Family-Based Youth Ministry. Revised and Expanded Edition. By Mark DeVries. Downers Grove, IL: Inter- Varsity Press, 2004, 255 pp., $16.00.

When reading the new edition of Family-Based Youth Ministry (2004), by Mark DeVries, it is helpful to know ahead of time just what this book offers, and what it does not. DeVries has been involved in youth ministry for over twenty-five years: as an Associate Pastor for Youth and Their Families, as founder of Youth Ministry Architects, and as a sought-after lecturer and teacher. All that to say, DeVries knows the subject of youth ministry well, and it is youth ministry that is a primary concern of this book.

DeVries spends the first few chapters diagnosing what he sees as the “crisis” in youth ministry: the way youth ministry has been done has not been “effective in leading our young people to mature Christian adulthood” (26). In short, DeVries believes much youth ministry leads kids away from taking responsibility for their own spiritual life (28) by isolating kids from mature Christian adults (39-43), with the result that young people are relationally, cognitively, and morally stunted (48-53). The corrective to this crisis is to re-establish the “generational threads that used to weave their way into the fabric of growing up” by “connecting our kids to nurturing relationships that will last after they complete their teenage years” (56).

DeVries then spends the next few chapters discussing the positive and negative aspects of the nuclear family. DeVries certainly believes parents are crucial in the growth of young people toward Christ-likeness. He goes so far as to claim “Parents play a role second only to that of the Holy Spirit in building the spiritual foundation of their children’s lives” (68). Yet, he does not mince words in asserting that many Christian parents are just too spiritually immature, too harried by the busyness of life, or too affected by contemporary culture to navigate alone the task of raising their children toward being mature Christian adults (73-78).

It is here, then, that DeVries extols the benefits of what he sees is the key for growing children toward being “complete in Christ”: the extended family of the church (83-95, 116). Most significantly, DeVries believes that an extended Christian family can help to overcome deficiencies found in many homes-par- ticularly non-traditional homes (119-29). DeVries also makes his case that an extended Christian family is essential for young people to mature in their faith by providing avenues for them to own their faith (135-43) and to become responsible members of the larger Christian community of faith (146-56).

All of these benefits are good things. Yet, it is at this point in the book that an undercurrent of philosophy- of-ministry tension comes bursting to the surface. DeVries is clear in articulating this tension; it is found in the critical process of determining whether one is functioning in the context of a family-ministry model or a youth ministry model (175). It is here that one also really gets a sense of what this book is not about.

Ultimately, this book is not about family-based youth ministry in the sense of equipping parents to be the primary disciple-makers of their children. Rather, this book is about extended-family-based youth minis- try, in the sense of creating an environment where “the church takes the responsibility” of “moving students to maturity in Christ, accessing as much as possible the family and the extended family of the church” (175, emphasis added). As DeVries readily admits, this dis- tinction is “subtle yet significant” (175).

The real value of this edition of Family-Based Youth Ministry is the same as the previous edition; it casts a vision for involving youth in the life of the church as members of a faith-family. Certainly, this volume adds to the conversation about the importance of family-based ministry. One gets the sense in reading this book that the conversation surrounding family-based ministry (youth and otherwise) has changed since it was originally published, and one is left to wonder whether DeVries’ work will speak as loudly in church culture today, as it did in 1994.

[Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry 1.2.  Click here for a PDF copy of this article.]