Youth Ministry

• Adam Lehman shares how he uses Scalable Communication
• How to debrief your youth group missions team – A free resource
• A you scheduling time for Dreaming, Resting and Growing?
• Thoughts on Selecting a Short-Term Missions Experience
• A new youth ministry conference is in the works: Youth Network Conference
• I was blown away by this quote by Wendell Berry on “Contemporaneity”. With all the talk of relevance in youth ministry today, this quote is needed.

Church and Theology

• Maybe churches and small groups could take up this idea of collaborative giving
• Interesting research on accents: I Don’t Trust the Way You Talk
• Look out: ZOMBIE PREACHERS!
• Is your church or ministry Addicted to the Practical?
• During times of emotional crises, it is tempting to be Unreasonably Reasonable
• Interesting thoughts on end-of-life care: Hospice medical care for dying patients & Health Care in America—What to Do at the End of Life?

Random

• After last week’s awesome post on the ethics of ice cream, the gelato girl responds
• Thanks to Jake Bouma for pointing out this article on the best philosopher you’ve never heard of, Sidney Morgenbesser: Sidewalk Socrates. For more, you can go to his Wikipedia page.
• Curious Case of Bimbo vs. Ho Hos

Youth Ministry

• Adam Lehman is now a part-time student ministry director. And he’s not bitter.
• Adam McLane’s ministry is shifting to a Go and Do Discipleship Model
• A sweet graphic: Social Media Infographic. The most interesting stats: 78% of customers trust peer recommendations; 14% trust advertisements; 34% of bloggers post opinions on products and brands.
• As I talked about earlier this wee, more teens are choosing to wait to get driver’s licenses.

Church

• Is anyone surprised that church finances face long-term challenges?
• The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Churches should heed this: “Carrots and sticks can promote bad behavior, create addiction, and encourage short-term thinking at the expense of the long view.”
• The church needs to pay attention to the move to open-source. Up next: textbooks.
• Surprise, Evidence Grows of Problem of Clergy Burnout
• Twitter Disciples
• Scot McKnight talks about inerrancy

Random

• My favorite post of the week was The ethics of ice cream. Best part of the exchange: “One sample per customer.” Stirred by her apparent misunderstanding, I looked at her passionately, full in the face, appealing to her not so much as the gelato girl but as a fellow human being. “But don’t you see,” I said warmly, “it makes no sense to provide one sample! It’s just the same as providing no samples at all! I’m sure I would love many of these flavours – but at the moment, all I know is that I don’t like the melon. Really, if you could just let me try one more, just the caramelised fig…”
• Doug Rushkoff thinks that not even the corporations will be able to turn a profit for very much longer
• Cool video: Slow motion lightning strike

Youth Ministry

• An alternative to mission trips: Co-Mission
• Continuing with the discussions about youth group mission trips, Tim says Short Term Student Mission Trips Are Worth It.
• This isn’t a youth ministry post, and I don’t really know what I think about the book recommendation in it, but in general he is right. All youth ministry people need to acknowledge The Value of Theology.
• Have a small youth group? Here’s some thoughts on Growing a Small Youth Group.
• The title says it all: Religion and Sex Among American University Students.
• What kind of teacher are you? Two kinds of schooling.
• Need cheap ministry ideas? The $1 Idea Bucket.
• The Declining Faith Of Our Teenagers? Thoughts on one of the latest Barna reports.

Church, Mission & Theology

• The ELCA made the New York Times: Lutherans Welcome Seven Gay Pastors. Some good reflections on the issue are here: Gospel Writ Large.
• Should preachers not seek to be a good preacher?
• David Fitch thinks churches should not make any public statements, for or against, on GLBTQ relationships. Here’s Why Pre-Labeling A Church Community’s Stance on Same-Sex Relations is a Bad Idea.
• Drew Tatusko is blogging again, thankfully. I think he’s one of the best bloggers out there right now. Two posts from this week–we cannot change unless we mourn & evangelical indulgences?: idolatry in reverse.
• Ed Stetzer talks about When Missional Churches Will Multiply
• More thoughts on the recent public fame of liberation theologian James Cone: for some context see this Interview James Cone, and for some opinion, see this article at The Other Journal
• On pastoral visitation: Doing Ministry in the Living Room
• A huge series with lots of thoughts: The Future of Mainline Protestantism

