Book Reflection: Deep Ministry in a Shallow World

I recently read a book called Deep Ministry in a Shallow World by Chap Clark and Kara E. Powell. This book was published in 2006, but I read it recently after perusing the website of the Fuller Youth Institute. Our church has been having some exciting conversations about the youth ministry recently, and it was necessary that I do some reading on the subject.
While the writing is not great, and the design of the book is obnoxious, the content is quite valuable. For example, in the first chapter the authors explore the usual shallow solutions to the challenges faced in youth ministry. Their first observation of common shallow solutions: more of the same. The authors provide an example of the thought process that may lead to a fallacy such as this. “Small groups on Sunday’s aren’t clicking, but that’s because the students don’t know one another all that well. If they met on Tuesday nights, then we could move past pseudo-community and into real life relationships” We often decide what we need is more; more leaders, more money, more time, etc. In reality, most of us simply need to stop and listen. We need to listen to students, parents, and the Lord. In my assessment, the most valuable aspect of this book is the way it causes the reader to look into the mirror. This text also provides many practical examples of what a youth leader might be able to do in order to move into a deeper ministry.
There are two glaring omissions from this book, and they are not the weird sidebar prompts or the overuse of the infinity symbol in their diagrams (though both are glaring). First, there is little call for personal growth and deep change in the youth minister. For this subject, I would recommend a short book by Eugene Peterson (author of The Message) called Working the Angles. The other glaring omission is the call of the church, and youth ministry, to work towards justice. For this, I would recommend a book by the same authors, Chap Clark and Kara E. Powell. In 2007, they published Deep Justice in a Broken World. I will be reflecting on this book next.