Book Report – Kurt & Scott’s Junior High Adventure by Kurt Johnston & Scott Rubin

I picked up this little book because I love middle school kids and anyone who talks about and works with them is worth reading. Scott and Kurt have been working with young adolescents for a long time and their book, “Kurt & Scott's Junior High Adventure” has some insights into their life as jr hi guys. This is a quick book to read with articles that Kurt wrote for Group Magazine and Scott’s puts in his 2 cents throughout the book. The two key ideas that I came away from reading this book are:
1) Kurt & Scott ask some great questions that I want to remember for evaluation and thought. Here they are:
a. “How do I remind parents that they are the number one spiritual influence (positive… and negative) in their kids’ lives?”
b. “How do I encourage parents to play that role?”
c. “What do we want students to know?”
d. “What do we want students to do?”

2) Ministering to young adolescents is hard work and can tap anyone’s strength after time. Kurt & Scott share the importance to keep ourselves balanced when we do ministry to kids.

- We need know about our kids world but not to be all caught up in it. “There is more important things in youth ministry than knowing the latest trends in youth culture.”

- To keep God the main thing in our lives because the Devil is working hard to break us down. Being ethical is a critical part of our lives but if we aren’t careful we can fail. A lot of times this ethical failure is not something that happens over night but a slow break down. As Scott says, “it seems like most often people slowly slide into ethical problems rather than jump into them.”

- And the last key balance idea that I picked up was the need for us to wait on God. “Our heavenly Father is waiting for us to slow down long enough to allow him to re-energize, redirect, remotivate, and refresh our souls,” is how Kurt put it.

I always enjoy reading about ministering to middle school students. Kurt & Scott’s adventure book is excellent to read and encouraging to anyone who spends time with young adolescents.