MattCleaver.com

Reimagining Youth Ministry

  • Home
  • Youth Ministry has Failed
  • Best Youth Ministry Books
  • Church Websites
  • Contact Me

The Government vs. Private Citizens

Last Updated April 13, 2009 by Matt Leave a Comment

Have you come across this story from CNN about the group of people from Kauai who decided not to wait on their govenment to repair and reopen a local park? Polihale State Park was closed last December when floods destroyed a road and facilities in the park. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources […]

Filed Under: Links, Random Tagged With: kauai

Celebrating Easter with a Cage Match

Last Updated April 8, 2009 by Matt 5 Comments

From the “Why I think Relevance is a Myth” file, a church seeking to be relevant this Easter. Per the church website: For years the church has taught us to be “the nice guy” when we have really been called to be Ultimate Fighters. But what do we fight for? Join us on Easter and […]

Filed Under: Random, News Tagged With: cage match, easter, relevance, ultimate fighting

Get a Free Logo Tomorrow

Last Updated April 3, 2009 by Matt Leave a Comment

Shawn-Weston and I were suitemates in college, and he’s apparently doing freelance graphic design work. Monthly he’s offering people who participate in his “Saturday Freebird” a free service. It looks like he’s giving away his free service to as many people as possible, not just one random winner. So, it might be prudent for you […]

Filed Under: Links, Random Tagged With: free, graphic design, logo

We Need More Politicians Like This

Last Updated March 30, 2009 by Matt 1 Comment

Check out this YouTube video on this mayor from Canada. She’s been mayor for 31 years, is 81 88 years old, plays hockey, and runs her city debt-free with $700 million in reserves. I haven’t done any fact-checking, so I’m not sure what the “other side” of the story is, but I’m not sure I […]

Filed Under: Random Tagged With: Politics

The Future of Church Buildings?

Last Updated January 27, 2009 by Matt Leave a Comment

Stumbled across a piece in the New York Times about a man who lives in a 344 square foot apartment with 24 rooms. Okay, well, not exactly 24 rooms, but his apartment is reconfigurable with sliding walls into 24 different configurations. It is pretty amazing. Read the article and then check out the slide show. […]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, Random

Google Reader vs. Bloglines

Last Updated January 16, 2009 by Matt 3 Comments

I’ve been a pretty ardent supporter of Bloglines as my RSS feed reader of choice. I still think if all you want to do is read RSS feeds, Bloglines is the way to go. However, I’ve seen so many people using Google Reader that I’m going to give it a shot for a little while […]

Filed Under: Blogging, Random Tagged With: bloglines, google, google reader, RSS

A Presidential Debate Idea

Last Updated October 9, 2008 by Matt 1 Comment

After two snoozer debates with mostly empty rhetoric, it is pretty obvious the candidates don’t want to talk isses or facts.  So we should at least make this entertaining and raise the stakes.  My new dabate format proposal: The moderator is there to try and keep time commitments even. The questions are asked by one […]

Filed Under: Random Tagged With: 2008 election

The Changing Definition of “Cute”

Last Updated October 5, 2008 by Matt Leave a Comment

Has anyone noticed the changing definition of the word cute?  It used to mean something that brings a smile on your face in a way that is innocent, childish, youthful, or fluffy.  You know, bunnies, puppies, and little kids making funny faces. Judging from Facebook photo comments, cute now means: provocative, sexy, or suggestive. (And […]

Filed Under: Random

RSS Bloat and Youth Ministry Blogs

Last Updated May 16, 2008 by Matt 2 Comments

For those who read my blog via RSS, you may not have noticed that my blogroll has grown quite a bit over the past few weeks. When I subscribe to a feed in bloglines, it automatically shows up in my blogroll in my sidebar. You might want to browse and see if anything interests you. […]

Filed Under: Blogging, Personal, Random Tagged With: RSS, youth ministry blogs, bloglines

My Top Ten Movies

Last Updated May 12, 2008 by Matt 5 Comments

I’ve been tagged to post my top ten favorite movies.  Since I’m not a big movie buff, the following list will be something more along the lines of “first ten movies than come to mind,” which might, by the sheer power of the subconscious, also be my top ten favorite movies. Top Gun Smokey and […]

Filed Under: Personal, Random Tagged With: movies

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Next Page »

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 […]

You can find my new blog on philosophy and teaching at MattCleaver.com

Search

Archives

Categories

  • Best Youth Ministry Books (4)
  • Blogging (42)
  • Blogroll (1)
  • Book Reviews (17)
  • Books (32)
  • Christianity (50)
  • Ecclesiology (52)
  • emerging church (13)
  • Featured (8)
  • Links (27)
  • Ministry (4)
  • Neo-Youth Ministry (8)
  • News (25)
  • Personal (69)
  • Podcast (4)
  • Quotes (14)
  • Random (43)
  • Seminary (16)
  • Theology (48)
  • Uncategorized (50)
  • Websites (15)
  • WordPress (1)
  • Youth Ministry (149)

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in