Life in Student Ministry » Friday Freebie

Freebie Friday #168: H.A.B.I.T.S. bible study talk sheet

Tim Schmoyer — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:15:07 +0000

Brian McNarry, a youth worker in Manitoba, Canada, contributes another Freebie Friday for this week. Thanks, Brian!

If you’ve read Purpose Driven Youth Ministry, by Doug Fields, you’ve definitely heard of the H.A.B.I.T.S. acronym. Each letter stands for a habit that any growing Christian needs to form.

This sheet summarizes H.A.B.I.T.S.. You could talk through this with your students in a small group, use it as follow-up with a new believer, or pass it out for teens to use as a devotional guide for the week.

Download HABITS Bible Study Sheet [PDF]

Download HABITS Bible Study Sheet [DOC]

Download HABITS Bible Study Sheet [PAGES]

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Join us this Monday, March 15, for LIVE YM Talk! The live conversation starts at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #167: Seminar, “Communicating with teens and parents throughout the week”

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:39:24 +0000

Last weekend at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference I was scheduled to present the same seminar I lead at conference the year before, “Communicating youth group news with teens and parents throughout the week,” except as I was going through my old notes, I was surprised how outdated a lot of it was already. It’s crazy how quickly communication methods can change. So, I updated a lot of my old content, revised many of my points, and added a whole bunch of new stuff.

Thankfully, Simply gave me permission to record a video of the seminar and share it here with you all.

Here’s the link I mention in the beginning of the seminar that contains links to many of the tools, articles, tutorials, and resources discussed throughout the seminar.

You can either watch the seminar in it’s entirety on YouTube in high quality or download it in iTunes in iPod/mobile quality.

Subscribe to LISM media content in iTunes

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This Monday, March 8, we will discuss some of the recent questions and debates from MinistryQuestions.com. Join us and give your input to answering other youth worker’s ministry questions. The live conversation starts at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #166: Matthew 19 bible study discussion guide

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:34:40 +0000

Brian McNarry, a youth worker in Manitoba, Canada, contributes this week’s Freebie Friday. Thanks, Brian!

It’s a Bible study discussion guide about Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man in Matthew 19:16-23. It starts with some, “Would you rather,” questions and ends by asking the question, “What are you living your life for?” Brian said he’s used it well with both jr high and sr high students in a small group setting.

Download the Matthew 19 Bible study discussion guide

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There is no LIVE YM Talk on Monday, March 1, due to me being at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference, so our next discussion in on March 8 when we talk about some of the recent questions and debates from MinistryQuestions.com. Join us and give your input to answering other youth worker’s ministry questions. The live conversation starts at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #165: “How To Get The Word Out” event check-list

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:55:17 +0000

Here’s another great resource from Paul Turner. It’s a check list to help you get the word out about your youth group events. It includes a lot of ideas for promotion and helps you cover all your bases when you really want to make it as easy as possible for people to find out about your event and help you spread the news.

Of course, nothing can replace vision and passion as you communicate your events, but the ideas in Paul’s list can help you find new ways to share that with the people around you. Check it out.

DOWNLOAD: How To Get The Word Out event check-list

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Join us for LIVE YM Talk this Monday, February 22, for a conversation with Tic Long and “The future of Youth Specialties and a Q&A time.” We’d love to have you join us! The live conversation starts at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #164: Lesson series, “Is Christianity really the only way to God?”

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:47:56 +0000

Brett Hetherington has contributed more to our Freebie Fridays over the past couple years than anyone else. The best part is, his stuff is always quality material. Besides serving as one of the Youth Ministry Mentors, he’s contributed eight other youth teaching series’ and resources here in the past, and today’s series is no different. Visit his site and let him know how much you appreciate his generosity in equipping your ministry with great resources time and time again!

This question is a very basic one that many of us hear all the time. Often it comes with a condescending attitude or a disbelieving scoff. Many times we assume things that other people believe without asking them.

FAITH: is a series aimed at teaching what some of the basics of a handful of other world faith systems believe. But even deeper than that, it will help Christians understand how we should respond to and interact with others who believe differently than we do.

Included in this series you will find:

WORD and PDF Lesson Masters
WORD and PDF Student Handouts
Lesson PowerPoints
PDF versions of Lesson PowerPoints
FAITH: Images
WMV and Quicktime Series Bumps
WMV and Quictime Editable Series advertising video
PUB and JPEG Lesson Images
7 Fonts used in PowerPoints
WMV and Quicktime interviews with Tina, a former Jehovah’s Witness

I used this series in early 2010. In an effort to help our students retain the most from this series, we established pages on our church website with most of this information for download, and streaming videos of each lesson in full, as well as smaller, topic-centered videos for each lesson. These pages can be accessed by visiting our site.

[ Download the series, "Is Christianity really the only way to God?" ]

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There is no LIVE YM Talk this Monday due to being in Haiti right now. Join us for LIVE YM Talk next Monday, February 15 for a conversation with Tic Long and “The future of Youth Specialties and a Q&A time.” We’d love to have you join us! The live conversation starts at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #163: Movie sound clips trivia game

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:46:21 +0000

Two years ago I gave away a game I made combining audio clips from different movies. The idea is to have youth group kids pair up with a piece of paper and pencil and, as a team, try to correctly identify as many movies as they can. The winning team get some candy or a cheap prize.

I created another one and played it with our youth group last week. Apparently it’s a bit harder than I thought it would be.

First, here’s the answer key:

1. Napoleon Dynamite
2. Incredibles
3. Finding Nemo
4. Shrek 2
5. 50 first dates
6. Night at the museum
7. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
8. Toy Story
9. Ice Age
10. Madagascar
11. Elf
12. Mrs. Doubtfire
13. Nacho Libre
14. Prince of Egypt
15. Wizard of Oz
16. Transformers: revenge of the fallen
17. Up
18. Star Trek
19. Open Season 2
20. Kung Fu Panda
21. Bolt
22. The Dark Knight
23. Wall-E
24. Cars
25. Lord of the Rings: Two Towers
26. National Treasure 2
27. Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom
28. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
29. Spiderman 3
30. Robots

There’s two options for downloading the audio file. You can download it in iTunes or download the mp3 directly below:

Play: Movie sound clips trivia

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Join us for LIVE YM Talk this Monday, February 8! The “The “Youth Ministry Advance Team: Haiti” members will discuss their upcoming missions work.” Our guests will include Adam McLane, Anne Jackson, Jeremy Zach, Jeff Goins, and others. We’d love to have you join us! The live conversation starts at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #162: Free music video DVD and Bible studies for Owl City music

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:48:38 +0000

The folks at interlinc have been able to cultivate a very cool relationship with Adam from the band Owl City (if you haven’t heard of them, your students have – he was #1 on iTunes for weeks). I’m told Adam is a wonderful believer and is letting his music communicate his faith.

Free Bible study for Owl City music

Interlinc wants to share their digital introduction to Owl City (a letter from Adam to youth leaders and some song explanations) and a two-session Bible study guide to go along with two of Owl City’s songs, including “Fireflies” (you can listen to the song at the bottom of the page here).

Free music video DVD loop

Interlinc would also love to give you a copy of their Music Video Loop 68 DVD. It contains a ton of music videos and extras. They’ll send you the DVD completely free – no strings attached – they just want you to try and see what playing some good Christian music for you student can do. Just call 1-800-725-3300 and say “I want the free Music Video Loop 68 DVD.”

Check out the DVD contents here. It includes videos from Flyleaf, Skillet, Switchfoot, Britt Nicole, Hawk Nelson, KJ-52, and a lot more.

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Join us for LIVE YM Talk this Monday, February 1! We’re discussing, “The need for theological questioning in youth ministry.” Our guest will be Jake Bouma. We’d love to have you join us! The live conversation starts at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #161: 3D “punched out” font

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:58:17 +0000

This is probably one of those things you never knew you needed until you saw it, and as soon as you saw it, you thought of a 100 ways to use it.

This font gives you cut-outs that let you build 3D pixel style letters, perfect for creating a sign to display upright on a table, gluing to a poster, or to give to students to spell different words for a game or lesson opener.

Type the letters you want in a document
Print it out. Cardstock probably works best.
Cut along the solid lines
Fold along the dotted lines
Put some glue on the shaded flaps
Stick them together and there you go!

Download “Punched Out” font

If you’re unsure how to install a font, here’s how to do it on Windows and here’s how to do it on Mac.

[ ht churchrelevance.com ]

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Join us for LIVE YM Talk this Monday, January 19! We’re discussing, “How to connect God’s Word with students who appear disconnected, apathetic, and distracted.” Our guest will be E.J. Swanson, a national speaker at teen conferences, camps, and retreats. We’d love to have you join us! The live conversation starts at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #160: Campus prayer walk guide

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:38:13 +0000

Leave it to Paul Turner to again contribute a great resource for Freebie Friday! I think he’s starting to get close to rivaling Brett Hetherington for the most Freebie Friday contributions! Thanks, Paul!

Paul sent this to me with the following note:

Made this the other day for our campus Bible club. We divided the group into four and started them in different locations. Worked out very well. We met back together at the end and for testimonies and group prayer.

Download the Campus Prayer Walk Gude

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Join us for LIVE YM Talk this Monday, January 19! We’re discussing, “What every youth worker can learn from urban youth ministry.” Our guest will be Eric Iverson, the Multi-Cultural Integrity Director for YouthWorks. We’d love to have you join us! The live conversation starts at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #159: A variety of free resources from Break Free Youth Ministry

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:00:54 +0000

I don’t remember who pointed me to today’s Freebie Friday — I think it was in a chat conversation with someone on Skype actually. Sorry for not giving credit to whoever deserves it!

Someone passed this link along to me. It’s a guy’s website with lots of his youth ministry resources available for free. He has Bible studies, PowerPoint games, special event stuff, videos that can be used as teaching illustrations or just for fun, and more. Looks like there could be some valuable time-saver resources here. Of course, be sure to use his Share page to contribute any of your own resources, too.

Break Free Youth Ministry

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Join us for LIVE YM Talk this Monday, January 11! We’re doing another show of answering recent questions and debates from MinistryQuestions.com. We’d love to have you participate by giving your input, answers, and advice for people’s questions during the live conversation at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #158: Youth group “Twilight” curriculum and a whole lot more!

