors, and other Christian professionals who will interact with teenagers on a regular basis.

This book reminds those in youth ministry why we are here: to be "God-bearers" to the youth whose lives we are entrusted with. This book is not about methods, how to grow a youth groups, or how to impress the rest of your church. This book is about realizing that at the core, youth ministry exists in order that we can form authentic relationships with young people. This book is a great read for a new youth pastor in order to make sure you have the correct focus in ministry. It would also make an exceptionally good read for the youth pastor who doesn't feel "successful" in youth ministry. Reading this book will encourage you and strip you away from the pragmatic standards of success and remind you that youth ministry only needs to have one authentic relationship with a young person in order for it to be successful.

I didn't give this book five stars because of the way in which it deals with Mary and some of the extra-biblical assumptions it makes. I found this part to be molded to fit the authors' desired point. Neverthless, this was a fairly minor drawback for me and I believe that every youth minister needs to read this book.

While the focus is on youth ministry, the ideas and principles in this book should be read by anybody who is a minister within the church. The "radical" idea of the book is that the church should be focused on changing the heart of people and society in order for all people to reach and strive for a relationship with God.
If you are looking for another gimmick in order to make a youth ministry program grow, this book is not for you. If you are looking for a book in how to minister to youth, thier families and the people who work with them, then this needs to be on your shelf.

"The Road of Lost Innocence" by Somaly Mam starts out reminding me of the novel, "Green Mansions" by W. H. Hudson. A deep forest that hides the innocence and beauty of a young girl. In the book, "Green Mansions" the forest protected "Rima" (the bird girl). In "The Road of Lost Innocence" the forest surrounds and devours Somaly Mam.

The fairytale forest world in Cambodia soon becomes a "hunting ground" for abominable acts of perversion, and genocide. Author, Somaly Mam becomes one of many young victims taken and sold into the dark alleyways of rape and child prostitution. She finds herself caught in a filthy and despicable "hell on earth." Somaly was actually sold into this diabolical world by family members in an effort to make money and "pay off debts" that ... "they" had incurred.

Ms. Mam realistically acknowledges that in Cambodia (as well as numerous other Asian countries i.e.: Vietnam, Thailand, etc), parents, and other family members are void of any feelings have to do with guilt, because their children are their property, and basically; "money on legs, an asset, a kind of domestic livestock."

Somaly Mam spends numerous years as a prostitute in this ugly world and is repeatedly raped, beaten, and tortured throughout her tenure. Despite her sad fate, she eventually brakes out of this "bubble world" through the assistance of several European clients. With their help, Somaly educates herself, tempers her tenacious spirit, and returns to the gutters of Cambodia with a mission of saving others who suffered the same fate.

In that process, Somaly and her French husband founded AFESIP (Acting for Women in Distressing Situations). This organization along with the newly formed "Somaly Mam Foundation" has continued to help thousands of young victims reintegrate into society as useful and healthy individuals. Ms. Mam is in my mind, a younger Asian version of Mother Teresa.

Most of the actual writing itself is in a direct straightforward and no nonsensical format. However, I felt a great deal of her story line and character application was redundant throughout the book. None the less, this is not a fairytale you would want to read to your children. This is a true and unequivocal horror story that will not easily fade from your mind or... your aching heart.

This was a terrible, awful, horrible story, but a wonderful book. The author was sold into prostitution as a child but managed to escape by getting married to a foreigner. She started an organization which rescues women from sexual slavery. This is her story and her expose of the corrupt political system that allows this sex trade to flourish.

Most sad of all is her conclusion about why this horrible system has developed in her country. Basically she says, after all the years of war and then the terror of the Pol Pot regime, people have learned to survive by looking out for themselves and only themselves. As a culture they have lost the civility of looking after one another and as such they are willing to sell their children or step-children. They are willing to rape children. They are willing to turn a blind eye to women being abused.

A portion of the proceeds from this book go to the author's foundation to help these women. For more information, please go to http://www.somaly.org I'm going to make a donation and urge you to do so too, even if you don't buy the book

"The Road to Lost Innocence" by Somaly Mam touched me so deeply that I must recommend this novel! Her writing style is simple and easy to grasp, allowing the reader to become so engrossed in this tragic and compelling story. She brings Cambodia to life through its interesting foods, fascinating customs and graphic description of the ethnic separation of the people. Through her words, I have sampled the region's oppression under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Her descriptions of the horrors of being torn away from everything familiar at the age of 9 or 10 by a stranger that promised to reunite Somaly with her parents were tempered by shining moments of kindness and hope in the midst of this tragic existence, revealing God's care and provision.

