Category: YMX

  • The YMX blog

    For a few weeks now (eternity in my library of ideas) Patti and I have talked about having a YMX blog so that our blogs weren’t quite so clogged up with stuff about the company and/or youth ministry stuff for others.

    It’s not that we don’t love youth ministry or youth workers coming to our site, it’s that beyond our friends people aren’t getting a central location for all of our youth ministry stuff. Also, we need to feature bloggers from YMX more regularly and we really didn’t have a place to do this on YMX outside of the forums. (Right now, only half our traffic goes to the forums so that was out.)

    So, the YMX blog was born last week. It’s got a fancy look that I love and we’ve got a growing list of writers to go along with all the collaboration we do all around the sites.

    Three quick things about the YMX blog:
    1. It’s all original content. We’re not recycling stuff we’ve already posted on our personal blogs or stuff that is making the rounds of blogs.
    2. It’s all about youth ministry. No personal musings allowed.
    3. It’s informal. We’ve got standard on the main site for polished content… we’re relaxing that on the blog.

  • You Matter

    you matter to GodYesterday we kicked off a series of articles at YMX. Let me tell you why I’m excited about this series. It is practical, between the eyes, encouragement to youth workers.

    One of the main goals of YMX is to be an encouragement to the Youth Ministry community. So I have been asking our forum moderators and a few other folks to write brief notes of encouragement to the community called “You Matter.”

    (more…)

  • YMX: Something on the side

    We are youOver the last few weeks I’ve had several people ask me about Youth Ministry Exchange. I don’t mean people from the community, I mean people from Romeo.

    So here is the scoop.
    Back in November-December 2005, I created a website with some friends of mine. It’s an online community for people like me… people who do youth ministry vocationally or as volunteers. Feel free to check it out, I’ve got nothing to hide.

    What, were you bored?
    Nope,just crazy. We just set out to meet a relevant need. From there God has blessed it and it’s taken off. In a lot of ways it’s taken a life of its own.

    So it’s a place where people vent about their jobs or waste time at work?
    While there is always that kind of thing at any online community (facebook, myspace, etc) there is actually very little of that. Most of what I participate in is practical advice, encouragement, and that kind of thing for people working/volunteering with youth groups like ours. I know for me personally, I don’t go to the site much during the day at all… well, unless I need advice on something at work! Like… I need an event and I’m looking for something cool… got any ideas?

    What about all these other websites?
    If you look on my sidebar to the right you’ll see a bunch of other websites that YMX owns. These are “sub-sites” that operate within the youth ministry genre but to a slightly different audience within youth ministry.

    I heard you do web design “on the side,” is that true?
    Yes and no. I do all of the church’s sites and all of YMX’s sites. But I’m not a professional web designer by trade so I always feel uncomfortable building other people’s sites. So, if you’ve got a project… just understand that as much as I like you… if it’s not for the church I’ll have to charge you and I’ll have to do it outside of my “work hours” at church or on a day off. Hints, discussion, advice are always plentiful and free!

    Is it profitable?
    This is the question that every person from the church wants to ask but is afraid to! Yes and no. Yes the site generates revenue and pays for itself. No, I don’t take a salary from the site. We simply reinvest profits into growing the site. Kristen and I are in it because we want to encourage other people…

    Are you a solo act on this thing?
    Nope. Never! Yuck. Boring. I have a great business partner. Also, I have an incredible group of moderators who oversee the “heavy lifting” part of the company, the forums. (1300 members and growing every day) The other thing we are getting known for is our youth ministry content. All of the credit for that goes to our managing editor. Seriously, Amy is awesome.

    Is the goal for this website to become your job and for you to stop being a pastor at Romeo?
    Not at all. The aim of the website was always to encourage other youth workers. I am more passionate about reaching this amazing generation of students here in Romeo than ever. As Kristen and I like to say… we have 28 years left on our mortgage so we intend on being here for a long time. We don’t know the future. Really, YMX is the result of responding the Holy Spirit’s prompting. Just like I love building into the lives of Romeo’s students, for some reason the Holy Spirit is directing us to build into the lives of youth workers around the country. The church is always #3 in my life. And YMX is generally a distant #4 or #5.

  • The Blog Snap: Sometimes You Can’t Hold It In

    Chris FolmsbeeI know exactly how Chris Folmsbee feels. Chris is Chief Ministry officer at YouthFront and President of Sonlife. He’s a class act guy and is an excellent leader.

    Part of being a leader is sticking your neck out. And Chris has done that. He put the nail the coffin of a great, but dying youth ministry model at Sonlife. (Sure, it gave birth to some of the great movements of evangelicalism but, as much as I loved it, was becoming a dinosaur.) Next, he closed Sonlife’s offices and joined forces with YouthFront. On top of all that he published a bold book called “A New Kind of Youth Ministry.” In all of these things he said and did things that were strategic, smart, and bold. And for a guy who sticks his neck out you have to expect that criticism would come.

