I just read through The (un)Offical Church Staff Manual: Youth Pastor Edition by Mark Riddle. While there is enough humorous material to make any youth worker smile – even after a the 10th reprimanding by the church custodian, there is a deep and heavy truth laced between the quips and jokes.

Here’s a brief example:

How to Crash and Burn as a Youth Pastor in Less Than Five Years

1. Believe that you’re a rock star – THE youth ministry expert in the church.
2. Take responsibility for everything that happens to, with, and for the kids in your church.
3. Completely ignore theology and its role in what you do week in and week out.
4. Spend time regularly in relationship-building adn one-on-one prayer with someone of the opposite gender.
5. Exclude, alienate, talk against, and look down on your students’ parents. Never to anything that actually supports parents in their ministry to their children.
6. Send anonymous hate mail to your pastor from your church computer.
7. Believe you ahve all the resources you need to lead a youth ministry at the age of 25. Its also helpful to believe that 20-somethings hold the most important and effective gifts for youth ministry.
8. Believe that you’re a wiser and more gifted leader than your pastor.
9. Never take a vacation or days off.
10. Feel surprised every time something goes wrong, because you believe there will actually be a time when everything always goes smoothly.

This is just a list from one page. The book is well worth the $5 bucks it costs. Great buy.

I was given Mike Yaconelli’s Getting Fired for the Glory of God by a pastor who used to work in youth ministry. I’m reading it. Blowing me away. You should read it to. Or maybe you shouldn’t. Maybe it is just awesome because God is using it to speak to me right now. Either way, I’ll recommend it.

The following is an email I wrote to a student ministry friend. He wanted to start reading some blogs so I sent him this email….

here are some blogs I really like. If you set up an account with Google Reader, keeping track of all these blogs is really easy.

http://swerve.lifechurch.tv/
LifeChurch.tv is a huge multi-site church that does nearly half of their ministry online. They are way ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. They’re pastor – Craig Groeschel – is pretty typical in his messages and thoughts. {think: a more tech savy bill hybels.}

http://www.stevenfurtick.com/
Steven Furtick is the pastor of Elevation Church in North Carolina. His blog really gets at the core of being a pastor. Sort of like a devotional on steroids. Plus, his church does some awesome awesome stuff…

http://youthspecialties.com/blog/
the youth speicialties blog. they pump out some funny stuff and some serious stuff. Awesome half the time.

http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/
stuff Christians Like. This blog makes fun of nearly every aspect of “typical” christianity. Really really funny….

http://www.thinkchristian.net/
great blog that takes things happening in our society and asks the question “how should Christians think about this”

http://www.ysmarko.com/
Mark Ostereicher’s blog. He’s the president of youth specialties. He has some really great stuff about students and faith and whatnot. Way better than the youth specialties blog.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
Seth Godin is a marketing guru. He has some pretty unconventional ways to look at business, leadership, and marketing. His blog is short, to the point, and packed with things that make you think. Tons of application for the church setting.

http://www.toddhiestand.com/
todd’s blog deals with living missionally in a suburban context (tons of application for me and, i think, for Blackhawk). great stuff.

http://aaronmonts.com/
aaron monts is a church planter who is just starting a church in san francisco. pretty interesting stuff.

http://ypulse.com/
this blog is packed with information, statistics, and stories about teens. great, awesome, perfect for student ministry.

http://thesubtext.org/
Subtext is a blog that deals with faith in suburban settings. a lot like Todd hiestand’s blog but more focused.

http://thesuburbanchristian.blogspot.com/
similar to subtext and todd hiestand’s blog

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/
a christian political look at politics (and not just from right-wing perspective) shane claiborne and mclaren write a ton for this blog.

http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/
a blog to help church’s not suck.

http://blog.worship.com/worship/
a blog that seems pretty cutting edge when it comes to worship.