Learned from Twitter: week ending April 11, 2009

Here are some of the things I learned from Twitter, this Holy Week...


1. theuprisinglive (Chad Swanzy) offered up an idea for a "free" night of fun with your youth group.
"free slurpees for your small groups and very low budget road trip idea... http://tinyurl.com/d533wp"

2. EvanCourtney (Evan Courtney) provides a code to get some free videos from BluefishTV.com.
"10 free downloads from Bluefish TV. Use code GoGreenRev"

3. ICEHOTEL_Sweden (Ice Hotel) is close to saying goodbye until next winter.
"Only two weeks left of ICEHOTEL - We are getting closer and closer to spring, when the Midnightsun takes over... http://tumblr.com/xbv1jts3k"

4. FlowerInTheRain (Janelle Painter) proves she is one proud "parent." :)
"It's Bring Your Child to Work Day. I brought my macbook. the end."

5. YMX (Youth Ministry Exchange) offers up a free lesson on John 9.
"Thought about a lesson for next week? Hit the link & get freebie for April 9: See Believe Live Inductive Study on John 9 http://is.gd/rGS6"

6. theofficenbc (The Office) provides a link to the new opening credits.
"Notice the new opening credits? Watch the "Michael Scott Paper Company" version again @ http://tinyurl.com/d9ez5u"

7. kentshaffer (Kent Shaffer) offers up some free fonts.
"30 free fonts for professional designs - http://bit.ly/GB02A"


What did you learn from Twitter this week?

Book Review: Culture Making by Andy Crouch

My review of Culture Making was recently posted on YMX.

Here it is in its entirety:

Andy Crouch has spent years looking at and being involved in culture, and in Culture Making he draws on that experience to help fellow Christians better understand the culture(s) around them. Throughout the book, you notice one of the ongoing themes is the fact that Crouch believes, ultimately, that culture is not about us, but, rather, is about God.

Crouch begins the book by talking about what culture is and what culture is not. Many Christians usually refer to culture when talking about all of the negative aspects of the world around us. Culture cannot be truly understood in such a broad framework. According to Crouch, culture "defines the horizons of the possible and the impossible in very concrete, tangible ways."

Culture can be as small as your immediate family or as large as the world. For most of us, we are part of multiple cultures and have an opportunity to influence and change, to some degree, only a fraction of them. "Real culture making," Crouch writes,"not to mention cultural transformation, begins with a decision about which cultural world - or, better, worlds - we will attempt to make something of."

As I read through this book, I found myself constantly being challenged and stretched. Crouch's writing forced me to dig deeper and go beyond the surface of my usual thinking. In chapter four, Crouch offers an alternative to our usual tendency of either condemning, critiquing, copying or consuming culture. He contends that we should be cultural cultivators and creators, offering "something new, something that will persuade our neighbors to set aside some existing set of cultural goods for our new proposal." What are you offering that will persuade people to switch to your proposal from what they already know?

After finishing this book, there is one thing I know - Culture Making needs to be in the hands of anyone who works with youth. Every youth worker needs to pick up a copy, read it alongside her youth team and apply the principles to the ministry and your family. As you begin to cultivate and create new culture for your ministry, you need to remember this, "Cultural goods cannot be imposed - they can only be proposed." May God use you to propose cultural goods within your ministry that will bring him glory and allow students to become more like Christ.

My advice (rating) – buy more than one and give out copies (5 out of 5)

Best of '08: Websites

I use the internet a lot in both ministry and my personal life. The more I use the 'net, the more I find I tend to use the same websites for a majority of my needs. I guess you could say I become a creature of habit, I won't be offended. I like trying new sites and venturing to other corners of the web, but if a website works for what I need why would I stop using it?

According to what I needed most this year, here are my favorites.

Best of 2008: Websites:
Facebook (personal/ministry) - Facebook was a great website to not only stay connected to students, but also to connect with other friends. You can stay connected to students no matter where you in relationship to where they are (ie, even if you move away or go on vacation you can keep up to date with what they are doing). You can be my friend by going to my profile.

Twitter (personal) - Twitter is a fun way to stay connected with friends in 140 characters or less. You can tweet from the website, your phone, or using a number of apps. I discussed a couple twitter applications over a year ago, check out some of the apps you can get to enhance your twitter experience. My favorite application is Tweetdeck, here is my tweetdeck review. I really love the ability to know what people are doing, hear stories of their youth ministries and something just laugh. You can follow me by going to my profile.

Youth Ministry Exchange (ministry) - YMX has a great forum community, some great articles and reviews and a few other youth ministry specific resources. (and every once and awhile you can see a review I write show up)

YouthMinistry.com (ministry) - A great collection of articles, freebies and other resources. There is a lot of great content on here. I think they'll publish anything, though (based on the fact that I've got some articles on there). Seriously, though, if you are in youth ministry, you need to check out this site.

