Summer is a great time to read a book, and Gospel Publishing House is releasing seven new titles during General Council in Orlando, Florida (Aug. 4–8). You can preorder these books at MyHealthyChurch.com or purchase them from the My Healthy Church store at General Council.

Leadership

The first titles examine best practices for leading a church or ministry.

All Leaders: In 13: Leadership Is More Than Luck, General Superintendent Doug Clay mines the biographies of his predecessors in that office to show that leadership is “a calling from God that requires godly character and courage, endurance and resilience, holiness and humility.” Intended for a general audience, the book outlines 13 moral and spiritual qualities ministers need to do their work well.

NextGen Leaders: In Conversations with My Younger Self, Clay mixes exposition of 1 and 2 Samuel and reflection on his own ministry journey to offer leadership lessons for NextGen ministers. He is optimistic about what under-30 leaders will do, despite troubling trends in American culture, and he urges them to adopt a forward-thinking attitude. “God has a very different way of looking at things,” Clay writes. “Seek to see the world through His eyes.”

Another book for NextGen leaders is Rhythms by Steve Svoboda, who writes, “Live a life devoted to becoming the best version of you possible, because the greatest version of you will inevitably have the greatest impact in the Kingdom.” To do that, leaders need to develop healthy spiritual, relational, emotional, physical, and financial rhythms. Svoboda explains those rhythms, then provides journaling resources to help readers reflect on and practice them in their own lives.

Youth Ministry

Summer is a great time to read a book, and Gospel Publishing House is releasing seven new titles during General Council. 

The next two titles are for youth leaders and students, respectively.

For Youth Leaders: The first two influences on students’ spiritual development are God and their parents. But what happens when youth come from unchurched families or are missing a parent? In The Third Voice, Ashton Peters explains how youth leaders — whether pastors or lay volunteers — can exercise spiritual influence, and why they should do so. “In a generation that is surrounded by noise and needs godly influences,” Peters urges readers, “commit to being the third voice to students.”

For Students: “Today, there is probably no place where the gospel needs to be heard more in our nation … than middle schools and high schools,” writes Lee Rogers. In the U.S., 74% of teenagers don’t attend church regularly, and only 23% of middle schools and high schools are known to have a campus missionary or ministry. The Campus Missionary Guide, written by Youth Alive personnel, trains students how to share the gospel message through many methods.

Young Adults

Young adults often wander from the Church after graduation. In 30 Under 30, Josh Wellborn tells the stories of 30 young adults in Scripture whose example teaches contemporary young adults how to hear God’s voice in all circumstances. Wellborn encourages readers to keep listening to God: “You’ll look back on these days with surprise, with joy, with sadness, with heartache, but most importantly, with assurance if you hear the word of God and move on it.”

Parents

“Research has shown that parents and caregivers are the single-most important influence in a child’s life when it comes to the formation of their faith and values,” writes Ashley Grant in the Introduction to Parenting through Everyday Moments. But Christian parents don’t always know how best to respond to the challenges their kids face. Written as a quick-reference guide by qualified Christian educators and child development professionals, this book offers practical, clinically informed, and biblically founded principles to guide parental decisions.

Parenting through Everyday Moments is the second installment in the Open When series of parenting books. The first installment was Parenting through Foster and Adoption.

This article appears in the Summer 2025 issue of Called to Serve.