Sustainable Children's Ministry

Are you a children's minister or do you work or volunteer in your church's children's ministry? Are you a parent, church leader, or church member how is interested in children's ministry? Then you need to read Sustainable Children's Ministry by Mark DeVries and Annette Safstrom as soon as possible!

Sustainable Children's Ministry: From Last-Minute Scrambling to Long-Term Solutions was published this year by IVP and written by Ministry Architects who previously produced Sustainable Youth Ministry and provides a wide range of church consulting services. Individuals familiar with Sustainable Youth Ministry will find similarities between the previously published book and the newer Sustainable Children's Ministry, but will also find that the content has been completely re-written with examples and information pertinent to children's ministry staff. In fact, the introduction provides the fascinating story of how Annette Safstrom, whose voice and story you hear throughout the book, helped to initiate the writing of this book.

Anyone who has worked in children's ministry in any capacity, knows that there is one thing after another, you always have to plan for the next event, and are searching for that elusive event that will entice parents and their children to participate and stay involved in your children's ministry. The tasks involved are tiring just to think about! Reading Sustainable Children's Ministry is like having an experienced children's minister come along side you to commiserate and share what has worked for them. Knowing that the author has been in your shoes and is sharing practical tips is so reassuring. While not wishing to divulge all of the gold nuggets of information from this book, the number one item Safstrom shares is to plan ahead instead of living week to week. She then provides step by step suggestions on how to do so.

The opening paragraph indicates this book is not just for practicing children's ministers but also for church leaders and church members. Sustainable Children's Ministry is recommended to a wide audience as it helps readers to better understand the needs of the children's ministry department and will allow better advocacy for this important area of church ministry. As a sporadic church ministry volunteer, my appreciation for this ministry area grew. Sustainable Children's Ministry will be useful as a textbook in children's and family ministry classes, definitely belongs in libraries serving ministry students, and on the shelf of every children's minister. Beyond the specific church ministry applications, many of the concepts shared are applicable to a wide variety of careers and life circumstances. Numerous items mentioned in Sustainable Children's Ministry will be tweaked and then applied in my own workplace, family, and personal life. With that said, I'm going to go find some balcony time and figure out my rhythmic week as well as re-read this book and take better notes!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the book, Sustainable Children's Ministry, free from InterVarsity Press. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Aging Brain

Recently I participated in a launch team for Timothy Jennings, M.D. new book The Aging Brain: Proven Steps to Prevent Dementia and Sharpen Your Mind. This title excited me as I am now closer to retirement than to the beginning of my working career. As a participant in the launch team, I received a free pre-release copy of this title.

I eagerly began to read this book and found the initial chapter immensely interesting. Specifically, the idea that the top 5 leading causes of death are not due to poor health necessarily but due to longer life spans (17). From this point, Dr. Jennings continued with chapters on the importance of overall health and information on genetics. The fourth chapter on "Genes and Aging" was a more challenging read. While Dr. Jennings explains everything well and includes excellent documentation, I found I had to pay very careful attention while reading this section.

Part 2 on "Oxidative Stress and Aging" mentioned the typical health concerns but delved more deeply into their impact on aging. Part 3 moved on to lifestyle changes that should be made. Again, the items listed were items we all know we should do. The final section of the book focuses more on dementia. An entire chapter is devoted to vitamins and supplements useful to combat onset of Alzheimer's. This section was particularly useful and covered topics that aren't addressed in all of the leading magazines.

The best part of this book is the section at the end of every chapter titled "Learning Points" and a section titled "Action Plan: Things to Do" which appears in most chapters. These bulleted lists cut to the heart of the book in an easily memorable format. The Amazing Brain is well documented with extensive endnotes. I would have enjoyed the addition of charts to provide another explanation of the material particularly to depict a process.

Overall I recommend this book with some reservation. While it is a good book and well-documented, I found there was not a lot of information that I couldn't find by reading Prevention Magazine or some other health source. The benefit of the book is the convenience of having all of this content in one place and being able to reference it when desired.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the book, The Aging Brain, free from Baker Books. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”