About
Catholic YM Blog
The Catholic YM Blog has been referred to as "the 411 of Catholic Youth Ministry." Your blogger is D. Scott Miller, director of the Division of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Baltimore... Read more...
Recent Posts
- The Jesus Preference
- ReBuild Avril
- We Didn’t Start the Fire
- The Church of Facebook
- All Things Possible
- Upside-Down Church
- CYM News 01-23-12
Recent Comments
- Catholic Youth Ministry Blog » CYM News 01-30-12 on Neighbor Jack
- Billy on We Didn’t Start the Fire
- Pat Clasby on RIP JoePa
- Lesley Franzen on The Protester
- Contra on The MTV Generation
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The challenge of the rankings is that something posted at the beginning of the month usually ranks higher than later in the month… It has had more days to impact the rankings. I thought that this always worked well in the CaptionThis entries’ favor.
So it is interesting to note that The Protester did so well with only half the month to go and a holiday half a month to boot! Our Christmas greeting Tidings of Great Joy did well, too; and it is kind of fun that a personal posting ranked #6.
As has become Top Posts tradition, we are posting a Wordle word cloud… (Click to enlarge it.) Checking to see if the words we are using in heavy rotation – God, ministry, Christmas, youth - are matching the message we want to communicate.
And, here’s the year if 2011 in review…
You can see the influence of the CaptionThis contest in traffic… Nearly 1/3 of the top 20 posts were captionthis and December’s rated pretty high in the monthly… Yet, we are not going to be repeating the every first Saturday function of it in the New Year.
Further, you can note that traffic played a part on our top ten listing as well.
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1 |
The Question |
11 |
Best of 2011 #3 grouped |
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2 |
Changing the Game |
12 |
Best of 2011 #3 grouped |
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3 |
January CaptionThis! |
13 |
Best of 2011 #3 grouped |
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4 |
Youth Ministry Benedict’s Way |
14 |
Scrutinizing the Signs |
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5 |
Best of 2011 #3 grouped |
15 |
Definition of Manhood |
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6 |
Changing Territory |
16 |
Waking Them Up |
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7 |
17 |
Best of 2011 #3 grouped |
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8 |
18 |
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9 |
19 |
Missionary Audacity – |
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10 |
Best of 2011 #3 groupe |
20 |
A Place for Us |
Peace out, 2011!
Don’t freak out. See you next year!
We have already completed our Year End review of the top posts of 2011. But…
Part of the functionality of my Site Meter also show where we have had you taking advantage of hyperlinks throughout the past year. I post up a LOT of hyperlinks so it was interesting to see the one that took you off my blog and towards somewhere else. Here are the top hyperlinks of 2011.
> Mike Carotta’s Unchaining Conformation (for NCCL)
> Randy Raus’ Why I Just Stopped Coming to Your Youth Group (LifeTeen)
> Kenda Dean’s comments on The Future of Youth Ministry (Youth Cartel)
> Randy Raus’ Vibrant Youth Ministry Equals A Vibrant Parish (LifeTeen)
> Adam Mclane’s Choosing A New Identity for Youth Ministry (Youth Cartel)
> What’s New About the Mass (LTP)
> The Mindset List for the Class of 2015 (Beloit College)
> Karen Murphy’s Is Youth Ministry Killing the Church? (Christian Century)
Postings will be sporadic throughout the week.
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News from ‘Round Here
Youngest daughter Meghan arrived Wednesday and son Clark also came back from quick family visit. The cribbage board broke out early, Meghan had an early victory but was skunked in the next game. Thursday, the kids went out shopping
and, then Christmas day… (this week’s Amazing Weekly Event: A.W.E.) The kids have developed a finely tuned sense of tradition… Last year, we were all in pajama pants, so it was worth repeating! We had a nice mixture of teasing in present Youngest Meghan and I wrapped the evening up with Chinese take-out. It seems that she has not found satisfactory Chinese food in the Tampa area. Vacation continues throughout the holidays! Merry Christmas, all! |
That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
- – Linus Van Pelt
A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on CBS in 1965. I was at the very formative age of seven years old. Originally, the CBS executives did not want to have Linus reciting the Gospel account of Luke 2: 8-14 telling of the birth of Christ, assuming that viewers would not want to sit through passages of the Bible.
(As a side note, Father James Martin points out that “When Linus recites the Gospel in Charlie Brown Christmas he drops his blanket. With the Word of God he has no need for a security blanket.”)
It was reported on a version of the making of the program that cartoonist Charles Schulz (a Catholic) was adamant about keeping this scene in, remarking that
If we don’t tell
the true meaning of Christmas,
who will?
Here is the last video of the year offering a message of training or encouragement for youth ministry types.
Within the Miller clan, there are a few time honored traditions. One involves sneaking a recently baked chocolate chip cookie into the stuffing inside a turkey.
Another involves a viewing of White Christmas. It’s a musical connected to Christmastime. It is a “buddy film” of two song-and-dance guys who, in the end, pay tribute to their former commanding officer from their war days. The Army themes recently evoke a special tone as my son completes his four year commitment in the US Army. He is on Christmas leave this year, home, hoping as we all are for a White Christmas.
