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Rating: - Learning the Hard Way
Most leaders have at least one book that has had a significant impact on their lives. For Dave Chow, an avid reader and lifelong learner, there have been many such books: 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell; Visioneering by Andy Stanley; Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala; Purpose-Driven Youth Ministry by Doug Fields; The Youth Builder by Jim Burns...the list could go on for days. But occasionally, a leader gets an opportunity to write a book of his own that summarizes some of the many ways those books-combined with God's school of "hard knocks"-have changed his life and ministry. Such is the case with No More Lone Rangers.

"After switching from college ministry to youth ministry," says Dave, "I realized that very few ministries understood teams. Most youth pastors had a real 'Lone Ranger' approach. Unfortunately, the longer I do this, the more youth workers I talk to, the more I realize that team ministry really is a tough concept, especially for smaller churches. Large churches sort of have to be team oriented: One leader simply cannot take care of 200 kids. But it's easier to get away with Lone Ranger mentality if you only have 30 kids. I hope my book will minister to the small church leaders the most. I want them to realize that they don't have to do this alone."

The book itself is well organized, easy to read and thoroughly pragmatic. You won't get a bunch of academic theory here, just solid, proven principles for building a team-centered youth ministry. The book opens with a series of questions:

"Are you getting tired? Do you feel like giving up? Are there more needs in your ministry than you're personally able to meet? You're not alone."

Dave begins by casting a strong vision for team-centered youth ministry. Even though most people reading the book will already be hungry to at least learn more about team ministry, the overall message is full of excellent points that will compel you to keep reading...

* "This team-centered approach to ministry can take place with a team of two or a team of two hundred."
* "When teams are functioning at their best, ministry multiplies far beyond what each team member could do on his or her own."
* "The long-term effectiveness of youth ministry depends on the ability of the youth worker to develop a team."

But possibly the most compelling reason to keep reading comes from one of the many places in the book where Dave shares a personal insight, this time concerning the long-term benefits of team ministry:

"I've seen it time and time again: A youth worker builds a ministry around himself or herself, only to see it completely crumble after he or she leaves. Believe it or not, I've even met youth workers who felt this was a sign of good leadership!"

That one statement should be enough to make us all lunge for the altars. Fortunately, Dave does more than cast a vision and leave us guessing for ways to resolve the crisis. In the next nine chapters, Dave helps the reader identify common obstacles and recruit, care for and train a strong team of volunteers.

One of the main obstacles that Dave identifies is the need for control that most Lone Rangers seem to have. As a naturally hard-driving and controlling leader, Dave addresses this issue from personal experience and biblical insight.

"Often this insecurity stems from a fear that if we give others power and influence, they'll hurt us and the ministry. Yet, even though Jesus knew that Judas would betray him, he took the risk of granting him control and influence along with the other disciples...Releasing control may result in some failures, but the greater failure is not trusting God to let Him teach others through their own efforts and mistakes."

Personally, my favorite chapter in the book is chapter 8: Training Your Team. This chapter is packed with both principles and praxis, giving the reader a huge variety of launching points for developing an effective training model in which team members can participate and grow. Here Dave covers major principles of training such as how to "Balance Skill Training With Personal Spiritual Development" and a section on understanding the "Stages of Training." Also included are several pages of sample training topics and a solid overview of the training process. The chapter ends with plenty of firestarter ideas for additional training tools that any leader can implement with a little creativity and effort.

Overall, No More Lone Rangers is a well-researched, well-practiced book that can help any church ministry gain the vision and skills necessary to develop a team-centered approach to ministry. And as an added bonus, each chapter ends with two different "helps" tools: A "Now What?" section that helps the reader evaluate his or her own ministry and apply the principles learned; and a list of "Team-Builder Questions" that the leader can use with his volunteers.

But possibly more important than all of the content in the book is the testimony behind the content. Dave Chow has and is striving to model the things he writes about.

"I wasn't naturally built to lead teams," says Dave, "but I had to learn. It's much more natural for me to run the show. And I'm still a very intense guy. But God is helping me to be more relational, more gentle, more team-oriented."

Six months after leaving a church in Chino that told Dave "We're sorry, but youth ministry just isn't our priority right now," that same church realized what an impact the youth ministry had made and changed their priorities. They went ahead and hired a full-time youth pastor. And several years after leaving a church in Riverside, one of the associate pastors saw Dave and commented that the team he had left in place was still there, even though the church had gone through several youth pastors. Finally, before joining the staff at Crystal Cathedral, Dave trained a staff of volunteers and interns in Yorba Linda, two of whom were eventually hired on staff as youth pastors...and are still there to this day.

Now that's the kind of legacy we should all be leaving behind. No More Lone Rangers can help make that happen for you.

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