Jaquelle Crowe. This Changes Everything: How the Gospel Transforms the Teen Years. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017. 160 pp. $11.86.
Little scares me more than a Christian book targeted at teenagers written by a teenager. The concept is utterly terrifying. But, thanks be to God, it can be done well, very well. In This Changes Everything, young author Jaquelle Crowe addresses her peers and challenges them to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ impacts every single part of their lives.
This work is simple, straight forward, and clear. The author, over eight main chapters, addresses eight arenas of life where Christianity makes that part of a young life completely different. This is basic discipleship written very well and targeted for young believers who are tired of simplistic, watered down, cotton candy lessons.
In this book, Crowe does a fine job of interweaving her own life stories, experiences with her family, strengths and weaknesses with solidly applied passages of Scripture and quotes from valuable Christian books. She speaks to how the gospel impacts our identity, our story, our community, our sin, our disciplines, our growth, our time, and our relationships. These are major life areas in which Christian discipleship is necessary and in which a commitment to Christ will radically alter our thinking and acting.
I’m a pastor, husband, and father of three. And I’m extremely happy to have read this book. It was good for me and challenging on a number of personal levels. I’m even happier to make sure that my own daughter will soon read this book and work through the areas of discipleship for herself. I’m happy to know of other parents in our church who are taking teens through this book as a way to open up solid discussions of growth toward maturity. I’m happy that a youth pastor friend of mine just ordered 25 copies of this book for his students to read. And I would happily recommend this book to others.
I received a free audio copy of this book from ChristianAudio.com as part of their reviewers program. I love the sound quality and the perfect choice of Susan Hanfield as narrator for this work.
Pastor Travis Peterson 