Category Archives: Resources
Free Stuff – MP3 Bible
If you’re like me, you spend a ton of time in the car or out walking with your MP3 player of choice. Why not make good use of that “dead time” by listening to an audio Bible? I found a good free version online. You can download it by books or can download the New and Old Testament in two big chunks.
Free Stuff – Giving back
Normally I link you to free stuff that you can get, but today we’re going to be giving back…
I love it when youth ministers post their resources online for all to use. We are not competing against each other, but trying to help one another. That is why one of my favorite websites is Pastor2Youth. Ryan Nielsen, who runs the site, set up a “Youth Ministry Exchange” where fellow youth ministers have uploaded over 3,000 different resources, ranging from lessons, games, power point, etc. There is a ton of stuff there, but it only happens because youth ministers like you contribute.
Right now, P2Y is having a submission competition. From the website, here are the rules…
Here is your chance to WIN HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS of Youth Ministry Resources. In total, we are giving away more than $1,800 in Youth Ministry Resources thanks to the generous donations from Simply Youth Ministry. So get ready to win. Here are all of the rules, and the prizes!!!
Pastor2youth.com is taking submissions in the
Youth Ministry Exchange for New Resources
Rules:
1) The prizes will be given out to the TOP 3 people who submit the MOST number of resources
2) Every file submitted must be significantly unique.
a. You cannot take a background graphic and submit it 25 different times ONLY changing the background color or the color of the font.
b. NO photographs will be considered for "PPT Background" submissions. You must submit artistic creations for that section.
c. A lesson and a Powerpoint for the lesson DO count as two significantly unique files
3) If you are submitting a series of lessons, or files that belong together (such as a lesson and a powerpoint for the lesson), please submit them in a ZIP format. You WILL be given credit for each individual file inside the ZIP file. This will make the YM Exchange better organized, and you will still receive the same credit as if you were to submit each file individually.
4) Contest runs from Monday, April 19th, 2010 until Monday, May 17th, 2010.
REMEMBER: All files submitted must abide by all copyright laws!!!
Our Winners will receive the prizes listed below in DOWNLOADABLE format, provided by our Partner, Simply Youth Ministry
GRAND PRIZE:
- Small Groups, Mission Trips, and Worship Band from Start to Finish Bundle – Retail Value $147.00
- Girls Ministry From Start to Finish – Retail Value $49.00
- Mentor Me: Year 1 – Retail Value $129.00
- Leaders Are Learners – Retail Value $129.00
- Leaders Are Learners, Student Edition – Retail Value $69.00
- Jr High Small Group Super Pack – Retail Value $134.00
- Small Group Curriculum Bundle – Retail Value $108.00
- 26 Teaching Outlines Vol. 1-3 – Retail Value $117.00
Total Value = $882.00
SECOND PRIZE:
- Small Groups, Mission Trips, and Worship Band from Start to Finish Bundle – Retail Value $147.00
- Girls Ministry From Start to Finish – Retail Value $49.00
- Mentor Me: Year 1 – Retail Value $129.00
- Leaders Are Learners – Retail Value $129.00
- Leaders Are Learners, Student Edition – Retail Value $69.00
- 26 Teaching Outlines Vol. 1-3 – Retail Value $117.00
Total Value = $640.00
THIRD PRIZE:
- Girls Ministry From Start to Finish – Retail Value $49.00
- Leaders Are Learners – Retail Value $129.00
- Leaders Are Learners, Student Edition – Retail Value $69.00
- 26 Teaching Outlines Vol. 1-3 – Retail Value $117.00
Total Value = $364.00
You can submit your resource
DIRECTLY to the YM Exchange by clicking HERE
(Please note, you must be logged in to submit files on the YM Exchange submission page)
If you have any questions or problems with submissions,
please contact me directly at uthpastor@pastor2youth.com
So this is a tremendous opportunity to help other youth ministers, and potentially win a bunch of great stuff! So head on over there today!
