For the past couple of months I’ve been gradually working my way through a new George Barna book called Revolutionary Parenting. I happened to see it at a Christian bookstore a while back so I grabbed it thinking it might be a good resource. Obviously, I am not a parent but as someone who is supposed to be an authority on kids I like to read up on parenting now and then.
I haven’t read too many parenting books (though I have flipped through a lot) but I thought this one was excellent. It isn’t very long (just over 150 small pages) and it is packed with concise, practical ideas based on what their research says has really worked to raise “spiritual champions.” The basic approach was to survey the parents of young adults they find to be “spiritual champions” and find out what was common among them all. They also talked to the kids about growing up and had some pretty interesting findings. Some of the things are pretty commonly understood but others aren’t what you’d think.
The best part about the book is at the end of each chapter. As you conclude reading the chapters, Barna lists bullet points for review (always helpful when looking back) and also 3-4 application questions. As great as the content is, I think it is the application questions that really make this book worthwhile. I mentioned to John Luzadder, our High School minister, that I was reading it and he said that it is the best parenting book that he and his wife had ever read (they now have two young boys).
For any parents or youth leaders out there, I’d give this book two thumbs up.
