The problem: Statistics and testimonies across the board all agree, too many students leave the church for good when they leave our student ministries. The answer is not to dig in our heels, work harder, provide more programming, be more relevant, more hip, and more entertaining. Those are simply more of the same that will produce more of the same.

Steve Wright directs student ministry to Scripture for the true, lasting answer. Parents are called to be the primary disciplers of their children. The church is called to equip and encourage parents in this high calling. That is the biblical model, and he provides many passages to support his position.

There are many challenges to face. Parents will feel ill equipped and have become comfortable with handing over spiritual matters to the church. Students must become accustomed to relating to parents about more than their wants and their sports. Churches must adjust to what student ministry should be about, ministry to families not numbers and fun. These are not insurmountable though. Through patient teaching, training, parental involvement, resources, and examples, student ministry can be transformed into a partnership between parents and the church.

Apart from the biblical mandate for parents to teach their children, this model makes the most sense for the future spiritual well-being of the student. Who will be with there when students graduate from college? enter into a vocation? get married? have children? encounter life’s challenges? It won’t be the student minister. It will be the parents. It only makes sense for student ministry to focus on putting parents and students together because student ministry is a four-year calling. Parenting is for life!

Wright strikes a great balance between the traditional forms of student ministry and the pendulum swing to a families-only model. Yes, our churches should be far more family integrated. However, that does not necessarily mean children and student ministries have no place. Rather, if approached as partnering with families, strengthening families, and reinforcing parental guidance, these ministries can be valuable assets.

Rethink has many strengths. The basic premise is balanced and biblical. Wright provides examples of how he has initiated and implemented this model in his ministry and church. He also provides several testimonies of how parents have embraced this model and have experienced the positive results in their children. All of the suggestions and examples are very helpful and practical.

The only weaknesses are a bit of repetition and maybe a few too many quotes and statistics. These are hardly worth mentioning though because the purpose of calling and equipping parents is such a worthwhile goal.