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Top 25 Youth Ministry Blogs of 2012

Top 25 Youth Ministry Blogs of 2012

by Adam McLane on August 7, 2012

 

2012 Rank Name URL 2011 Rank
1 Josh Griffin http://www.morethandodgeball.com/ 1
2 Doug Fields http://dougfields.com 7
3 Mark Oestreicher http://whyismarko.com 2
4 Adam McLane http://adammclane.com 4
5 Jonathan McKee http://www.jonathanmckeewrites.com 10
6 Tim Schmoyer http://studentministry.org 3
7 Fuller Youth Institute http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/ 8
8 Adam Walker Cleaveland http://pomomusings.com/ 6
9 Kurt Johnston http://www.juniorhighministry.com/ 19
10 Youth Specialties http://youthspecialties.com/blog 5
11 Brian Kirk, Jacob Thorne rethinkingyouthministry.com 13
12 youthministry360 youthministry360.com NR
13 Jeremy Zach http://www.reyouthpastor.com 9
14 Greg Stier gregstier.org 16
14 The Youth Cartel http://theyouthcartel.com/blog/ NR
16 Ian MacDonald http://www.youthblog.org 12
17 Walt Mueller http://learningmylines.blogspot.com/ 18
18 Youth Leader Stash youthleaderstash.com NR
19 Chuck Bomar http://www.collegeministrythoughts.com/ NR
20 Rachel Blom http://www.youthleadersacademy.com NR
21 Mike King http://king.typepad.com/mike_king/ 17
21 Jake Bouma http://www.jakebouma.com/ NR
23 Kenda Creasy Dean http://kendadean.com/ 20
24 Matt McGill http://lovegodlovestudents.com NR
25 Terrace Crawford http://terracecrawford.com/ 19

 

Welcome to the fourth annual ranking of the top blogs in youth ministry. (see the 2011 list)

How is the list created?
The list is based on a composite score of 66% publicly available statistics, such as Alexa and Google Page Rank, and 33% an influence rank voted based on a vote by the previous year’s top bloggers. The first step is to research the publicly available statistics for the 150+ blogs on the index. Next, I rank the statistical strength of each blog. Then, I ask those currently on the list to rate each of the Top 50 blogs for influence. Finally, the human ranking is added in with the statistical rankings to create the composite ranking published here.

What are the criteria for consideration?
It has to be a blog that’s about youth ministry and it has to be active. If you think you have a blog that I should consider for the 2013 list, please leave a comment. I’m currently indexing approximately 150 youth ministry related blogs so there’s a good chance I’ve already got you on the list.

How hard is it to get ranked?
As you can see in the rankings, while the majority of the blogs in the Top 25 are long-term time investments, there are seven who were not ranked in 2011. My hope in publishing this list is to encourage the genre of blogs focused specifically on ministering to adolescents around the world.

Questions?
Each year I get a wide variety of feedback about the blog rankings and I love it all. Feel free to leave a comment to this post or contact me via the website.

I’m on the list, now what? 

I asked Cartier if they’d donate diamond pendants to commemorate the 2012 list, I’m still waiting to hear back. In the meantime I’ve made this fancy graphic that would look great on your blog.

2012 Top 25 Blog in Youth Ministry

 

Embed This Image On Your Site (copy code below):

Tagged as: 2012, blog rankings, youth ministry blogs

Adam McLane is a Partner at The Youth Cartel and co-author of A Parent's Guide to Understanding Social Media . A daily blogger and idea guy, Adam considers himself a purveyor, connoisseur, trader, and collector of ideas. Kristen and Adam have been married 15 years and live in the San Diego neighborhood of Rolando with their rowdy children, Megan, Paul, and Jackson.

has written 160 articles for The Youth Cartel.

Visit Adam McLane's website | Subscribe to all posts via RSS.

  • http://twitter.com/TheDrewPeterson Drew Peterson

    Thanks for the list! Good stuff.

    Check out http://www.youthmin.org. They’re doing some great stuff over there!

