LIFE IN STUDENT MINISTRY

STUDENTMINISTRY.ORG

WEB TOOLS FOR YM

Wiffiti.com
I’m pretty excited about the ministry
potential behind Wiffiti.com. Think of
a virtual whiteboard in the front of a
classroom that everyone can write on
simultaneously just by submitting a
text message and watching it appear
up front. Even people who aren’t
present can participate! The
“whiteboard” can also be embedded
into your website and the background
image changed to whatever you want.

Imagine a worship experience where,

during the music set, students can
publicly share prayers with everyone
in real time, post reflections on what
the Lord means to them, and text
their favorite attribute of God. Or, in a TXTSignal.com
teaching situation, asking how each With a couple of my youth group and get quick feedback about a
student will practically apply the kids burning through 18,000 text question or idea, and more. It’s
truth during the upcoming week. Or a messages in one month each (yes, definitely a very effective tool for
brainstorming session on how seriously!), it almost seems remiss communicating with teens in our
teenagers can influence their friends not to use it to communicate with ministry. Although the
for Christ. The possibilities are teens. I use TxtSignal.com to send TxtSignal.com plan I use runs $30/
endless. announcements and last-minute month, you can get plans as cheap
reminders, cancel events, send as $10/month with a 30-day FREE
Given the several moderation options
daily devotional thoughts, run trial. They also offer a 10% discount
and filters, you have complete control
contests, share prayer requests, for ministries.
over what actually shows up on the
screen. Oh, and it’s totally free!

POLLEVERYWHERE.COM specializes in REACTEE.COM prints tshirts that invite FACEBOOK fans of your youth group page can
polling audiences. Results are displayed in real people to text to a keyword to a short code receive your page updates on their cell phones
time and easily embeds into a PowerPoint or a and receive an predetermined reply with more automatically. Get new fans by having them
website. Polls with 30 votes or less are free. info. send “fan [pagename]” to FBOOK (32665).
Parent Newsletter
COVENANTEYES.COM
TheParentLink.com provides a
customizable newsletter full of great I have Covenant Eyes installed on every
content, insights and resources for computer in my house. It logs every web
page I visit and sends a weekly email
parents. You can add your own logo,
report to a couple people for
write your own columns if you want accountability.
or use their default content, which is
usually excellent. Each newsletter
also includes a calendar where you
can post scheduled events and
meetings. When you’re finished,
they give you several ways to save
and distribute your newsletter: PDF,
HTML or Word document.

• Complete: A ready-to-print,
monthly newsletter. As a guy in ministry, it is absolutely
imperative that I protect my integrity. In
• Flexible: Customize 2 articles, case an accusation is ever made, I have
calendar and more. reports on record. Definitely worth the
$8/month! Use promo code
“youthministry” to get the first 30 days
•Relevant: Biblical-based content,
free!
7-12th grade topics.
who invest into
on lin e co mm un ity of ministry workers
ns.com is an sharing
• Affordable: $99 per year. MinistryQuestio ing encouragement,
an sw eri ng qu est ion s, giving advice, provid text, audio,
es by throu gh
each other’s ministri nding resources, all
ideas, and recomme
.
and video interaction
Newsletter Images
iStockPhoto.com is a cheap place to
buy professional, royalty-free images,
audio, and video for your handouts,
newsletters, and publications.

ANIMOTO.COM THE END OF YOUR SLIDESHOWS

your own soundtrack, Animoto
analyzes the music, and melds it with
the photos in a way that feels
YouVersion.com/Liv
somewhat like an MTV music video. e

YouVersion Live gives
you a way to
A free account will get you unlimited interact with church and
youth services
30-second slideshows, so if you want and other live events usi
ng your mobile
device. Students can foll
something longer than that you’ll ow along with
message outlines and
take notes, read
have to pay $3 per video or upgrade to related Bible verses and
click through to
an All Access account for $30/year. the expanded passage, vot
Animoto.com is the easiest way to e on a poll and
see the res ult s live ,
Alternatively, I heard some churches ask qu est ion s
quickly create professional looking anonymously, give, req
are scoring free All Access accounts uest prayer, and
take it all home with
video slideshows from all the pictures them on your
through Animoto’s “For A Cause” phone. It works with
you’ve collected of your group over any web-enabled
phone, as well as any com
program. (Click on “a cause” at the puter with an
the years. Upload your photos, add internet connection. And
bottom of the screen on their site.) it’s free!
 YOUTUBE SHOULD YOU CREATE A FACEBOOK
DOWNLOADERS GROUP OR A FACEBOOK PAGE FOR
YOUR YOUTH GROUP? WHICH IS
BETTER?

Short story: absolutely, definitely,

positively, without a doubt, create a
page, not a group. Problem solved.

