Mmmmm...Bacon!!!

I have found a gift from God on the internet. If you love bacon then you need to check out this web page. BACON!!!

Youth Ministry Resource

Earlier I posted a couple of cool sites that help you with video illustrations.
http://www.sermoncinema.org/
http://wingclips.com/

I was just informed of another...They all look pretty useful
http://www.screenvue.com/

Last Teaching Series

Thought I would share about our most recent series. It was actually one of our strongest and why wouldn't it be...we spent three weeks on dating and sex. Here was our schedule:

Week one: Played the dating game...yeah, just like the game show. This was what we opened the series with (played two games - one girl player one guy player) and then my wife and I took the couples on a triple date. We brought a guy to video everything and then we played the video in week 2.

Week two: Very funny and yet the message spoke to our student's hearts. We spent our time in 2 Tim 2:22...we date for a ton of reasons but we really must pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. Here are two of the videos we played in week two.


Week three: The sex talk. If you are ever looking for a guy to bring into your church, camp, retreat, bring me. But if you are looking for another guy bring in Greg Speck. Greg is a well known speaker and author. He has two great books; Living for Jesus Beyond the Spiritual High and Sex: It's Worth Waiting For. I need to thank Greg for allowing God to use him. this series really impacted our group. Here are some links to his books and a video we played showed. Parents, you may want to consider picking up the sex book and do some follow-up.

Click here for the video. Reshape your web browser to a square size and the video will look better.

Links We Talked About 3 - Messages

Not just messages but messages with media. We were looking for and talking about curriculum that contained videos, powerpoints, pictures, audio, etc...

FREE:
Pastor2Youth...sign up for a free membership and then click the "YM Exchange" in the top right corner. There are several resources in here (backgrounds, powerpoint games, hundreds or group games, and yes...messages. And if you feel you have some things great to share just submit it)

Chemtastic...Lots of good free stuff here...and message powerpoint

Pay for:
Simply Youth Ministry...also check out their freebies link

24/7...put together by a youth group, never saw it but want to check it out.

Gospel Journey...reality tv show evangelism training/evangelistic series from Dare2Share

Dean Hawk...I have never used these but there were a recommendation from within the group. There were described as creative with good powerpoints. Check them out.

Bluefish...Loads of 4 week DVD curriculum and video series

Youth Resource...$20 for all you can download. I was in this a few years ago, they did not put new stuff up enough and it was $10 back then, but i say if you are looking for some help it is probably wirth $20, download everything you can and do not sign up for a second year...maybe every other year or so.

Links We Talked About 3 - Graphics

Here are some no-cost and/or low-cost resources for getting pictures and graphics to use in your ministry. You will need to check on the copyright when you grab pics that are not from stock photo sites and pics that are not royalty free.

These two are my favorite:
http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/
After searching go through the images, choose advance and see the other options for setting your usage.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/cfcc/
Sign up for a free Flickr account and join this group and you will see all the images. i do not understand why but if you are not logged in and not a member of their group you do not see all their pics.

Here are some others...Please add links that you have discovered.
http://images.google.com/
http://www.stockvault.net/
http://freerangestock.com/index.php
http://www.everystockphoto.com/index.php

I have not checked these sites but they claim to have lists of free stock photos:
http://pstutorialsblog.com/44/free-stock-photos/
http://www.graphicsngraphicdesign.com/freestockphotos-graphicdesigners/

If you are just looking for some solid backgrounds for your media presentations you can't go wrong HERE. The images are solid and the price is good.
Premier Background Images Vol. 1
Premier Background Images Vol. 2

You can find other media related ministry things here:
http://www.simplyyouthministry.com/resources-media.html
http://brandonearly.com/blog/2008/02/links-we-talked-about-2.html

Here is a bonus link...this seems to be the best font site (mac and pc)
http://www.dafont.com/

Affinity Group - Tech Nerds

The numbers were a bit low today at our 1:30 meeting. It is hard to compete with the 2 or 3 media/tech workshops that were meeting from 12 to 3 this after noon. To tell you the truth I do not want to compete with them...I want to go to them like many of you. Please check out the sessions that are in room 235 from noon to 3 Sunday. I will be in room 237 at 5pm Sunday for about an hour. Hope to see you there.

If anyone wants to do lunch PLEASE leave a voice mail with your contact number here 815-209-9953.

Look forward to lunch and or our evening session.

Links We Talked About 3 - Youth Web Site

I am no web page/html expert and I am not sure what the perfect site looks like but here are the notes from our discussion on what is needed on a your ministries site.

• Forms (waives, medical cards, registration, etc)
  
  
• Pics and videos (from retreats, events and just regular meetings)
• You can upload and store pics for free at places like Flickr and Photobucket and Picasa (Picasa is also a free photo editing and filing software from google)
• You can house video on sites like godtube and youtube

• Audio (podcast, sermons, messages) One of many podcast host is Podomatic...it's free. Free audio editor that is solid...Audacity
  
  
• Calendar (Add; teaching series, events, retreats, guest speakers, anything to do with your group) A good start if you have a few bucks ($99) is ParentLink, check out the details.
  

ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE IMPORTANT BUT AFTER A MONTH (OR WEEKS OR EVEN DAYS IN MANY CASES) OF LITTLE VALUE OF YOU DO NOT UPDATE REGULARLY.

