Stupid Lists

It seems as though there has been a proliferation of lists running around the internet ranking churches and ministers and such. What a stupid concept. How do you determine who the "most innovative" is or the "most influential". While I can see some merit in these (study what these successful churches are doing and see what you can learn from them and apply to your context), the vast majority are simply incredibly inane. The ultimate prize winner for pointless lists seems to be this one ranking the top 20 youth ministers, and no, I'm not just ridiculing it because I'm not on there. The list basically just pulls the youth ministers from large, fast-growing churches and dubs them as the top youth ministers. While I do not doubt that the ministers who serve in those contexts are exceptionally gifted and being greatly used by God, they are simply working within the overall context of a large, successful church. They have been adept at taking the purposes/ministry process of the church and programming it out for students so that they can participate in the process. Certainly some gifted individuals, but to rank them out and say they are the "top youth ministers" is a ridiculous notion, one that probably even those named on the list would be embarrassed to be associated with. (ht to Mark Riddle) JM