This book takes you through the tragedy that was Somaly's life to where she escaped and now rescues others. It made me smile. It made me weep. It made me angry. It made me think of (and pray for) all the people trapped in the sex slavery trade. It made me realize that I don't have a care in the world compared to those who are victimized by this very real horror everyday. It made me want to make a difference. I pray it makes you want to change the world, too.

The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam is a heart-breaking story of a woman's fight out of slavery and her quest to save others from suffering as she did. Somaly was raised in the forests of Cambodia in a primitive tribe without electricity or running water. Living in the remote jungles, her parents abandoned her and left her with a grandmother who then died before Somaly could remember any of them. She raised herself until the age of eleven, sleeping in a hammock, fishing for some meals, and receiving some little care from the rest of the villagers. At eleven, a man claiming to be her grandfather took her to a larger city and used her as slave labor, beating her and forcing her to work for others as well. She learned how to read at a small school run by a man who claimed to be her uncle and tried to do his weak best by her. At fifteen, her grandfather sold her into a violent marriage with a soldier, until he disappeared, and the grandfather appeared again to sell her into a brothel in Phnom Phen. There Somaly was raped and beaten until all of her will was driven out of her, and the fight to survive overcame the desire to be free. Eventually a French aid worker came to her aid, and Somaly was able to break free of this devastating life. But Somaly is more than the average women. She was unwilling to let other women suffer as she did, so she began distributing condoms to the brothels, and then opened a home to take in girls who fled their life of forced prostitution. She has faced threats, including the kidnapping of one of her daughters, but has emerged unwilling to bend again. Her story is amazing and awful, not something that is easily considered. It's much easier to skim over the details and refuse to internalize them. But when I read about men raping 5 and 6 year old girls and then pimps sewing the girls up again so they can be sold as "virgins", and then look at my own 5-1/2 year old daughter, my heart is broken. I can't imagine the degradation that these girls suffer daily. Somaly tells her story in raw, harsh words. They are not prettied up, nor does she gloss over what she has faced. This book needs to be read to expose the world to the truths about what is going on in Cambodia to these young girls. A portion of the profits from this book go to Somaly's charity that helps free girls from their abuse, and I know that her foundation is one that I will be donating to in the future.

Wow. I want to say there are no words to describe what this book will make you feel, but I'm going to try anyway.
Somaly Mam is the kind of person we all hope we could be, were we faced with the horrors she has lived. Sexual slavery, rape, abuse - she survived all these and has been brave enough to share her story with us. She recounts her experiences in a raw, unflinching tone, experiences which could break the strongest of us. And although Somaly escaped her own dark path, she has never left that world behind, but instead returns time and again to rescue other girls trapped in brothels, girls sometimes as young as four or five, girls who have been sold into sexual slavery.
Her story is amazing, the world she describes is horrifying, and in the end if you have not been moved to tears, then you are not human.
But this book is not just intended as a voyeuristic window into a world we should condemn. It is a necessary education for those of us who are lucky enough to live in a world where sexual slavery is a remote problem. And if, like me, you finish the book and find yourself enraged at what is being done, then you might do what I did and google her name, and find her foundation's website: www.somaly.org. There is something we can all do to help, and after reading this book you just might need to.

This book is a decent introduction to the Aum Shinrikyou. If you want a more detailed look read Ian Reader's _Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan_ which is not only the best source availible in english it gives comparative thoughts on groups such as the Davidians and Heaven's gate. As stated eariler this book is a good introduction because it gives good details on what makes Aum. However, don't let the title fool you too much because that is really only covered in one chapter. Also the book uses quite biased language against Asahara amd the upper echelons of Aum. Although they did do some very bad things at the end. Asahara and his group of followers at first were only trying to enrich themselves

MESSAGE:

In my new book by Edwin Mellen Press you list me TWICE as author, including as Daniel A. Matraux. My name is Daniel A. Metraux and I am the sole author of this book

Do you know Oumu Shinrikyou? There may be some people who do not know the name in foreign countries, but in Japan everybody know the name because the religion group broke incredible terro cases in Japan where is the safest county over the world, that is, one case that was a mass terro killing in Tokyo downtown metro, other that was a large terro killing in local town. The killed and injuried person was over a thousand.

