Top 5 Youth Ministry Books Every New Youth Pastor Must Read

Welcome to Nick Clason Theological Seminary—or as my new resident called it, NCTS. I’m not actually starting a seminary, but if you’re brand new to youth ministry and wondering, "What books should I read?" You’re in the right place. Today I’m breaking down 5 must-read youth ministry books and 3 video courses that will give you a solid foundation for preaching, programming, and discipling students in today’s world.

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//📚 RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Knowing Him:
https://www.sonlife.com/store/books-studies/knowing-him-50-day-study/
E-BOOK: https://www.sonlife.com/store/ebooks/knowing-him-50-day-study-ebook/

Communicating for a Change
https://walmrt.us/4fPAYze

Lead Small
https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Small-Ideas-Every-Leader/dp/0985411627

Sticky Church:
https://walmrt.us/4mZu252

4 Chair Discipling
https://walmrt.us/4lHUgbc

//📽️ VIDEO COURSES
Access to Youth Ministry University:
https://www.ymuniversity.com/

-Programming Like a Pro
-Purpose Driven Youth Ministry
-Family Ministry

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Nick Clason Theological Seminary
01:12 Brunch & Learn
04:25 Knowing Him
06:47 Communicating for a Change
08:09 VIDEO: Programming Like a Pro
10:24 Lead Small
12:18 VIDEO: Family Ministry
12:59 Sticky Church
14:19 VIDEO: PDYM - Purpose Driven Youth Ministry
15:24 4 Chair Discipling
15:51 HONORABLE MENTION: Your First 2 Years in Youth Ministry
16:09 Biblical Ministry is Timeless

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:03 - 00:00:27:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome to the Nicholas's Theological Seminary, or as my new resident recently called it, the n c t s. Now, listen, I'm not actually starting to sing you, but if you are brand new to youth ministry and you're wondering, like this person and this youth pastor Facebook group who said, hey, I am new to youth ministry and I've been out of the youth ministry position for 11 years.

00:00:27:26 - 00:00:59:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So anyone have any new books or resources that will help me with today's youth, ages 9 to 18 at this new position? They've had trouble the last year with getting volunteers, kids showing up and committing to events. If anyone has any advice on these things that would help. Thank you and good luck with your ministry. If that's you, or if you're asking a question like that, well then today you're in the right place because what I'm actually going to be doing is I'm going to be breaking down five must-read youth ministry books paired with three video courses.

00:00:59:07 - 00:01:30:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And those two things paired together are going to give you a solid foundation for preaching, programing, and discipling students in today's world. Welcome, everyone to the hybrid ministry Show. What's up everyone? Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. For a quick bit of context. Just as a reminder, there are always chapters listed down below. In this episode, I'm breaking down what you should be reading and what you can be using as prep as a new or, building a foundation in youth ministry.

00:01:30:18 - 00:01:54:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this really came to light in, recent days. My boss, Darren, who was, a and still is a 30 plus year youth ministry veteran, moved on to a different role, and I stepped into his seat and I inherited a team, with a combined less than one year of paid professional, full time youth ministry experience.

00:01:54:22 - 00:02:16:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There are four of them, but every single one of them has less than a year, and in some cases, less than six months of paid professional, full time youth ministry experience. They're eager. They're awesome. I love our team. But they're all very young. And so I started kind of thinking through, like, what are some of the things that we should be, that they should know?

00:02:16:08 - 00:02:41:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what are some of the things that have been foundational to me that I have known? And so, in previous, years when, you know, Dan was on the team and I was his right hand man, him and I kind of in tandem led these, lunch and learn kind of like workshops. And so I went back through and I looked at what we did last year, and then I looked ahead and, I started, like, thinking, like, what was some of the most core or, like, foundational things for me growing up.

00:02:41:24 - 00:03:02:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this is essentially like my, like, must have go to like types of things, for youth pastors and frankly, for people in ministry because some of these things are not actually only like ministry specific. So, there are going to be links to every single one of these listed down below in the description. Make sure that you go check those out.