Youth Ministry

• Jake like to discuss big questions. I think youth ministers need to get together more and discuss big questions as well.
• Risk Lawrence on The Parachurch Mistake
• Top Ten Mistakes Christian Parents of Teens Make
• But, sometimes it isn’t always the parents’ fault: Good Parents May Plant Bad Seeds
• Share of College Spending for Recreation Is Rising. Are colleges turning into country clubs?
• 7 Signs You’re Serving Outside Your Area of Passion by Doug Fields & Matt McGill
• Tony Jones is going chapter by chapter through Kenda Creasy Dean’s new book, Almost Christian
• Consider attending Rooted: A Theology Conference for Student Ministry
• Have Missions Become Too “Deeds”-Centric?
• A good thing to keep in mind when doing mission and service trips: The SALLT Project

Theology, Church, & Mission

• Hauerwas: America’s god is dying
• Persecuted churches help me to keep ministry in perspective
• What the church can learn from Teach For America
• CNN: Don Miller tells of the ‘best sermon I ever heard’
• I might need to pick up this book: Getting the Reformation Wrong
• Wisdom from Dallas Willard: Interview at Catalyst West
• There’s been a bit of hubub about women bishops in the Anglican church. My response to the situation is the same as this guy: Just get rid of bishops
• Is Your Church Developmental?
• Glenn Beck has created some responses recently from his forays into theology: Tom Wright Challenges ‘Christian’ Views Opposing Social Justice & No Beck, You Aren’t Intelligently Addressing James Cone
• Stop talking about it and be the church
• The Danger of Manufactured Pre-Determined Diversity
  
• Why the situation in Haiti is so difficult: Social Currency

Youth Ministry

• Kenda Creasy Dean has a new book out about the implications of the National Study on Youth and Religion. She gets interviewed here.
• A review of the latest Twilight movie.
• A website just for small youth groups.
• American creativity is on the decline.
• Evangelicals lose fewer youth than liberals.

Church & Theology

• Donald Miller: Could your church survive if there were no sermons?
• Books on ecclesiolgy.
• Stanley Hauerwas on the life of the theologian.
• The Presbyterian Church (USA) has a new website.

Miscellaneous

• Is the stock market as-we-know-it a thing of the past?
• Grilling the perfect steak.

Youth Ministry

• A Life in Student Ministry podcast with Jake Bouma on The need for theological questioning in youth ministry.
• Adam tells us that he loves HotelPlanner.Com for youth ministry trips.
• Lent starts on Wednesday. Need some ideas? Youth Ministry Ideas for Lent ’10: #1.
• This could make a great object lesson or illustration: Millionaire gives away fortune which made him miserable.
• Brand Names, Marketing And The Kids They Target
• Growing up with technology, ‘iGeneration’ kids multi-task, connect

Theology

• Conversion of an Atheist (and a philosopher, no less)
• Have you heard about this movie? Trailer: Son of Man
• Do theologians need to study economics? An Ethical Economy on Wall Street
• The seminary debate continues. Scot McKnight asks readers to comment on this article at The Christian Century.
• Have we reached The End of Intelligent Design?
• Sociologists now consider religion to be the driving force of sociology, not caused by other sociological factors: Sociologists Get Religion
• Are Atlanta’s theology schools forming a new theological center in the US?
• Church Dogmatics, 31 Volumes for only $399.99.
• Ben Witherington tells us that LOST! Has Been Found Again!

