Book Review: Fresh Start by Doug Fields

(This Doug Fields book is not a youth ministry book, but it will definitely speak to youth workers and the students they work with. Plus, Doug writes like a youth worker would! As I read through the book, I kept picturing Doug standing in front of a room of high schoolers giving these chapters as messages. You can take a youth worker out of the youth ministry genre, but you can't take the youth ministry communicator out of the author.)


Have you ever wanted a second chance, but did not feel deserving of one? do you struggle to take life in a new direction because you are afraid of making the same mistakes? In Fresh Start, Doug Fields offers wisdom to help you start over. Fields uses his twenty-plus years of ministry experience to provide practical advise to help the reader make a fresh start.

Fresh Start covers a number of areas where people need a new beginning. Fields discusses pride, serving, the past, pain, conflict, rejection, anger and sharing your fresh-start story. Each chapter delves into the topic, without stopping at the surface level issue. Fields brings to light the underlying causes and obstacles that need to be addressed before a person can experience a fresh start. In the introduction it says "Let's see what happens as you keep moving forward by faith and doing the possible while trusting God with the impossible." A fresh start is not impossible, but it will take hard-work.

This book does not leave the reader with a desire to make a change, but no means to follow through. Every chapter provides a collection of practical and helpful advice. For example, in chapter five, Freedom from hurt, Fields offers steps to help the reader begin to forgive. In this case, you admit you're hurt, determine what he/she owes you, cancel the debt, and release the offender completely. Having this tangible advice offers the beginning of healing for the person who has been carrying the pain of past hurts.

You will benefit greatly from picking up a copy and reading through these pages. In fact, I would suggest you find the chapter that deals with the area of "stuckness" you want to be unstuck and read it first. Read and interact with the text. Allow God's Word and the advice in this book to help you move toward the Fresh Start you want.

My advice (rating) – buy more than one and give out copies (5 out of 5)