You may have some questoions when you hear the title[Aum Shinrikyou and Japanese Youth], some questions why the case had the connection to the word Youth. But in my thinking, the connection is very important. Because the persons who had believed the cult reliegion was young men or women except some old person like the leader Syoukou Asahara.

In Japan now, people have many their heart ploblems. I think that the cause is many things, however one example that there are some people who are not filled by mental herlth with the overpopulated, the society that chase their benefit and so on. I have lived in Tokyo over 20 years, and I feel that the Japan is getting to bad thing on the youth mental problem especially.

For example, the number ofthe young men that have been into their home without the society activity like working and school is increasing day by day, the youg men is called [Hikikomori] in Japan, in one report, the number is said over a million. The cause that the youger do Hikikomori is various. But the some of them have their mental problems or mental disorder in medical genre. Maybe such condition is not alway in Japan, in such big city like Tokyo even if that is foreign countries, the possibirity will exist.

Oumu Shinrikyou tempted such young men with mental problems, who do not know how to live their life and so on by playing Oumu's clever tricks. There were many high school career young men like Tokyo university, medical shool etc in Oumu too. Japan is a perfect shool career society, for that if men can not enter to high school(compulsory education is till junior high school and after that the future rely on their endeavor) it is said that their future no exist. On the other hands, even if they enter to such high carrer school like Tokyo university, some of men lost their way because they had done nothing except of study in their life, it is not study in good mean, the study for entering high carrer shool only. You may think that the condition is a little curious. But in Japan the most important thing is how to enter well known university rather than what to how to study in university. Japanese universities is like brand name goods almost. When we consider about such young mental problem like Hikikomori or the distorted school carrer problems in Japan, we understand about the connection of Youth and Oumu.

I think that they that commited such terro cases is off course criminals, but on the other hands they will be victims on the points that I wrote in up writing, that some of them have their mental problems. Such thinking may not be the proper thing. But I think so.

In Japan the main theme is how to chase the county benefit, how to develop their GNP and so on. But everybody do not care about how to cope with our mental problems. That is very dangerouse thing. I think that the same shing can be said in big town over the world.

Thank you for reading my poor English and writing.

HELLO--PLEASE NOTE THAT I HAVE PUBLISHED A SECOND BOOK ON AUM SHINRIKYO--BUT YOU LIST ME AS AUTHOR DANIEL A. MATRAUX. IF YOU GO TO THAT LISTING MATRAUX YOU WILL FIND IT. PLEASE CHANGE TO MY CORRECT NAME, DANIEL A. METRAUX

Fast read, easy to understand concepts of church leadership being presented, seems to speak mostly to ministers. Probably could have been done in half as many pages.

This book leverages the "Leading Change" model of John Kotter in a highly effective manner within a ministry context. Paul speaks as a real leader with successful experience in coaching, equipping and releasing real leaders in the mission field.

If you have never visited an organic church this is the place to begin! And even if you have visited or belong to an organic church this is the book to help you better understand and implement the effective, yet fluid, approach to ministry that is producing so many fruitful disciples and churches. Dr. Whitesel gives an academic, practical, and applicable introduction to twelve emerging organic congregaions from across the U.S. with examples from England and Canada as well. As a pastor and former youth minister and Christian school teacher, I greatly appreciate the author's insights into philosophic background, worship style, and church growth mechanisms of these multi- and younger generational churches that are effectively reaching the post-modern thinkers. Having just spent a week with thirty other church leaders in the San Franciso area of California studying and experiencing emergent worship and ministry with Dr. Whitesel, I can say this author lives out and teaches with an authentic passion to help all Christian leaders communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a culturally relevant way without marginalizing the Biblical message of redemption. Everyone interested in growing the church in a post-modern and often, post-Christian society needs to read this book!

