Rylie Hineman
CHMN301: Introduction to NextGen Ministry
Reading Report: It’s Just a Phase, So Don’t Miss It Assignment
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Introduction
Unless one devotes themselves to the full understanding of the psychology and structure of
student minds, there is no way that a ministry leader can know if they are doing everything
correctly. To come into a handed down ministry and making it your own without any guidelines
can be intimidating. Resources, like It’s Just a Phase So Don’t Miss It introduces in easy terms
just what it means to understand the students at the age they are. This also means that leaders can
work together to ease the transition of learning and grow with students in the capability of their
understanding. To work together for the students, and for the kingdom are who teachers for the
Lord must strive to be.
Summary
It’s Just a Phase So Don’t Miss It by Hughes and Hughes is a book that strives to help
redefine how leaders in the church combine different adolescent stages with spirituality. It
informs the believer that, “Your job is not to redefine God at every phase, but your job is to help
kids rediscover God in a new way at each phase.”1 Looking at pre-school, the students are
defined with a natural sense of wonder and drive for creativity and kinesthetic learning.
Elementary students have that sense of wonder, but now have the drive for discovery. A constant
asking of “why?” and “how?” is the drive for innocent questioning, and the beginning of a
deeper understanding of who God is. Aside from examining the students, the book also addresses
the most common mistakes made by adults when it comes to understanding phases, but it also
offers solutions that can easily be adjusted by changing how one thinks. Showing the kids, some
ways indirectly, how they can relate to God will help them see He is the creator and shows how
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), 153.
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their faith is a constant growing entity. All these lessons end with how the spirituality grows into
mobilization of healthy and mature relationship with God, that leads through adulthood with a
strong bond with Him.
Personal Response
For my personal response, I would have to say that this book hit the mark. To bring into
light the fact that God never changes, but we do, is refreshing. I think it’s always hard within the
church for children to transition if the teachers lack communication with one another. I really like
what the book said, “The best way to help a kid mature in their relationship with God at every
phase is to help them relate to God in their present phase.”2 As simple as it is to say, that phrase
is the key to healthy children’s and youth ministry in the church. Phases come and go, and to
actually be on that level of understanding with their own child I think could be revolutionary for
spirituality. Younger minds in pre-school and elementary need the visualization of a God so
powerful and magnificent. This reminds me of VBS at my church. I am the head decorator when
it comes to VBS, and as usual I hit the wall about 6 weeks in. I am covered in hot glue burns,
paint in my hair, and paper cuts, and find myself asking the question, “Will the kids really even
care?” Then we get to opening day, and as the kids walk through the door they are overjoyed and
intrigued by the wonders around them. I guess in hindsight this reading gave me a fresh
perspective as to why that is. When it is not VBS time, I work with teenagers and adults only
who would much rather contemplate the meaning of a comma in a verse than care what is on the
wall. Everything we do is a ministry, in every phase.
Conclusion
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).
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In conclusion, It’s Just a Phase is an excellent and concise source for the insight of a
beginning leader. Ministry only comes with two handbooks, the Bible, and whatever worked for
the person before you. To be able to visualize the different phases of life for an adolescent and
understand the different methods one can go about teaching them does not change God or Jesus’
message. From a personal perspective, this resource is good at giving an in-depth but simple
understanding of how to lead ministries that take kids through the different moments in their
lives and relates God to who they are in life as well. Overall, this book can help new leaders find
a place to begin with their teaching, and it can inspire seasoned leaders to go in a new direction
for the betterment of their students.
Pages read: 153-173
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Bibliography
Joiner, Reggie, 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).