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:04:57 +0000

One of the Youth Ministry Mentors, John Byrne, runs a site called YM Theology. It features a lot of youth ministry videos, podcasts and blog posts surrounding youth ministry and theology, but John also has a page of youth ministry content he’s created that he’s willing to just give away for free. The page includes

Description of a Discipled Person
Discipline
Event Prep Worksheet
Internship Proposal
KRA-s
Intern Job Description
Small Group Training
SWOP
Worship Team Application
Youth ministry leader app
Christmas Trivia

Also on his page is a 4-week youth group curriculum series called “Twilight” that’s based on the story of Ruth. You can download all 4 weeks of the discussion questions for the series plus everything else mentioned above right here:

Free Youth Ministry Stuff from YMTheology.com

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For LIVE YM Talk this Monday, January 4, Todd Perkins is our featured guest. He will lead us in a discussion about designing and communicating the student ministry’s vision to the church and community. We’d love to have you join us for the live conversation at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #157: Custom countdown timer video on a green-screen

Tim Schmoyer — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:36:50 +0000

Troy Young created and donated this year’s Christmas Freebie Friday! Thanks, Troy!

If your youth ministry uses countdown timers, here’s a simple 5-minute timer on a green screen. You can put your latest youth ministry video of an event, a motion background, or even your youth group logo in front of the green screen. iMovie ‘09 makes it dead simple to use a green screen, so if you’re on a Mac, this should be simple.

Download 5-minute green-screen countdown timer*

*You may have to right-click on the link and select, “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” in order to download the video file.

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There is no LIVE YM Talk this week. Our next talk is on Monday, January 4, 2010, were we will talk about designing and communicating the student ministry’s vision to the church and community. Our guest will be Todd Perkins of Youth Ministry Consultants, Inc.. Join us then for LIVE YM Talk.

Freebie Friday #156: The Nativity 3-Session Resource Guide

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:14:16 +0000

Although you no longer have 3 more weeks to do a Christmas lesson series with your youth group, you could tuck this away for next year, cram it in this year, or even continue to talk about Christ’s birth after Christmas (imagine that!).

This freebie from Interlinc includes a couple articles and three free Christmas youth group lesson plans.

Article: The Humbling Starts Here
Article: A Righteous Dude
Article: Really, A Virgin?
Session One: Unplanned Pregnancies
Session Two: A Trip At The Worst Time
Session Three: A Child Is Born

View and download the Nativity 3-Session Resource Guide

As a bonus, here’s a PDF quiz of Christmas carols that is print-ready for 8.5×11 paper and produces two quizes per page. The answer sheet is printable as well. We used it with our youth group last week and had a lot of fun with it!

Christmas Carol Game PDF

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There is no LIVE YM Talk this week nor next week. Our next talk is on Monday, January 4, 2010, were we will talk about designing and communicating the student ministry’s vision to the church and community. Our guest will be Todd Perkins of Youth Ministry Consultants, Inc.. Join us then for LIVE YM Talk.

Freebie Friday #155: Free Christmas music sampler download from iTunes

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:42:28 +0000

iTunes is giving away a free 20-track Christmas music album for you to download!

O Come All Ye Faithful – Amy Grant
The First Noel – David Archuleta
Silent Night – Sarah McLachlan
Carol of the Bells / Jingle Bells – Barry Manilow
It Snowed – Meaghan Smith
Above the Northern Lights – Mannheim Steamroller
Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Lady Antebellum
We Three Kings – Toby Keith
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Rascal Flatts
Silent Night – Wynonna
Twelve Days of Christmas – Mexicani Marimba Band
We Wish You a Merry Christmas – Weezer
A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like a Kiss) – Glasvegas
Another Christmas Song – Stephen Colbert
Greensleeves – Vince Guaraldi Trio
Dream a Dream – Charlotte Church
The Nutcracker, Op. 71, Act 2: Character Dances (Divertissement) – Dance of the Reed Pipes – Kirov Orchestra & Valery Gergiev
Angels We Have Heard On High – Aretha Franklin
O Holy Night – Musiq Soulchild
Auld Lange Syne – The Lonesome Travelers

Don’t ya love it with God uses unbelievers to spread His message?!

Download the iTunes Holiday Sampler

[ ht to MattReeve on Twitter ]

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This Monday, December 14, John Mulholland will join us to the issues that surround separating jr and sr high ministries. Join us for the live conversation at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #154: 4 Christmas PowerPoint games, 10 backgrounds, and 1 lesson

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:05:22 +0000

Simply Youth Ministry is giving away several Christmas PowerPoint games and Christmas backgrounds for free!

On their Freebie Games page, you can download three different PowerPoint Games: Christmas Trivia Game, Christmas Zoom-In Game, and Christmas Sing-along Game. There’s also directions there for a non-PowerPoint Christmas game called Christmas Wrap-Off.

They’re also giving away 10 free Christmas backgrounds to use with PowerPoint

In case that’s not enough, check out their free talk outline called, The Christmas Killers. It helps students see that Christmas is more than gifts.

And, of course, there’s the Christmas Carol PowerPoint game I gave away over 100 freebies ago, too.

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This Monday, December 7, Walt Mueller of CPYU will join us to answer questions related to youth culture, parenting and ministry. We’d love it if you could submit your questions ahead of time, though. Join us for the live conversation at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #153: Talking happy face to use for youth group video announcements

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:35:29 +0000

A couple months ago Joshua Griffin posted a big, yellow smiley face they used for a teaching series at Saddleback. I looked at it and thought it could work great for another personality for youth group video announcements since it works very similarly to our good friend, L.T.

Basically, use your computer’s microphone to talk while using the keys on your computer to control the smiley face. A screen capture program will allow you to record a video from your audio and smiley face together, just how we discussed with the jib-jab effect tutorial. (See that post for screen capture software suggestions.) Upload the video announcement to your youth group’s Facebook page and, wa-la, you’ve created an engaging, creative and fun announcement in under 5 minutes.

Here are the controls for using Big, Yellow Smiley:

Mouse – controls eye movement (click and drag to move)
Q through O – controls the eyes
A through G – controls moving mouths (hold to make mouth move)
Z through B – controls static mouths (hold to make them stay on the screen)
Space Bar – controls talking mouth (hold to talk)

View Smiley full-screen in your browser (right-click and “Save as…” to download)

[ht Dennis Poulette]

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For LIVE YM Talk this Monday, November 23, Brad Cooper is our featured guest. As the youth pastor at Perry Noble’s church, Newspring Community Church, he will lead us in a discussion about leading a team of volunteer youth workers. We’d love to have you join us for the live conversation at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #152: Dallas Theological Seminary courses in iTunes

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:32:36 +0000

A couple years ago I highlighted Covenant Theological Seminary’s courses that were available as free mp3 downloads, complete with handouts and notes. Even two years ago, that was pretty cutting edge for a seminary, but today more and more schools are publishing course videos to iTunes, including my own alma mater, Dallas Theological Seminary.

Dallas Theological Seminary doesn’t offer videos of entire course, but it does offer pretty good chunks of them. If you’re thinking about seminary training or want to take your theology deeper without the expense, this is the perfect way to get started.

Here’s a list of the course videos you can download in iTunes for free:

BE101 – Bible Study Methods
BE102 – OT History I
BE103 – OT History II
BE104 – Prophets
BE105 – Gospels
BE107 – Hebrews, General Epistles, and Revelation
BE109 – Ruth, Jonah, Epistles
BE510 – Life of Christ
NT101 – Elements of Greek I
NT102 – Elements of Greek II
NT111 – Intertestamental History
ST101 – Intro to Theology
ST102 – Trinitarianism
ST103 – Angelology, Anthropology, & Hamartiology (Angels, Humans, and Sin)
ST104 – Soteriology (Salvation)
BC101 – Introduction to Biblical Counseling
CE102 – History and Philosophy of Christian Education
PM101 – Spiritual Life
PM102 – Evangelism
PM103 – Preaching I
SL305 – Dynamics of Leadership
WM101 – Introduction to World Mission

Dallas Theological Seminary on iTunes U

Freebie Friday #151: Seminar handout, “Web tools for youth ministry”

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:43:35 +0000

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you may notice that I already published this document earlier in the week on my personal blog, but since I put the time into creating the resource, I thought I’d share it with everyone else here, as well.

This weekend I’ll be at a youth pastor retreat for the Christian Missionary Alliance denomination doing a seminar on, “Web tools for youth ministry.” Although we’ll probably cover a lot more than what’s on this handout, this is what we’ll start with and see what direction we go from here.

View and download, “Web tools for youth ministry”

Any glaring oversights of a service or tool I missed? Let me hear them in the comments below.

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LIVE YM Talk this Monday, November 16, Mark Riddle is our featured guest. He will lead us in a discussion about how to find and determine the Lord’s leading to a healthy church ministry as a follow-up to my recent post on when to back away from a youth ministry position. We’d love to have you join us for the live conversation at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #150: 3-session Bible study for the movie, A Christmas Carol

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:29:18 +0000

Today’s freebie is contributed by Interlinc. Here’s their summary of the freebie:

Most of our students are impacted by music, tv, movies and videos games (or a complex combination therein), so when we have a chance to use one of those media venues for kingdom purpose, it can have a big impact. Disney is releasing A Christmas Carol this weekend. We media-ministry dudes at Interlinc have created a 3-session Youth Leader Guide to help you make the most of a movie that most of your students will probably see.

By the way, it’s an awesome movie – some of our Interlinc staff got a sneak peek on Monday. The 3D is amazing and helps communicate the story that much more. We decided to help with this movie since it is a wonderful story of life-evaluation and redemption.

So go download the 3-session Bible study lesson guide today and put Scrooge to work for you. Enjoy the Freebie on us, and enjoy A Christmas Carol.

View and download youth Bible study lessons for A Christmas Carol

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LIVE YM Talk this Monday, November 9, YOU are the featured guest. We will have an open discussion where you can ask questions, seek advice, share prayer concerns, vent, share stories, whatever you want with other youth workers. We’d love to have you join us for the live conversation at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #149: The Discipleship Project’s store goes FREE!