00:03:02:10 - 00:03:21:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There may be a small affiliate commission. Won't change the price for you. Some might not have it. Like, I don't know exactly. Which ones are which, but you can go ahead and check those out. But the first thing and so like in our what I'll do is I'll share, here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube, I'll share are like brunch and learn schedule.

00:03:21:13 - 00:03:51:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we meet once a month, for discussion around some of these topics. And now, I'm, I'm building it and setting it up in this particular way, to try and space out some of the obligation and some of the reading that I'm requiring of them. However. So, like, you need to understand, like I'm putting, like, shorter books, after longer books, and then I'm doing a video class in between some books and stuff like that so that it's not only reading and there's like videos in there.

00:03:51:14 - 00:04:07:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's why I'm breaking it up, kind of the way that I'm breaking it up. But like, you can kind of go in any, any direction and like, depending on the appetite that you may or may not have for learning, that may or may not be better for you. So go ahead and try and kind of like take, take this with a grain of salt.

00:04:07:29 - 00:04:31:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm not saying you have to go in any particular order. I may recommend like a particular order, but you can go in, in whatever or you want. And I'll explain what each of the books kind of focus on. And so depending on your context, you can kind of, grab it, in that way. But for us, starting off, we're doing a 50 day devotional study from Sun Life called Knowing Him.

00:04:31:07 - 00:05:01:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now what is awesome about this book is a it's a devotional, so you can, like, add it and make it a part of just like your daily morning, like quiet time reading. And what it is, is it's an exploration through the life of Christ in 50 days, in chronological order. My senior pastor and then also like the founder of Sun Life, Dan Spader, and many of the guys kind of in that arena have sort of found the value in looking at the harmony of the Gospels in the chronological order life of Jesus.

00:05:01:23 - 00:05:31:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's what this 50 day study is, kind of built around. And I kid you not like, I'm not saying this hyperbolically this is perhaps the most beneficial, like devotional study that I have ever been through in my life. It's so impactful. So several videos back linked right up here talked about my, event strategy, the, the spiritual CPR and that kind of came, from the roots in the foundation of like, a sun life kind of strategy.

00:05:31:23 - 00:05:49:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this knowing him, is really like the core, kind of like foundation. Or like the, the chronological ness of, of it all. And so was really been cool is, my team right now they're working through this. And, one of the guys, he goes, you know, I just kind of assumed, like, I've been through a million Bible studies.

00:05:49:05 - 00:06:12:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I just kind of assumed the questions would be kind of lame and kind of basic. He's like, the study's fantastic. And the questions are really, really making me think so it's really, really good. And, we at a as our church, we try to position our church and thus our ministry after the chronological nature of Jesus and, and follow his blueprint and disciple making pathway for making leaders.

00:06:12:15 - 00:06:32:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, this devotional really helps, get our, our team into that headspace of, doing ministry like Jesus and exploring it through kind of a chronological lens. There's not a great way to buy this, honestly. They have kind of like a print on demand sort of deal, and our church, doesn't, want to pay tax because we're tax exempt.

00:06:32:14 - 00:06:47:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And there wasn't a very easy way for me to figure out how to not do tax. But they do have a completely free e-book version of it. And so if you don't mind the e-book version and then maybe write down your answers in, like, a journal, then you can totally go that way and it's completely free.

00:06:47:26 - 00:07:09:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The next book that I recommend to all of our team as they're communicating is, in my opinion, the best communication resource out there from one Andy Stanley. Now, listen, I know that recently some of his, comments and some of his thinking have become a little bit polarizing in the church subculture. But you can't argue that he's not one of the best communicators out there.

00:07:09:20 - 00:07:42:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so he has a book on communicating for a change that I absolutely love. And so, some of our team has already been through that. And so for this, for our brunch and learn, I'm taking through, two people who have not yet been through that. And we're not only going to read it and discuss it, but we're also going to workshop like a future message for them, in this sort of way that Andy, builds out his, his messages, which is in his, his kind of famed and patented outline of me, then we, then God, then you, then we, and the the sort of thesis for his whole book is drive towards

00:07:42:16 - 00:07:59:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
one main point and then tell a story you know about you, that's the me. And then broaden it so that it includes everyone. And, you know, create this tension like, this is not only a new problem, but it's a we problem. But here's how God solves it. And here's one thing that you can do as a result of that.

