January 2012 was an amazing month.  We established a new standard, surpassing last January, for the most views in a month ever on the site.  There were 47 posts published, which was a lot.  That included  fifteen posts with video embedded (including initiating a series from the ReBuild My Church broadcast) and two posts with audio.

We had three “longer form” posts this month, all of which are found in the top ten of the month according to the stats meter. That might explain why, despite our November theorizing about our standard post size, why we averaged about 250 words per post. And you did your part as well, posting up nearly 30 comments this month.  Thanks!

Again, we have taken all the words of this month and placed them into a wordle. (Click on image to enlarge.)  But, all the key words – -  young people, youth ministry, Jesus, Lord, Catholic, witness, faith, church – - seem to indicate the we have remained on message throughout all the verbiage.

I was on radio this morning with Irene Lagan on the Guadalupe Radio Network, WMET 1160. (Hit link to listen to the show.) Also on the show were Christa Lopiccolo, DC’s executive director for the Department of Life Issues and Kevin Bohli, my compatriot in diocesan youth and young adult ministry leadership over in the Arlington diocese. I joined the show about a third of the way through….

And, yes. I was in high school for the first March for Life.

Just in case you’ve been reading the blog on a RSS feed or something… You’ve been missing the rotating banners up top on the actual site.  I kind of like them.  It’s another creative part of the process to make them.  Also, they point to posts as well, just (as the banner sez…) click on them to get to the actual link!

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.

Peace out, 2011!

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)

> ReBuildmyChurch

> 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)

> Randy Raus’ 3 things That Youth Ministers Do That Drive a Diocesan Director of Youth Ministry Crazy (LifeTeen)

> Karen Murphy’s Is Youth Ministry Killing the Church? (Christian Century)

> The National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry

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 >>

<< (4) The Question <<

When we started the CaptionThis monthly contest, we didn’t know what we were in for.  These posts proved to be some of the most popular recipient of both hits and comments.  Your creativity and humor made me and lots of others laugh.  You can rest assured that we will see this series continue in 2012.

>> (2) A Place for Us >>

<< (5) Changing Territory <<

I hope that you have enjoyed the Quotable category that has run primarily on Fridays.  This was the second most popular post on the blog, perhaps because it ran in January and built a following over the whole year. This involved quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. as we commemorated his birthday.

The money quote: The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. … If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.

Read the whole post here.

>> (3) CaptionThis >>