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:16:43 +0000

This week’s Freebie Friday is written and contributed by Paul Turner. He’s been creating youth ministry content for a long time: books, handouts, curriculum, training tools and more. Up until a couple weeks ago, all of his material was available for sale through his website’s store, but now he’s giving it all away for free! Here’s what he has to say about it:

What do you get for free? Criticism? That’s no fun. Resources, conversation, encouragement, training? Yes, more fun. When I started Disciple Project Ministries a little over two years ago, I was following a traditional model: Create stuff and sell it. The new model: Create stuff, give it away, talk about it, repeat. I hope the resources I will now provide for free; will somehow replenish a small part of what we all give up in time, money and sometimes ego to serve students. I am looking forward to serving all of you.

Download everything you want from Paul for absolutely free now.

The Discipleship Project’s FREE store

More free stuff from The Discipleship Project

Paul Turner has been working with youth for 20 years. He is the author of, The Cure For The Common Youth Ministry, and founder of Disciple Project Ministries. Paul is the youth director at Gardendale, Mt. Vernon UMC in Birmingham, Al. He loves spending time with his wife Kim, raising their their three great kids (2 of which are teens).

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LIVE YM Talk this Monday, November 2, is with featured guest, Dennis Beckner, who will lead us in a discussion on keys for successfully start in youth ministry as a volunteer. We’d love to have you join us for the live conversation at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #148: Evangelism video with Greg Stier and discussion questions

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:04:58 +0000

Last week my sr. high youth group finished up a 5 week series on evangelism that was loosely based on Brett Heatherington’s free Evangelism For My Life series. A good friend of mine, Greg Stier of Dare 2 Share Ministries, agreed to do a live evangelism Q&A with my youth group via a video feed, but our Sunday night didn’t quite work out for him, so the teens wrote down their questions ahead of time and I did the Q&A video with Greg during the week instead. Here’s a list of the questions they asked:

What are some icebreakers to start the conversation?
What are a couple of passages that shows God’s love toward us?
What would you say to someone if they ask a question like, “How do you know the Bible is right?” or “How do you know God exists?” or “What if you’re wrong?”
How do you prepare for an “encounter?”
What are some resources that you would recommend for someone who is going along with what you are saying?
Give me an example of bringing Christ up through music? Sports? Recent events? School?
What is a good way to explain the trinity to unbelievers?
How can you explain that having faith is different than religion? Like, a relationship with God?
How do we share our faith with people who don’t care about God and don’t want to learn more?
How do we approach people with a different religion?
How can we know when to be more persistent with someone and when to back off?
How do I share my faith with someone who wants nothing to do with me?
How do you go about pursuing someone who you and others may presume is “fine” but there is something that may lead you to be uncertain about their faith and if they know Jesus?
How do you help a Christian come back to Jesus after an emotional crises/breakdown?
How do you share your faith with a close friend?
What do you say when an unbeliever asks you to prove what you’re saying?
How do you prove the Bible using the Bible? How do you prove the Bible NOT using the Bible?
What’s the way of evangelism that seems to be received best by unbelievers?

You’re welcome to download this 41 minute video conversation between me and Greg Stier and use it with your youth groups, too. However, since it’s just shy of 700 MB, I’m going to let you guys download it directly from Vimeo. Use the link below to view the video. In the bottom-right corner of the page you can download the original source file (requires site registration).

View the Evangelism Q&A video with Greg Stier and Tim Schmoyer

Download the small group discussion questions

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Remember, there is no LIVE YM Talk today or any other Friday in the future. LIVE YM Talks have switched to Mondays. Our next LIVE YM Talk is this Monday, October 26, with featured guest, Dennis Poulette, who will lead us in a discussion on working with cross-cultural students and minorities at youth group.

Freebie Friday #147: “Porn Again Christian” free ebook

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:13:36 +0000

Yesterday in my article on how to beat a porn addiction before it’s too late, I mentioned that I would send you guys to a resource today that can be of help in the daily struggle against pornography.

About a year and a half ago, Freebie Friday #75 was an ebook about pornography called, “When a man’s eye wanders.” It’s still available and is definitely worth reading. It’s a pretty quick read, but mostly skims the surface of the issue.

Today’s free ebook goes into more depth about the subject. It’s called, “Porn Again Christian: A frank discussion on pornography and masturbation,” by Mark Driscoll. At 53 pages long, it’s not really a full blown book, but it’s definitely bigger than a pamphlet.

If pornography is a struggle for you or someone you know, this ebook is well worth downloading. Or, if ebooks aren’t your thing, you can also purchase it for about $8.

Download “Porn Again Christian” free ebook

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Remember, there is no LIVE YM Talk today or any other Friday in the future. LIVE YM Talks have switched to Mondays. Our next LIVE YM Talk is this Monday, October 19, with featured guest, Matt Brown, who will lead us in a discussion on mobilizing your students to share their faith.

Freebie Friday #146: “Tear down the walls of the youth room” ebook

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:12:06 +0000

Nick Arnold, youth pastor at New Hope Community Church in Sunland, CA, recently released a free ebook titled, Tear Down the Walls of the Youth Room: 43 ideas for starting, growing, and deepening relationships with teenagers outside of traditional youth group programs. It’s a quick read that’s definitely worth your time. If you’ve read my free ebook, 130 Youth Ministry Tips and Ideas, the format will be pretty familiar.

Nick was gracious enough to let me and a couple other youth workers preview the ebook early and give some feedback, some of which he used as sidebar comments in the ebook. I actually wrote a recommendation for him, too:

Nick’s book is definitely not limited to only 43 ideas for connecting with teens. Although that may be the title, this valuable ebook contains many other tangible ways to practically build spiritually influential relationships with teenagers outside of church. Having tried almost all of his ideas in my own ministry over the past 10 years, this ebook brought back many fond memories and reminded me why I’m still in youth ministry today. Whether you’re a brand new youth worker or an old-school veteran, this ebook will help put you on the right track as you invest your life into students.
~ Tim Schmoyer

Download “Tear down the walls of the youth room” free ebook

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Remember, there is no LIVE YM Talk today or any other Friday in the future. LIVE YM Talks have switched to Mondays. Our next LIVE YM Talk is this Monday, October 12, with featured guest, Rick Smith, who will lead us in a discussion on communicating God’s Word effectively to teens.

Freebie Friday #145: Motion background for PowerPoint, MediaShout, or Keynote

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:11:13 +0000

Earlier this week Jason Stemm contributed a guest post called, 3 tips for improving your student ministry’s worship media. Today, he’s donating a motion background from his site, www.MotionRevival.com. You can use this with PowerPoint, MediaShout or even Keynote for Mac.

Limited Availability
This download will only be available for 2 weeks, so be sure to download it while you can.

You can preview it here.

Download “Green Particles” motion background

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Our topic today for LIVE YM Talk is serving as a woman in youth ministry. Special guest, Patti Gibbons, will share with us about the unique opportunities and struggles of being a women in youth ministry, talk to the male youth pastors a bit about working with their female leaders, and more. Join us at 2:00 PM Eastern time today!

Freebie Friday #144: Outlines for 4 youth leader training meetings

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:29:36 +0000

Last week I was on Simply Youth Ministry’s website and noticed a pretty solid downloadable sample for one of their products. While it’s not usual for their products to have samples to check out, this sample was a lot more useful as a standalone than, say, the first chapter of one of their books that’s kinda pointless without the rest of the book.

Youth Leader Training on the Go is a book that contains 52 training outlines that you can use with your volunteer youth leaders, as well as 12 pre-written email encouragements, handouts, and an audio CD. It’s available for only $20 right now, which is cool. But what’s even cooler is that you can download 4 of the training outlines and 1 encouragement email note for FREE in the sample package. If you meet with all your leaders once a month, that’s a third of the year’s training covered for free!

How To Get It
To download the 4 youth leader training sheets and 1 email encouragement note, go to the Youth Leader Training on the Go book and click the gray Download a Sample link.

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Today our featured guest is Brandon Riley. He’ll lead us in a discussion about unleashing student artists using photography, video, and art. Listen in and you just might learn some tips to sharpen your artistic skills in these fields, too! See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat at 2:00 PM Eastern time.

Freebie Friday #143: A free Twitter-themed youth group newsletter template

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:17:06 +0000

A few weeks ago, Adam Walker Cleaveland, Minister for Youth & Young Adults at Asbury United Methodist Church in Livermore, CA, was sitting down to put the monthly newsletter together. He was feeling a little bored with the current layout so he posted something on Twitter asking for ideas. A few of his youth caught wind of that, and one sophomore girl said she’d work on it when she got home, and the result is today’s Freebie Friday: a Twitter-Themed Newsletter.

In the download, you’ll get the newsletter in a variety of editable formats:

iWork’s Pages
Microsoft Office
A postcard version in Microsoft Publisher format
The necessary font files and Photoshop file are also included

This is such a great idea – primarily because it was created by youth. The designer said she was so stoked that people around the US were using her design for their youth groups – she’s pretty excited to be able to let everyone use this for free! It’s also a great way to keep your newsletters brief, to the point, and concise with a layout that’s been proven to communicate successfully.

Download the Twitter-themed youth group newsletter from Adam’s blog:
How to make a Twitter Youth Group Newsletter

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Today our featured guest is Mark Matlock. He’ll lead us in a discussion about some pretty cutting edge group teaching methods: How to use improvisational techniques for group learning. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat at 2:00 PM Eastern time.

Freebie Friday #142: B90X intense Bible reading workout

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:40:55 +0000

Earlier this month, Steven Furtick, the lead pastor at Elevation Church created the B90X system, an intense Bible reading workout, and challenged his staff to read through the entire Bible with him in 90 days. He describes it like this:

B90x is a revolutionary system of intense, truth-absorbing, brain-busting Bible reading that will transform your understanding of Scripture from intro to nitro in just 90 days! Your personal trainer, Ruach “The Breath” Yahweh, will drag you through the most intense infusion of His vision that you have ever experienced and you won’t believe the results!

If you’re a Twitter user, I’ve seen many people online stepping up to the challenge by forming a system of mutual accountability by using the hashtag #B90X. In fact, check out the latest B90X tweets here.

