Many different resources seek to serve teenagers and the caring adults that interact with them, but few over the last 25 years have delivered that goal as much as Handbook on Counseling Youth by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler. 

Designed as a menu of fifty topics, the Handbook enables pastors, youth leaders, and other believing adults a window into issues that American adolescents deal with on a regular basis. Each chapter follows a similar structure. The topic is introduced via a case study, which is helpful in the instance that a Christian leader is not familiar with the influences involved. An overview of the issue is given next including common contributing factors, as the authors draw from other Christian professionals. The biblical perspective is offered with corresponding Scriptures, and then an acrostic of LEADER (Listen, Empathize, Affirm, Direct, Enlist, and Refer) is utilized for the reader. 

This book can be an effective tool on the shelf for a new youth director, a seasoned pastor, or an interested parent. The LEADER acrostic has been most beneficial to me over my years involved in youth ministry. Although the fifty topics do not claim to present an exhaustive list, I still find myself referencing this menu on a monthly basis, because I find very valuable the systematic way it treats topics.

Newer resources may better cover more recent trends among young people like vaping activities or transgender conversations, but the framework in this resource covers a broad spectrum of adolescent concerns.

It is twenty years since I received my first copy of it, and the Handbook on Counseling Youth has stayed on my desk throughout each of those years. The youth culture in this country will continue its movement in a state of flux, but McDowell and Hostetler’s contribution remains effective in framing major issues, understanding some of the factors, providing a biblical perspective on it, and guiding a person to a Christ-centered response.