Back in January when published the results of the blog survey you all took for me (part 1 here and part 2 here), I was surprised how many of you wrote a comment about how you’d love to connect with other readers of Life In Student Ministry beyond what MinistryQuestions.com or LIVE YM Talk can provide. You guys wanted more personal networking with each other.
I’ve been thinking about this for several months and I’m gonna go with my initial reaction to this request, and that’s to continue to direct you all to the National Network of Youth Ministries.
For years they’ve been helping youth workers connect with other youth workers locally in their area for meetings, resourcing, encouragement, partnerships, training and more. Through their website you can find local youth worker meetings or find another person or two who’s interested in starting one.
Go to YouthWorkers.net and click on the Networks tab at the top to get started.
Why I meet with other local youth pastors
Yesterday at my local youth pastor meeting I asked two of the guys why it’s important for them to attend our group each week. Check out this video to hear what they said. I shared some of why it’s important for me to get together with other local youth pastors, too.
Here’s an older blog post I wrote almost a year ago about what I like about my local youth pastor network.
Interview with a Director and the CEO of NNYM
I had the privlege of talking more about the National Network of Youth Ministries with Len Evans (NNYM director for Texas and New Mexico) and the NNYM’s CEO, T.Ray Grandstaff. We talked about:
- What the National Network of Youth Ministries is
- What they’re trying to accomplish for both youth workers and teens
- What a youth worker meeting should look like
- How to find a network in your area
- How to start one if none exists near you
- Tools on their website to help you connect
- And a lot more.
Our discussion is about 25 minutes long.
You can listen to it below or grab it in iTunes.
Download the interview in iTunes
Posted on August 24, 2010