    Imagine the polarization of Christian leader Chris encounters! People either love what he is doing and think he is brilliant or think he is a complete failure who is ruining the good things they knew and loved.

    I can imagine, as I’ve been in similar situations, how Chris gets tired of the criticism. And, more to the point, there is always a temptation to get on your high horse and blast a critic.

    For a few months now someone has been emailing me a link to this review of my book: (not linking it intentionally) — Almost every week I get an email — sometimes a couple of times a week. It is wicked annoying. Read the rest of his post

    Principle:
    Leaders need to be careful how often they use their talents. Chris is gifted as a leader and is a great communicator. While it’s OK to be annoyed/hurt/pissed about this, he’s got to be careful not to lose his composure.

    Here’s a temptation:
    Ranting is addictive. When you break composure and let out that something has gotten to you, loads of people cheer you on. They see their own situations in your rant and encourage you. Furthermore, the economy of hate kicks in and your vent gets so much traffic, so many comments, and so much attention that you actually like the ego boost. So, you carefully and strategically do it again.

    Was Chris wrong? No… I don’t think it was wrong to say what he said. Certainly, it is his space and he has the freedom to do as he wants. All I’m saying is that it’s a temptation to do it again. (I don’t think I’ve ever read a post like that on his blog, which is what made it so memorable)

    When you are blogging, chatting in the foyer at your church, chatting with friends, or any other place in your life where people are listen to you, you need to be careful how you use the talents God has given you.

    Because abused they can be powerful in destroying yourself and others.

  • Ad network launches

    baby adsFor at 6 months I’ve been toying with an idea that launched today.

    Networking youth ministry bloggers is nothing new to me. In fact, back in 2004-2005 this led to the creation of the “YS forum members blogring” which later morphed into what is today Youth Ministry Exchange.

    As I’ve gotten to know much more about how the internet works I’ve seen how advertisers are always looking for ways to connect with the blogging community. Increasingly, I’ve wanted YMX to create an engine to connect the two in a highly effective manner for both. See, it’s not that youth ministry companies aren’t spending money in online advertising already… they are… it’s that most of their ad dollars get wasted on places they don’t intend to have their ads placed. Likewise, I’ve never met a youth worker who couldn’t use a couple more bucks per month for doing something they already do… blog.

    So, Patti and I have toyed with this idea for a few months. It’s gone through several revisions and “hmm, let’s think about this for a month” cycles. Long story short, today a pilot of the YM ad network launches. I’m geeked about this pilot and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

    Read more about it at the ad network blog.

  • Youth Ministry Pro

    youth ministry proObservers of YMX and this blog will remember that we recently started “domain farming” a few domain names that aren’t currently registered… but we think would make great websites.

    In other words, we bought a bunch of domains hoping that if we marketed them a little, people would pay for them. Well, along the same lines we’ve learned that you can’t just buy the domain and do nothing… sometimes you have to do a little property development.

    So, I’ve had that buried in my “dream list” for a couple months. Today I decided to go for it and develop a domain we’ve owned for a long time, Youthministrypro.com.
    I could not believe that this domain wasn’t owned by someone! It’s a great domain name.

    Today I finally took a little time and developed this little property of ours. I installed Joomla, pimped it out with a nice template, did some simple graphic work, wrote a little copy, partnered with a great content delivery system, and voila: Youth Ministry Pro was born.

    What is it? Basically, it’s a job board for youth ministry. Sure… there are lots of these… but not very many of them are independently run. Most are tied to a school, denomination, or a publisher. What makes this one different is that we can offer some job finding content, a safe place to post your resume, access to Raising Lazarus, and of course a place for employers to post jobs. (Actually, it’s part of a mega-network of job listings so there is lots of stuff already there!)

    The best part is that this new site pretty much runs itself. Other than posting new content (e.g. reprinting from YMX) there isn’t a lot to do with it. That is… unless someone was willing to invest a lot of time and a little bit of money into the project. (Neither are commodities I have.)

    And, of course, the domain is still for sale. Now instead of just selling a domain, we’re selling a complete and profitable little business. Interested? Contact me.

  • Nominations for Best of Youth Ministry 2007

    Best of 2007Over at YMX, we’re accepting nominations for “Best of 2007” from the world of youth ministry.

    Here’s the link.

    If you post your list on your blog and post the link in the comments section by 12/30/07, we’ll put your name in a drawing for a $25 gift card from Amazon. (Drawing on 12/31/2007) Don’t post your link here… post it here!

    Do I have to be “in youth ministry” to nominate? Nope. It’s open to anyone with an opinion. The only requirement to be in the drawing is that you have to post a link to your nominations in your blog/website.

  • YMX: remix

    I don’t know if my blog readers know all that is going on at Youth Ministry Exchange.Here’s a quick snapshot of recent articles.

  • How do I get published?

    How do I get published?

    There doesn’t seem to be a more common dream among youth workers than the desire to get a book deal or to get published in a national magazine.

    Here’s a reality check: No one is ever going to contact you to offer you a book deal or to ask for you to write for a magazine.

