Tag Archives: Blogs

10.30.15
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ICYMI – October 30, 2015

ICYMI

If you are like me, there are so many good articles and posts around the internet every week that it becomes difficult to keep up with all of them. “In case you missed it” is my way of pointing out a few good reads  that are too good to overlook. This list will compile the top five posts of the week that I read.

  1. 8 Local Church Ministry Trends To Consider – Via Phillip Nation
  2. Why So Many Young Church Leaders Struggle With Their Faith – Via Carey Nieuwhof
  3. How to Increase The Number Of Volunteers In Your Church – Via Thom Rainer
  4. How to Strengthen Your Relationship With Your Senior Pastor – Via Kurt Johnson
  5. What is the Gospel – Via R.C. Sproul

Did you read a good article this week? I would love to check it out. Share the link below in the comment section:

02.28.15
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ICYMI: February 28, 2015

ICYMIIf you are like me, there are so many good articles and posts around the internet every week that it becomes difficult to keep up with all of them. “In case you missed it” is my way of pointing out a few good reads  that are too good to overlook. This list will compile the top five posts of the week that I read. 

  1. 5 Things to Remember when Planning Connecting Events – Via Mark Howell
  2. 10 Ways to Read your Community – Via. Chuck Lawless on Rainer’s blog
  3. Every Small Group Needs a Vision – Via Marshall Segal on Desiring God’s blog
  4. How to Choose Student Leaders – Via Jen Bradbury on DYM’s Blog
  5. Taking a Closer Look at Christ and Culture – Via Trevin Wax

Did you read a good article this week? I would love to check it out. Share the link below in the comment section:

08.12.14
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The Blogs I am Viewing the Most Right Now

Top-BlogsFrom time to time, I enjoy sharing what I am reading currently. My feedly consists of nearly 75 different blogs so I have a great list to choose from, but there are always those blogs that I m drawn to the most at certain times. Here are the blogs that I am currently viewing the most right now:

 

  • Thom Rainer’s Blog– This could be the most practical pastoral blog out there. I have been reading a few of his post each day for weeks now. He has some great stuff on leadership and pastoring.
  • Ron Edmondson’s Blog– This is another ultra practical blog.  He has more posts with numbered “how to” ideas on leadership than any blog that I have ever seen. He is great, and you should definitely be reading this blog. He has some great posts on marriage and relationships as well.
  • Between the Times– This is a blog by the faculty from Southeastern Theological Seminary. Some of their post are geared directly to toward pastoral leadership, and others are about theology. Great blog  all the way around.
  • Brad Lomenick’s Blog– Now, I had never heard of his blog until recently. Someone told me about it, and I have been hooked since. Ultra practical. Great blog for you to check out.
  • Michael Hyatt’s Blog– Now, this guy is a big time blogger. In fact, he writes and helps others with blogging. He has some excellent stuff when it comes to your leadership and the platform that God has given you. Check his blog out.

Recommend a blog for me to check out.

12.13.12
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Vote Today for My Post as the Top Youth Ministry Post of 2012

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With your help, I have made the top 34 of the list of best youth ministry blogs of 2012. I need you to go vote again. With a new round, it means new votes so if you have already voted, take just a second and go vote again if you would.

 

Click here to vote!

 

12.07.12
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Voting Starts TODAY! Go Vote for my post

best-blog-post-of-2012-for blog

Youthmin.org puts together a top student ministry blog post for 2012, and one of my posts (My top 5 epic failures in student ministry) was nominated. Here is some information, and I would love for you to vote for my post:

“Here we go folks! We have, in our minds, the best most amazing resource for Youth Pastors, the nominees for Best Youth Ministry Blog Post of 2012.

Last year, we quickly learned how invaluable a list like this is as a youth ministry resource, and this year we think the same holds true. There are a number of topics covered in these posts by 70 different authors, and we can only imagine withe the expanded list, this will serve even more than last year’s list to grow Youth Pastors, no matter the years of experience.

We’ve loved watching the list form the last two and a half weeks, and to see how awesome it is that we have the best of the best of Youth Ministry, with years of experience in Doug Fields, down to several Youth Pastors who hadn’t even started in Ministry this time last year. And that’s why we love this list, it’s one of the heartbeats of our site, the simple fact that every Youth Pastor has a voice, and Every Youth Pastor has something to bring to the table.

All that aside, there is a contest going on. Voting will start this Friday, December 7th, at 12:01 AM Eastern Time.

Last year, we had nearly 7,500 unique voters vote, and though we think the honor of being voted the best Youth Ministry Blog post by 7,500 people is quite the feat, we have some goodies for our winner as well. First off, the Amazing folks of Orange have given us a Ticket to the 2013 Orange Conference for the winner ($319 value), 10 hours of custom design work from the Youthmin Marketplace Team, $75 Amazon gift card, $50 Starbucks gift card, and an iPad Mini. With a few extra bonuses we’ll throw into the box being shopped, it’s a prize package worth nearly $1,750!

