Review of "Rites of Passage: A Father's Blessing" by Jim McBride

     I received this audiobook as a reviewer for christianaudio.com. I decided to read it because I work with many teenage guys whose fathers are either absent or a negative factor in their life. The concept of this volume is that fathers/parents need to establish rites of passage with their children in order to help usher them into adulthood. This concept is vital to the development from middle to late adolescence.

What I Liked: Jim is very intentional about parents taking responsibility for their children's spiritual lives. It is not the job of the church or the youth pastor or anyone else to ensure that a child/teen grows in his relationship with the Lord into adulthood. It is the job of the parents. I think this mentality is lacking in most Christian circles, and sadly in most youth ministries.
I also enjoyed many of his explanations for how and why to do a rite of passage with a student. His examples were clear and visual.

What I didn't Like: Although I enjoyed that he gave examples and walked through a "rite of passage," ultimately, he devoted four chapters, one for each of his kids, to describing in painful detail every aspect of the rite. It seemed tedious at best, unnecessary at worst, but mostly just boring. Those chapters were a bit of a chore to get through.
Also, I wish Jim had spent more time describing the necessity of a rite of passage. In the Intro and first chapter of the book, he attempts to explain why parents should do rites, but he commits a fatal error. He fails to convince and merely exchanges information with the reader. These chapters should have built up the true urgency behind the topic of youth being shuffled into adulthood prematurely and without any spiritual guidance and encouragement. He seemed to brush lightly over the most important part of the book in order to get to tedious descriptions of actual rites of passages.

Personal Takeaways: This book challenged me to, from the beginning of their lives, establish myself as a spiritual leader to each of my children. It is important for me (and Emily) to spiritually guide our children through all aspects of their development, not just from middle to late adolescence.
Also, it challenged me to be conscious of the words I use, and the kinds of messages I may be sending my teenagers. Sadly, I am a father figure to several of my students who have been abandoned by their own biological dads. Although I am not their dad, someone needs to help usher them into adulthood, and this responsibility may fall to me.

Who's It For?: I would recommend this to people who are planning some sort of celebration/ceremony for their adolescents. That is where this book thrives-- examples.