flashback friday (nov. 12): 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

• Youth Ministry Essentials: Tips For Busting Out Of The Rut
• Follow Me: Why Modeling Is Key In Training Adult Leaders
• ym360 Trends & Culture Update (11/09)
• Keeping Volunteers Engaged In Your Youth Ministry

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.

• Whyismarko.com—I'm a sucker for book lists, and MarkO gives a pretty good one here. Many of them I have read, some of them I have not. Worth checking out his list.
• Greg Stier.com—Greg is president of Dare 2 Share. This blog post is wild. It is an actual exchange between a fairly new Christian teenager and an atheist that took place on a Facebook wall. I was pretty engaged. Just an incredible example of what our students deal with all the time.
• Youth Worker.com—Youth ministry expert, Jim Burns, participates in a Q&A about how to be successful in the long haul of youth ministry.
• ReYouthPastor.com—Jeremy Zach writes a must-read post on the ins-and-outs of letting an adult volunteer go. Jeremy talks about when you know it's time, but also how to prevent it.
• Learning My Lines.com—Walt Mueller, Founder of CPYU, writes a great post based on a quirky song about how Hollywood has "ruined" the way young people look at the world . . . but maybe not in the way you might think. The post is a thought provoking one, and has the video of the song imbedded. Worth a look.
• Youth Pastor Tech.com—Really simple post detailing a few options for building your own church (or I guess, personal) website. Good info.
• Welcome Backstage.com—I always like the way Noah thinks. In this post, he talks about the importance of being a fan of our students by paralleling his fandom for college football (too bad he pulls for the wrong team . . . War Eagle! :) ). Really good post.
• Pilgrimage Of The Heart.com—Jeff Goins and the folks over at Adventures In Missions are really good folks doing really good ministry. We like their approach to missions as it pertains to discipleship. This is a short post by Jeff entitled, "We Need More Power In Short Term Missions." Good thoughts.
• Youth Ministry.com--Greg Bowman writes a great (and super short) post giving away a free download entitled "A Youth Ministry Prayer Guide." You can download Greg's guide and give it a shot yourself. Good post.
• Junior High Ministry.com—I love this post by Scott Rubin, entitled "He Didn't Say Yes . . . But He Didn't Say No, Either." It's a fun narrative about convincing a young adult to give volunteer leadership with junior high kids a try. Of course, the guy gets hooked. Good story.
• Shaver's Razor.com—Good buddy, and ym360 contributor, Aaron Shaver writes a short post on his blog giving some ideas for 4 different Christmas lessons. Worth checking out.
• Ron Edmonson.com—Ron does not write about youth ministry, but about (church) leadership. Ron writes a great (and short) post looking at the two extremes of leadership. Do you see yourself in either one of these?
• Jesus & Teenagers.com—A great (and short) post by Benjer McVeigh on how to respond to disappointment in youth ministry. Good stuff.
• Despising None.com—I thought this was a great piece by Joe Ball about the importance of youth ministers protecting family time. Great message. Well written.
• Doug Franklin.com—Doug Franklin, founder of Leader Treks, writes a great (and short) post about the importance of "experiential learning." This is a great message. We'd all be better off if we applied this principle more in our ministries

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.