This could be great for your church to go through together, or for you to use with some youth group kids or a small group.

Download the B90X Bible reading workout

[HT to Terrace]

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Today our featured guest had to reschedule at the last minute due to sick children at home, so I’ll be lining up someone else for today’s conversation. Regardless, we’d love to have you call in and join our conversation at 2:00 PM eastern time. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat and to get the latest updated on the new guest and topic.

Freebie Friday #141: “Savvy Youth Ministry” YLO book

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:18:30 +0000

Interlinc just did something very cool – the latest Youth Leaders Only book is completely digital. And they’re giving it away as a Freebie Friday! It’s 104 pages of Bible studies, articles, (our music comparison chart), 16 worship song chord charts, and a ton more. Their theme this box is “Savvy Youth Ministry” – something I think we all can appreciate.

There is no sign-up form – just the digital book for you to use. You can even print it out and use it later! They are still working to make the music downloadable, but for now, the book is there.

You can check it out here:

“Savvy Youth Ministry” YLO – Fall 2009 issue

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Today our featured guest is Josh Christian who will be leading us in a discussion about having and raising children in full time youth ministry. We’d love to have you call in and join our conversation at 2:00 PM Eastern time. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #140: The 31 Day Challenge

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:25:07 +0000

During last week’s LIVE YM Talk on “transferring summer momentum into the fall ministry,” our featured guest, Tony Myles, mentioned a resource he uses to challenge others and himself to spend time with the Lord: The 31 Day Challenge.

Download and print out the calendar below to either use by yourself, with a small group, with the whole youth group, or even the entire church. You could (and should!) encourage families to do this together, too.

Once you see it, the instructions are pretty straight-forward: read the scripture passage for that day and complete the assigned task. Then, in your small group meeting, with your spouse, or whatever context you use this challenge for, discuss it with others for follow-up, accountability, and reflection.

Download the “31 Day Challenge” [PDF]

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Unfortunately, due to my schedule, there is no LIVE YM Talk today. However, next week our featured guest is Josh Christian who will talk with us about having and raising children in full time youth ministry. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #139: Bible memory verse tracking sheet

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:44:35 +0000

Brent Lacy, Youth Pastor at Rockville First Baptist Church in Rockville, Indiana, contributes today’s Freebie Friday. Thanks, Brent!

He’s passing along a sheet his ministry uses to keep track of students’ bible memorization progress. His kids choose from between 2 or 3 verses every week to commit to memory and recite at either Sunday School, Sunday Night, or Wednesday Night (SS, SN, and WN on the sheet, respectively).

In case you’re wondering how the Bible memory system works at his church, here’s what he told me in his email:

It’s crazy stupid simple, but it works, and is easy to administrate. The youth are coming on board with it, because there is a nice study Bible waiting as a reward for each of the students that puts together a string of 52 verses. If the students lose it, they start over, so they are guarding their tracker sheets very closely.

Download the memory verse tracking sheet [PDF]

Download the memory verse tracking sheet [Excel]

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Our featured guest is Joshua Johnson, a youth pastor in Minneapolis who specializes in jr. high ministry and will talk with us about some of the challenges and opportunities of working with that demographic. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #138: Instrumental Reflections mp3 downloads

Tim Schmoyer — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:26:09 +0000

The worship director at my father-in-law’s church, Russell Martin, does a pretty regular feature called “Instrumental Reflections” on his blog. He often sits down in front of the piano just to play and worship, which became the inspiration for it:

I started thinking that maybe you would benefit from some recordings of these musical ramblings as a background to your own corporate or personal prayer and reflection times. So… every week I will upload an instrumental reflection. I may use one that I was able to record during a worship service, or go and sit down at the piano and record something new. I will put the songs up here and provide a download link. You are free to use the music for any worship service or other service you wish. All I ask is that you ask me before using it for other purposes, like on a video, compilation CD, or something like that.

Download his mp3s for altar time, devotional music, reflection background music for youth group, or whatever else you could use it for in ministry.

Here’s the category link for his Instrumental Reflections. Click through each title to download the mp3 associated with it and read more about the background behind the music track.

Instrumental Reflections

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Our LIVE YM Talk for today is CANCELED. We’ll have to postpone Patti Gibbons until another Friday in September. Enjoy your Friday off!

Freebie Friday #137: Teaching illustration video on trusting God

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:01:24 +0000

A couple weeks ago my senior pastor asked me to take a clip of Man vs. Wild with actor, Will Ferrell, and modify it a bit for his sermon illustration.

The video illustrates the importance of trusting in someone else, i.e. God. If you want to preview it before downloading, you can see it on YouTube here.

Download the teaching illustration video

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Our LIVE YM Talk for today is CANCELED. We’ll have to postpone Mark Matlock until another Friday in August. Enjoy your Friday off!

Freebie Friday #136: 21-day devotional through John for teens

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:34:21 +0000

Paul Turner of TheDiscipleProject.net recently finished another youth devotional called, “God, What’s Your Status?” It’s a 21-day journey through the Book of John for teenagers. It includes interactive widgets for comments and creativity.

He usually charges $7.00 for it, but he’s providing it free of charge to Life In Student Ministry readers. Download it below.

Download “God, What’s Your Status?”

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Brian Eberly joins us to talk about, “The importance of building a youth ministry team.” He’s been learning more and more about this in his own ministry and comes to share about it with us. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #135: Salt and Light Prayer Stations package

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:10:38 +0000

I think Brett Hetherington has contributed more to our Freebie Fridays over the past couple years than anyone else. The best part is, his stuff is always quality material. Besides serving as one of the Youth Ministry Mentors, he’s contributed eight other youth teaching series’ and resources here in the past, and today’s series is no different. Visit his site and let him know how much you appreciate his generosity in equipping your ministry with great resources time and time again!

Salt & Light Prayer Stations are an interactive walk through of Matthew 5.13-17, in which Jesus informs the disciples that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It is such a familiar teaching and topic of Scripture that often we miss the details of the passage. What is saltiness? Why is it important to be a light? What would salt be like if it truly lost its saltiness? These stations are designed to offer answers to these and a host of other questions that you and your teenagers might have – or never realized that you had – about this passage. This can be used as it’s own event/lesson with a small debriefing time after the walk through or as a supplement to a larger teaching element.

Included in this download:

PDF and WORD documents with the instructions, also includes a link to a video tour of the stations.
PDF and WORD documents with all the necessary signs for these stations
PDF and WORD documents with Matthew 5.13-17 in 7 different translations to hang around the room.

Download the Salt and Light Prayer Stations package

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Shawn Shoup joins us to talk about, “Rest, burn-out and time management in youth ministry.” He’ll share from both his experience and the wisdom of others in this area. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #134: Free dramas and skits for youth groups

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:29:00 +0000

This week’s Freebie Friday comes from Jasper Rains, a youth pastor in Saint Louis, MO.

Jasper has written 40+ dramas and skits for youth groups to use for various events, occasions, and as teaching illustrations. Fortunately for all of us, Jasper makes all of them freely available on his site. You can print off scripts in a ready-to-go format. Perfect for camps, vacation Bible schools, and youth group meetings throughout the year.

Check it out at Kerusso Drama Ministry’s site.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Andy Brazelton of Simply Youth Ministry joins us to talk about, “How to be a volunteer and still have a full time job and a family.” This will be great for both paid youth workers to know how to work with our volunteers, and also for those who are the volunteers. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #133: Rockin Road Tunes music CD

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:01:01 +0000

This week’s freebie is pretty cool. With all the road trips we’re taking with our youth group kids, it seems obvious that we need some good rockin’ tunes we can all jam to while we travel.

Interlinc already thought of it and wants to send you a FREE music CD with 19 songs with music from well-known artists like Family Force 5, John Reuben, Ayiesha Woods, Tenth Avenue North and a number of amazing new artists. They’ll also be adding Bible Studies and other downloads to go with the CD, five of which are already available as a free download.

Check out this page on Interlinc’s website to request the free CD and check out the free Bible studies.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. It’s our 1 year anniversary show and YOU are the featured guest! We’ll all have a chance to answer the question, “What have you learned about youth ministry in the past year?” See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #132: Audiobook download of “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:14:01 +0000

For the month of July you can download the unabridged audio recording of Francis Chan’s book, “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.” If you haven’t read the book, here’s the perfect way to hear it for free!

I read the book a while ago and, although I disagree with some of the theology and thus some of the application, it’s overall message is definitely worth hearing. It’s a great reminder of how passionate God is for us and how complacent we are in responding to His love.

Visit the free download section of christianaudio.com and use the coupon code JUL2009 to download it for free.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. My wife, Dana Schmoyer, is our featured guest. She will answer your questions about being married to a youth pastor, and together we’ll answer your questions about marriage and youth ministry. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #131: Loads of freebies at Simply Youth Ministry

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:49:50 +0000

It’s hard to feature free youth ministry resources every Friday without mentioning Simply Youth Ministry’s freebie page. Simply has tons of free resources available, spanning over the past several years, in categories like small groups, sermons, discipleship, training, games, drama, videos, forms, and a lot more.

If you haven’t recently checked out Simply’s freebie page, it’s be worth your time to do so.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #130: Meditative prayer exercise with a rock

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:58:22 +0000

Each month our church comes together for an evening of worship that’s intended to be open, flexible, experiential and interactive. It’s always a great time!

Last week everyone was given a little rock as they entered the room and we used it for a couple symbolism things throughout the evening. I led the prayer time using the following meditative prayer outline I put together below. Feel free to use it with your groups as a way of breaking the prayer ruts we often fall into.

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The rock can represent a number of different things. Let’s prayerfully reflect on it together.
If you want to move to another place in the room for more privacy, kneel, feel free.

Feel the stone. Study it. How is it unique from every other rock in existence? (pause for prayer/reflection)
How are you unique from every other person created by God? (pause for prayer/reflection)
READ ALOUD: Psalm 139:1-18, 23-24

Rocks can also causes us to slip and stumble, to loose traction in our walk.