Free Stuff – Effective forms
If your ministry hasn’t quite reached the 21st century and doesn’t use a computerized form to register new students (described so wonderfully in this blog post), then you’ll need a form or card to get the vital information. If you don’t want to put one together yourself, here are a few that you can use…
The first is from The Source For Youth Ministry (under his “Logistical Crud”). Its very basic, and gives you a good idea what information you should put on your card.
Here is the visitor card I used in my previous ministry.
Hopefully these will give you an idea of what to put on the card. You want to make sure you cover all your basics, but you want the student to be able to fill it out in less than 5 minutes.
Free Stuff – Power Play Vol 1
This is an incredible free resource that is only available through April 30th (aka Tomorrow!) from youthministry.com. It is the entire “Power Play Volume 1” by Simply Youth Ministry. Power Play Vol 1 contains 20 interactive trivia games. It retails for $18.99. Download it today before its too late!
Free Stuff – Youth Ministry Sign in
Do you want to have a really cool computerized check in for your youth group attendance, but don’t have the moola to buy the fancy software out there? Well, there is a free (and pretty sweet) alternative to the expensive stuff, and its at Google Docs!
If you don’t have a google docs account, go ahead and sign yourself up (again, its free). Then, you have a couple options. You can use a template that is already provided here. This has everything that you want to have a complete check in and database for your group (you’ll have to do a little tweaking, like putting in your own group name and such).
If you want to start from scratch, you can do that as well. If you’re like me and a complete google docs newbie, here are the complete instructions on how to do that (thanks to Mike Kell at www.michaelkell.com). You can see Mike’s really cool sign in sheet at http://sites.google.com/site/generatelogin/dashboard?pli=1
1. http://docs.google.com –> Sign in.
2. Left Corner, clicked on Create New… dropped down menu… clicked on FORM
3. Changed Title in box
4. Changed intro text.
5. Changed name of Sample Question 1
6. Added help text
7. Click on Required Question
8. Click Done.
(Repeat for each question/information that you want)
9. Clicked on Theme. Selected One. Clicked Apply.
10. Clicked on Add Item… Selected Multiple Choice.
11. Renamed Question and available answers.
12. Clicked Required and then DONE.
13. Clicked on Add Item… Selected Choose From List.
14. Renamed Question and available answers.
15. Clicked Required and then DONE.
16. Clicked on Add Item… Selected SCALE.
17. Renamed Question and the low and the high.
18. Clicked Required and then DONE.
19. Hit Save
20. Clicked on More Actions… Edit Confirmation.
21. Changed Confirmation Text. Then Save.
Went to
http://sites.google.com
1. Left Template Blank… Not sure why or what difference.
2. Named the Site… for me this wasn’t a big deal because it can be masked through our domain… but this is the web address (url) of your site.
3. Hit the + sign next to select a theme to expand. Picked a legal pad one…
4. Nothing under more options was applicable to my needs.
5. Enter the Code
6. Click on Create Site
Page appeared
1. Clicked Edit Page
2. Clicked on Insert… Went down to Spreadsheet Form
3. Selected the name of my form… (Whatever you typed in the title bar at first)
4. When options came up, I deleted 400 out of the width to leave it at 100%…
5. Changed alignment to center… just because.
6. Clicked save.
Ready to go…. Except I didn’t like the theme.
I went back into docs.google.com, click on the form’s name. Click on Form in the menu bar across, down to Edit form, click on themes, then picked Blank Theme down at the bottom.
Apply, Save, Then close…
Closed that window…
Then voila… this is ready:
http://sites.google.com/site/pastor2youthdemo/
I entered 2 sample junk into the form. Went back into docs.google.com and clicked on the spreadsheet’s name. Here’s what I saw…
Just play around with it a little bit and see what you can do. There are a lot of things you can do with this, for free, and this here just scratches the surface. The best thing – completely free! If anyone else uses something like this or has some interesting additions to the instructions, just let me know in the comments!
