Fortress Press

To Mend the World is a wise and wide-awake book about youth ministry. Jason Lief and Kurt Rietema, experienced in their work with young people, recognize that the old ways of youth ministry no longer work. Their approach, in every way one can imagine, is "both-and": both transcendent and immanent, both theoretical and practical, both active and reflective. They see youth ministry as essentially an interpretive task wherein hands-on lived experience and faith claims function in interactive illumination. Their aim is to equip young Christians for an effective, faithful life in the real world, and to help them be knowingly reflective about the menacing, seducing ideologies all around us and committed to creative, imaginative work toward a mended world.

Jason Lief and Kurt Rietema are two of the boldest and wisest people I know thinking about and doing youth ministry. To Mend the World puts this on display in technicolor. The book is deeply thoughtful and helpful. I've been worried that those drawing from innovation theory and social entrepreneurship have not had the patience, attention, and spirit to ask larger theological and philosophical questions to back these practices. However, Lief and Rietema have wonderfully questioned and reworked lessons from these fields of thought. There is much to learn, some things to disagree with, but much more that can bless the minister, young people, and the church in this fine book.

"Youth Ministry is practical theology!" Jason Lief and Kurt Rietema invite us to be facilitators of young people's desires to tackle "adult-sized problems" and bring about change. To Mend the World calls us to a better way of doing ministry with youth.

With a mix of theological reflection, cultural analysis, and storytelling, Jason Lief and Kurt Rietema weave together a compelling account for why youth ministry needs to embrace social entrepreneurship. This is not some mere call for more effective or sustainable ministry. Rather, in social entrepreneurship, the authors see an invitation for youth ministry to rediscover the personal and social transformative encounter that is the beating heart of the gospel. This bold book will challenge assumptions and spark imagination.

To Mend the World is a collection of principles and experiences reminding us that the original purpose of youth ministry is not to invest in innovating superficial ways of doing church. Instead, it is to create spaces for transformational growth, where young people can develop as changemakers. Their visionary and daring wisdom can lead us out into a broken and uncertain reality, among real people making a lasting difference--something we as a church desperately need.

To Mend the World sets forth a necessary vision not just for youth ministry but for the church! Rich in its theological framework and cultural relevance, Kurt Rietema and Jason Lief reorient our dreams for a younger generation by inviting us to cultivate a much-needed yet missing space: where young people dream, are culturally informed, and act on those dreams to make their communities a better place. In so doing, they demonstrate their faith in Christ's restorative gospel by actively joining him in his ongoing redemptive work in the world.