Brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath did an excellent job with their new book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. In Switch, the Heaths give a basic framework for affecting change which anyone at any level in any organization can implement. This is great for youth pastors and volunteers alike.

The framework provided in Switch by the authors' on admission is incomplete ("We've deliberately left out lots of great thinking on change in the interests of creating a framework that's simple enough to be practical."), but their framework is doable. They introduce concepts (Rider, Elephant and Path) to help you understand the components of change, then dive in deeper to reveal action steps for each concept which will help you lead change. Although they provide many research studies about change, they are careful to not get mired down in the statistical data. They provide plenty of interesting real-world examples which back up the research.

Every youth pastor needs to read this book. (Chip and Dan were interviewed at the 2009 Willow Creek Leadership Summer by Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv.) It would even be a good read with your volunteer leadership team. It will be helpful both as you lead change in your ministry and  as you challenge students to become more like Christ.