    • http://www.youthmin.org/ Ben Read

      Whoa, thanks Drew! I think there are a lot of great sites out there by Youth Pastors, and Im interested in more of the data behind this list. I know Adam has said its all recreational and everything, I just always like seeing the full data like on churchrelevance to see where sites I like compare.

    • http://adammclane.com Adam McLane

      @twitter-77931016:disqus @BenjaminRead:disqus YouthMin is on the index, I’ve indexed it since the site first popped up. It just not in the top 25 this year. The site isn’t being excluded.

  • andyblanks

    Quite the honor to be included on this list. This is a great resource, Adam. Thanks for taking the time to work on it. Blessings to you guys.

  • alison

    Where are more women’s voices??

    • http://twitter.com/pattigibbons Patti Gibbons

      Alison – as the host of a largely inactive blog, and a woman in youth ministry, I can tell you there aren’t many of us. Rachel Blom is doing a great job, but I can think of at least 3 other females in YM who blog well, but blog less. Let’s step up our game!

    • http://adammclane.com Adam McLane

      Like @twitter-14066193:disqus said, we all want more female voices on this list. This is the 4th year I’ve done the list… I’m pumped to see Rachel join the ranks with Kara & Kenda. Bring it on.

    • Meredith Miller

      I had the same thought last year and do again. Of course, there are excellent female leaders in youth min, but they may not blog or may not have much traffic. The 2011 list is actually what got me blogging a year ago. I wrote Brad Griffin at FYI to say congrats, made the observation that it was male-heavy, and he said I should start. So I did! :)

    • http://twitter.com/heatherlea17 Heather Lea Campbell

      I noticed Brooklyn Lindsay wasn’t on this year!

      • http://adammclane.com Adam McLane

        I’d love to see Brooklyn blog more consistently. But I’m pretty sure life/ministry/kids get in the way!

  • http://twitter.com/justinknowles3 Justin Knowles

    Love it. Such a good list. Hoping one day I can be on this list with the greats!

    • http://www.ricknierwoo.blogspot.com/ The Rick

      Justin, I love what you’re doing. You’re easily top 25 in my book. Keep it up!

  • Nathan

    Great list! I love many of these blogs, and some of them I am sure I will start to love! http://www.CalledtoYouthMinistry.com is doing some neat stuff too. I have liked their “in the trenches” material for the past 8 months or so and I have heard that there is some exciting stuff coming out in September.

  • http://twitter.com/chadilacdude Chad Inman

    Surprised Andrew Root’s blog is not on the list…I am not, however, surprised that my blog is not on the list ;-)

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  • http://www.youthministrymedia.ca kolby milton

    Great list adam! Thanks for doing this. Adding a few to my rss feed!

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  • http://www.youthleadersacademy.com/ Rachel Blom

    I’m a bit late to this particular party because I just went on break when you published this…However, I am very excited to have made the list. I had just started blogging last year when you first published the list and getting on it was actually one of my goals, so I’m honored and proud to have made it.
    I would love to see more diversity in the list as well, but at the same time I’m very aware that there aren’t many female youth ministry bloggers at all…and I wouldn’t be interested in affirmative action here :) I just really hope more women in youth ministry will start blogging because I think we have a powerful message to add.
    I’d also love to see more diversity in nationality and ethnic background, as I’m one of only two blogs on this list not from the US…Since Europe is way ahead of the curve in postmodernity compared to the US, I feel Europeans have a lot of experience with doing things differently to bring to the table.
    Anyway, thanks for all the work that went into this, much appreciated!

  • http://twitter.com/brianseidel Brian Seidel

    You should do a list of “top 25 blogs that no one reads but should”. Not sure how you would really evaluate them, but that would be a huge boost for those that put in the effort and don’t get much traffic. I might even be able to make that list…!

    Thanks for doing this list, these are all great ones.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/alaskancolt Adam Meyers

    Great list! I just started a youth ministry blog. Could you add me to your list and consider me as a possibility for next year?! THANKS! http://www.adamkmeyers.com

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