A little bit of youth ministry news for you guys today.

Group Magazine Live

Group Magazine is launching the first show for their publication later next month! Although Doug Fields left SYM earlier this month and is transitioning to Youth Specialties and the home base for his podcast is largely transferring to Doug’s website, Group Magazine Live is something different. It is not a replacement for that podcast (that will be coming later), it is simply a new show in addition to what will be replacing the SYM Podcast that Doug used to host.

Group Magazine Live will be a topical, live podcast-type show and it will be hosted every two months coinciding with the current physical magazine issue.

The first show is on Thursday, July 21, 2011, at 9:00am MST at their normal live streaming site, SimplyYouthMinistry.tv. The topic will be about sexual sin featuring Craig Gross of xxxchurch.com, Jeffery Wallace (author of, “Urban Youth Ministry Start to Finish”), Rick Lawrence as the host, Toby Rowe as the co-host, and a female to be announced. Together they’ll expand on the topic of sexual sin in church, youth ministry, pastoral positions, and everyday life.

The format will be somewhat familiar, except that it will be intentional about inviting live interaction and Q&A from viewers, which will be fun.

QUESTION: What do you think of the concept for this new show? Think it’ll be engaging and successful? Think Group should consider a different strategy for facilitating interaction and engagement with the magazine’s content?

New LIVE Curriculum Features

On a side note, Simply also has a new website for their LIVE curriculum that features new plans, more help videos, new features like print on demand, new contributors that include Andy Blanks of YM360 and Doug Franklin of LeaderTreks, and a lot more.

[ Full Disclosure: The ad to the right does not link to the new website, but will kick some commission to me if you choose to use it and purchase the curriculum. ]

Some SYMC Speakers Announced

And lastly, the Simply Youth Ministry Conference team has worked like crazy to get the conference’s website live way earlier than last year. Check it out if you’re interested in the latest news, speakers who are coming on board, seminars that will be offered, and more.

In the meantime, the place and date are set: March 2-5, 2012, at The Galt House in Louisville, KY.

Presenters who are already on board are ME! (yay) along with Francis Chan, Jon Acuff, Derwin Gray, The Skit Guys, Shane & Shane, Kurt Johnston Josh Griffin, Jake Rutenbar, Rick Lawrence, and others, but you should really just come so you and I can meet and talk. ;)

[ Full Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. Simply Youth Ministry gave me the opportunity to announce these things before they did, so I opted to do so. ]

Posted on June 28, 2011