Youth Ministry Networking Links from this Past Week

• Churches work with public schools to bless students, parents & teachers. (Featured Link) Mission Houston connects churches with schools to provide mentoring, prayer, financial support, and service projects. “‘We can do more by working together,’ said Jim Herrington, former director of missions for Union Baptist Association.”
• Churches team up to provide fun festival for kids. I keep seeing more and more of these kinds of events popping up. Similarly, youth pastors from Pennsylvania put together a midsummer festival-like event for teens.

Youth Ministry Links from this Past Week

• Mission trip to nowhere. What if your mission trip had no destination, no plan, you just hopped in the van with your kids and ministered to people as you went? What a cool idea.
• The differences between working in small towns and large cities. Ministry will look different depending on your context!
• Back-to-school event ideas, other than parties. Great ideas that don’t unrealistically over-hype youth group.

The Youth Leader: Personal Reflections of Doing Ministry to Teens

• Why I am in Youth Ministry. Reminders of why we do this, especially after the heartache that typically comes in this kind of ministry.
• Veteran youth leader discusses wanting to make an eternal impact, despite the challenges of school, sports, and other activities.
• What I didn’t learn in seminary. Can you guys relate? I actually feel as if Fuller has done a good job training me in the areas listed here, but other seminaries might not.

Other Links Worth Reading

• Is campus ministry different than ministry to the general public?
• Why Young Life is Evil. A personal anecdote of a bad experience with this parachurch organization. Is it wrong to target the influencers, with the hope that they will influence others?

Have you found any helpful links from the past week? If so, be sure to leave a link in the comments section of this post.