Be the Change

technorati tags
abolitionist, youth ministry, zach hunter

Zach Hunter, author of Be the Change: Your Guide to Freeing Slaves and Changing the World was featured on ABC's Good Morning America this morning. You can catch the 5-minute clip here.

My 2 youth groups are meeting on Thurday nights to read this book together and discuss it. A Starbucks recently opened in Clarks Summit (the first coffee shop in that community open past 7 p.m.), so we're meeting there for our book group. The original idea was for it to be a Lenten book study and to do at least 2 chapters a week, but we're getting a lot out of reading the chapters out loud together and taking time to thoughtfully discuss them. So, more than likely, we'll be reading this book well past Easter. The kids say they're fine with that; they'd rather slow down, have us take our time, and really dig in.

If you think a book written by a 15 year-old kid based on his efforts to end modern-day slavery is too specific for you or your youth group, think again. While Zach does share about his own story, the book is organized around chapter themes like "Inspiration," "Community," and "Courage," to name just a few. The main emphasis so far seems to be to write about and encourage kids his own age to find something they are passionate about and to let them know they can do things to change the world.

Not bad for a 9th grader, eh? I'm no paid lackey for Youth Specialties, but I've found the best prices for this book there. If you take a look around, you'll find discounts on 5- and 10-packs of the book. I didn't find those deals during my initial order and I think I overpaid, but you'll get 25% off of the retail price if you order the 10-pack (single copies are 15% off the retail price currently). I ordered 10 copies to start, and put in another order of 10 this past week because the kids are so interested!