Category: YMX
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episode 2
A few months ago I started wondering if YMX should break into a new media. The idea was pretty simple… wouldn’t it be cool if members of the site submitted audio content that I could piece together and distribute to our friends on the site. Here’s the latest episode My favorite part of the podcast…
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Pursuit of Happyness Review
Kristen and I went to go see the new Will Smith movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, on Friday night. For the record I think our streak of sad, dramatic movies continues. This has an uplifting ending, but so did Hotel Rwanda. I wrote of review of the movie for YMX. Below is an taste of…
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Issues in Youth Ministry
A few weeks back Tim Schmoyer asked me to give him my thoughts on Youth Ministry from a "big lens" perspective. He actually has a huge "What Needs to Change" series going on his blog… a fantastic idea and there are loads of good thoughts from a broad spectrum of youth ministry professionals, academics, practitioners,…
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Who loves YMX?
This week, my partner in crime Derek Tang, (who is our Forum Administrator) is at the National Youth Workers Convention in Charlotte. Somehow they came up with the idea of getting their picture with a ton of people there with a little sign that says "We love YMX!" I think that is pretty hilarious. There…
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YMX Podcast going well
The big thing around YMX lately has been "When are you going to start a podcast?" Well, the first one launch Tuesday night and has been pretty well received. I’m looking forward to seeing where this new media for the site will take us. We’ve really not done it as a marketing thing… we’ve done…
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Friday at NYWC
Several thoughts from today. Sorry if they are random… First session was great. We sat about 200 rows back… no lie… and still had a great time. Kudos to Marko for the quote of the first session. He said something like "Hey, feel free to try stuff new… but make sure you put new batteries…
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What are some problems facing youth ministry today
A YMX member is writing an article about "Issues facing Youth Ministry today" And asked for my thoughts. I don’t know if he’ll use any of my thoughts, but here are some of the things that came off the top of my head. I’m no expert on youth ministry and the thing has gotten so…
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Just when you thought you were getting big…
I was starting to think of Youth Ministry Exchange as a big forum community. (And compared to a lot of others… it is) But then Derek sent me this link. Big-Boards Turns out there are currently 1865 known forum communities with more than 500,000 posts. We’re catching up to that category, but we’re only at…
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NY Times Article on Housing Allowances
A YMX forumite posted a link to this NY Times article called, "Religion-Based Tax Breaks: Housing to Paychecks to Books" I think the article accurately described the issue. In fact, this is a clearer presentation of what pastors and ministry leaders can get exempt from than I’ve seen anywhere else. The rules and limits have…
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What’s the real state of Youth Ministry
The past few days has seen contrasting articles published in newspapers. Here are two that I think contrast two views of youth ministry in America. The Sky is Falling attitude: New York Times ArticleWe’re getting better every year: Austin Statesman Article My opinion is the latter. I’ve seen youth ministry get better and better. The…