Book Review: Being Young, by Paul Kelly

For thousands of years, God has used young people to help his kingdom grow. He has used youth to be kings and queens, lead nations, follow Jesus, and proclaim the gospel. God has used youth of all ages to take part in the unfolding story revealed in the Bible. In Being Young: A Biblical Theology of Youth, Dr. Paul Kelly shares some valuable insights on how we might do this as student leaders. Kelly, a Professor of Educational Leadership at Gateway Seminary, explores the places throughout the Old and New Testament where God used young people to further his kingdom.

As student pastors, we want our theology to drive everything we do. Kelly begins the book by examining what it looks like to develop a theology of youth. He writes, “the biblical picture of youth can be a useful lens to inform our beliefs and praxis of how to reach and disciple the young” (23). Throughout the book, Kelly returns to this goal.

Summary of the Book

Building on his foundation, Kelly examines the Hebrew words that describe young people. He shares the stories of youth whom God used to unfold his plan: David, Joseph, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Rebekah. Kelly shares how we can both learn and teach about the patience, righteousness, and dependence on God that these youth exhibited. He also shares about the failure these youth experienced and how they had older, mature people in their lives investing in them. Between this dependence on God and the investment by more mature men and women, he challenges student pastors to equip today’s youth in similar ways.

With this in mind, we should think differently than we have in the past. Student ministry is not about entertainment. It is about creating spaces of Kingdom-minded responsibility that allow students to discover and understand their need for a righteous, holy God every day. For Kelly, Kingdom-mindedness is that which allows young people to learn what it means to live for Christ and to look beyond themselves as their ultimate purpose.

He transitions to examining the Greek words for youth and those used by God in the New Testament. He shares about Jesus’ youth as well as that of, Mary, John Mark, and John. Again, Kelly reiterates that God placed profound responsibility on all four who were between the ages of 12-18. The responsibility allowed them to become mature, developed, and ready adults for the challenging tasks they would continue to face.

Our culture treats the young as children. However, as Kelly notes, God made young people key players in his unfolding story, not by their own strength or ability but by a dependence on His Spirit. We as student pastors should train young people the way God calls them, with increasing responsibility and whole-life dependence on Him.

Kelly does not overlook the fact that Scripture speaks to youthful folly. He shares multiple areas where young people failed. He reminds us that young people will fail, and we can create spaces where that failure is used as a learning opportunity. He also challenges youth to recognize “their lack of life experience, focus on the pursuit of God, and trust wise advisors to guide them” (85). This is part of our biblical responsibility of leading young people, to remind them that they will fail but that we serve the God who is gracious and who uses those failures for his good - and ours.

Strength and Weaknesses of the Book

The most substantial chapter in the book comes when Kelly examines the passionate faith of youth. This chapter serves as a reminder that young people have a desire to change their world. He describes this fervor as “passionate courage,” and I could not think of a better way to describe it. We should feel challenged to engage our students’ passionate courage, and part of our teaching and discipleship should offer them a chance to exhibit that.

Kelly concludes his book by offering nine practical ways to create a biblical theology of youth in our day-to-day ministry. He also shares six ways student ministers can partner with parents to develop a biblical theology at home. Overall, these steps are helpful as we build our biblical theology of youth in ministry.

There are great strengths of Kelly’s book for student ministers and leaders. The biggest weakness is not with the content presented, but with that which could have been further developed. As a reader, I would have appreciated more systematic depth into the theology of youth (though, that’s likely beyond the scope of this book’s objective). Kelly does an excellent job presenting the biblical and practical aspects of theology, but there is room to examine how these biblical applications of youth have shaped, formed, and changed through the history of the church. Yes, the Bible offers the depth of youth, but how has church history understood youth? Even a brief exploration of this would have been beneficial.

Being Young: A Biblical Theology of Youth is one that student pastors should have on their shelves. Biblical theology textbooks rarely examine youth, and our modern world has treated youth as children for far too long. Our youth ministries can and should be different from the world. As student pastors and leaders, we should challenge students the way God has challenged them through history, and Kelly offers a robust approach to how we can do this in this book.

Note: YPT did not receive a review copy of this book, but has offered this review to commend a good resource to our readers. Ordering through affiliate links helps YPT provide resources like this to youth workers.