• Contact information (email, phone number, address)
  
  
• About us (purpose, mission, vision)

Getting creative (more than you need but fin to have):

• Create devotions for the kids to download

• Read your devotions and let them download the audio file as a link or a podcast
  
  
• Video tape your announcements and upload them to youtube and place them on the front page of your site

• Place games on your site

• Secret links

• Parents and volunteer section (maybe this belongs on the first list)

If you do not understand how to build a webpage and/or you do not have the tools or money to do so consider using a myspace or facebook or blogger page as your youth ministries site. Here are some examples…and they are FREE. These are not the standard for youth ministry sites, these are just some links I found to show you what can be done...and the truth is you can do a lot more. You are only limited by your creativity.

Blog:

• www.hbym.com
• www.revossorc.com
  

Myspace: One great comment about myspace was that you can lock this site so only “friends” can see it.Have your youth page and a separate picture page.If your parents are worried about their kids picture being on the web this way only your “friends” can access the pictures.This can also get parents online and connected to your ministry.

• Group 1
• Group 2

Facebook:

• Group 1
• Group 2
  

HUGE LIST OF FREE SOFTWARE

I really like the idea of "Open Source" software. I have a list here of some things that can be of great use. That said, not all free software is great...just free. Here is a well organized layout of open source downloads. Some of this is better than stuff you pay for but sometimes you get what you pay for...

THE MASSIVE LIST
and
A LIST FOR MAC ONLY

Links We Talked About 2

FREE JUNK
There are a ton of sites like these that are filled with great videos
www.youtube.com
http://www.godtube.com/
You can download them (that is a different lesson you and I will have to go through) The quality is not awesome but kids watch these sites so much I do not think it really matters...especially when you preface the video with, "I found this on youtube, take a look." For example take 60 seconds to watch this video I found on youtube, I used it during the dating talk and the students went crazy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6ylxWcwkUM

Ways to download youtube videos:
videodl.org
vixy.net

Movie Clip Downloads:
www.wingclips.com (you can pay a subscription fee for better quality...but why, the clips look good to me when they are projected)
www.sermoncinema.com Like wingclips put I have not used it...may not be free

PAY PER DOWNLOAD SITES - you can watch the videos before you pay for them, some are good...most stink, that said it is still worth the look.
http://www.sermonspice.com/ (not movies, just company made spiritual videos)
http://www.bluefishtv.com/ (not movies, just company made spiritual videos)
http://www.sermonvideos.com/ (I use this, $150 for a year and you get the buffet vs pay per download...if you only want a few videos it is cheaper to get what you need)

VIDEO ILLUSTRATION SITE - No actual video, just ideas...this is $35 a year
http://www.ministryandmedia.com/ - current movies talked about but if you cannot find the clip the info can be hard to use...you would start a talk with, "have you seen (MOVIE) in the theaters yet?" Then use their info. That said they have hundreds of illustrations of videos on DVD.

LOOKING FOR PICTURES FOR YOUR POWERPOINTS?
http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/ - we should talk about how to use this (FREE).
http://www.simplyyouthministry.com/resources-media-premier-background-images-vol--1.html
http://www.simplyyouthministry.com/resources-media-premier-background-images-vol--2.html

Links We Talked About 1

Sorry Mac users...not much for you here...maybe next post.

We spent a lot of time talking about MediaShout (MS). You can get a great deal on the full version from Simply Youth. The price is normally $430 but you can get it from them for $379 and it includes about $200 worth of additional media...If you are going to get MS you would be crazy to let this pass you buy. You can learn MS buy buying this training DVD or by walking through the FREE tutorial that comes with your product...the free tutorial is pretty good.

This is not the most current list but here is a comparison chart I found that shows several different presentation software packages available. CLICK HERE.

Somethings not listed is Spice Rack. I do not know much about it but you can read their site..this is FREEWARE (and in betta, meaning still a little buggy). I have not used it because I am pretty dedicated to MS. If you use it let me know what you think. Here is/was a free resource for Mac users..iWorship...again, don't know much about it but check it out. Do your homework and get what is best for your needs...you do not want to switch around every month. This will get annoying with free stuff and costly with the pay stuff. Look for the free trials of the pay stuff, try before you buy.

If you absolutely need to go FREE, go with a proven product like Easislide or Open Song that has been around for a while.

Make your own countdown clocks...$35...CLICK HERE

What to read more...here is an interesting blog post about some of he stuff we are talking about.
CLICK HERE.

Round 1

We had some great conversation about technology this morning. I love the ideas that were kicked around, as the group leader I feel like I learned some great stuff from our conversation. I will be posting a few lists with links from our sessions so there is not one super long post. Check back all weekend and bookmark this stuff for later use.

Please add your thoughts and even add links by replying to the different posts. I look forward to our interaction.

National Youth Ministry Conference

Just arrived last night to the National Youth Ministry Conference, had a bit of trouble with the internet so I am a little slow at getting this blog up. I am running a "Tech" affinity group this weekend. This is basically a small group that will focus on media and what others are doing...basically it's a place to help those with questions and a place to steal other people great ideas...I love it. We are staying in a really nice (but small) hotel room and the conference is in the Duke Energy Center. I will be leaving comments here from our group and from the conference. Come back and see how things are going.

I CAN START BLOGGING AGAIN

The writer's strike os over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.cnbc.com/id/23057002