Few in the North American church scene have as much experience with local church turnaround as Paul Borden. What makes Direct Hit so useful is that Borden addresses why turnaround is so often talked about, but so rarely achieved. He gives very clear rules about: the timing of turnaround, the role of pastors and leaders, using outside help, and the necessity of mission. Many congregations do not look to the deep issues behind why their church is the way it is. Not so with Direct Hit. Borden is up-front and passionate about his subject. A previous reviewer has put in this space a review of some other book about "Organic Church", not by Borden. There are a few typographical and syntactical errors here, but a lot fewer than his previous book Hit The Bullseye. The Appendices are worth the purchase price alone. Five stars.

It's so rare to find an organization that is not only unafraid to let teens be teens, but puts them in charge. Croya does it and does it well. This book gives a solid look into the Croya organization: past, present and future. I'd long held the theory that if given the opportunity young people can do amazing things - Croya proves it. Well worth the read for anyone who has kids or works with them.

Empowering Teens: A Guide To Developing A Community Based Youth Organization provides insight and guidance to anyone wishing to improve the quality of life for their community adolescents, whether in an inner city setting, a suburban area, or a rural region. Elaine Slayton presents a cogent analysis of program methodology, detailing how it works. Very highly recommended and essential "how to" reading for youth workers, parents, educators, counselors, governmental policy makers, community organization leaders, parks and recreation supervisors, and concerned adolescents, Empowering Teens provides a blueprint for enacting workable and effective changes in any community of any size or demographic makeup in order to improve the lives, safety, and general well-being of American youth.

As christian parents my husband and I were devasted when our 18 year old daughter not only walked away from God , but was very defiant and got into some bad things. This book was a comfort to me and the Bible , this book and God are the only things that got me through the rough times. I really put into practice some of the things mentioned in this book, such as unconditional love . A year or so after her walk away from God she returned and is so tender now and really serving Him. She has told us over and over that the unconditional love no matter what she did was a major part in her returning to the faith. We did not condone the things she did, but loved her in spite of them. Praise God there is hope for our lost loved ones! This book is awesome and really puts things in perspective and it will help you if you are in the same situation!

For those who have never experienced a relationship with God through Jesus Christ (not religion, i.e. Catholicism) this book will not make any sense. But, for those who understand what a personal relationship with Jesus is all about, this book speaks volumes to the experience of prodigals. It is one thing to walk away from religion, quite another to walk away from the living God. This book is about that God, the loving Father who pursues his children in spite of their rejection of him. If you are, or were a prodigal you'll understand. If you are a parent of a prodigal, this book will be a healing salve to the wounds you have experienced. We have used this book in self-help groups of parents struggling with prodigals - overwhelming positive response!... Parents in this circumstance loved and cling to it's message of hope. Those outside of this experience, or in a current prodigal state will be clueless. Read it!

I've been reading books about education like crazy lately and this one is one of the best. It gives a vision that is rooted in research and clearly expressed. I learned about teaching, and about what priorities and goals I should be setting, and along the way I learned about myself. So this book serves as both a professional and personal resource. My professor didn't know about this book, but has since read it and was delighted with it's usefulness. Highly recommended.

Doug Heath's practical and instructive book can help you focus your goals and find ways to realize them as an educator and as a parent. Based on his vast research and experience with schools, Heath gives us a portrait of what successful human beings are like, and how schools can help students grow up successfully. He is very helpful and specific. He not only helps us understand what kids need, but offers all the evidence one might require to justify following his vision. This book is not just theoretical. It is timely, articulate, and applicable. It can help any educator understand, with great clarity, what they should be trying to do. Don't hesitate. Find this book!

ALL STAR games from ALL STAR YOUTH LEADERS is jam-packed with some of the best games I have ever seen. What a wonderful feature - The all-star advice from the youth leaders gives helpful suggestions for every game. The book is not very big, but EVERY game is a winner. I highly recommend this book.

I love this book. The art is fresh and different and appeals to youth. I especially like the tips that appear at the beginning of the book that show creative ways to use the clipart.

As a Christian Education Director, and seminary student in the Episcopal tradition, I can assure you that Case's "The Book of Uncommon Prayer 2" is an amazing liturgical achievement. I recommend it to anyone, regardless of denomination, who is looking to hold meaningful, thought provoking, and spiritually nourishing worship services. Please, don't let the name fool you, this book has application outside the Youth Ministry field, and is helpful in incorporating both ancient and modern methods of worship. The "Good Friday" service is especially profound.