Church & Missional

• A great piece by David Fitch on church leadership. There is an option other than democracy and autocracy: The Incarnational Approach to Leading in Our Disagreements
• Do missional churches practice Guerrilla Love?
• A new mission field: The suburbs: The new face of America’s poor?
• WHen was the last time a pastor attributed his church’s growth to luck?
• Adam points us to aHomeinHaiti.org: Rainy season is coming soon. Can you help?
• Why The Bible Is Insufficient For Mission

Random

• Which car is faster? A $25,000 Mazda Miata with 4 cylinders and 167 horsepower or a $275,000 Bentley Continental Supersports with 12 turbocharged cylinders and 621 horsepower? Find out at Road and Track
• Prominent Grapevine pastor linked to luxury

Youth Ministry

• What happens with a youth group prays in a mall?
• Tim Schmoyer does youth ministry all wrong. Or so he says.
• Social media and youth ministry. Adam McLane is qualified to speak about such things.
• A Lutheran pastor has some good thoughts from the ELCA Youth Ministry Extravaganza (think NYWC for Lutherans): post 1, post 2, post 3.

Mission, Church, & Theology

• Mark recommends reading a missional classic from 1976.
• Another theist vs. atheist debate challenge has been thrown down. This one actually looks interesting.
• Is the purpose of theology to help us pray better?
• Drew speaks out against certain atonement theories.
• Nothing lasts forever. Including denominations?
• Brad Cooper has a short, important quote from C.S. Lewis. Great reminder.
• Does your church have lots of activity or make an impact?
• Ben Witherington points us to 10 New Testament Books from 2009 that you should have read.

Tech & Other

• Google reader can now alert you to changes in websites without an RSS feed.
• Car and Driver has the best I’ve read on the whole Toyota fiasco.

Youth Ministry

• Make a paper youth directory using a free program. I’ve never used this, but it looks interesting.
• Joel is rethinking big events.
• Is this what youth pastors will look like in 2019? I hope it doesn’t take that long.
• Halloween and the sexualization of evil.
• Adam McLane is starting a new youth ministry.
• Kevin refuses.
• Facebook pages are the way to go for youth ministries (not groups). Here’s why.
• Another resources full of great, practical ideas: Tear Down the Walls of the Youth Room.

ELCA

• An interesting study published at Pretty Good Lutherans reveals that women and laity struggle for voice in ELCA news.
• Why Erik is Luthermergent.

Church and Theology

• A thought about conversion theology: Why I am NOT an Evangelical.
• Will Willimon on whether you need to be a REAL church or not.
  
• Are we getting to the point when we need to choose bi-vocational ministry over large church ministry?
  
• The Dark Side of Bible Reading.
• Adam says that if all church staff are equally valued, then they should be paid the same.
• Good thoughts by a college student.

It’s been a while since my last Linkworthy post. Some good stuff I’ve seen over the past few weeks:

Youth Ministry

• Common misconception about student ministry: Student Ministries must be fun and entertaining because students have a short attention span and need lots of stimulus in order to keep them engaged.
• Some radical ideas for rethinking education. I like radical ideas.
• Are the Brains of Reckless Teens More Mature Than Those of Their Prudent Peers? (HT: Jake Bouma)
• 71 fundraising ideas for youth ministry.
• A youth ministry myth seems to be busted: college does not kill students’ faith.

Ecclesiology & Church

• Mainline Churches: The Real Reason for Decline – Orthodoxy matters. It’s an old article, but I just found it this week.
• Robert Benne on the ELCA
• 3 positive effects of the recession on the church.
• “How much will it cost?” is the wrong question for churches to ask.
• Ideas for rethinking ordination.
• Ordination and the Lord’s Table from David Fitch.
• An idea from a truly pro-life church.
• Greg Stier has some good thoughts on giving and stewardship.

Miscellaneous

• As someone who thinks he might want to write a book one day, these words from Bill Kinnon and Jordon Cooper are highly interesting. Perhaps I’ll stick to blogging.
• Drew shares some ideas for fixing healthcare and a video from Ron Paul.
• The power of social media. It’s real.
• On using “they” as a universal singular pronoun (i.e. “it is too hideous for anyone in their senses to buy”)