i blogged before about my good friend brian berry’s excellent book Criticism Bites. brian’s life and mine are wonderfully connected:
- he’s the student ministries pastor at my church
- even though i volunteer in the middle school ministry, and he’s more hands-on in the high school ministry, i am, technically, one of his youth ministry volunteers
- my son is in brian’s small group
- brian’s son is in my small group (and his older son was in my last small group)
- plus, we like each other and hang out regularly
so, i’m biased. but i’m biased in a good way, in that i know his life and character and skills (bow-staff, among others).
that’s part of why adam and i wanted to carry brian’s book in The Youth Cartel’s online store, even though we didn’t publish it. it’s a book for anyone in ministry, really. while brian’s examples are often in a youth ministry context, anyone in any ministry role will absolutely benefit from his insight on how to effectively handle criticism.
brian has even been the recipient of criticism from ME! and he has handled it pretty well.
i had a fun (and somewhat silly) chat with brian about his book recently. here’s the video: