Recommended Reading

UYWI’s Amazon Listmania
- Urban Ministry Top Picks
- Books on Leadership Development/ Life of the Leader
- Help, I’m a ….. Youth Worker!
Practical Youth Ministry
- Ten Rules of Youth Ministry and Why Oneighty Breaks Them All by Blaine Bartel
- All Kids Are Our Kids: What Communities Must Do to Raise Caring and Responsible Children and Adolescents by Peter L. Benson
- At Risk: Bringing Hope to Hurting Teenagers by Scott Larson
- Battle Cry for a Generation by Ron Luce and Mike Guzzardo
- Black and White Styles of Youth Ministry by William Myers
- Caring For Sexually Abused Children by Timothy Kearney
- City Lights: Ministry Essentials for Reaching Urban Youth by Scott Larson and Karen Free
- Communicating God’s Word in a Complex World: God’s Truth or Hocus Pocus? by Daniel R. Shaw and Charles E. Van Engen
- Contemplative Youth Ministry: Practicing the Presence of Jesus by Mark Yaconelli
- Creative Urban Youth Ministry: A Resource for Youth Workers by Glandion Carney
- Deep Ministry in a Shallow World by Chap Clark and Kara Powell
- Discipling The City: A Comprehensive Approach to Urban Mission by Roger Greenway
- Embracing Parents: How Your Congregation Can Strengthen Families by Jolene and Eugene Roehlkepartain
- Extreme Answers to Extreme Questions by Katie Gieser
- Families Where Grace is in Place by Jeff VanVonderen
- Family-Based Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries
- Five Cries of Youth by Merton Strommen
- Generation Next by George Barna
- Grace-Based Youth Ministry by Chris Hill
- Growing Up With Divorce by Neil Kalter
- Handbook on Counseling Youth by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler
- Handling Your Hormones by Jim Burns
- Hear My Story: Understanding the Cries of Troubled Youth by Dean Borgman
- Identity and Inner City Youth by S.B. Heath and M.W. McLaughlin
- Intensive Care: Helping Teenagers in Crisis by Rich Van Pelt
- Introduction to Youth Ministry by John Dettoni
- Investing In African American Youth by Darrel Freedman
- Josh McDowell’s Youth Ministry Handbook by Sean McDowell and Ray Willey
- Keeping Your Teen in Touch with God by Robert Laurent
- Leading From The Lockers (Training Student Leaders) by John Maxwell
- Ministry with Youth in Crisis by Harley Atkinson
- No More Lone Rangers by David Chow
- On The Outside Lookin In by Cristina Rathbone
- Parents, Kids, and Sexual Integrity: Equipping Your Child by Donald M. Joy
- Peppermint-Filled Pinatas by Eric Bryant
- Proven, Practical Ways to Raise Good Kids by Peter L. Benson, Judy Galbraith, and Pamela Espeland
- Purpose Driven Youth Ministry by Doug Fields
- Raising Up Young Heroes by Efrem Smith
- Reaching Kids Most Youth Ministries Miss by Tim Milburn
- Reclaiming The Urban Family by Willie Richardson
- Student Leadership Manual for Youth Workers by Dennis McLuen & Chuck Wysong
- Teenage Wasteland by Donna Gaines
- The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert E. Coleman
- The Urban Christian: Effective Ministries In Today’s Urban World by Ray Bakke
- The Youth Builder by Jim Burns & Mide Devries
- Tough Problems, Real Solutions by Jim Burns
- Well Connected by Phill Butler
- When Kumbaya Is Not Enough by Dean Borgman
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
- Working With Black Youth by Charles Foster & Grant Shockley
- Youth Fundraisers: Raising Money That Counts by Lynn Strother Hinkle
- Youth Ministry In City Church by Eugene Roehlkenpartain
- Youth Ministry That Transforms by Strommen & Jones & Rahn
Social Justice
- Building a People of Power by Bob Linthicum
- Extreme Evil: Kids Killing Kids by Bob Larson
- Hearts and Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times by Luis Rodriguez
- Reconciliation Blues by Ed Gilbreath
- Seek the Peace of the City by Eldin Villafane
- Social Justice and the City by Harvey David
- Submerge by John Hayes
- The Beloved Community by Charles Marsh
- The Spiritual Activist by Claudia Horowitz
- The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation by James H Cone
Spiritual and Personal Development
- All Grown Up & No Place to Go by David Elkin
- Ascent of a Leader by Thrall McNicol
- Authentic Christianity by John Stott
- In Name Only: Tackling the Problem of Nominal Christianity by Gibbs Eddie
- Jesus for a New Generation by Kevin Graham Ford
- Leading at a Higher Level by Ken Blanchard
- Leading with a Limp by Dan Allender
- Life After God by Douglas Coupland
- Living on Purpose by Christine and Tom Sine
- The Ministry of Nurture by Duffy Robbins
- Touch: The Power of Touch in Transforming by Pastor Rudy Rasmus
Community Development
- Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism by Daniel Bell
- Divided by Faith by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith
- Encounter God In the City by Randy White
- Plunge2Poverty: An Intensive Poverty Simulation Experience by Jimmy Dorrell & Janet Dorrell
- Theirs is the Kingdom by Robert Lupton
- Where We Stand: Class Matters by Bell Hooks
Emerging Urban Church
- The Hip Hop Church by Efrem Smith and Phil Jackson
- Trolls and Truth: 14 Realities About Today’s Church That We Don’t Want to See by Jimmy Dorrell
Emerging Urban Culture
- Between God and Gangsta Rap by Michael Eric Dyson
- Black Looks: Race and Representation by Bell Hooks
- Droppin’ Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture by William Eric Perkins
- English Is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas by Coco Fusco
- Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality by Chuck D
- Hip Hop Matters by S. Craig Watkins
- Hip Hop America by Nelson George
- New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity by Mark Anthony Neal
- Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop by Imani Perry
- Rap Music and Street Consciousness by Cheryl L. Keyes
- Sacred Music of the Secular City: From Blues to Rap by Jon Michael Spencer
- The Gospel Remix: Reaching the Hip Hop Generation by Ralph C. Watkins
- The H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop by Todd Boyd
- The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture by Bakari Kitwana
- The Holy Profane: Religion in Black Popular Music by Teresa Reed
- The Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop by Murray Forman
- Understanding Theology and Popular Culture by Gordon Lynch
- What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture by Mark Anthony Neal
- Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop by Bakari Kitwana
- Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White by Frank Wu
- Young Black Rich and Famous: The Rise of the NBA, the Hip Hop Invasion, and the Transformation of American Culture by Todd Boyd
Street Ministry
- Cities of Lonesome Fear: God Among The Gangs by Gordon McLean
- Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City by Elijah Anderson
- Monster by Walter Dean Meyers
Theology
- Black Man’s Religion by Craig Keener
- Black Theology and Black Power by James H. Cone
- God of the Oppressed by James H. Cone
- If I Could Ask God One Question by Greg Johnson
- Satanism: The Seduction of America’s Youth by Bob Larson
- Theological Themes of Youth Ministry by Williams Myers
- Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
- Tired of Trying to Measure Up by Jeff VanVonderen









