Youth Ministry

• The Great Emergence and Youth Ministry, Part 3 and Part 4 – Jerry has posted all of his thesis now.
• Getting Started in Investing, Part 4 – Adam McLane has another post in his personal finance series for youth ministers.
• Why your ministries need to be evaluated – Make the most of downtime in ministry by using it for evaluation.
• From Agenda Driven to Presence Centered – Yet another part in this series on the shifts happening in youth ministry.
• 15 Actions to support Teens -Some good ideas from Ypulse.

Theology & Church

• National vs Ecclesial Identities – An interesting survey on where people’s loyalties lay.
• Ordination for the People – Dan tells about some interesting things happening in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
• Don’t Promise, Deliver – Some thoughts on the failure of GM and the church.
• Is there Life before Death? – On aged care.
• A Survey of Megachurch Attendees – Some interesting findings.

Youth Ministry

• The Great Emergence and Youth Ministry – My friend Jerry has just started a blog based on his thesis for his Masters of Arts degree from Luther Seminary. I will likely be posting on this more later. For now, take the time to read what he has written.
• Issues and Answers – Tim Schmoyer posts a huge free resource.
• 9 Expectations of Interns – Josh Griffin also posts 10 more expectations.
• Staying connected to graduates – Some good tips for staying in touch.
• 45 Tips for Youth Pastors – Jason Curlee posts a good list.
• Youth Ministry Salaries – Adam McLane posts the third part in his series on personal finance for youth ministers. Some great ideas here.
• Simple Student Ministry – Tim Schmoyer reviews this new book.
• Texting and Adolescent Development – The Fuller Youth Institute blog has some thoughts on a recent article in the New York Times.
• A Discussion from The Office – Dixon posts a Film School discussion he used based around an episode of The Office.
• The Amazing Potential of Youth – Most of our young people are capable of so much more than we realize. HT to Tony Jones.

Theology & Ecclesiology

• Theology and the new physics – Jake points us to a fascinating series.
• What the SBC can Learn from the Demise of GM – I think this extends well beyond the SBC. The fall of GM is a wake up call for the church. We are living in a new era now.
• Stop talking about “the other” – Ben thinks we need a theological moratorium on the phrase.
• A Great Idea for Pentecost – Two churches worship together every Pentecost–a great sign.

Miscellaneous

• Top 10 Reasons to Switch to WordPress – I’m a big WordPress fan. Adam gives you some good reasons why.

Here we are, a day late:

Seminaries, Ordination, and Denominationalism

• Are Professional Ministers Toxic Assets? – Great thoughts here.
• Shared Pastoral Leadership – Good thoughts from Dan Mayes, an ordained pastor.
• One Thing I Never Learned in Seminary – From Adam Walker Cleaveland. This time it doesn’t have to do with ordination.

Youth Ministry

• Bad News for Suburban Kids – Adam McLance has some dire predictions about the future for suburban kids. I see this beginning to play out, unfortunately.
• Helping Parents Connect Before, During, and After a Mission Trip – Some really great practical tips. I’m going to use some of these. (HT: Matt McNutt)
• What our Summer Youth Schedule Looks Like – After Tim advocated shutting down programs last week, he tells what ministry looks like for him during the summer months.
• Adolescent Prescription Abuse – A disturbing trend.
• Getting Started in Investing, part 2 – Adam McLane continues his series on personal finance for youth ministers.
• From Centralized to Decentralized – Dan is continuing his series on shifts in youth ministry.
• Mission and Values – From The Uprising ministry. A pretty good list for shaping youth ministry.
• Copyright Laws in Church – As it pertains to movies. Looks like I have some modifying to do to one of my plans for the summer.
• A Great List of Web Apps – I use quite a few of these in ministry: gCal, Google Docs, LogMeIn, & Remember the Milk.
• 5 Super Cheap Summer Ideas – From Kurt Johnston.
• If Chris Folmsbee Did it All Over Again – A great list.
• From Intern to CEO – Josh Griffin has some good links on interns.

Miscellaneous

• The Great Theologian, a Parable (based on a true story) – Ben reminds us of the real importance in theology.
• Getting Your Head Around Philosophy – An introductory reading list if you want to get up to speed.

Seminaries, Ordination, and Denominationalism

For yet another week, this topic deserves its own category.

• Transparency in the Ordination Process – Adam Walker Cleaveland shares his thoughts about this whole ongoing dilemma. He also links to tons of people’s opinions regarding the ordination debate.
• National and Local Ordination Standards – Adam isn’t finished talking yet.
• The “Right” Sized Church Staff – A fascinating graph shows that white protestant churches have significantly more staff than black protestant or Catholic churches as a church grows in size. Some very interesting commentary as well.
• Tony Jones on Doug Pagitt’s Radio Show “The Question” – And the topic? Ordination, mostly.
• Is Seminary Relevant? A Professors Perspective – Dr. John Stackhouse weighs in on the ongoing debate with an essay he published a while back.