What’s causing you to slip and stumble in your walk with the Lord? What are you tripping over? Pray about it. (pause for prayer/reflection)
READ ALOUD: 1 Corinthians 10:6-13

The rock can also represent our burdens, the things that weigh us down.

As you look and feel your rock, what burdens does it represent in your life? (pause for prayer/reflection)
How is God using that burden to teach you something? (pause for prayer/reflection)
READ ALOUD: 1 Peter 5:3; Matthew 11:28-30
Place your stone on the floor in front of you, symbolizing that you’ve laid it at the feet of Jesus.

But most importantly, the rock represents Jesus. He’s the only one who can help us, grant us victory, and be the solid, firm foundation that our lives were intended to have in Him.

In what areas of your life do you need Jesus to be your rock? (pause for prayer/reflection)
READ ALOUD: Psalm 27:1-8, 13-14; Psalm 28:1-2, 6-9; Psalm 18:1-3
Think about what it means for Jesus to be “the rock of your salvation.” Praise Him, thank Him, and worship Him for that in prayer.
Pick your rock up again and hold on to it as a reminder of Jesus being your rock.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Our featured guest is Rob Kashow who will talk with us about teaching theology in youth ministry. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #129: 3 short term missions trip resources

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:23:20 +0000

Our friends at Cadre Ministries are giving away 3 resources to help you prepare for your short term missions trip this summer, and also to help you while you’re there.

1. Ten Short Mission Trip Land Mines Your Team Must Avoid. This one includes a FREE 13-page training session for your team for you to use before you leave.

2. Service Projects That Make Middle Schoolers Shine. Mission trips don’t have to be far away and they also don’t have to be only for older kids. Here’s why you should do service projects with jr. highers and how to make the experience leave a lasting impression.

3. Making The Most Of Mission Trips. Six things your groups needs to start doing now before you leave. Share it with your team as soon as possible.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. There’s no featured guest, set topic or agenda except to have an open discussion. Ask questions, seek advice, share prayer concerns, vent, whatever you want. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #128: Free youth group curriculum, “Issues and Answers”

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:04:13 +0000

In 2004 a man named Roland Boyce, who would later become my sr. pastor, wrote a book for youth groups called, “Issues and Answers.” Today we’re both still serving together, albeit at a different location with different titles, and I still continue to see his heart for teenagers demonstrated in so many ways.

He’s asked me to make all 350+ pages of his work, “Issues and Answers,” available to you for free! This curriculum is intended to be a teaching guide to help youth workers and parents provide biblical answers for some of the tough issues in our society. In the introduction, Rol explains the format as:

“…a topical listing of 47 issues alphabetically, the Biblical background on the issue, the basic conclusions of Biblical teaching surrounding the issue, a statement of the youth’s culture prevailing perspective on the topic, and bibliographical helps for further study plus an interesting bit of trivia to add a little ‘seasoning’ to the subject matter.

The issues covered are:

Abortion
Alcohol
Authority
Bible (The)
Birth Control
Church (The)
Cloning
Clothes/Fads
Counseling
Cults/Occult
Dancing
Dating
Death and Dying
Death Penalty
Depression
Devotional Life
Discipleship
Divorce
Drugs
Ecology
Evolution
Euthanasia
Food
Gambling
God
Homosexuality
Marriage
Modern Day Religions
Money-(Stewardship)
Music
M.T.V.
Parent-Child Relationships
Peer Pressure
Pets
Politics
Pornography
Pre-Marital Sex
Racism
Sabbath/Sunday (The)
School
Smoking
Sports
Suicide
Swearing
Tattoos/(Body Piercing)
War
Women’s Rights

Obviously, some of the topics are open to a lot of interpretation based on your theological background. I promise Roland Boyce will not take it personally if you disagree with his conclusions on any of these issues!

IMPORTANT: Each lesson has parts that are in different documents. The main lesson is clearly titled as such, but supplemental statistics for each lesson can be found in the “issues and answers stats.doc” document, and a teachable activity/exercise for each lesson along with the lesson’s aim is found in the “Life Labs” document.

ALSO IMPORTANT: Pastor Roland Boyce is providing this to you for free, but he would greatly appreciate hearing your feedback about it, especially if you use it with your groups. Please email him at rboyce@alexandriacovenant.org with your thoughts, recommendations, suggestions and encouragement.

[ download no longer available ]

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Our featured guest is Jeff Borton, co-author of a brand new book, Simple Student Ministry. He’ll lead us in a discussion about simplifying our student ministries. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #127: Mystery Ramble trip

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:07:47 +0000

Sherrie Haldeman, a high school youth director in Louisville, KY, sent me the following idea on Facebook. With summer right around the corner, this sounds like an amazing relationship building time to have with kids! If you’re trying to find more ways to connect with youth group teens this summer, consider her idea:

A mystery ramble is a trip I take my high school youth on. They do not know the destination or the activities. I give them a packing list and a “fake” schedule. The schedule is not subtle clues about what we will be doing. The youth director before me started this and I have was his main chaperon before taking over. We have been to St Louis, Gulf Shores, and Ohio. We have done both a week long and a long weekend (Thursday-Monday) it depends on your group and where you want to go on the length.

Last year we ended up in Ohio in Amish country. They toured an Amish house, rode in a horse and buggy and really got to know about their culture and religion. We ended at the Alive Festival.

I find churches or friends along the [route] to house us [and] cut down on the cost.

We always try to do some kind of service project in the community we stay in: clean up trash, help with a church function etc.

This is an amazing trip to get kids to know each other better, work as a team, and see unique places along the way. Its fun to find unique things to do in other states.

On the day that we leave I give all the parents a sealed envelope with all the details of the trip. When and where we will be and all the contact stuff.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Our featured guest is Mike King from YouthFront. He’ll lead us in a discussion about adolescent development and how it impacts growth and learning. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #126: Whip ‘n Strip game

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:24:05 +0000

Luke Trouten, Youth Pastor at Northwood Church in Maple Grove, MN, donated the instructions for the game Whip ‘n Strip for you all! It looks like it has the potential to become a pretty violent game, so it must be fun! The name alone makes you a bit curious about how to play. Fortunately, you can just download Luke’s PDF of the game’s instructions below.

Luke has this to say about the game:

This game works better outside, but can be played in a gym. A single game can take anywhere between 5 minutes and an hour depending on how strategic the students get. I’ve brought this to every camp/youth group I’ve worked at and it’s always been a hit. In the summer we get face paint and go Braveheart style, it’s pretty intense.

Download “Whip ‘n Strip” instructions

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Our featured guest is Joshua Griffin, high school pastor at Saddleback Church, and he’ll lead us in a discussion about working with high school students. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #125: Photo scavenger hunt list

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:07:28 +0000

Almost two years ago for Freebie Friday #37 we gave away a photo scavenger hunt list that my own group used and had a blast. In fact, it became tradition to end each school year’s jr. high small group ministry with all the small groups competing against each other. When it’s over, I quickly dump all the group’s pictures into iPhoto and play a slideshow while we eat ice cream and laugh together.

Below is the list I used for this year’s photo scavenger hunt. You can see some of the pictures here. Not all the groups got their pictures turned in, but it’ll give you an idea anyway.

1. Everyone in your group sitting in one chair together at the house of someone from your group – 200 pts.
2. Someone in your group juggling two or three balls while at least 5 strangers watch and applaud – 250 pts.
3. Your group with an outdoor sculpture – 150 pts.
4. Everyone in your group laying on the ground, spelling out a word with your bodies – 200 pts.
5. A group photo with one member from your group dressed in very formal attire – 350 pts.
6. Something that begins with the letter Z. (No made-up words) – 300 pts.
7. Someone from your group on a motorcycle ride – 350 pts.
8. Your group posing a scene from a Disney movie in the middle of the mall – 400 pts.
9. Your group doing exactly what a sign says. (Your group may not create the sign.) – 200 pts.
10. Fit your entire group under a picnic table – 400 pts.
11. Group picture with someone in a uniform – 300 pts.
12. Create a work of art with sidewalk chalk in a public parking lot – 500 pts.
13. Picture of someone from your group wearing a blue Walmart vest, greeting people and handing out yellow smiley face stickers to strangers – 500 pts.
14. Someone from your group pumping gas for a stranger – 250 pts.
15. Your group with someone 85 years or older who is holding their ID with birth date – 400 pts.
16. Your entire team simultaneously drinking from the same soda can with straws – 250 pts.
17. Your entire team being chased by another Journey team – 150 pts.
18. Your entire team in the dark with each person shining a flashlight on their face – 400 pts.
19. Your entire team in a boat – 250 pts.
20. Two people from your team helping a stranger fold clothes at a laundry mat – 400 pts.
21. Two members of your team bagging groceries for strangers at someplace other than Walmart – 350 pts.
22. Your entire team giving a group hug to a Fleet Farm employee – 350 pts.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Our featured guest is Mark Matlock and he’ll lead us in a discussion about shaping youth ministry around parents. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #124: Survey for evaluating the spiritual influence of your ministry

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 08 May 2009 04:21:52 +0000

Yesterday I wrote that I’m thinking about ending our large-group youth meetings and mentioned a survey that helped me come to some of the conclusions that I shared. You can download a copy of my survey below.

However, my lesson was on Matthew 9, specifically on Jesus’ illustration of the wine skins. I used the video called Spilt Milk from 36 Parables and most of the lesson that accompanies it, but I only used it as a guideline since I wanted to explain more about Jesus’ message within the larger context of Matthew 9. My lesson notes below are free for you to use, but I didn’t write down most of my message about Matthew 9 itself, so you should study that passage on your own before teaching it.

New Wine Skins Lesson
New Wine Skins Survey

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Our featured guest is Julio Nieves and he’ll lead us in a discussion about soul care for youth workers. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #123: 30 days of missions devotionals for teens

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 01 May 2009 06:08:44 +0000

Perhaps one of the most significant parts of my youth group’s missions trip to Belize last summer was the hour we all spent alone with God each morning. At the beginning of the trip some of the kids weren’t too sure about reading their Bibles and praying for an hour every day, but after 10 days of it, some kids said it was the highlight of the trip.

