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What I’m Giving Up This Year

Last Updated January 5, 2012 by Matt Leave a Comment

I said a few days ago that the key to focusing is willing to give up and cut out some things in life. So, with that, here’s what I’m cutting out in 2012: Personal: Reading non-Bible stuff. As I said, this year is the year of the Bible, reading-wise, for me. So I will do […]

Filed Under: Personal

What I’m Focusing On This Year

Last Updated January 4, 2012 by Matt Leave a Comment

Taking into account the questions I asked myself to help me focus this year, here’s what I want the next 12 months to be about: Personal: Reading the Bible. I love to read and have lots of interests. My default reading genre is theology (but recently I dabbled in lots of business, marketing, and financial […]

Filed Under: Personal

How to Focus

Last Updated January 3, 2012 by Matt Leave a Comment

I ran through a list of questions in my mind to help me decide on what to focus in 2012: Is it pleasurable? Things you spend time on should, if possible, be pleasurable. Yes, there are certain tasks and responsibilities that you can’t get away from, but I bet you would be surprised how flexible […]

Filed Under: Personal

Focus in 2012

Last Updated January 2, 2012 by Matt Leave a Comment

A new year is upon us and so I am inclined, like most, to reflect a little bit on the past and make some adjustments moving forward into the future. First, some observations about the past. Time Creep My makeup naturally makes me want to learn about anything and everything. I buy lots of books, […]

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: Focus

I’m Now a Part-Time Youth Minister

Last Updated November 17, 2011 by Matt 2 Comments

I’ve maintained blog silence for a little while because I knew a change in my job was imminent, but I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. Effective October 1, my status as an employee at my church was reduced from full-time to 10 hours a week, at my request. Now that I’ve gained a […]

Filed Under: Personal

A 4th of July Sermon: The Freedom of a Christian

Last Updated July 6, 2010 by Matt 1 Comment

Galatians 6:1-16 & Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 July 4, 2010 Hope Lutheran Church Matt Cleaver In case you haven’t noticed, today is the 4th of July. It is the day when our nation celebrates its birth and when we appreciate the qualities that have made the United States of America the unique country that it is […]

Filed Under: Ministry, Personal Tagged With: 4th of July, freedom, sermons

5 Year Blogging Anniversary

Last Updated October 14, 2009 by Matt 2 Comments

Yup, today is it. It’s hard to believe that I have been blogging for five years (although with varied degrees of commitment). For those who think that they will start blogging in order to become famous, I say: Ha! Blogging is a lesson in perseverance, my friend. For those who are wondering how this thing […]

Filed Under: Blogging, Personal

My Wife is Going to Kenya

Last Updated October 1, 2009 by Matt Leave a Comment

As some of you already know, my wife Alicia is currently a fourth year medical student at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, where she is studying to become an Emergency physician. One of her goals for her medical career is to do regular international medical mission trips to various countries around the world. Her […]

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: Alicia, medical missions, medicine, share kenya, tcom

A New Job

Last Updated July 2, 2009 by Matt 1 Comment

Yesterday was my first day at my new job. Okay, that might be a little bit of a stretch. Yesterday my job at Hope Lutheran Church changed from Youth Director to Director of Youth and Ministry Development. Our Associate Pastor of Ministry Development, Wendy Berthelsen, decided that she wanted to devote her time to the […]

Filed Under: Personal

The Ultimate Ubiquitous Capture Device?

Last Updated May 25, 2009 by Matt 3 Comments

In case you didn’t know, I’m a subscriber (though not necessarily a hardcore enthusiastic legalist) to David Allen’s personal productivity system for Getting Things Done (for an introduction to this system, go here). Over the past couple of years, I’ve played with different ways to implement the system, from an all-paper system to a hybrid […]

Filed Under: Personal, Random Tagged With: Getting Things Done, GTD, moleskin, volant

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Best Youth Ministry Books

These are the books that will completely change the way you think about youth ministry, for the better. Links are to my reviews of each book.

Teen 2.0 by Robert Epstein

A psychologist makes you question every assumption you have about adolescence.

Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry by Andrew Root

Why build relationships? Root’s answer will surprise you.

Best Youth Ministry Books: Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Ostreicher

Yesterday I finally read Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Ostreicher, and since I’m one of the latecomers to the conversation I won’t summarize the book too much. Marko has linked to tons of reviews on his blog if you are interested in more in-depth summaries. If you are fairly in-tune with a lot of the […]

Best Youth Ministry Books: Postmodern Youth Ministry

Postmodern Youth Ministry by Tony Jones is the book I would recommend to youth ministers if they could just read one youth ministry book. I first read the book in my Foundations and Practices of Youth Ministry class at John Brown University. After the preface to the book there is a page titled, “The Day […]

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