So here we go! Read these posts, and come back starting this Friday for voting. Voting for Round 1 ends December 11th at 11:59 PM Eastern.”

*Oh, and one last thing. If you see a Youth Pastor/blogger on here you know, be sure to share this link with them to let them know they were nominated. Last year, several missed the first round of voting and were eliminated. 

**Also, as a reminder to those who missed this post, these blog posts were nominated by our Youth Ministry community of readers. Many of our favorite bloggers didnt make the list. We’d like to show formulas and stats for how this list was compiled, but it was just readers who said “I loved this post!”

Go see the entire list of blog posts that were nominated, and vote for my blog post here!!

08.30.12
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The Top 25 Youth Ministry Blogs Announced

The Youth Cartel put out recently the top 25 blogs of 2012. These are some amazing bloggers and voices in youth ministry. I encourage you to check this list out and add them all to your reader. If you missed the top 25 blogs of 2012, check it out here:

Welcome to the fourth annual ranking of the top blogs in youth ministry. (see the 2011 list)

How is the list created?
The list is based on a composite score of 66% publicly available statistics, such as Alexa and Google Page Rank, and 33% an influence rank voted based on a vote by the previous year’s top bloggers. The first step is to research the publicly available statistics for the 150+ blogs on the index. Next, I rank the statistical strength of each blog. Then, I ask those currently on the list to rate each of the Top 50 blogs for influence. Finally, the human ranking is added in with the statistical rankings to create the composite ranking published here.

What are the criteria for consideration?
It has to be a blog that’s about youth ministry and it has to be active. If you think you have a blog that I should consider for the 2013 list, please leave a comment. I’m currently indexing approximately 150 youth ministry related blogs so there’s a good chance I’ve already got you on the list.

How hard is it to get ranked?
As you can see in the rankings, while the majority of the blogs in the Top 25 are long-term time investments, there are seven who were not ranked in 2011. My hope in publishing this list is to encourage the genre of blogs focused specifically on ministering to adolescents around the world.

Questions?
Each year I get a wide variety of feedback about the blog rankings and I love it all. Feel free to leave a comment to this post or contact me via the website.

I’m on the list, now what? 

I asked Cartier if they’d donate diamond pendants to commemorate the 2012 list, I’m still waiting to hear back. In the meantime I’ve made this fancy graphic that would look great on you

2012 Rank Name URL 2011 Rank
1 Josh Griffin http://www.morethandodgeball.com/ 1
2 Doug Fields http://dougfields.com 7
3 Mark Oestreicher http://whyismarko.com 2
4 Adam McLane http://adammclane.com 4
5 Jonathan McKee http://www.jonathanmckeewrites.com 10
6 Tim Schmoyer http://studentministry.org 3
7 Fuller Youth Institute http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/ 8
8 Adam Walker Cleaveland http://pomomusings.com/ 6
9 Kurt Johnston http://www.juniorhighministry.com/ 19
10 Youth Specialties http://youthspecialties.com/blog 5

To find out who made the list from 11-25, go to The Youth Cartel’s website and find out here.

08.28.12
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5 Reasons I Will Return To Your Blog

I come across tons of student ministry, leadership, and improvement blogs! Many people share different blogs with me to see if I will check them out. Honestly, there are tons of good blogs out there. I have seen many that I have added directly to my reader, because I will go back and visit them again. On the other hand, I have come across some that I would not return too. I want to give you the top 5 reasons I will return to your blog:

  1. Your blog must be organized– This is a major pet peeve of mine, but I get frustrated when blogs or websites are not organized! Do not put a bunch of stuff everywhere to make your blog confusing. Keep it simple, and easy to find certain posts and pages.
  2. Your blog must be updated– This is another aggravation about websites and blogs. I have had this happen throughout my browsing experience, and it frustrates me. If you are not going to consistently blog, just get rid of it. I know that sounds harsh, but seriously. Blogging takes time, and when you create a blog, you should factor that in. If you do not have the time to blog, do not worry about blogging.
  3. Your blog must be concise– When I say short, I am talking between 500 and 800 words. Many bloggers feel every post should be a book, and they treat it that way. So, they keep writing and writing, and at the end, the post could have been divided into 5 blog posts.
  4. Your blog must be unique in some way– It needs to scream you. Your personality needs to come out in the blog. Now, this may sound crazy, but if you are only mirroring another blog, or only writing content that is being written about by every other writer, I might not visit your site as frequently. I hope that this makes sense. Be original, and write from your position and experiences.
  5. Your blog must have resources– Honestly, I enjoy reading. I spend a couple of hours a week just reading through blogs in my reader. The blogs that I visit the most though are the blogs who are not afraid to share some great resources that are out there! If you come across something free, share it with your readers, and it will help engage them, and bring them back to your site if they know there is something valuable to find there!

[Question:] What makes you come back and visit certain websites/blogs?