Youth Ministry

• Partnering Church and Parents – Jeff points out an interesting video about churches combining with parents to minister to their children.
• A Graduation Critique – It’s that time of year, isn’t it? Dixon offers some helpful thoughts.
• Seven Benefits of Shutting Down Youth Ministry Programs Over the Summer – Tim used to think you had to have things going on year-round, but no more.
• Book Review: When Kids Hurt – Jeremy gives a quality review of this new book by Chap Clark and Steve Rabey.
• Real Ministry is in the Moments – Frank reminds us when lots of quality ministry really happens.
• Who Would Jesus Torture? – Brian provides a discussion starter that doesn’t skirt a controversial topic.
• Shifting our Mental Models – From the Fuller Youth Institute Blog: “We have to fail people’s expectations at a rate they can stand.”

Church & Theology

• Getting Started with Church Dogmatics – Barth’s Church Dogmatics is a massive work, and Ben offers his suggestions of the most important sections for those who aren’t inclined to read the whole thing. If someone would like to buy me the new edition, just email me and I’ll send you the shipping address.
• Equilibrium is Death – Alan Hirsch has some words that most of our equilibrated churches won’t want to hear.
• Poets, Prophets, & Preachers – An intriguing conference featuring Rob Bell, Peter Rollins, and Shane Hipps. Wish I could go.

Random

• BBQ Rules – Totally random, generally true, and definitely funny.
• Guess this song – This is one of the most amazing (and pointless) youtube videos I have ever seen.
• How to Create a Minimalist Computer Experience – For those of you who are trying to stay productive on your computer.
• Rick Goes off on a Rant – Seriously, subscribe to this man’s blog.

Seminary, Ordination, and Denominations

All three are really closely related when you are talking about mainline congregations, and I have been thinking about these things ever since I wrote my blog post last week about 13 Reasons Why Seminaries are Irrelevant. There have been some good posts floating around this week on these topics:

• Is Seminary Relevant? -The guys at GoingtoSeminary.com saw the blog exchange between Tyler and I last week and are featuring our posts on their site. Tyler has expanded his post for the GoingtoSeminary site; my post will run on Monday.
• When an M.Div. Isn’t Enough – If you don’t follow Adam Walker Cleveland’s blog, you won’t believe the hoopla going on with his attempt to get ordained. He’s seeking ordination in the PC(USA). He got his undergraduate degree in religion from a private Christian University. He went to Princeton Theological Seminary, a PC(USA) seminary, and got not one but two degrees–a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts in Youth Ministry. However, his presbytery says he still lacks seven courses before he can be ordained. That’s almost another year of full-time study.
• Tony Jones has started a petition in response to Adam’s dilemma.
• The seminary dilemma – Erik shares a lot of my thoughts on ordination here.
• The church as an agent on self-preservation – Another vote against denominationalism.

Youth Ministry

• Start putting things off – Youth ministers are notorious for doing way too much and thus distracting ourselves from things that are really important. This article advises people to start putting things off so you can focus your time.
• Planning in youth ministry – Erik outlines how he tries to do some of his planning in his ministry. Good thoughts for how to use the flex time coming this summer.
• Evaluating your ministry – Tim offers a free download of a survey he used to try and measure different areas of his church’s youth ministry. The results of this survey have him considering whether or not he should cancel large group meetings altogether. The survey is easily adaptable for your ministry.
• Jobs of a small group leader – Chris is doing a series of posts about what he expects in small group leaders. Here is part two.
• Theology of high school youth meetings – Some good questions to consider here. If you aren’t asking them, you should.
• Bonhoeffer on youth ministry – He always has a way with things. Thanks to Jake for pointing this out.
• A theology of play – Adam gives some meaning to dodgeball.
• From missions to missional – I think most of us are trying to figure out how to make this shift. Some good thoughts here by Dan.

Miscellaneous – Church, mission, theology

• On church hospitality teams – David Fitch says it is a false expectation for people to be integrated into a church community in a few visits.
• The most impressive person at Princeton – You’ll be surprised.
• Leading to the edges – Adam McLane on where you have to lead in order to grow.
• Why it matters that Jesus REALLY rose – Tony Jones ain’t no heretic when it come to the resurrection.
• The New Perspective on Paul – Scot McKnight has started a series on the new perspective on Paul. If you aren’t familiar with this theological topic, this would be a good place to start.
• How the young view religion