If you’re considering a missions trip this summer, be sure to make personal time in the Word and in prayer a central part of the trip. In our case, we didn’t give the kids a devotional book or anything — just God’s Word and some private quiet time. But if you would rather give your kids something to use, HCBJ Global has a FREE 30-day devotional ebook on missions called, Be the Voice and Hands of Jesus. It’s very well-done, professionally designed, and follows the traditional format of a verse or two with an explanation, story and application. Here’s a list of the devo titles:

Day 1 – Jesus Reached Out to the Unexpected
Day 2 – Jesus Mobilized Others to Reach Out
Day 3 – Jesus Acknowledged Faith
Day 4 – Jesus Prayed Before Choosing Partners
Day 5 – Jesus Touched People with Power
Day 6 – Jesus Welcomed Interruptions
Day 7 – Jesus Recognized an Open Heart
Day 8 – Jesus Didn’t Follow the World’s Priorities
Day 9 – Jesus Felt Great Compassion
Day 10 – Jesus’ Hands Looked for the Lost
Day 11 – Jesus Allowed Affirmation of His Ministry
Day 12 – Jesus’ Voice Spoke the Truth
Day 13 – Jesus Accepted Persecution
Day 14 – Jesus Loved Difficult People
Day 15 – Jesus Was Confident in His Treasure
Day 16 – Jesus Counted the Cost
Day 17 – Jesus Prayed for Unity
Day 18 – Jesus Demonstrated Authenticity
Day 19 – Jesus Made Priorities
Day 20 – Jesus Honored Sacrifice
Day 21 – Jesus Asked People To Trust Him
Day 22 – Jesus Engaged the Whole Person
Day 23 – Jesus Encouraged Commitment
Day 24 – Jesus Championed the Poor
Day 25 – Jesus Is the Bread of Life
Day 26 – Jesus Transformed People
Day 27 – Jesus Saw Potential
Day 28 – Jesus Asked for Courage
Day 29 – Jesus Promised His Presence
Day 30 – Jesus Did the Impossible

You’ll have to part with some personal information in order to download the ebook, but it’s worth it. You’ll also get:

30 Day Household Prayer Guide
Worship Music (MP3, Sheet Music and Powerpoint Slides)
A downloadable sheet that helps you to plan your next outreach project
Voice and Hands Video: A downloadable video that shares about what it means to be the Voice and Hands of Jesus

Get “Voice and Hands of Jesus” devo book and more!

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Our featured guest is Mike Kupferer and he’ll lead us in a discussion about finding the right youth ministry position. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #122: The Cure for the Common Youth Ministry

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:16:17 +0000

Paul Turner, a 15 year youth ministry veteran, emailed me this past week with an interesting projected called, The Cure for the Common Youth Ministry. Just shy of 100 pages long, his ebook begins by venting about his frustrations with youth ministry, many of which we all are very familiar with. He covers everything from church rivalry to families and apathetic kids. But, unlike most youth ministry blog rants, he actually gives some answers. Furthermore, almost half the ebook consists of worksheets for you and your youth staff to work through together to come to your own answers and conclusions. Personally, I’m not sure I agree with all his answers nor the direction of some of the worksheets, but at least he’s offering answers and helping us think through the issues. That’s more than a lot of people are doing right now, including myself. (I admit, I’m still in the “this is totally not working and I have almost no idea what to do about it” category.)

Paul will most likely publish his work, so download it while it’s still free.

Download “The Cure for the Common Youth Ministry” ebook

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Matt McAlack, a youth ministry professor, will lead us in a discussion about academic youth ministry training. College, seminary, do you need it, where should you go, what happens afterwards, and more. We’ll also talk about the future of formal youth ministry training. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #121: Free ebook, “Leadership Learnings from Bloggers”

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:16:45 +0000

Exponential Network is giving away a free ebook download called, “Leadership Learnings from Bloggers.” Featuring over 250 pages of leadership learnings from over 20 national bloggers like Perry Noble, Seth Godin, and Craig Groeschel, this project is a great collection of thoughts on church leadership from everything from staffing to vision casting.

Download “Leadership Learnings from Bloggers” ebook

[ht to @terracecrawford via Twitter]

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Mark Oestreicher, President of Youth Specialties, will lead us in a discussion about his book, Youth Ministry 3.0, and many of the concepts he writes therein. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #120: Excellent “stuff I can use” in youth ministry

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:11:59 +0000

There are tons of youth ministry resource websites out there, some of them helpful, some of them not. But when I was recently turned on to StuffICanUse.com, I instantly bookmarked it. The site is run by some guys from a church in Louisville, KY, who have the same heart I do for resourcing leaders. In fact, their story is exactly the same as mine that prompted me to start Freebie Friday: they put a lot of work into creating a lesson series, used it once, and then just watched it collect digital dust on a hard drive somewhere. Although there are similarities in our hearts for you guys, they definitely out-do me on the web design edge. Their site looks so slick! I love it!

Best of all, though, is that their materials are all very high-quality, useful and looks amazingly professional. You usually won’t get a transcript or an outline of the actual lessons, but after you see all the graphics and promo tools they provide, you almost don’t even care. For each series, they usually include things like high-res posters, postcards, flyers, count-down timers, PowerPoint background, movie loops, Photoshop files, promo videos, and more.

Visit StuffICanUse.com

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Ryan Neilson, the guy behind Pastor2Youth.com, will be leading us in a discussion about Collaborating with other youth pastors/ministries. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #119: Easter youth group discussion starter

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:39:24 +0000

Grahame Knox is a veteran youth worker in the U.K. who always provides lots of very helpful and valuable youth ministry content on his blog, most of it highly practical.

Last week he published his notes for an Easter youth group discussion starter called, “Washed Clean.” It includes an object lesson, preparation and presentation tips, discussion ideas, scripture passages and two ways to help teens reflect on the lesson.

Check out a complete list of his youth ministry ideas for Easter.

Also check out last year’s Easter Freebie Friday #64, a free PowerPoint game called, “Peeps Trivia.”

“Washed Clean,” a Easter youth group discussion starter

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Joshua Griffin, high school youth pastor at Saddleback Church, will be leading us in a discussion about working with sr. high students. Check out this blog at MoreThanDodgeball.com. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Freebie Friday #118: Free ConGRADulations 2009 CD from Interlinc

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 06:22:55 +0000

Interlinc is giving away one free ConGRADulations 2009 set to any church who asks! You’ll have to part with some contact information to get it, which might not be worth it if it was just another compilation CD, but the ConGRADulations 2009 box contains a lot more than just music.

Of course the music CD comes with a bunch of music tracks from various Christian artists, but it also has a 48-page booklet containing some great stuff from Dave Ramsey (on financial issues) and Francis Chan (about avoiding the spiritual status quo). The set also has a media DVD containing videos from the two aforementioned guys, along with clips of other advice and wisdom for the big transition in life.

I personally have never given these sets away as graduation gifts, but I’ll be happy to take a free copy to check it out. Use the link below to get your free copy and evaluate it as a potential gift for one or more of the seniors graduating from your ministry this year.

More information about the ConGRADulations 2009 CD/DVD/Booklet set

Order your FREE Interlinc ConGRADulations 2009 CD/DVD/Booklet set

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #117: Youth series on Revelation and the end times

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:37:53 +0000

I think Brett Hetherington has contributed more to our Freebie Fridays over the past couple years than anyone else. The best part is, his stuff is always quality material. Besides serving as one of the Youth Ministry Mentors, he’s contributed seven other youth teaching series’ and resources here in the past, and today’s series is no different. Visit his site and let him know how much you appreciate his generosity in equipping your ministry with great resources time and time again!

The End…
If your teens are anything like the rest of America, they want to know all about the book of Revelation. What is it about? Why is it so confusing? If I understand it will I know when Jesus is coming back? Do you find your inbox, cell phone and other methods of communication storage filled to overflowing with these questions and more? No? Me either, but once one student asked if I would lead a series on the seven signs of the apocalypse, it triggered a landslide of interest in Revelation. The End… is the result.

The End… is a three part teaching series in Revelation that attempts to give a balanced look at some of the major themes and symbols at play in Revelation. Numbers, the Rapture, Apocalyptic Prophecy and more are all covered within this study, as well as the four major viewpoints that Revelation can be interpreted from. Yup, Left Behind is not the only way to interpret Revelation. This series takes years of study and research, and boils it down to 3 fairly understandable and manageable interactive lessons. You could even break them up and make it 6 parts! Please use what you can and feel free to contact me with any questions that come up. This study should answer your teens’ questions about Revelation, and inspire all-new questions that you cannot answer.

Included in this series you will find:

WORD and PDF formatted scripts for all three lessons
PowerPoints for the first 2 lessons
Images of the PowerPoint slides that can be used in another program if you do not have PowerPoint
Publisher and PDF formatted blank notes pages for students who want to take notes
Quicktime and Windows Media Video (WMV) formatted promotional videos
Quicktime and Windows Media Video (WMV) formatted intro bumps
Photoshop file of the logo for the series
JPEG images of the logo to use for advertising
Additional documents in WORD and PDF format detailing Hebrew Numerology and an overview of the 4 main methods of interpreting Revelation
PDF and WORD document with links to the font used to the series and full-length videos of the Original Sessions

Download “The End…” youth lesson series

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk as we talk with Ryan Neilson about collaborating with other youth pastors/ministries. See the
LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #116: Empowering students and families with technology

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:28:46 +0000

Today’s Freebie Friday is contributed by Ryan Epps. He put together a list of online resources for you and your ministries. Some are free, some are totally worth your money. The following is his guest post for you. Enjoy!

In a culture that is saturated by the latest buzz of technology, we can see the fruits of its influence on teenagers and their families. While technology has created negative issues such as lack of verbal communication, inability to focus, straining time spent as family, and an increase of so many other issues, I have decided to see the problem with a brighter perspective. Instead of complaining about the problem, be a part of the solution! We can all agree that the use of the latest technology will only increase (unless there is a nuclear melt down or Jesus returns). Why not utilize what is making such a huge influence on young people and positively incorporate it into your ministry to them. So, I have developed a list of links to raise your awareness to what is available to you to greater impact the technologically crazed culture we live in:

Communication / Relational Building

Facebook.com – While this may be a given for those of us that utilize it, there are still many youth workers I speak with that have decided not to take part in this social online giant. The ways to connect with young people is astounding. Messages, writing on their wall, chatting with them through facebook chat, creating groups, creating events, and the list could go on.

