Tranformational Thinking

Saturday, May 31, 2008

The Once a Youth Pastor... blog has dramatically influenced a change in how I perceive 'effectiveness' in youth ministry and how youth ministry SHOULD be done. If you haven't seen this blog you have to. Go through and read it all. Most of the posts are short and to the point but it has been instrumental in reforming my ministry paradigm.

In one of his latest posts he lists the 5 questions that helped him rethink youth ministry.

  1. When was the last time we saw teens and their parents inside the walls of the church discussing spiritual things together?
  2. Do we equip and support parents of teens even a fraction as much as the teens that walk through their doors?
  3. How much time does our church/youth ministry invest in parents?
  4. What percentage of our youth ministry programs involves parents as participants, not just chaperones or leaders?
  5. Which of our ministries communicate that parents are the most important part of a teen’s faith formation?


Again, this is his, I don't want to take any credit from his work and pass along his site so you can be blessed by his words. I'm going to print off those questions and put them in a spot that I will see daily.

So...

Thursday, May 29, 2008

I had hoped to come back from my blogging hiatus, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

This June I will be in my office a total of 4 days.

4 days.

I hope to have a lot to talk about when I come back :-D

Charlie the Unicorn 2

Monday, May 12, 2008

If you haven't seen Charlie the Unicorn 1, stop what you're doing and go to YouTube and search for Charlie the Unicorn and watch it so you can fully enjoy Charlie the Unicorn 2. Otherwise, enjoy!

The Media (Not so evil as you think)

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Quick post before the service.

Most people blame the media for misrepresenting news or not publishing news of "substance". I know I often get ticked off when the war in Darfur gets 10 seconds of news time and the cafeteria worker who saved a little girl from choking gets 4 full minutes (true story). But is the media to blame? Or is it that people just don't care about things going on in the world elsewhere?

I present the evidence. CNN's "Top News" according to page views:

1. Jenna's big Wedding Day
2. Ex Manager: OJ confessed
3. 'Idol' finalist's dad banned
4. Can Clinton Land the plane?
5. Obama closes in on Superdelegates.
6. Price of snail mail creeps up
7. ....you get the point


What does this mean for youth ministry? Maybe exercising an awareness of what's going on in the world and having compassion for people in other countries. More thoughts on this later.

Movie Trailers that are Destroying America

Wednesday, May 07, 2008