flashback friday (sep. 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

• Free Lesson!! Putting On Your New Self
• What Do You Communicate To Your Students About Culture?
• 10 Steps To Reaching The Un-churched Youth Of Your Community
• God's Word, Your Students, and 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.

• Youth Ministry.com--Doug and Matt hit a home run again. This is the first in a series of how to speak to teenagers. I would advise reading all of them.
• Doug Franklin.com--Yes, Doug Franklin makes Flashback Friday every week. It's because he's awesome. This is a super short post on getting students to "own" the roles of student leaders.
• Youth Worker.com--Syler Thomas writes a thoughtful post about why youth workers are uniquely predisposed to burnout, and how to fight it.
• Mike King.com--I loved this post. Well thought out, well said. It's Mike's take on what kinds of books you should be reading as a youth worker. Good stuff.
• Youth Specialties.com--Shawn Michael Shroup writes a great post about the right questions to ask when students visit your youth ministry.
• Shaver's Razor--I love this post. Aaron Shaver writes about how ownership shouldn't be the goal of getting your students to buy-in to your youth ministry, but stewardship. Great twist.
• Kenda Creasy Dean.com--Lots of talk lately about Dean's book "Almost Christian" (and rightfully so). This is a quick overview of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD), basically the term used by Dr. Christian Smith and the National Study on Youth and Religion to describe the prevailing "religion" that teenagers in this country subscribe to.
• Pilgrimage of the Heart--Jeff Goins of Adventures in Missions has a post advocating the value of short term missions. The cool thing? The post is full of quotes from participants. Great post.
• More Than Dodgeball.com--Josh talks about a new initiative Saddleback has for reaching teens in their schools. Really love the "4 goals" he lists for his campus pastors. Good read.
• Love Thy Volunteers--A short reminder from Ryanne about remembering to say "Thank You" to your volunteers.
• Monday Morning Insight--OK, so not a youth ministry blog, but a great (and short) post entitled "5 Leadership Questions You Must Ask Yourself." Valuable and quick read.
• Journey of Purpose--Melanie Dill is a great friend and a great youth worker. We love Melanie's story: she was a full time youth worker on staff at a mega-church when God called her to South Africa to work with children and teens. Her blog has some fun pics this week.
• Jesus and Teenagers--Benjer McVeigh writes a post about being intentional about learning "the craft" of youth ministry. Short and good.

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.