flashback friday (dec. 17): 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

• 10 Christmas Story Takeaways Your Students Need To Know
• Christmas All Year Round: Jesus, Love, And Your Youth Ministry
• Youth Ministry Essentials: Where's The Bar For Your Adult Leadership Team?
• ym360 Trends & Culture Update (12/13)

OK, so we're breaking the Flashback Friday rules a little here, but we wanted to re-post an article we wrote about SYMC. Time is running out to register for advanced rates and we want to see you in Chicago in March. If you haven't considered signing up for SYMC, read this post.It really is our favorite youth ministry conference.

• Why You Should Consider Attending The Simply Youth Ministry Conference

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.

• Curry Stew.org--D.C.Curry writes a GREAT post on one of the worst things a youth pastor can do. A good read.
• Todd Breiner.com--Todd passes along a variety of cool Christmas videos you might consider using in illustrations.
• Brian Eberly.com--ym360 Contributor Brian Eberly passes along two viral gems from this Christmas season. If you have't seen "Social Network Christmas," or "The Digital Story of the Nativity," they are hilarious and clever. Worth a watch.
• Think Next Now.com--ym360 contributor Mark Cox asks "WTF"? (Where's The Fruit?) Loved this post.
• Doug Franklin.com--Doug writes a killer post on how to more effectively garner the support, influence, and insight from your senior pastor.
• Steps of Justice.com--Steps of Justice is the awesome ministry started by ym360 friend, Phil Cunningham. While this isn't a youth ministry blog, it's a great story of people pitching in to make a difference. What if your youth group did more of this type of stuff?
• Being Ministry.com--ym360 friend Paul Martin follows up with his 10 Commandments of Discipleship with his 10 Commandments of Retreat Planning. Love Paul's insight. This is a great list.
• More Than Dodgeball.com--Josh writes a great post on why conflict can be a good thing.
• The Disciple Project.net--ym360 Contributor Paul Turner writes a great post about his frustration with traditional (and even some not so traditional) means of signing up students for events. Paul wants to know what works for you?
• Ed Stetzer.com--Ed Stetzer points to some research his team led out on that shows the recession may just now be impacting churches the most.
• Cross Walk Student Ministry.com--I thought the original article this post mentioned is worth tracking down and passing along to parents and/or volunteers. The article mentioned is from CNN entitled "Sex Ed In The Age Of Snooki," Snooki, of course, being one of the "stars" from the show "Jersey Shore."

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.