When Kids Hurt: Help for Adults Navigating the Adolescent Maze By Chap Clark & Steve Rabey (Baker Books)
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In 2004, Fuller Theological Seminary professor Chap Clark published his acclaimed book Hurt which struck a chord with youth workers all over the nation and got them thinking and talking about our society’s systemic abandonment of teenagers. Now Clark and Rabey follow up with a less academic offering written especially for parents, youth ministers, educators, volunteer workers and others who love teenagers and who desire to help them transition to a healthy adulthood.
When Kids Hurt rehashes most of the same information as the previous title but also covers interesting youth culture topics and statistics in sidebars and includes encouraging stories and ideas in the form of mini-essays written by those on the frontlines of ministering to teens in their respective local settings.
Today’s adolescent student needs relationships with several caring adults who will give him or her attention and encouragement. After reading this book, willing adults will want to respond by hugging the nearest teenager while genuinely and passionately shouting out, “You matter!”
(P.S.: Interested parents and ministers should also check out Chap & Dee Clark’s 2007 title Disconnected: Parenting Teens in a MySpace World.)
Greg Bowman, minister to students
First Baptist Church
Duncanville
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The Wholehearted Marriage: Fully Engaging Your Most Important Relationship By Greg Smalley and Shawn Stoever
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Greg Smalley and Shawn Stoever’s book takes readers on a journey. And along the way, each reader must stop to assess his or her own heart and its openness to God.
The authors help identify why people do not live life wholeheartedly, but they do not stop there. They show how to move past pain and fear and have a happy heart and marriage.
Smalley and Stoever use this step-by-step guide to explain the different aspects of the heart from the wounded heart to how to unleash it. The two tell short stories and accounts from their experiences as marriage counselors and their own relationships that many can relate to.
Lauren Heartsill, Communications Intern
Baptist Standard, Dallas
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