Like in the Beatles’ song Eight Days a Week, youth ministers work so hard it is like working eight days a week. Here continues a weekly series to serve you over your next eight days with eight notes for your information and formation. Pass these along in your e-newsletters (and offer Project YM a little love in the process, please.)

1. Thom Rainer takes a look at Toxic Leadership – a worthy examination of conscience.
2. Justin Knowles suggests two “killer attitudes” that harm our sense of servant leadership as well as their scriptural remedies.
3. In “our” youth ministry, do we gather an audience for our performance or are we engaging others into the action of ministry while we remain directing ministry efforts? Christianity Today recently called for No More Spectators.
4. All of these tips might be leading us to be “changing the game” of our understanding of how youth ministry works. That’s the way we have always done it might not be a compelling rationale.
5. Perhaps, we can inure ourselves from these pitfalls by taking on a soul friend / a spiritual director to assist us, as Henri Nouwen suggested, in moving from “absurd living” to “obedient listening,”
6. Our poster and cover image this week help to commemorate St. John Paul’s feast day tomorrow. (left click to enlarge, right click to print, save, or post it and share!)
7. Time Magazine just identified the most influential teens of 2014. This might be a great starting conversation leading towards what sort of influence our young people might desire to have.
8. Because you follow the model of John Paul the Great and opt to minister with an influential generation building a civilization of love… know as a youth minister that we ain’t got nothing but love, babe, eight days a week. May God bless you throughout this week.