Most of us know deep down how important it is to communicate our youth ministry vision. We’ve read it, we’ve heard it, we know it from experience.

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Let me start by stating that The Princess Diaries books (ten in total) are nothing like the movie. Or it should be the other way around of course: the movies are completely different from the books. Personally, I liked the movies better and that doesn’t happen to me often.

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As with most TV shows, there’s a lot of questionable content in Grey’s Anatomy. Still, I’ve been a loyal fan from the very start. The show certainly has had it ups and severe dips, but what I love about it is the friendships it portrays.

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Aaron Shaver is not a ‘big name’ in youth ministry, I’d never heard of him before he contacted me to see if I wanted to review his book. To be honest, I love reading books from ‘normal’ youth pastors, those anonymous loyal guys and gals that just serve week in, week out. They often offer real nuggets of wisdom and truth from the trenches. Aaron Shaver is one of those guys and he has written a short book about what he has learned called Youth Ministry is Easy…and nine other lies.

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So your youth ministry is a mess.

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I had it planned perfectly: I had a few things to do, then an appointment at 1 pm and after that, I’d have two solid hours of rest before I had to pick up my son from school. Just enough time to watch a dvd, chill out and relax a bit. And I needed the rest, because it had been crazy busy the days before and I hadn’t slept well either.

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The Hunger Games are hot right now with the second movie releasing its first previews, but that’s now why I am reviewing this series of three books. I’ve decided to review my way through the NPR’s Top 100 in Teen Fiction and this series ranks number 2 (!) on that list.

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The ‘Hip Hop Word Count’ is a project aimed at creating a searchable rap almanac, with the goal to study hip-hop music. I was amazed at the opportunities this offers to really analyze hip-hop music. Let me quote from the project description:

“The Hip-Hop Word Count is a searchable ethnographic database built from the lyrics of over 40,000 Hip-Hop songs from 1979 to present day. The Hip-Hop Word Count describes the technical details of most of your favorite hip-hop songs. This data can then be used to not only figure out interesting stats about the songs themselves, but also describe the culture behind the music.”

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The Song of the Lioness series) (four volumes*) is an ‘oldie’, the first volume of this series was published in 1983. That makes it a bit of a classic and I can see why. Many elements that we now consider quit normal or even cliché are present, like magic. That has become quite mainstream after Harry Potter, but that wasn’t the case in the 1980’s so it must have been quite novel and revolutionary at the time. Also, the main character Alanna is certainly a role model in some aspects for girls, though not so much in relationships I might add.

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Impersonal communication seems to bring out the worst in people. I’m sure you know what I mean: those emails you get from church members, parents or others with a tone and message you know they would never use in a personal conversation or on the phone. Not all of them may be labeled hate mail, but I’ve had a few that came pretty close.

What’s important to remember when you receive and read this kind of hate mail, is that there’s always a story behind it. It’s easy to get very angry (been there), to send back an equally angry email (don’t!), to discuss it with others (usually also not a very good idea) or to directly report the offenders to the senior pastor (try to resist that urge).

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