I am always looking for new fonts.  I am a font junkie.  I probably have so many fonts that I don’t use them all or don’t know I have some.  What are your go to fonts?  

Here are my new favorites: 

 1. Sequi 

This is a weird font, but I really like the look of it.

2.Multicolore 

I love this font.  It has such a great look.  This will get a lot of use on this website in the future.

3. lovelo

I like the nice clean lines.  This is a sleek font that you could use for posters or banners.

4. Versa

This is a different font.  It looks futuristic.  I like the look of it.

5. Airbag

This is my new favorite font.  Worth the download.

What are your new favorite fonts?  Please share.  

The post Freebie Friday: 5 Free Fonts May 2013 appeared first on Youth Ministry Media.

Here are a few things that stand out to me: 

1. 97% of middle schoolers have been bullied online.  This makes we so sad for a whole generation of awesome young people who are getting put down online.  Recently, a fight broke out on a youth group night.  It was an explosion of emotions, and in the end it all was about bullying.  The student in my youth ministry said, that his “friend” keeps calling him a “faggot”.  That night this guy lost it, and decided to give it to the bully.

If all of your students have been bullied at some point, what are we doing to teach and model a Christ like life.  I would love to see more teaching series on bullying.  I am thinking about next years teaching schedule, and I think bullying will be a topic.

2. 15% of parents are “in the know” about their child’s online presence.  This is where we need to help.  This is where we have failed, and will continue to fail if we don’t partner with parents more in youth ministry.  Parents need to know what is going on, and how their child’s social relationships are actually effecting them personally.  I think a ton of parents are completely obvious until is is too late.

 What stands out to you from this infographic?  Maybe you should share this with the parents in your youth ministry today. 

The post The Epidemic of Cyber Bullying [infographic] appeared first on Youth Ministry Media.

What if I told you that setting up a texting program that would help you communicate with teenagers could be done in 5 minutes?  You might think that I am lying, but this could be the game changer for your youth ministry.  It was for me.

The program we are recommending is sms 360, and they have a free trial plan that you can check out here.

Here is the simple process: 

Step 1 – Set up an account

Make sure to put in your youth ministry in the name of the organization, and pick your keyword well.

I put one eighty youth as the name of organization so that when students are recieving texts from me, they don’t delete because they don’t know my churches name.

I also put down the keyword as 180 which is so easy for the students to know and remember.  The key in the long run will be if students remember this, and share with students to get them in to the database.

Step 2 – Learn how to send a message.

Make sure that you text the number and subscribe personally.  You are the tester.

When you log in, you will be a home menu.  Click on the send a message button.  Create a message that you can send right away or schedule for another time.  I personally setup the text messages the day of my youth gathering so that I don’t have to think about it later that day.  I text the students once a week, and it is right after school…10 minutes after to be exact.

That is basically it.  That is all you really need to know.  All it took was 5 minutes of your time.  I know you are probably still a little skeptical, I was, but give it a few weeks and you will see the need for having a text message service for your youth ministry.  Start messing around with it and in the next post we will show you how we grew our list to 80+ students in a month and a half.

On a side note I have been getting tons of interaction from youth pastors on the services they use.  There are tons of programs out there like sendhub, and group text to name just two.  I don’t go the free route, and I personally don’t want a ton of text messages going to my personal phone.  If  teenager is struggling they can reach me on facebook, and some do track down my cell, but I worry already about how much time social media takes up in my day to day life.  This is the reason way I go with a professional service.

I also know that our budgets are tight, and that sometimes we are trying to turn water into wine when it comes to our budget.  For me this was worth the $250 a year for the ability to text teens about youth ministry stuff.

Thanks for your comments, I love exploring all the texting services that you all use.  

The post Developing a Texting Strategy: Setting it up appeared first on Youth Ministry Media.

What is the last book you have read on money?

The only books out there that talk about money, and God are books by Dave Ramsey.  If you haven’t read any of Dave Ramsey’s books it is worth it.  My wife paid off over $10 grand in debt, and saved enough for a home with his principles.

This past week I stumbled across a free ebook that someone recommend to me called: Money: God or Gift by Jamie Munson.  All you have to do is sign up here to his email list and its all yours for FREE!

Here are what others are saying about it!

“The best book on money. Period.”
-Pastor Matt Chandler

Go and download the free ebook here.  I would love to know your thoughts on this book. 

The post Freebie Friday: Money: God or Gift [ebook] appeared first on Youth Ministry Media.

Here are a few things that stood out:

1.  The risk of losing face to face communication.  I think this is one of the biggest threats today for our culture.  Social media is a tool that helps build on the face to face communicate, not replace it.  Teens today are replacing relationships for digital ones.  They are similar, but face to face communication is critical and crucial in a church/youth group setting.

2. 95% of teen have access to the internet, and 74% have access to internet through a mobile device.  Youth pastors need to be navigators of the digital world.  Bible schools need to start developing online marking courses for youth pastors to learn professional communicate techniques.  We need to be online, and we need to develop a online presence in your community.

What stands out to you from this infographic? Please leave a comment below.  