SimplyYouthMinistrytxt.com – Use text messaging to communicate with your teenagers the way they communicate with each other.

Skype.com – “I prefer Skype as my choice for instant communication because it’s so versatile: text chat, voice chat, video conferencing, SMS, even telephone calls, and it does it all better than any other communication client out there.” Tim Schmoyer

Txtsignal.com – Very similar to simply youth ministries version of getting mass messages to different texting groups (students, parents, youth leaders, etc.)

Personal and Ministry Networking

YMexchange.com – Connect with hundreds of other youth workers and discuss ideas and issues in life and ministry.

MinistryQuestions.com – A site developed to encourage, inspire, and resource ministry workers through answers, questions, mentoring, and advice. This site provides a honkin database of ideas.

Twitter.com – “Twitter has many uses for both personal and business use. It’s a great way to keep in touch with your friends and quickly broadcast information about where you are and what you’re up to.” www.tweeternet.com

Video Production / Teaching

Animoto.com – Time to upgrade from your typical slideshows! Animoto was created by TV and Movie producers and in minutes can add some BAM to your photos.

Bluefishtv.com – Videos to help you teach!

Zamzar.com – Want to show videos from YouTube but don’t have internet access in your youth room? This site will convert files for you without the need to download software. (Use of the site is predicated on the fact that you will use the converted files in a way consistent with copyright rules.)

Smilebox.com – A more conservative approach than animoto would be. Use your photos and videos to share life’s moments in minutes.

SermonSpice.com – “Over 12,726 ways to spice up your sermon.” Sermon Spice

YouthBytes.org – A hilarious, but extremely relevant resource to help you clearly communicate the message you are delivering to your students.

RadiateFilms.com – Very explosive and cutting edge graphics, backgrounds, and videos for ministry.

Resources for Youth Workers

This list is so vast, I am only going to list the site and not give an explanation.

Resources for Teens / Resources for you to help teens

Christianitytoday.com/teens – Hundreds of Q&A articles and advice on most of today’s tough and hot issues.

xxxchurch.com – Getting help to those addicted to pornography.

CreationTips.com/teentopix – Biblical advice for teens!

TeenHopeLine.com – This site provides a safe place where teens can interact, find scriptural answers and direction, and at times of decision in their lives seek healthy counsel.

ChristianAnswers.net/teens – Another site that provides biblical answers for questions teens have.

Resources for Parents

Homeward.com – I have utilized this site to put hundreds of resources in parent’s hands. Homewards mission is to advance the work of God in the world by educating, equipping, and encouraging parents and churches to build God-honoring families from generation to generation.

TheParentlink.com – This is a phenomenal newsletter that is full with tremendous amounts of information for your parents. With just a few clicks of a mouse button, the newsletter is attached to your website.

CrossWalk.com/parenting – Filled with tons of articles and resources to provide for your parents.

Curriculum

TeenLifeMinistries.com – Over 300 lesson outlines with class handouts and small group discussion guides (and more added each week!). Plus over 870 articles waiting to help you maximize your youth ministry.

StudentLinc.net – Do you have a student leadership team? The materials in this site will help you to teach, train, and equip them for ministry.

Studentlife.com

Lifeway.com

Blogging

WordPress.com – Create a free blog in minutes!

Website Creation

MinistryWebsites.biz – A very simple and inexpensive approach to building your ministries website!

LifewayLink.com – This is the company we use as a church and it is also inexpensive and extremely easy to use.

If you have an internet resource that has encouraged you and helped equip you in ministry, be sure to comment and let us know about it! God bless you as you apply the passion you have for teens to utilizing technology to establish more ways to reach them.

His,

Ryan Epps
Pastor to Students
Boone Trail Baptist Church
ryanepps.wordpress.com
twitter.com/ryanepps

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk as we talk with Greg Stier about answering teens’ tough questions about God. See the
LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Freebie Friday #115: Youth ministry training videos from the NYMC 2009

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:51:24 +0000

There was a lot of great youth ministry training at the National Youth Ministry Conference last weekend! Some of it came from your’s truly, which is what I have permission to post below.

Communicating with teens and parents throughout the week

My brown bag lunch seminar on Communicating with Teens and Parents Throughout the Week was packed! Ran out of chairs, so people sat around on the floor and stood in the back. It was a great time! Here’s the description of what we covered:

What means of communication do you use with teens and parents throughout the week and how well is it working for your ministry? Tim Schmoyer gives ideas for improvement, shows you how to utilize aspects of communication technology, and shares ways you can evaluate which method works best for your group.

Watch it on Vimeo: Communicating with teens and parents throughout the week

Panel discussion with a few of our favorite youth ministry bloggers

I was also on a panel of youth ministry bloggers, along with Chuck Bomar of collegeministrythoughts.com, Chris Davis of youthministrygeek.com and Joshua Griffin of morethandodgeball.com. We talked about some of the basics of blogging and answered many questions from the audience on just about everything from online video, search engine optimization, and how to get people to visit your site.

Watch it on Vimeo: Panel discussion with a few of our favorite youth ministry bloggers

The Skit Guys performing at the NYMC 2009

We all love The Skit Guys, especially their improv comedy when using guests to make sound effects for them. If you’re ready for a lot of good laughs, here’s one of their skits in HD.

Watch it on Vimeo: The Skit Guys at NYMC 2009

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk! Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

Freebie Friday #114: eBay PowerPoint game

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:00:34 +0000

Adam Wormann, an old friend who graduated from the youth ministry program at Philadelphia Biblical University with me, sent me today’s Freebie Friday to share with you.

Based on a segment from Jay Leno, the eBay game is where you show a picture of a random item for sale on Ebay. The PowerPoint linked below contains various obscure pictures of items that were sold and the Word document contains information about that auction, including the number of bids and final sale price. You can have players:

Guess the final sale price (within certain percent)
Guess the number of bids (within a certain number)
Give a price/number of bids and play “higher or lower”
Give points to whoever gets closest
Be creative and come up with something else!

All of these items were actually on eBay and really sold as indicated.

Download eBay game details

Download eBay PowerPoint game

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There is NO LIVE YM Talk this afternoon. We’re scheduled for next week, though, March 6, 2009, for 2:00 PM as usual. Talk with you all then!

Freebie Friday #113: Free images and photography for ministry

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:20:27 +0000

Shift Creative just updated their library of free online stock photography for you to use for your ministries. If you need a good image for a lesson series logo, an illustration, or maybe to use as a PowerPoint background, check them out, grab the images you want, and tweak them as needed for your purposes.

Use the link below to visit their stock photography library, recently updated just for Life In Student Ministry readers. Enjoy!

Royalty-free stock photography from Shift Creative

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk! Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

Freebie Friday #112: Teen Internet Hangouts workshop notes and PowerPoint

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:45:06 +0000

A year and a half ago I wrote about a Teen Internet Hangouts workshop I did for the parents at my church. I gave them an overview of many popular social places on the Internet, including Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, World of Warcraft and some of the upcoming sites they need to be aware of. At that time I chose not to release my notes for the seminar since I was traveling and making the presentation at other places, and because I strongly feel that this is not the kind of seminar you can present to parents just based off of someone else’s notes. This is a subject you actually have to know what you’re talking about, including all the research behind it.

However, enough people have asked for the notes and PowerPoint presentation that I’ve finally given in to your request. Just please don’t get up in front of parents and read my notes to them. Use my notes and PowerPoint presentation as a springboard for creating your own seminar. Do the research yourself. Please and thank you.

Some previous blog posts on this Teen Internet Hangouts material:

Download “Teen Internet Hangouts” workshop notes

Download “Teen Internet Hangouts” workshop PowerPoint

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk! Today we are talking with Justin Ross about youth ministry to 100 kids or fewer. He has a lot of experience in working with this size group, especially in rural settings. Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

Freebie Friday #111: Youth group news video intro

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:04:53 +0000

This past October I wrote a two-part blog series for you all explaining the effectiveness of using video to communicate with teens and an actual “how to” post of making videos a reality for your group. It’s been fun to see many of you pick up on the idea of using video to communicate more with your groups both at church and online throughout the week.

Last week I watched some tutorial videos on YouTube about how to use a program on my Mac called LiveType (included for free with my purchase of Final Cut Express). Although the program looked a bit intimidating at first, it is really quite simple to use. Below is my very first LiveType video and I made it for all of you! Feel free to download and use this generic “Youth Group News” video introduction with any youth group videos you make.

Youth Group News video intro from rockinyp on Vimeo.

Download High-Definition version*

Download Standard-Definition version*

*You may have to right-click on the link and select, “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” in order to download the video file.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk! Today we are talking with Bill Scott of Xtreme Talk Live and Sound of Light radio shows about becoming a dynamic speaker for teens. As someone who’s spoken to groups of 50,000+ teenagers, he’ll give us tips how to teach God’s Word effectively to a large audience of teens. Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

Freebie Friday #110: The Purity Code 6-part lesson series

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:50:40 +0000

Jim Burns of HomeWord recently published a free 6-part lesson series on sexuality purity called, The Purity Code. Many people have issues with sexual abstinence tools that push teens to sign a pledge card, and the research backs up the fact that signing a card definitely does not mean much to the teen a year or two later. However, we all would agree that sex is an important issue to discuss with teens. Culture bombards teens with pre-martial and homosexual messages constantly. They’re talking about it, we should, too. You may not want to follow Jim’s lessons exactly the way they’re written (in fact, I strongly that you never use a curriculum without editing it for your specific context and students), but at least his content provides a good starting point for talk points. Here’s the description of The Purity Code lesson series:

Remaining pure in body, mind, eyes, and heart could be the most difficult thing kids will face in their preteens and teens–and into adulthood. Jim Burns, trusted radio host and founder of HomeWord, has developed the Pure Foundations series, designed to guide parents and their kids through the sometimes uncomfortable discussions about their developing bodies and God’s plan for healthy sexuality.