    This is where YMX is unique in the ministry world. We want to help aspiring youth ministry authors, curriculum writers, and reviewers get to the “next level” by helping them develop a recognized name and find their writing voice.

     Developing a recognized name

    Yeah, I said it.  If you want to write a book, write articles, or publish curriculum you’ll probably need to do some work. It’s not like publishers are so bored in their jobs that they are just randomly looking at blogs, youth group websites, or your college papers. The reality is that the decision makers are busy… so you have to build a body of work to the point where you can make a pitch for your project. In other words, a publisher is gambling by publishing your work. Their gamble is that publishing you will make them more money than it will cost to produce your work. While all youth ministry publishers are in it to help youth workers… at the end of the day they have to pay salaries and cover expenses. So, if you want to get published at the next level you need to show that you already have an audience reading your stuff, using your stuff, and wanting your stuff now.

    Finding your writing voice

    I’ve had the pleasure to watch this process at YMX. The first couple of articles we get from people typically aren’t that great. They are full of passion and full of “stuff” that makes sense to the author but is hard to translate to a broader audience. What happens is that when an article is submitted it gets edited. And when an author reads the published article vs. what they have submitted they learn how to write more for what the editor thinks is palatable to a broad audience. The result is that by the 3rd article, we’re getting a better quality article/review/resource. And we are seeing that the new author is starting to get confident in their writing style… finding a voice. This is another thing that a publisher is going to want to see. They will want to see that your stuff is polished but they don’t have the time/money to help you get polished.

    So how do I get published? Here’s some ways to start today at making your writing dream a reality.

    1. Blog. The more you write, the more confident you get in writing.  Don’t just write about silly stuff or pass along links or the latest quiz to your friends. Find something to write about. If you really don’t have any ideas just pick a chapter of the Bible and write your reflections on a new chapter every day.
    2. Submit an article on something you are interested in. Write an article about something you are knowledgeable about to YMX. It doesn’t have to be long, 500-700 words is perfect. Another cool thing you can do is to ask people if you can guest blog on their blog. This will help you get used to writing for different audiences. Just like when doing speeches or preaching at churches, knowing your audience is half the battle. Once you get a few of these under your belt… you are ready to take on something tougher.
    3. Create a project that is outside what you know. Stretch yourself a little to write about something. This will demonstrate to yourself and others that you are diverse enough to write things that are beyond your experience.
    4. Ask for feedback. Once you get a few things published online, ask for feedback. How many people read my article? What would have made it better? How could I make that article into something that more people would have read?
    5. Ask for projects. I’ve never told a person “nothing” when they ask me for something I’d like to see an article on. When you ask me for a project idea and then you submit an article along those lines… that’s when I can see you are really getting into it.
    6. Be consistent and make deadlines. Nothing is more annoying than people who pitch an idea, get an assignment, and then blow a deadline. That is definitely not going to help you get to the next level.
    7. Start pitching ideas to new editors. This is the exciting step we see many writers at. They have written a few things for YMX, gotten solid feedback, and are now ready to draw on that experience to start getting paid gigs. So they submit their project ideas to youth ministry magazines, major Christian websites, their local newspaper, (small town papers are always hungry for good content) and maybe even another larger venue.
    8. Welcome to the world. When editors know your name and what you’ve got a body of work they are familiar with… they may just call you about a project idea they have been thinking about. Here’s a hint: Say yes and beat that deadline!

  • Can you help Brian?

    Brian_jesThis is Brian. He’s a youth worker like a lot of the readers of my blog. Brian was a youth pastor for a long time… then earlier year he took a huge leap of faith and uprooted his family from Missouri to Washington so that he could
    spend the summer working on a boat and kind of re-find something. (People in ministry know exactly what this feels like.)

    Here’s the deal. At the end of the summer Brian got seriously ill on board the boat. He had to be evacuated from the boat off the coast of Alaska and was flown back to Seattle where he learned he needed a kidney transplant and would need to go on dialysis immediately.

    Long story short, Brian is out of money. He is the father of two and his wife is working… but with mounting medical bills and his complete inability to work they are in serious trouble. Brian has applied for help, he is seeking social security benefits, and all the other state aid programs they can… but that stuff takes more time to get started than they have money to make it through.

    This is where Raising Lazarus comes in. I have the pleasure to partner with Patti as a board member of RL and I know it’s an incredible thing. Basically, we take no money out of donations and get them to the people who need them. (Who needs administrative costs?)

    So this is what I’m asking
    If you are able, would you be willing to contribute to Raising Lazarus for Brian and his family? As with any solicitation that RL does… we want to be perfectly clear. Don’t give us money if you aren’t tithing to your church. This would be something "over and above" all your normal things. But if you are willing to go without a couple of movie rentals or cups of coffee at Starbucks, you could make a big difference. Literally, you can help keep a family just transplanted into a new town and new state with no network, mounting medical bills, and mouths to feed in their home.

    If you would like to contribute something, ANYTHING, to Brian and his family. Here is a link.