City Lights: Ministry Essentials for Reaching Urban Youth

City Lights: Ministry Essentials for Reaching Urban Youth

Edited by Scott Larson and Karen Free (published by Group Publishing, Inc., 2003)

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Summary:

This concise and practical book is a compilation of essays on a variety of topics regarding urban youth ministry.  Many of the authors themselves are, or have been, urban youth pastors. Several also have expertise in other areas of social work and sociology.  The chapters range from the foundational (i.e., “The Philosophy of Urban Youth Ministry, “The Code of the Streets”), to the technical (with individual chapters on ministering to African-American, Hispanic-American, Southeast Asian-American, and Native American Youth and Families, respectively), to the practical (i.e., “Developing Urban Student Leadership,” “Nurturing Your Staff and Volunteers”).  Each essay is extremely relevant and up-to-date on the challenges of urban ministry in the 21^st century. 

Why does FASTEN recommend this resource?

This is a good book for someone just entering the field or wanting a well-rounded understanding of the multi-faceted effort of ministering to urban youth.  For veteran urban youth pastors, this book will help fill in some of the gaps and provide a source of peer-to-peer learning from the 19 contributing writers.