Groups served their time back in the

day, but pages are under heavy
Vixy.net development and will continue to
[website] receive boosts and enhancements. A Facebook page acts like a “profile” account for your
group and has several key features that group’s do not have:
MediaConverter.org
[website] • Post status updates

Zamzar.com • The ability to add Facebook applications

[website]
• Post pictures and videos from your cell phone (great for parents while you’re away on
VidDownloader.com a trip)
[website]
• Some pages integrate with Twitter
KickYouTube.com
• Create a custom URL that easy for people to remember and share (visit facebook.com/
[website]
username to create it)
DownloadHelper.net
• View analytics of your page’s fans and interaction with the page
[firefox add-on]
• Promote your page by adding a “fan box” to your website
VideoBox [mac software
from tastyapps.com] • Import blog posts from an external site as notes

TubeTV [mac software • Organize photos into albums

from chimoosoft.com]
There are other advantages of using a page over a group, too, but these are the ones that
will pertain to the average youth group.

Website If you don’t have a Facebook Page for your youth group, get started with one
at facebook.com/pages/create.php

Services
A couple places where yo
u can
REMEMBERTHEMILK.COM
create an online presence
for your
youth ministry There’s a lot of different tools out there for organizing tasks, reminders and to-do
lists, and I know almost everyone has a different method of keeping track of these
WordPress.com [fre items, from post-it notes to PDAs. I’ve tried a couple different systems and most of
e]

them are okay, but none of them are great except RememberTheMilk.com.
Squarespace.com [pa It is by far my favorite and the easiest way to make my tasks,
id]

reminders and to-do lists easily accessible. The best part: it’s
Posterous.com [free]
all FREE and it integrates with my iPod Touch, Twitter, Mac
dashboard, iCal, Gmail, Google Calendar, it provides txt alerts,
MinistryWebsites.bi
z [free/paid]
reminders, and much more. I have no idea how I’d stay on top
of ministry items without RememberTheMilk.com.
Email campaign services to check out
Text messaging - perfect for last
minute updates, reminders, 1.
MailChimp.com
cancellations, questions, feedback,
prayer chain, birthday wishes, 2.
Aweber.com
contests, and more. Used
primarily by jr. and sr. high 3.
Feedblitz.com
students.
4.
ConstantContact.com
Facebook page - since many jr.
highers are not legally old enough to
COMMUNICATION IS PERCEPTION use Facebook, this is used primarily WHY AN EMAIL SERVIC
E?
Communication in ministry is vitally by sr. high students. Not all email lists are
created the
important because it really sets the same. Sending a mass
message with
stage for how people will perceive the Bulletin inserts - for church visitors blind carbon copy to
your youth
ministry. Solid communication gives and those who don’t connect group parents every
week may get
the impression that the ministry’s elsewhere. the job done, but the
re’s several
leadership is trustworthy, capable, advantages of using
one of the
and competent, whereas weak Youth kiosk - located outside our services above.
communication, even if the actual sanctuary with sign-ups, news video
• Evaluate and track
ministry is solid, leaves people feeling loop, promos and general info for each
message’s performan
that the leadership is lacking visitors. ce (open rate,
clicks, user engagem
direction and credibility. ent, more).
Twitter - the RSS feed is embedded
• Lower probability
On a very practical level, here are the of your
in our website, so it’s used mostly to message being trapp
avenues my ministry uses to post short, quick, easy updates. ed as sp am.
communicate with teens and parents • Dynamically use pe
rsonal names
throughout the week. iTunes news videos - weekly news and other info in the
messages.
videos are posted to Facebook and
Youth group website - this is the YouTube and published on our • Use attractive tem
plates that
main hub of our communication. Most website as well as iTunes so teens make your messages
look
info is on the front page for easy can easily sync new episodes to professional and enga
ging.
access and navigation. Great for their iPods to watch while on the
perspective visitors and parents. bus or working out in the gym. • Give users the abilit
y to sign
themselves up for yo
ur list as well
Email list - used primarily by Personal contact - my personal as unsubscribe in the
future.
parents. contact information is readily
I use MailChimp.com
available for anyone who wants to because it’s
free for lists under 50
contact me directly. 0 subscribers.

TIM SCHMOYER LIFE IN STUDENT MINISTRY CONNECT ONLINE

Tim is the full-time youth pastor at Alexandra StudentMinistry.org is the home of the StudentMinistry.org
Covenant Church in Alexandria, MN, where Youth Ministry Mentorship for new youth
he serves an workers and the host of a weekly live youth facebook.com/StudentMinistry
incredible group of ministry talk show. This site also provides free twitter.com/timschmoyer
students with an youth ministry resources every week, ideas, youtube.com/godrox
outstanding team of advice, encouragement, devotionals for youth
adult youth leaders. workers, free training videos, and much more. Email: tim@schmoyer.net
Google Talk: tim@schmoyer.net
Skype: rockinyp