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One of Those Days

Last Updated November 26, 2007 by Matt 6 Comments

Yesterday was one of those days. One of those days when you wonder if all the effort you put into something is worth it. Yesterday was our monthly youth-led evening worship service. This past month didn’t go so well with the planning meetings we usually have. We canceled one because of Thanksgiving, and another week […]

Filed Under: Personal, Youth Ministry

Posting Hiatus

Last Updated November 20, 2007 by Matt 4 Comments

Chances are there won’t be any new posts until the Monday after Thanksgiving.  I’ll be busy visiting families, getting ready for our monthly Sunday night service, taking vacation, blah blah blah. If I do post, just consider it a gift.

Filed Under: Blogging, Personal, Random

Getting Things Done Update

Last Updated November 13, 2007 by Matt 4 Comments

It’s been almost a month since I’ve started Getting Things Done (GTD). I must say, the results haven’t been mind-blowing, because I wasn’t too horribly disorganized, but there are a few things that are great: My mind stays empty. I use the GTD system to get stuff out of my mind and into my GTD […]

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: Getting Things Done, GTD

Why Seminary?

Last Updated November 10, 2007 by Matt 1 Comment

Sorry it’s been so long since posting anything. It’s been a little more hectic the past few weeks for some reason. Anyways, I thought I’d write a little bit about why I’ve decided to go ahead and pursue an M.A. degree from Luther Seminary. Desire. Since my junior year in college I have planned on […]

Filed Under: Christianity, Personal, Seminary, Youth Ministry

Busyness

Last Updated October 27, 2007 by Matt 9 Comments

It’s been 8 days since my last post. There’s been a few reason’s why I haven’t been posting lately: I was accepted to Luther Seminary and have been working on doing some of the things I have to do to get ready for that. It’s amazing the amount of software they want you to have […]

Filed Under: Random, Personal

Today I Joined a Cult

Last Updated October 18, 2007 by Matt 9 Comments

Well, some people consider it a cult. Today I joined the vast group of people who are Getting Things Done (or GTD for those who are really “with it”). I’d heard a lot about GTD through various blogs and decided to check it out, so I bought the book. It seems like something that will […]

Filed Under: Personal, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Getting Things Done, GTD

Good Weekend

Last Updated October 9, 2007 by Matt Leave a Comment

I spent Sunday and Monday at my alma mater, John Brown University, with some of my students. It was good to be back on campus, worship in chapel, and see some of my professors. And, of course, to see my good friends Noah, Rusty, and Sadie. Hopefully I’ll get back to blogging in the next […]

Filed Under: Personal

New Look

Last Updated September 14, 2007 by Matt Leave a Comment

Decided to change the look of the blog.  This WordPress theme was recently released and I fell in love.  I’ll probably make some minor tweaks over the next week.

Filed Under: Blogging, Personal, Random

My Wishlist is Shrinking

Last Updated August 18, 2007 by Matt Leave a Comment

In my last post I linked to my Amazon.com wishlist and thought it might be a good idea to go back through it and make sure it was still current. Well, it wasn’t. I removed about 40 books from the list. The encouraging thing was that I think over half of them I have actually […]

Filed Under: Books, Personal

Birthday Books

Last Updated August 17, 2007 by Matt 3 Comments

My birthday was last week. And, as birthdays go, I got some pretty decent birthday money. So, what did I do with it? Buy an iPod? Surround sound? A bluetooth earpiece? Heck no. I bought some books. And they are: The Mediation of Christ by Thomas Forsyth Torrance Principles of Lutheran Theology by Carl E. […]

Filed Under: Books, Christianity, Personal, Theology

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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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