Doug Fields launched a new podcast this week on his
Simplyyouthministry.com website. He also has a video version, so it’s the closest thing I can find to another video blog about youth ministry. The videocast requires
Quicktime 7 and is about 52 MB to download. I haven’t seen an RSS feed yet, but he does list the topics he talked about in the 30 minute episode. This is great because you can decide if it’s worthwhile to download or not. You can also call in and leave comments or feedback or something to be included in a future show. This looks very promising, so go check it out.
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New Category: Book Reviews
I don’t own a ton of youth ministry books and the ones that are on my shelf right now are a bit old. This Christmas I got a new book that I have just loved. Shaping the Spiritual Lives of Students by Richard Dunn is a well written book that includes Biblical principles for spiritual caregivers, relevance to youth culture and tangible application points that most youthworkers would appreciate.
Pastor Dunn includes chapters on topics such as A Theology of Pacing and Leading (pacing meaning actively, engaged listening), the Postmodern Youth Culture of Today, Nurturing the Adolescent Moral Self, and three chapters on Early, Middle and Late Adolescence.
I particularly found the chapter on nurturing the adolescent moral self very intriguing, knowing that being a spiritual caregiver for students is not easy or simple. I also appreciated the sections on the three stages of adolescence, as they outlined some of the specific challenges as students and children transition from kids to young adults.
The book is easy to read and includes a good combination of the authors anecdotes from his youth ministry days; snippets from research about adolescent evelopment and youth culture; and tangible guidelines and principles. The end of each chapter also includes two sets of follow up questions, one set for quick thought and the other set suitable for further reflection or discussion starters with other youth workers.
Throughout the book, Dunn stresses this idea of students needing, longing for, and seeking out spiritual caregivers. The youthworkers that will sacrifice, pace and lead, and go out of their way to care for, challenge and implore students - these are the ones that will make a difference. These youth workers will not only shape the spiritual lives of students today, but they will erupt a movement of leaders and disciples that will mold the future -a generation that will launch into the world around us and love it for Jesus sake. If seeing students grow spiritually to impact the world around them gets your heart racing, you would love this book as well.
Review written by: Tony Sheng
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Click to view the movie with Windows Media or Quicktime.
Super Bowl XL will be played between the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, February 5, 2006. Millions of people all over the world be watching. There are two weeks of media preparation for the game. People will be talking about it. Are you ready? Check out this video for some Super Bowl resources.
Related links:Power to Win 2006; Souper Bowl of Caring; Super Bowl Outreach ideas; Thesource4ym.com
For fun: Some of the best Super Bowl Commercials of all time, Official Super Bowl website, More Super bowl ads
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YouthSpecialties has begun a
monthly podcast on their site. Starting in January 2006, the youth ministry resource provider will offer a podcast (
what’s a podcast) each month with interviews and information about resources in youth ministry. The first episode is an interview with Duffy and Maggie Robbins, authors of
Enjoy the Silence. The podcast is available for download in mp3 format, and you can listen to it in iTunes. There’s an XML feed so you can get it delivered to you through a news aggregator, if that’s what you want to do.
Episode 1 of the YouthSpecialties podcast is an 11.7 MB download. It’s a 25 minute show recorded at the National Youth Workers Convention. Pretty much, the authors of the book Enjoy the Silence explain the process of Lectio Divina described in the book and its application in youth ministry for both youth workers and the students in their ministries. Oh, yeah, at the end, there’s a special offer from YouthSpecialties.
Does anyone know anyone else who is providing Podcasts for youth workers? I have seen a lot of youth group sites that have podcasts, but I haven’t seen many specifically for youth workers. Let me know.
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