Just updated the PDYM website with several great articles. You’ll want to check them out. Here’s a clip from What’s the Big Idea (on the continual cycle of events and bigger/better) that is particularly good. Don’t miss Your House (on your home and ministry) and MySpace is So Hot Right Now (is it good or bad – may make for a good parent handout). Here’s the excerpt:

I usually end up driving home by myself on Sundays after church. 50% of that is due to my firm philosophy that there is no better way to end a great day of greeting visitors, running teens out of the lobby, telling boys to pull their pants up, and staring a the ketchup on the ceiling in the boys bathroom with the janitor thinking, “How did that get there,” than a nice… quiet… no radio… drive home alone. The other 50% is because my wife and children think I sit around and “run my mouth” too long after church is over. I like to think of it as a “win-win” situation. But on this particular Sunday as I was driving home, I remember feeling rather “weird” because I could recall how it just seemed that an unusual amount of people were asking about our youth ministry.

“When is our youth ministry going to do another one of ‘those things’?” or, “You should think about doing this with our youth.” Suggestion after suggestion, comment after comment. I began to recall them one-by-one. By the time I got home, I think I needed another drive home to clear my head from the first drive home. That was when I first realized how much pressure we’re under as youth leaders to come up with the next “big event”, the next “big idea.” I remembered how I once had a Senior Pastor tell me, “To most people in our congregation, you’re only as good as your last sermon.” Going along with that thought, as a Youth Pastor or Leader, most people only grade us by our last event. And if there’s no event, you’re not doing enough. So I found myself sitting at the edge of my bed for an hour (with my shoes still on no less) trying to come up with my next “big idea”. What can our youth group do that will set us apart from the rest? What can we do that will have the most impact on our area? How can we reach the most kids? What can we do that will be fun? How can we make this one bigger? How can we make this one better? How to do all that with virtually no money? And on, and on, and on.

JG