The Complete Youth Ministries Handbook, Volumes I and II
J. David Stone, Abingdon, J980 & 1981, 244 & 251 pages, $12.95 & $19.95. Reviewed by J. H. Harris, associate director, General Conference Youth Department.
Volume I is undoubtedly the finest compilation of youth resource materials to come from an American press. Under general editor]. David Stone and ten other highly specialized, professional grassroots youth workers has come forth a resource that every youth director, pastor, and church youth leader should have in their libraries. This practical "how to" manual is filled with time-tested approaches to youth and their needs, from which you can pick and choose to fit your situation.
Volume I covers everything from a beautiful overview, concepts, and models by Stone, to leadership, understanding the junior high age, Bible study, fellowship programming, spiritual disciplines, coun seling, meeting individual needs, models of love, sixty games, and rural and small town parish/church ideas for the lay person.
Volume II is a supplement of 251 additional pages, also edited by Stone, assisted once again by a highly skilled team of ten specialists. The preface alone is worth the price several times over. Its philosophy permeates most of the twelve chapters, and one finds himself realizing that structure in the church's youth min istry program is a vitual necessity if objectives are to be reached.
Both volumes I and II are the best handbooks to come to my attention in years, and I highly recommend them on the basis that the material is church tested, proved to work, and is the result of eighteen independent multichurched authors, thus providing wide-ranging input.
Telling the Story
Richard A. Jensen, Augsburg, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1979, 190 pages, $5.95. Reviewed by John Giass, pastor, Escanaba, Michigan.
Books on improving sermonic endeav ors usually come from homeleticians. Tellng the Story, however, is written by a professor of systematic theology.
Jensen believes that much of the preaching in the land today is in a rut he calls didactic preaching; preaching that aims to communicate written, or eye informa tion to the mind of the listener. It seeks to teach the lessons of the text in a logical manner that progresses much as a liturgy does.
A second kind of preaching Jensen describes is what he calls proclamatory preaching. This kind of preaching seeks to present the text in such a way that the proclamation of Scripture becomes for today's listeners the same experience as it was for the original hearers.
Jensen's major contribution to homiletics is the third type of preaching he presents: story preaching. Story telling does not seek to communicate information as does didactic preaching. Story preaching also avoids the direct approach of proclamatory preaching and instead recasts a Biblical story or parable in contemporary story form so that as the story unfolds, the listener becomes engrossed and suddenly recognizes himself in the story. Indirectly the listener is brought to the confrontation with the Word.
Old Testament Exegesis: A Primer for Students and Pastors
Douglas Stuart, Westminster Press, J980, 143 pages, $7.95. Reviewed by Gerald Wheeler, associate book editor, Review and Herald Publishing Association.
Designed for those with little or no training in exegesis, Stuart's book outlines a step-by-step procedure for Old Testa ment exegesis and shows how to apply the theological results to preaching and pasto ral teaching. One section develops methods of exegesis that the busy clergy man can employ in the limited time he has to prepare his sermon. A final section lists study tools that will help the pastor in his exegetical study. A solid, practical, con servative approach.
Recently published
The Bible and Archaelogy, 3d ed., rev. Ed. by J. A. Thompson. Eerdmans, 1982, 496 pages, $17.95.
The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian World View, 5 vols. (21 previous books, rev. and updated). Crossway Books, 1982, $89.95.
Eerdmans' Book of Christian Poetry. Comp. by Pat Alexander. Eerdmans, 1981, 125 pages, $10.95.
Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. Gleason L Archer. Zondervan, 1982, 476 pages, $16.95.
Expanded Paraphrase of the Epistles of Paul. F. F. Bruce, Ronald Haynes, Publish ers, 1981, 323 pages, $12.95.
The Expositor's Bible Commentary, vol. 9. (John: Merrill C. Tenney; Acts: Richard N Longenecker.) Zondervan, 1981, 589 pages, $19.95.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 2, rev. Eerdmans, 1982, 1175 pages, $35.00.
Unger's Commentary on the Old Testa ment, vol. 2 (Isaiah-Malachi). Merrill F. Unger, Moody Press, 1981, 963 pages.
World Christian Encyclopedia: A Com parative Study of Churches and Religions in the Modem World A.D. 1900-2000. Ed. by David B. Barren. Oxford University Press, 1982, 1010 pages, $95.00.
The Wycliffe Biographical Dictionary of the Church, rev. ElginMoyer, Moody Press, 1982, 479 pages.
