flashback friday (aug. 27): this week's links from the youth ministry blogosphere

One of the things we are committed to at ym360 is Networking. Our vision for networking is connecting you to people and organizations doing awesome youth ministry. Flashback Friday is a feature where we give you the run down of all the interesting posts from the past week in the youth ministry blogosphere. Consider it our way of keeping you connected with what is going on.

This week's posts from the ym360 Blog

• Fighting the Digital Drain in Your Youth Ministry
• An Open Letter To Youth Workers
• Do Your Students Know Your Story?
• Youth Ministry Essentials: 10 Ways To Gain Influence In Your Local Schools

Posts From Other Awesome People

We search the Internet to bring you relevant information to help you be a better youth worker. Here are some links from posts we thought were pretty great.

• Junior High Ministry.com—This is an awesome post from Kurt. I thought it was right on in every way. Great, great ideas on how to help your older (or oldest) students deal with the influx of younger students into your group.
• Marathon Youth Ministry—Chris' blog is becoming one of my favorites. I thought this blog post was DEAD on. Chris deals with practical tips to keep from feeling unprepared to teach or lead a youth group/meeting/service.
• Youth Ministry.com—A post from Doug and Matt's "Counseling 101" series on how to counsel discouraged teenagers. The whole series is great and accessible via the links at the bottom of the page.
• DC Curry Stew—DC shares some great thoughts on how to fight poor spiritual growth.
• Think Next Now—Mark offers some really great advice to anyone who teaches Scripture on a regular basis. Great stuff!
• Youth Ministry Geek—Chris raises the idea of a Facebook fast. Interesting thought!
• Nailscars.com—Love this post. The title says it all: "The ebb and flow of small youth group ministry."
• More Than Dodgeball—There have been a few of these lists flying around the Internet this week. Josh weighs in with his list here. I found his to be very similar to what I would list.
• Youth Ministry Conversations—Great post by Bill offering both a very real perspective on entering the often-times intimidating school lunchroom, and some great tips on how to navigate being at local schools.
• Life in the Middle—Insightful post by Adam about how to fight the next morning "hangover" from a youth service that, for whatever reason, may have left you feeling let down.
• The Disciple Project—Great post from Paul Turner on how to avoid (self inflicted) conflict with parents.

That will do it, folks. As always, have a great weekend . . . And THANK YOU for the chance to serve you as part of the ym360 community.

Share your thoughts with the youthministry360 community:

• As usual, we want to hear your thoughts. Any particular post catch your eyes? Make you think? Did you disagree with anything? Let us know! Your voice makes the ym360 community stronger.