Introduction
The book Student Ministry Essentials is a book written to youth ministry leaders from
youth ministry leaders. This book contained a lot of helpful information, as well as many tips for
learners in the ministry of teenagers. Even with all the information and tips, the book was easy to
read and easy to apply to the readers life. So, what was it all about?
Summary
Student Ministry Essentials is written by Steve Vandegriff and Richard Brown. These
men, as stated in the beginning of the book, served in student ministry for many years. Their
lives are very similar to each other’s. After serving in ministry, they now are teachers to help the
up-and-coming student ministers. In their book, they wrote about the essentials of youth ministry.
In the beginning of the book, Steve Vandegriff highlights what all of student
ministry is. He says “I would suggest that our message is simple … life both now and forever.
It’s not about dying. It’s about living. It’s essential.”1 The essential part of student ministry is the
gospel, but sometimes getting that gospel to the students and helping them grow is not as easy as
understanding the main theme of this book. The message is simple, but the authors help teach the
reader how to get the simple message out. The book is split up into three sections, the first is
leading, second is nurturing, and third is reaching.
The first section teaches all about leading as a student ministry leader. The authors cover
how to lead students, parents, leaders, and even yourself. One key takeaway from this section is
that it is okay to be a different leader. Not every youth pastor is going to lead the same way, but
what is important is leading. One interesting part of this section is where the author talks about
1 Steve Vandegriff, “Introduction: Do Teenagers Have a Prayer?,” in Student Ministry Essentials: Reaching. Leading.
Nurturing. (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2015), 20.
youth workers knowing their roles. Exodus 18 is brought up, and it shows why it is important for
leaders to share the work-load.
The second section teaches all about nurturing. This section on nurturing talks about
ways student ministry leaders can better help the students to grow into adults and grow in their
spiritual walks. One of the big ways to do this is by teaching biblically. The author defines this as
“presenting and representing God’s Word accurately, completely, clearly, and practically both
through our words and through our lifestyle.” Nurturing is very important when it comes to
student ministry.
The third section speaks to reaching. This part of the book is designed to help leaders
understand the importance of outreach. The book talks about how needing a well thought out
program, that is biblically based that will bring in the students. The big part of this section is the
keeping part. Leaders can bring in a lot of kids, but the ministry needs to keep them in order to
be effective. This book helps understand the core parts of student ministry.
Personal Response
Reading Student Ministry Essentials was very encouraging for me. I have done quite a
few seminars, and read some books on youth ministry, and all those things usually have what this
book is talking about. However, this book puts all of the helpful hints, techniques, and examples
in one place.
Once area that this book helped me out in is the reaching part. There are many weeks
where the youth group I work with will have a lot of visitors, but rarely do they continue to come
back. We have about fifteen kids that always come, but other than that the others are usually new.
So, understanding that programs and events are essential to youth ministry was very encouraging
to me. I don’t want to become part of a boring student ministry and this book helped keep me out
of that!
Conclusion
This book was a very good read. It made sense, was fun to read, and provided a lot of
help to a fellow student ministry worker. This is a book that leaders should keep with them to
refer to as student ministry goes on.