00:07:59:23 - 00:08:20:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then finally, if we all did this, imagine how the world could be different or the world could change to really, really good framework. And I basically use it every single time I preach. Next. After that, we are moving into our youth ministry university, which we are platinum members at our church. If you're not, you should go check it out on Download Youth Ministry.

00:08:20:06 - 00:08:42:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
At least check out Collider, which is an amazing, you know, scope and sequence curriculum. You can use code Hybrid Ministry ten, if you want to get 10% off co-leader for the year. But we're using a, we're using the programing like a pro, which is Justin Knowles and Josh Griffin, and they're sort of like a programing course that they have on WAMU.

00:08:42:06 - 00:09:02:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, I wanted to get our, our team thinking and talking about creative programing and, you know, that's actually a really, really high value for me, something that I care a lot about. In fact, that's one of the things that I talk about on my bonus, Patreon hybrid heroes podcast every single week. Hey, quick break.

00:09:02:22 - 00:09:19:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day as a youth pastor, scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall.

00:09:19:06 - 00:09:42:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's why I created this the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed. So here's the thing you can grab my pack right now over on Patreon.

00:09:42:16 - 00:10:02:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And did you know that monthly hybrid? Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting.

00:10:02:28 - 00:10:22:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. So in addition to social media, in addition to programing like a pro, that is one of the things we're taking our team through.

00:10:23:01 - 00:10:46:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We are also then, after that, we're going to take them through the book Lead Small, which lead Small is actually sort of like written as a job description for small group leaders. It's kind of meant to hand to small group leaders. It's a really quick and fun read. And so, in the middle of sort of like our year, I dropped lead Small on them because I think it's probably going to be the quickest of all the reads that they're going to have to do.

00:10:46:22 - 00:11:10:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we'll have a discussion and that'll be, really us thinking and strategizing as staff about how we can equip our small group leaders to continue to lean into some of the core, kind of like five lead small principles. My friend Carrie Rae, who's, over on staff at y, AM3 60, he's famous for saying, like, any youth pastor could have written this book.

00:11:10:18 - 00:11:50:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Orange just went ahead and did it. And once again, I know that there's some, you know, stuff going on around with orange, but the core principles of Lead Small, which are taken from Scripture, are also, not, you know, they haven't, ceased to, to be relevant. And so they're still very useful to creating a good culture of relationships and connection and small group and most youth ministries, I would argue that are greater than 25 to 30, which is probably most of us are going to need to have a pretty strong lead, small culture, because, you as a youth pastor can't provide care for greater than 30 students.

00:11:50:01 - 00:12:16:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you need to, enlist small group leaders to help continue on in that care. It's a biblical principle. We see, Jethro challenged Moses to do that when Moses doing too much. And Jethro says you need to delegate. And and that's what we as youth pastors also need to do. Not because we don't care about students, not because we don't want to be in students lives, but because we want to equip our small group leaders to be kind of the torch bearers for some of that shepherding and pastoral care.

00:12:16:19 - 00:12:38:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what the lead small principle is all about. The next thing we're going back to, why I'm university and we're looking at family ministry, just basically thinking like, how do we partner with parents? That's a core kind of like principle that all of us in youth ministry, should care about. That's what orange is kind of built off of, you know, like, the church and the churches.

00:12:38:07 - 00:12:56:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What is I think the church is red. No, the family is red because it's their heart and their love, and the church is yellow because like the light of God. But together they should make orange. Right? And so it's partnering with families in your student and in your youth ministry. And so, youth minister University has a whole family ministry course.

00:12:56:27 - 00:13:19:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we're going to watch that and then we're going to discuss that as a team. This book right here is essentially my, small group, curriculum strategy guide. It is Sticky Church, written by Larry Osborne. And I read this book all the way back when I was an intern myself. And his whole premise is your church will grow when you're small.