• “I don’t know” – Three words that are likely ruining your life.
• Sustainable Youth Ministry vs. Youth Ministry 3.0 – A popular youth ministry book smackdown.
• 30 days of missions devotionals for teens – Tim Schmoyer points us to this 30-day devotional. I haven’t looked at it closely, but it’s free. It is probably at least a good catalyst of ideas.
• A rant on sermons – I must admit, I love rants. You might not like this one, especially if you preach on a regular basis.
• You aren’t called to be a youth pastor – Says Jeremy. I think I agree, but will have to read through it again.
• Grandiosity – A theological temptation. Especially pertinent for us young seminarians.
• 10 Ideas for Rethinking Sunday School – It’s actually eleven. I’ll add a twelfth: cancel it.
• Denominations vs. Traditions – Jake Bouma points us to an interesting quote. I am in a very similar dilemma as someone who is really drawn to the Lutheran tradition but still has reservations about the ELCA.
• Don’t be afraid to fail – Is the lesson from this video Adam shares. Churches could stand a little risk-taking.
• An exercise you need to do – Adam outlines a way for those of us in ministry to look at what we do. I think this is a great exercise.
  • Tim Schmoyer actually did it. Here are his results.
• Advice for youth ministry newbies – Adam gives a lot of really practical tips that are deep with underlying implications and assumptions. A really amazing list, if you ask me.
• Love is ——- Stupid – If you don’t like the f-bomb, don’t read this. But he does raise some good points.
• Youth Pastor Problem: Anxiety – This one is spot-on.
• Paul’s Words to Youth Pastors – Good thoughts here.
• Free e-book on creative Bible teaching – I saw this a while back, but ran across it again. This is good introductory material.
• ELCA Teaching theologians support the sexuality statement – If you are looking to understand this side of the sexuality debate this is as good of a place to start as any.
• 3 mistakes you likely make on mission trips – I added a critique of one of these in the comments.
• NYWC Website is Live – If you want to shape this year’s National Youth Workers Convention, go to the site and RSVP for the conference call.

Every Sunday I try to post some of the best links out there on the web that I’ve read. Most relate directly to youth ministry, some tangentially, and some are just downright interesting. But, as tends to happen, I limit myself to a small sphere and can sometime stay restricted to a narrow niche of websites. If you have a link related to youth ministry that you think I should include (yes, it can be your own!) send it to me (via a direct message or @mattcleaver on twitter or an email) and I’ll see what I think. If I judge it to be helpful to the wider community, I’ll include it in my list. If not, you shall be smitten. Just kidding.

• Kara Powell at the Shift Conference on Friday talking about “sticky faith” and their college transition research.
• Rethinking family – Has the nuclear family become idolatrous?
• Powerful song lyrics – This reminds me of a psalm-style of worship music. Provocative lyrics.
• A book on baptism – Scot McKnight says, “Every pastor, theologian, ecclesial thinker, and theologian needs this book.” Have a question on baptism in the early church? At 912 pages, chances are this book answers it.
• 13 Things to Do with a Moleskin notebook – Because you’ve always wondered.
• How can you help your readers today? – This is the question you should be asking when you blog, says this author.
• Ways our student ministry is broken – Watch the video, too.
• Amazon Kindle is the Devil – I’ve never thought of it this way, but I think I agree.
• Want to be a part of a youth ministry teaching pool?
• The extremes of youth ministry – By josh griffin. I wish Josh would write more posts like this one.

• Marko talks about Youth Ministry 3.0 – If you are like me and haven’t read Marko’s latest book, but want to, this podcast might be a way to get you up to speed.
• Is youth ministry dying? – Perhaps. This points for the need for those of us who are younger and just getting into ministry to develop a skill-set beyond specialized youth ministry that will jive with the coming change in churches.
• Tony Jones interviews Bart Ehrman – I haven’t listened to it yet, but Tony says that this interview is very different than others that Ehrman has done recently promoting his book. Most media outlets aren’t interested in hermeneutics or philosophy. Tony is, so he asks.
• More on the myth of the perfect youth pastor – Brian has added some myths and uploaded an updated PDF of the whole series.
• The Divine Commodity – Bob Hyatt interviews the author of  this book, which looks quite interesting.
• Introvert or Extrovert: What Kind of Youth Leader Are You? – This article made me think about how I let my introverted personality influence the way I do an perceive youth ministry, perhaps too much.
• A bibliography on ecclesiology – If you, like me, have an interest in ecclesiology, check out the comments of this post for an extraordinarily long reading list.
• Is the best youth ministry reproducible? – Jeremy argues no.
• Rhythms of a writing life – Scot McKnight has been cranking out books like crazy in the past few years, but that wasn’t always the case. Scot reminds us that our work rhythm must conform to where we are in life. A good lesson for all, especially if you want to be a writer.
• Why Jesus Rose – After telling us why Jesus died last week, Tony Jones tells us why he rose.
• The Cost of Transitions – Why churches need to invest in the longevity of their youth ministers.