Every Friday we pull our favorite links from across the inter-webs. This week we looked how contemplative prayer might unintentionally marginalize urban youth, Perry Noble shares "5 Thigns Every Student Ministry Must Have To Be Successful," we shared a great conversation about the Church's role with mental illness, we list an overview of our favorite #hashtags to review, and provide some fuel for your Friday procrastination.
Blogs From YouthSpecialties.com This Week
Our new friend Pablo Otaola (@pablootaola) asked if contemplative prayer was unintentionally marginalizing urban youth. CLICK TO VIEW
We are so excited to welcome Brian Aaby (@brianaaby) to the YS team! He'll be heading up two new resources; YS Search & YS Coaching. Check out an interview with him from this week: CLICK TO VIEW
Blogs From Other Great Youth Workers This Week
Perry Noble (@perrynoble) created a great conversation starter with the post "5 Things Every Student Ministry Must Have To Be Successful." CLICK TO VIEW
Amy Simpson (@aresimpson) shared a compelling post at QIdeas.org entitled: "Mental Illness: What is the Church’s role?" CLICK TO VIEW
Our friend Jim Hancock (@jimhancock) pointed us to an article from CommonSenseMedia.com about selfie-improvment apps and how students are responding to a constant need to look perfect: "When Selfie-Improvement Apps Go Too Far" CLICK TO VIEW
Christopher Wesley (@chrisrwesley) wrote a solid and practical post with "5 Simple Steps To Recruit More Volunteers." CLICK TO VIEW
The kind gentleman Andy Blanks (@andyblanks) over at YM360 shared his recent message to graduating seniors and I think it's a good "forward-able" post to some graduating seniors: "My Message to Graduating Seniors" CLICK TO VIEW
Our hilarious friends the Skit Guys (@skitguys) released a new video for graduates. It's a good one to send on to your students too... and a bit of a tearjerker: "Graduation: Your Story" CLICK TO VIEW
#Hashtags To Review
Here are a quick list of some of our favorite youth ministry #hashtags from this week. There is a ton of great insight behind each one. We pulled the twitter searches for each hashtag and made them clickable so you can easily view and scroll through all the youth worker wisdom in 140 characters or less.
#FaithForward2014 : CLICK TO VIEW - I'm really jealous that I'm not at Faith Forward's gathering this week. It's been packed full of creative collaboration and heavy discussions about ministry and culture.
#UPN2014 : CLICK TO VIEW - The United Pastors Network had their annual gathering and they were sending out some pretty inspirational thoughts on ministry and leadership.
Fun Things To Fuel Your Procrastination
This teen does Michael Jackson better than Michael Jackson. CLICK TO VIEW
Hilarious life hacks for dogs: CLICK TO VIEW
For that bump of adrenaline... Rally Car vs Formula 1 Car: CLICK TO VIEW
A town in Austria has way cooler bus stops than your town. "Seven of the world's most unique bus stops..." CLICK TO VIEW
Make your own deodorant... ya hippies. CLICK TO VIEW
Great life advice from 12 of the best commencement speeches. CLICK TO VIEW