The post The Hyperconnected Teenager [infographic] appeared first on Youth Ministry Media.

Here is our monthly calendar for May 2013.  You can find more awesome calendars at smashing magazine.  It is just a great tool to help you stay clutter free, and on task for the month of may.  Have an awesome month!  Finish the school year well.

calendar: 1024×768, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

What kind of calendar do you use? 

The post Freebie Friday: May 2013 Calendar appeared first on Youth Ministry Media.

Are you looking for royalty free images that don’t suck?

Lightstock gives away a free image each week.  Lightstock is the best stock photo website I have ever seen.  You need to check it out.

Go and check it out here. 

What websites do you use to find stock photos?  

The post Freebie Friday: Free Stock Photos appeared first on Youth Ministry Media.

Are we doing a good enough job with high school students? Do they understand the cost of following Jesus in todays culture?  Are they prepared for the hard realities of life, and work?  I am not too sure.

The Lie

We are told today that we are the hero of the story.  Tons of students I work with think that they will be the next best at ___________(insert sport, hobbie, or whatever).  Everything is about us today.  We are living in a society that is narcissistic.  The image that we project into this digital world is all about me.

I feel constantly sad at the reality of students seeking affirmation online.  The images that girls are putting on instagram for likes and affirmation is alarming.  I see lie at work with the teens I work with.  They are being told they will be the best, they are the hero.

 The Truth

In Philippians 1:12-13, Paul shows how Jesus is the hero of the story, and how everything we do is to advance the Gospel, “I want you to know, brothers,that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.”  The one thing I want my students to know is that Jesus is the hero of the story.  Everything we do is to advance the great news of the Gospel.  That is exciting, that is rewarding, that is life changing.

How do you prepare student for life beyond high school?  How do you prepare them for the harsh realties of life?

From “A Post College Flowchart of Misery and Pain” on Shareable.

The post How to prepare grade 12′s for the reality of life. [infographic] appeared first on Youth Ministry Media.

How do you judge if your making an impact with the students you work with?

My small group is full of all kinds of students: sporty, hipster, cool dude, nerd and much more.  But what they all have in common is… guess what?  A phone.  Some students are good and put them away and a few actually don’t even have phones.  But there are a couple of students that are glued to them, like white on rice.  I can’t say that I’m perfect either but these students are addicted!  Let’s call these students “iStudent”.  iStudents have their phones out during hangout times, games, worship, small group and every and any minute they can.  I find it very discouraging when something is going on and the iStudents are glued to their phones.  How do you judge if your making an impact with these students? How do you love these students?

I had planned a small group event that I thought our group of grade 9-10 boys would like.  But something happened during this casual game night and he finally began to get comfortable.  We had a retro game night. Pizza, cips, old school nintnedo and finished the night of with a classic (Nacho Libra).  This one particular boy in my group was the definition of the istudent.  I have had him in my small group for six months and he has never spoken a single word. And believe I’ve tried.

But this night; this hang out game night he had finally been comfortable.  Not just comfortable but interested in bringing a friend.  This “iStudent” connected more on this evening than we had all year.  I encouraged him to invite his friend to our youth bible study.  He missed inviting his friend to The first youth bible study after the hang out night but the connection point was established and I used it as a conversation piece with him.  The following Tuesday he brought out his friend and I was blown away.  And guess what?  That evening during our small group talk this iStudent spoke up!  And not only that, he asked if he could read the bible verses for the group.  When he said that he didn’t have a bible on his phone or even know what bible to get I though “Bingo!”  I then walked him through getting the ESV bible app, showed him what the book, chapter, and verse were and then he was ready.  That quickly he was reading from his phone to our small group from his NEW bible.

Its crazy for me to realize that to give someone a bible now doest just mean giving them a physical bible.  Obviously you can still do that, a physical bible is still very important, but with technology driven students the avenues of delivering a bible are changing.  For me this experience was very impacting.  These iStudents feel like a steel box under lock; it’s hard to see growth or any progress.  Relationships with students will be the easiest way to help foster growth and these relationships need to be outside of large, regularly planned events where you can get to know them more.  Once a connection is made the growth will be easier to gage and you will find encouragement in the small things.  For me it was this iStudent taking his favorite thing and slapping a bible app on it.

How do you connect with students in a digital world? 

The post Impacting Students in a Digital World appeared first on Youth Ministry Media.

Here are a few things that stand out to me from this infographic called: How American Teens Communicate.  

1. 93% of teens use a phone.  I am starting to understand hot crucial it is to develop a texting strategy for your youth ministry.  I use to think that facebook and twitter was crucial, but I am now realizing how effective and important it is to have a strategy to mass text your youth ministry.

2. Email is still king.  This is still a shocker to me.  I didn’t think anyone used email any more.  Especially not 93% of teenagers.  Again it is important to have a strategy for developing a mailing list.  I recommend using mailchimp.  You can read about that from my free ebook called, 5 Ways to Communicate Effectively in a Digital World.

What else stands out to you from this infographic on how teenagers communicate?  Leave a comment below. 

The post How Teenagers Communicate [infographic] appeared first on Youth Ministry Media.