Introduction
It’s Just a Phase So Don’t Miss It is a book that is written by Reggie Joiner and Kristen
Ivy. They worked together to form a book that covers a problem that all churches run into.
Throughout the history of the church, leaders have been trying to figure out what the best way is
to minister to their church family. Whether that church family be young or old or anything in
between. Obviously, one book cannot answer the question in full, but the author’s here get very
close to doing just that. It is a great read for anyone who has kids, works with kids, or even
knows kids. So, what is inside the book?
Summary
This book can be split up into 6 main parts. There are three parts that make up for the
introduction and conclusion of the phases in people’s lives. During these sections we see what a
phase is and we see that various problems are presented for church leaders in each phase. In the
middle of the book, there are 3 sections talking about what churches can do better during those
phases of life. To put it simply, we see a problem presented, and solutions to that problem are
given in this sweet book!
During the introduction into phases and what the book is all about, it can be seen that a
“phase” is “a time frame in a kid’s life when you can leverage distinctive opportunities to
influence their future.”1 The book goes on to describe that during each one of these phases of
life, there are different things that an average person can or cannot learn. That is why it is crucial
for churches and church leaders to understand the phases that children go through. During this
introduction to the phases, there are 13 different phases which are introduced. All the way from
1 Reggie Joiner and Kristen Ivy, It’s Just a Phase So Don’t Miss It: Why Every Life Stage of a Kid Matters and at
Least 13 Things Your Church Should Do About It, First Edition. (WORDsearch, 2015), 10.
when a child is zero, to when they are eighteen and older. The book highlights each phase with
different statistics and significances of children when they are in that phase. One of the best parts
of this book is the sarcasm, for instance during the middle school phase we see these words;
“Being so much smarter than everyone else can really become a burden”2 After all, some
characteristics of each phase can easily be noticed.
After the introduction to all of the phases, Reggie and Kristen go on to talk about how
this affects ministry and ministry leaders. They answer the question of why do we need to know
these phases. The answer is simply because each phase matters! To lead kids is to help them
grow, and the only way somebody can effectively do that is through understanding where they
are at, and what they need to learn! The book covers 13 ways that churches can take steps
forward in helping their students and children grow. The author’s remind the readers that at all
phases of life, what leaders are doing for the kid is special and it is special because it is
discipleship.
The book ends with a timeline of each phase and what happens at each. Then the reader is
reminded that the entire reason this book was written, was so that the phases wouldn’t be missed.
Personal Response
This book for me personally was a big help and a huge encouragement for the way that I
go about ministry. If there was one thing that I took away from it in a big way is that ultimately it
is up to the parent to make sure that each kid is being raised up in the correct way during each
phase. I am a youth intern which means that I focus primarily on students who are between the
ages of 12 to 18. With that being said, I can learn all that there is to learn about those phases but
if the student’s that I’m getting haven’t been raised well up until then, the phases would be much
2 Reggie Joiner and Kristen Ivy, It’s Just a Phase So Don’t Miss It: Why Every Life Stage of a Kid Matters and at Least
13 Things Your Church Should Do About It, First Edition. (WORDsearch, 2015), 29.
more challenging. That shows me that a huge part of my job is to equip the parents to raise their
kids well in each phase! This book was very encouraging in that way. Another encouraging part
for me was realizing that there are so many resources for when I become a father. I have written
this book down so that when I become a parent, I can better be prepared for each phase of life
that my child goes through.
Conclusion
It’s Just a Phase So Don’t Miss It was an awesome book to read through and I would
recommend it to anyone. Especially those that are going into parenthood, or into ministry. It is a
book that can be very helpful for anyone serving God by serving youth!
Page number statement: I read 237 pages of this book which is from page 8 to page 245!
Bibliography