There is a simple little Irving Berlin ditty that has a slightly spiritual side to it as well. Here is a simple little song, but one that has truth for us in tough times.
Count Your Blessings.
This is a period where we (mostly) hit pause on the blog. (we’ve already run our annual Top Ten, btw)
So you’ve got two holiday posts coming, a Monday news post (mostly to serve as my journal), and some year-ender stuff. And, yea, I’m off from the office as well!
We’ll resume the daily run in the new year.
<< (2) A Place for Us <<
The was my favorite post of the year as well as the most read and the most spontaneous.
It discussed the baseball movie Moneyball and looked at the the possible skills needed for the future of youth ministry.
The money quote: We can no longer be mere Youth Pastors, but we need to be Pastors of the Church with eyes towards the Church’s mission and responsibilities (not ours) with young people. That’s likely to be challenging for some of us as home-run hitters get baseball cards, no-hit pitchers get baseball cards, even coaches get baseball cards… but, ever see a baseball card for a general manager?
Find the whole post of the year here.
<< (3) CaptionThis <<
If I had Jerry Maguire manifesto moments (Let us start a revolution. Let us start a revolution that is not just about basketball shoes, or official licensed merchandise. I am prepared to die for something. I am prepared to live for our cause.) in the blog this year, today’s number 2 selection and tomorrow’s number one most likely comprise the closest candidates, This posting was also an article for our Catholic Review.
Money quote: If we lived Christ’s commission to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” including the younger generations, might we experience a springtime of new faith leading young people to mobilize their peers within their relationships as well as via social-networking awaiting us in the future? We as Church must very much have a supportive role in a generation that has had the metaphorical legs cut out from underneath them. We must assure them of our confidence in their ability to change the world in the manner to which they are entitled as they “find a new way of living,… (to) find a way of forgiving. Somewhere.” Read the whole post here.
>> (1) Changing the Game >>
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News from Around: CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston, keeping up with technology as it revises its policy for dealing with sexual abuse of children, is prohibiting any church worker from using personal email to contact a child. The policy also prohibits workers from playing online games with minors late at night, asks them to avoid using personal cell phones to contact children and not be accessible to minors on an on-call basis. The new rules for the statewide diocese are part of the updated abuse policy signed by Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone on Monday. The document was last updated in 2003. "We have become a very technologically advanced society," the bishop said. "When the policy was written, these technological possibilities didn’t exist. However, there are all kinds of possibilities for children to be hurt through the use of technology." The nearly 70 page document includes new rules for social media and prohibits church workers from using them to have personal communications with children and from friending them on Facebook. It also says that in each parish, "at least two adults must regularly monitor church-sponsored internet content and interactions." The policy suggests appropriate content in communications to children includes information on upcoming activities, calendars of events, spiritual links and prayer resources. Guglielmone said the new policy takes effect next April so there can be workshops to train workers and volunteers on the rules. The bishop said the policy was put together in consultation with those involved in youth ministries and those who are experts in the new technology. "In the past few weeks and months looking at Penn State, looking at Syracuse University, this problem of sexual abuse is a problem that is societal and very much with us," Guglielmone said. Read more from The State In related matters… > Given the importance of social media today, it’s no surprise that 44% of teens have lied about their age online (to access a site limited to sites meant for older audiences. Moreover, they’re not always being safe online since 30% of teens have shared a password with a friend, boyfriend, or girlfriend, and nearly 70% of teens say they see mean behavior online) |
News from ‘Round Here: Monday was an all-right day, I knocked off another writing project, this time for slant33. Also, Georgina and I worked on the CRS Ambassador project. Tuesday was crazily busy with ups and downs… supervision with staff (always good and a pleasure), two meetings, tracking down Rally for Life tickets… the day ended in the office by following up on my Thanksgiving Week/ Black Friday health physical by scheduling an January colonoscopy, (Ahem… you guys who are my age, we need to take care of ourselves) Highlights of the day were two… sharing a moment of Christmas with the staff as well as giving myself a decadent gift. I hit the road in Wednesday… down to DC to pick up rally for life tickets, up to Frederick for a Central MD Youth Ministers meeting (got there early so counted out the 1500 tickets into forty plus groupings), sat in on a mentoring consultation, and then off for a social Starbucks run. Snuck in some tasks early in the morn and after dinner… too much of a day. The E-team Advent retreat was on Thursday… so up early to provide morning snackage and then just a day of chillin’ as we had two great local presenters. The evening had a combined meeting of our Archdiocesan Young Adult Council as well as the Youth Ministry Council. In various corners, we talked World Youth Day Rio ‘13, the parish planning process, and the next steps for the direction of youth ministry. Great, GREAT conversations all! Friday was a good desk day, wrapping up some details of a class or two as well as developing something big for late January and debriefing the events of Thursday. Had a great dinner in Little Italy with a friend.
Sunday involved doing some homework from a Friday afternoon meeting, backing cookies during the early games of football, hitting the mall to exchange a gift already received, and then to pick up my son, Clark, at the airport as he returned home for the holidays . Saving the best for last, that and the family dinner out afterwards was was this week’s Amazing Weekly Event: A.W.E.! (which is more than can be said for the Ravens’ loss on Sunday night football.) |