00:13:19:15 - 00:13:43:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Groups are sticky. So it's but it's more than just lead small culture. It's what's the curriculum and what's the driving force within your small groups. And his premise is essentially you should do a sermon or whatever your main messages, sermon based small groups. And some of you, totally agree, which, you know, if if you are like a subscriber to co-leader, you understand that that's exactly like what it is like.

00:13:43:19 - 00:14:06:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You listen to the message and then you break into small groups to discuss it. In our context. We teach on one night and then our small group curriculum is taught on a whole nother day and a whole nother calendar time of the week. Which is similar to like a big church model where if you go to church and then you have small groups that meet decentralized host homes throughout the community, and they're discussing the pastor's sermon.

00:14:06:12 - 00:14:25:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a similar sort of mindset. So this comes from, I'm sure other people have this this idea in this mindset. But, I remember at first from Larry Osborne and I found this book to be incredibly helpful and incredibly impactful. Towards the end of the year, we're finally going to get into the why I'm university purpose driven youth ministry discussion.

00:14:25:09 - 00:14:45:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The only reason that this isn't higher, and the only reason that I don't recommend this sooner, is because, we kind of did like the knowing him, which is going to be a, a ministry philosophy and a ministry purpose, conversation and discussion. And so what I'm doing is I'm bringing this back around, bookending it at the end of the year.

00:14:45:07 - 00:15:04:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the book dug this book. Phenomenal. I love this book. I was just trying to cut down on the reading, and I saw that there was a video course. And so we're going to go ahead and have take our team through the video course and just kind of explore the five different purposes of the church, which again, we are already kind of like our team.

00:15:04:24 - 00:15:23:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our team has a good understanding of that as it pertains to like Jesus's disciple making pathway, like those sections on the pathway often are tied to different purposes of the church. So this will, be reiterating it and meshing into that way of thinking just from like a slightly different angle. So I'm really excited to bring this one back around.

00:15:23:28 - 00:15:47:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then finally, the ultimate bookend for church discipling by Dan Spader, one of my all time favorite books as well. It's he's the founder of Sun Life. And so just like we have four steps on our church's pathway, he has four chairs. And that it's going to pair really well with that knowing him and then that purpose driven youth ministry discussion I will give and I will give a nod.

00:15:47:26 - 00:16:06:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the only other reason I didn't include this book for all youth pastors is, this is like the goat of all youth ministry books. Is your first two years in youth ministry? The only reason I didn't include it for our team is because, as interns, they've already gone through it and read it. And so, I recommend that one as well.

00:16:06:18 - 00:16:24:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Written by Doug Fields as well. Phenomenal and fantastic book. And so if you're in youth ministry and if you're wondering, like, what do I do? How do I connect? Now, listen, you might be thinking, if you wrote that question like, how do I connect with teens in like this new world that you're like, these aren't that new of resources?

00:16:24:24 - 00:16:48:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're right. And maybe it's because I'm an old fuddy duddy. Or I think that some of these things are tied to the Great Commission and are key to like some, some youth ministry like purpose, which, you know, purpose driven youth ministry for church discipling and knowing him are all like youth ministry strategy and church ministry strategy, doing and running church and making disciples like Jesus.

00:16:48:18 - 00:17:08:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then within that you got teaching and programing. So those are in there. And then finally, leading small group. So you got lead small and you got sticky church. And then the last piece is how do we partner with parents? And that's why we included that family ministry piece. All these things really help hopefully give a good holistic view of of good youth ministry.

00:17:08:05 - 00:17:25:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, you know, I've been youth ministry for 15 years. These are some of the core things that have helped shape my thinking and some of what I do as well. And let me just say kind of one final piece, like, if you're not a platinum member, you should become one because they give you a conference registration ticket and some of those do.

00:17:25:22 - 00:17:47:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I am 100 roundtables conferences, have been some of the most formative things to my youth ministry thinking and, my, my honestly, my health and my longevity in being a youth pastor for more than 15 years. So, hey, hope you found this episode helpful. We're going to be answering some questions in the subsequent episodes. It'll be linked in a playlist, or you can tap the video that you see right here on screen.

00:17:47:29 - 00:17:56:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, subscribe or like or a share would really mean the world to us if you found this episode helpful. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget stay hybrid.