Welcome to another brand-new segment on the blog! You may not believe this, but we at Lifeway Girls love a good book. Once a month, we’ll share all about our latest “read” in hopes that it will be helpful to you, both in your personal relationship with Christ and in your ministry to young women. Enjoy!
I stumbled across This Changes Everything while at a conference last month and, because I am both a student pastor’s wife and a high school small group leader, I figured I would try it out. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect. After all, the author, Jaquelle Crowe, is nineteen years old — not something you see every day — and I was not sure how much I could really learn from someone who seemed so….young. But oh my, how the Lord humbled my arrogant attitude! Crowe’s wisdom far exceeds her age, and although this book was written to a teen audience, I gleaned invaluable insight and wisdom as an adult.
The subtitle of this book says it all: “how the gospel transforms the teen years.” It is a wake-up call for teenagers to “reject the status quo” and spend their adolescent years living in radical obedience to the One who saved them: Jesus Christ. In a culture that expects little from young people, it is of the utmost importance that teen believers embrace all of the Bible’s commands, even the ones that seem unrealistic or unattainable. If we really believe the gospel is true, it should change everything about us, and is worth giving our lives to.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
“This Changes Everything is, in my mind, a chicken nugget. It’s for young people who are Christians but no longer gumming for spiritual baby food. We’ve eaten the basics and are still hungry for more. We’re ready for meat and reject the fluff so often pressed on us.”
“Who care about something that involves no adventure, no sacrifice, and no risk?” (quoting Drew Dyck)
“The gospel is where perfectionism goes to die.”
“[…] practicing these disciplines while we’re teenagers is actually an advantage. We’re setting ourselves up for a life of sustained gospel growth.”
“We live in a culture addicted to convenience and speed, where there’s so much pressure to be constantly going and doing and multitasking that we’ve sacrificed a handful of deep relationships for an ocean full of shallow ones.”
This 150-page book is jam-packed with helpful resources that will point the teens in your life to love Jesus with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matt. 22:37). And, with discussion questions at the end of each chapter, This Changes Everything can easily be done in a group setting. We cannot get enough!
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