flashback friday (mar 11): 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

• ym360 Trends and Culture Update (Mar. 10)
• Celebrating 200
• Thoughts I Have After Spending A Week With 3,000 Youth Workers
• Youth Ministry Essentials: Balancing The Demands Of Ministry And Family

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.

• Nikomas--By far the shortest blog on the links today. But, maybe the most inspiring when it comes to students. Great post by Nikomas.
• Life In Student Ministry--This is a fun post because I think very highly of these two men. Tim Schmoyer is interviewing Doug Franklin on Doug's new book, "The Disconnect: Bridging the gap between youth pastor and senior pastor relationships." Doug's book is a great one, and I would recommend it without hesitation to any youth pastor. (Tim just published his first book, and I would equally recommend it.)
• Uth Guy Tech--This is a great solution for really top-notch video slide shows. I recently watched a slide show done with Animoto and it was really good. Check this video out to see if it is something that might work for your ministry.
• Adam McLane--I tweeted this post out this week, but wanted to link it here. Adam makes an incredibly important point in this moving post: the investment you are making in the lives of teenagers matters. It really does! Never doubt the impact you are making for the Kingdom, and in the life of individuals.
• Ron Edmonson--Ron Edmonson writes a leadership blog, and a really good one. I thought that some of you might be interested in applying these principles to your youth group or youth ministry and see how they hold up.
• Marathon Youth Ministry--This is a very useful and, I think, important post by friend and ym360 contributor Chris Wesley. It's a post on volunteers, performance, and expectations: "Lazy Minister or High Expectations?"
• REyouthpastor--This is a GREAT post by Jeremy Zach. Jeremy has been killing it lately on the blog, and this post is no different. Jeremy has never met a long title he didn't like. :) This one has to be one of my favs: "Stalemate in Youth Ministry: 11 Ridiculous Things That Keep Youth Groups From Growing." A great read.
• Doug Franklin--Short, thought provoking post from Doug on 3 ways to change our mindset when it comes to our students' parents.
• The Mayward Blog--I really enjoyed this post. Joel Mayward makes a great parallel between discipleship and gardening. Really great thoughts here.
• Fuller Youth Institute--Brad Griffin at FYI passes along some useful info and critique making the case that sleep is more important than food. Short, good read.
• Doug Fields--This is the second part of a great series from Doug. He is presenting 10 ideas of how a youth ministry can be more family friendly. These are really goo ideas here.
• Sam Burke--I liked this post from Sam. It asks us to think about our "foundations" for how we are doing ministry. Sam shares his with a nice visual and some good "hooks." Valuable read.

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.