Blogger (ministry/personal) - I use this site for both my ministry blog and my personal family blog. I like blogger's ease of use and relatively small learning curve. Its a great site for beginning bloggers to get their feet wet. It is not the only option out there, but I have not had many problems or complaints - so I keep using it.

PBSKids.com (personal) - Now that my oldest son is 4 1/2, we've been spending a lot more time online with him. PBSkids is a great site for us, it has a bunch of the shows he loves and has some pretty good games for him to play or activities he can do on his own. If you have little kids, you need to check this site out.

Google.com (personal/ministry) - I use google for email (gmail.com), blog statistics (analytics), searching (google.com), writing (google docs), and maps. I'm on the verge of using it for my blog reader, too (google reader). There are so many ways to use google in your minsitry, which will help streamline your online presence. I won't spend any more time talking about it, if you want to know more just leave a comment or email me.

Hulu.com (personal) - Because I am a father of 3 young children, I do not get to watch much TV when it airs. Neither my wife nor I watch much of anything on TV, unless it is a cartoon or something the boys also want to watch. So, we watch most of our TV online after it airs. We usually use hulu.com to do this. It is so easy to use and navigate and has great quality and quantity of content. And they have a growing collection of movies to watch, too. For me, this is a much better alternative to paying for some form of cable or dish.

NYWC '08: Anticipation (1 of 2)

In just over a week, I'll be in Nashville, TN starting to help set up for the National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC) put on by Youth Specialties (YS). With each convention I go to, there are always things I anticipate and I thought I might share those with you. This is part 1 (1-5) of my anticipations...



Reasons I'm looking forward to the NYWC: (in no particular order)
1. Zaxby's
This has nothing to do with the actual convention, but its been 2 years since I've had Zaxby's and I really like it. The route I'll be taking from here to Nashville is the same route we took from GA to here for visits and to move - so I know exactly where one is along the way. Let's just say I'll be stopping by on the way down and the way home. Unfortunately, there are no locations in Nashville.

If you get a chance to stop by and enjoy Zaxby's, might I recommend the Big Zax Snak Meal (chicken fingers, texas toast, fries, and zax sauce).

2. Connecting with old friends
One of the great things about a conference like NYWC is the ability to connect with friends who do not live close. In the past, I've been able to see friends from college and catch up. Being able to hear what happened after graduation is encouraging. I've also been able to connect with people I met at an earlier convention. The NYWC is like a reunion of sorts.

The other group I am excited to see again are the friends I have at YS and the other returning volunteers. It is always a highlight to get to spend long hours "working" during the week to just laugh, think, grow, and share. For me, these friendships are better than those camp friendships you made at summer camp over the years. I know I'll have a blast just hanging out.

3. Meeting "online" friends
I have youth ministry friends whom I have never met in person and this week will be a chance to meet a few of them. There are friends from twitter (some people would call them tweeps). There are Facebook friends. There are YMX friends (though some of these friends have migrated to other areas of online friendship). And there are those people I have met through this blog or other youth ministry blogs.

Last year, I got to meet a few online friends at the St. Louis convention, which was pretty cool. I don't know what to expect this year, but I have been more intentional about trying to connect at the convention. I must admit, I think its pretty awesome that the youth ministry world is so much "smaller" thanks to the internet.

4. Hearing stories from youth workers about what God is doing.
I love listening to other people share their stories. Hearing the stories of God transforming students. Hearing about how God is stretching and challenging youth workers. This is part of the week that I can never fully anticipate. No matter how much I "expect" to hear some great stories, I am always blown away with the extent of what God is doing.

5. Being challenged by general session speakers.
The general sessions are like church services; filled with announcements, videos, drama, mini concerts, praise & worship, speakers, prayer and some greeting. These 7 sessions are the only times most of the attendees are all together in the same place, doing the same thing. It is at times overwhelming.

I'm looking forward to speakers like Francis Chan, Mike Pilavachi, Andrew Marin, and Marko (we'll see if we get an all new message this time).


I can't wait to see what God has in store for this week. And if you are going to the NYWC in Nashville, I'd love to connect. Leave a comment or find me elsewhere online and let me know.

Best of 2007: YMX Nominations

1. Best youth ministry book (copyrighted 2007)
getting students to show up by Jonathan McKee
Speaking to Teenagers by Duffy Robbins & Doug Fields
Youth Culture 101 by Walt Mueller



2. Best innovation (new thing.. chubby bunny need not apply, lifetime achievement there)
taco-in-a-bag (its new to me). Its been a great food idea for big or smaller events. We've also done variations on it - taco in a trash can, taco in a bowl.


3. Best worship song for use in youth ministry (copyright 2006 or 2007)
everything glorious by David Crowder*Band



4. Best Christian artist for youth ministry [who your students like the most; not limited to Christian labels or "CCM genre"]
Switchfoot
Relient K
Aaron Shust