The LifeBook
The LifeBook Movement
The Gideons International, 2011

The LifeBook is an innovative weaving of the biblical narrative and individual viewpoints on the biblical story. The personal comments seem distracting at first, but they genuinely reflect thoughts and questions many teens have about the gospel. While it is primarily a book to share with unchurched friends, it would be a helpful guide for discussing the gospel with your churched teens and building confidence for them to share with others.
–Andrew Hedges

It’s a no-brainer to say that anything that not only gets teenagers in the Bible but also encourages them to give out Bibles to their friends at school is a good thing. Still, we need to keep in mind this is a tool, and like any tool needs to be used to its full potential. If we don’t create a culture in our youth ministries where sharing Jesus with others is the norm, handing out 50 free copies of the Gospel of John to our students isn’t going to accomplish a whole lot. In the case of a teenager who lovingly cultivates relationships with his or her friends who need to know Jesus, this could be a very powerful tool that helps someone see Jesus for the first time.
–Benjer McVeigh

The LifeBook is a like a tract on steroids. It has been pumped, stretch and injected with Scripture. The LifeBook does its best to more holisticly present the gospel to teenagers in a relevant manner. In order the be relevant, the text can be somewhat confusing and hard to read. Overall, the book could be useful for someone who is new to the faith or has little knowledge of the Bible.
–Joshua Gill, Youth Director, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Malvern, Pennsylvania

The LifeBook is an excellent tool for any youth ministry setting, especially younger students. This creative version of the Book of John comes complete with a How-We-Got-Here summary of the Bible before Christ’s coming, followed by a copy of the Gospel of John complete with insights and thoughts from four teens and “Uncle G,” an adult mentor figure. The last part of the book includes a step-by-step, easy-to-understand walk-through of how to become a Christian and a short section that addresses some of the pressing issues teens may face. This little book is an excellent tool to get into the hands of your students for sharing the gospel in a non-threatening and easy way. It would be an asset to any youth ministry.
–Matt McKee, Director of Student Ministry, Christ United Methodist Church, Jackson, Ohio

The LifeBook is a conversational intro to the life of Jesus. It would best serve as a tool for new believers or for those unfamiliar with the gospel story. The resource’s small size makes it easy to fit into a pocket or already stuffed backpack.
–Garland Owensby

An interesting concept to create a book that provides an overview of God’s story…the Old Testament, followed by a gospel and a response and finally a help section. A few things did not work for me, though. The choice of John’s Gospel is odd considering the desire to make the Old Testament accessible. Why not then choose Mark, which is far easier to read and comprehend, making it more consistent with what was done with the Old Testament here. The format of the book did not work on two levels. One is the size and shape. A tiny book with uber tiny print does not leap out at a person, and I would have thought this project would want to scream for attention. The other format issue I had was the dialogue aspect where contributors made comments throughout. They seemed very staged and contrived. Their comments were trite and cliche at times and seemed very leading at other times, meaning I could see they wanted the reader to think these young contributors were being persuaded by the book. The overview of the Old Testament did not work for me either as it seemed too dumbed-down. Many concepts were explained, and others were very much assumed; but should have been explained. Finally, the ending did not work for me. The response and help section moved very quickly from how to become a Christian into the subject of sex. Given that the media these days accuses evangelicals of being obsessed with sex and purity, this just catered to that fear. It was as if the first thing one needs to deal with after coming to faith was one’s hormones.

As for it’s usefulness to a youth pastor (my job is currently supporting, guiding and training youth pastors for my denomination), I did not see any real usefulness. It is not a book to read and do a group discussion of, in part because the comments in the margins take away that hunger. It is not a resource to teach from as it is so dumbed down. I think conceptually it could be something to give away and get a movement going, but I think the content fails to provide something that will start a fire. If we want to start a campaign, why not give out something that is truly life changing — a radical encounter with Jesus that calls us to spread the fire.
—Dave Wright, Coordinator for Youth Ministries, Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina

The LifeBook by Carl Blunt is an outreach too for teens to use to share their faith. The book features four main sections: a summary of the events and purpose of the Old Testament; a complete version of the Book of John from the Holman Christian Standard Bible; a presentation of God’s plan of salvation; and a section providing Bible verses that deal with relationships and sex, friends/peer pressure, self-image/self-esteem and depression/worry. The book also includes annotated comments and questions from teens, reproduced in their own handwriting, scattered in the margins and areas between sections of the text.

The book which is part of The LifeBook Movement, founded by Gideons International, is not only available in print form, but as a free download from TheLifeBook.com, making the content very accessible to anyone with Internet access.

The print version is a nice size (5″X5″), which is convenient to distribute and grip. However, most of the text is too small to be read easily, and some of the annotations by teens, reproduced in their own handwriting, are especially hard to read. The book, while graphically appealing with its minimalist cover design also lacks visuals and tends at first glance to look more like a corrected essay rather than something that would readily engage teens.
–Beth Yoder

The LifeBook was adopted by Gideon’s International for a huge campaign, and there is no greater endorsement than that. If there was a way to make a book work for the short attention spans of today’s teenagers, this format completely does it! In that format, the book actually reads like a Bible, with margin notes from varying walks of life and spiritual levels. It would equally be beneficial for faithful students of the Word, as well as unsaved seekers. This book excites me about students’ introductions to the Word of God.
–Shean Phillips, Professor of Youth Ministry and Christian Education, Piedmont Baptist College, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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