Darren Sutton is a youth worker and more recently a published author under Simply Youth Ministry’s Everyday Youth Ministry brand. He’ll be at this year’s Simply Youth Ministry Conference and blogs all of the time at http://everyonescalledtoyouthministry.com/

1) tell us about the story behind your new book, Two Sides: Finding What Fits in Your Youth Ministry!
Youth ministry is rarely cut & dried. Don’t get me wrong, there are some definite rights and wrongs in working with students – but most of it isn’t. So I asked some of my veteran youth ministry buddies to weigh in with their takes on those ‘gray areas’. No right or wrong answers – just personal philosophies accompanied with some direction that might help youth workers find their own place to land of some issues that might not have such a clear-cut answer.

2) what was the process like getting published for the first time?
In all honesty, it wasn’t the grueling, heartless prospect I had heard it could be. It took a little longer than expected to get the project off the ground – but the actual process was relatively painless. I submitted a couple of different ideas to the publishing team – they landed on this one pretty quickly and I began to assemble a stellar group of amazing, experienced youth workers to do the heavy lifting of writing down those philosophies we’ve always debated over Starbucks and Sack Chairs.

3) any great stories that didn’t make the cut in the book?
The best stories are in the book! But we did have a few gray areas that will have to remain in the gray, at least for now, because we just didn’t have enough pages to cover them all!

4) prove that you’re human. Give us a classic failure story!
Wow. Where to start? I’ve always been a pretty black and white kind of guy – so if you had told me ten years ago I’d be writing a book an ‘gray areas’ of youth ministry – I probably would have laughed in your face. I’ve always held some pretty serious philosophy on student ministry – but as I read through the segments my friends wrote, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me question some of my well-thought-out ministry plans. One of my biggest failures (which I have worked hard to correct) has been thinking I know it all and my way is always right!! There’s so much veteran-wisdom in this book – my friends have honored and humbled me by agreeing to be part of the project!

5) what would you tell other youth workers hoping to get published?
Publishing isn’t about the author – it’s about the message. Never confuse the two.

Get his new book in eFormat or print-on-demand right here!

JG