Download “The Purity Code” parts 1 and 2

Download “The Purity Code” parts 3 and 4

Download “The Purity Code” parts 5 and 6

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk! Today is an open-ended discussion of your issues and struggles in youth ministry where YOU set the topics. Get advice and input from other youth workers. The conversation will not be recorded or published later. Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

Freebie Friday #109: Free book download for new believer follow-up

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 07:17:01 +0000

The media is has really latched on to the Online Missions Trip over the past two weeks and given it more publicity than I ever imagined. In fact, last week I did 2-4 radio interviews per day, plus several magazine and written interviews. What started as a 2-week outreach campaign for my own youth group has really spread into something huge. Over 3,000 teenagers representing almost every continent will be actively sharing their faith using social media from February 1-14, 2009. Crazy! Sounds like the Lord is doing something here.

I’m continually adding resources to OnlineMissionsTrip.com, the most recent being a link to a free book download called, “Welcome to the Family,” by Youth for Christ. It’s 6 chapters long and would work perfectly for helping a new believer start the life-long journey of discipleship. It probably works best in a one-on-one format, but it could also be used in a small group setting. Thanks to Jonathan McKee for making this book freely available at TheSource4YM.com!

Download “Welcome to the Family” book

There are several other good options for new believer follow-up at OnlineMissionsTrip.com.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk! Jason Lamb of Dare 2 Share Ministries will lead our discussion about Deep & Wide Ministry. Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

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Been in youth ministry for 2 years or fewer? Apply for a FREE 10 week one-on-one Life In Student Ministry Mentorship with one of our 13 youth ministry veterans. Application closes on January 24, 2009. Mentorship is made available for free thanks to Lifeway Students, who are supplying all the resources and materials to each mentee. Thanks, Lifeway Students!

Freebie Friday #108: You, School and God video download

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:13:58 +0000

This week’s Freebie Friday is donated by Patrick Ball. He’s giving us his video, “You, School and God,” absolutely free along with accompanying PowerPoint images. Tuck it away for the next time you talk with your kids about school and God. Maybe for next year’s See You At The Pole? Watch the video here on Vimeo.

Download “You, School and God” video with PowerPoint background

Patrick Ball is an experience creator for SMIRK. Smirk creates animations, videos, graphics and branding for student ministries around the U.S. His work can be found on Sermonspice.com and Vimeo.com.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk! Alejandro Reyes will lead our discussion about using technology and social media to better connect with teenagers and build online community. Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

Freebie Friday #107: 3-week lesson series on sharing your faith

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:13:53 +0000

Brian Ford wrote a three-week lesson series for youth groups to use as pre-trip training for the Online Missions Trip. The “missions trip to Facebook” kicks off February 1 and runs through to February 14, so if you start the pre-trip training this Sunday, that would give you exactly three weeks before the missions trip launches.

Thankfully, Brian Ford made these lessons freely available to whoever can use them. Even if your group isn’t participating in the Online Missions Trip in three weeks, these lessons are still excellent for challenging your kids to look outside themselves and the people in their church to the lost world out there that desperately needs to hear the “good news” of the Gospel.

These lessons are available both in Word and PDF format. Your choice.

Download “Sharing Christ through Social Media” PDF

Download “Sharing Christ through Social Media” DOC

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This afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk we are definitely looking forward to a great conversation with Dale Tadlock, a youth ministry veteran for over 20 years. He will lead us in a discussion about achieving longevity in youth ministry (even when it’s tough!). Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

Freebie Friday #106: 21-day devotional for youth

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:15:51 +0000

Paul Turner kicked off Freebie Friday in 2008 with a CSI Crime Scenes from the Bible. This year he’s kicking off 2009’s Freebie Friday with a 21-day devotional for teens called Wake Up: 21 Sips to Energize Your Soul. He recommends using it as small group devotions, a gift for new believers, as part of a retreat, retreat follow-up to keep kids on track, or even have copies available at church for anyone who wants to pick one up. Although this download is available for sale at UnkommonMedia.com, he’s making it available for free to Life In Student Ministry readers. Thanks, Paul!

Download “Wake Up: 21 Sips to Energize Your Soul”

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There is no LIVE YM Talk on January 2, but we are definitely looking forward to a great conversation on January 9. Dale Tadlock, a youth ministry veteran for over 20 years, will lead us in a discussion about achieving longevity in youth ministry. Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

Freebie Friday #105: Youth Bible lesson on the Great Commission and Online Missions Trip

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 06:15:26 +0000

Last Sunday night I kicked off my youth group’s pre-trip training for the Online Missions Trip by talking about, “What is the Great Commission and how does it relate to me?” Greg Stier has a good outline for the talk in his book, “You’re Next: Leader’s Guide,” which I heavily borrowed from and tweaked for my own group. With his permission, I’m sharing my revised copy of his lesson with you guys.

It works as a perfect introduction to the Online Missions Trip. Or, even if you’re not participating in the Online Missions Trip, feel free to tweak it for a good discussion about the Great Commission, evangelism, and sharing Christ with unbelievers.

How to use it
The format of this lesson is structured for my high school large-group meeting. Due to our size, I start by telling kids to sit in groups of 3 or 4 around the room and designate one person to be the group leader. Each group leader gets a copy of the “Small Group Discussions” sheet and is expected to lead the discussion in their small group. The format then switches back and forth between me teaching for a couple minutes and them talking in their groups. If your group is small enough, you may just want to have the discussions as an entire group.

The music video I used
In this lesson I used the music video “Savin’ Me” by Nickelback. It’s a powerful message by a group of unbelievers saying, “Heaven’s gates won’t open up for me… say it if it’s worth saving me.” Although I’m not sure how legal it is, I downloaded an HD version of the music video here since iTunes won’t let put their copy on a DVD. Download at your own risk.

Download “What is the Great Commission?” youth Bible lesson

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There is no LIVE YM Talk on December 26 or January 2, but we are definitely looking forward to a great conversation on January 9. Dale Tadlock, a youth ministry veteran for over 20 years, will lead us in a discussion about achieving longevity in youth ministry. Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

Freebie Friday #104: Christmas countdown timer

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 06:15:44 +0000

If you use countdown timers at youth meetings or in church services, 4ThoughtMedia.com is giving away a free Christmas “red snow” countdown to use during the Christmas season. It’s available as both a MPEG1 or QuickTime format, so whether you’re a Windows user or a Mac dude, you’re set!

Get Christmas red snow countdown

Today’s LIVE YM Talk is going to be excellent! Kevin Twombly will lead us in a discussion about qualities that grow a youth ministry. He’s been in the same youth ministry for over a decade, starting from nothing and building it to a strong and vibrant ministry that impacts teens all over his community. We’d love to have you call in and join us (it’s free, of course). Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

Freebie Friday #103: Youth lesson – Burn Us Up

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:48:37 +0000

R. Travis Crocker is the Student Family Minister at Beaufort First Baptist Church. Last month I came across his free youth group Bible lesson and thought it was decent enough to share with you all. It looks at some examples of faith in scripture and then challenges teens to model it in their lives. Get the full lesson for free from his site.

Burn Us Up youth Bible lesson

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There is actually a LIVE YM Talk today! Woo hoo! A youth worker requested that we talk about how to respond to flippant teens. We’d love to have you call in and join us (it’s free, of course). Info on the LIVE YM Talk page.

Freebie Friday #102: Thanksgiving word jumble PowerPoint game

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:20:37 +0000

I know this freebie is a bit out of order for the season, but better late than never, right? Besides, who said we can only be thankful at one time the year? Bust out this game to remind kids that thankfulness is an attitude we carry throughout the year!

Thanks to Nick Kmoch, the Middle School Director at North Iowa Youth For Christ, for submitting this freebie for you all! It’s a PowerPoint game that jumbles the letters from Thanksgiving words and challenges kids to figure out what the original word is.

Download Thanksgiving Word Jumble PowerPoint game

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There is NO LIVE YM Talk today. However, we will resume next week, December 12, with a requested conversation about “How to respond to flippant teens.”

Freebie Friday #101: Bringing others to Christ lesson

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:12:28 +0000

Russ Bowlin, author of Observations & Devotions, is a youth director at Williams Memorial UMC in Texarkana, Texas, and again donates a some quality lesson material for you guys to use in your small groups a Bible study classes.

This lesson focuses on the importance of actively bringing others to Christ. It’s perfect for the youth group that struggles to welcome outsiders. It helps put that responsibility in the hands of the youth. If your group is very clique-ish and you feel you need to confront them, this lesson might help give you a starting point for that discussion.

Download “Bringing Others to Christ” lesson

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There is NO LIVE YM Talk today. Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday with your families. There is also no LIVE YM Talk schedule for next week, December 5.

Freebie Friday #100: Simpy YM curriculum download, YouthBytes DVD set giveaway

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:05:00 +0000

Wow, #100 is here! When I started Freebie Friday 100 weeks ago, I had no idea it would go this far or bless this number of people. Amazing.

This week we have two freebies: a download for everyone from Simply Youth Ministry, and a DVD curriculum set from YouthBytes.

“Hooked” from Simply Youth Ministry

Hooked is a 4-week lesson series from Doug Fields and Simply Youth Ministry that deals with temptation, accountability, and breaking from the cycle of habitual sin. It includes:

MP3s of each of the four messages
Transcripts and outlines of each message
Outlines in PowerPoint with additional backgrounds
Promotional ecard, postcard, poster, and desktop background
4 all-new PowerPoint trivia games
Hooked-themed countdown
Hooked-themed motion background
Hooked-themed motion intro movie
4 drama scripts that enhance each message
Audio commentary on the series by Doug Fields
BONUS: HTML site to promote the series online

This is a $35 value that Simply Youth Ministry is giving away exclusively to Life In Student Ministry readers for 4 DAYS ONLY! This download link expires Monday, November 24, 2008, at 11:59 PM so get it now.

See more about Hooked, including a video review by Joshua Griffin, on it’s official page at Simply Youth Ministry.

Download no longer available.

I’d appreciate it if you guys would post a link to this youth ministry resource giveaway on your blogs, message it to your friends in Facebook, spread it on Twitter, email to your ministry contacts, etc., so as many people as possible can be blessed by the curriculum giveaway from Simply YM for this short period of time.

20 DVD set from YouthBytes

We use YouthBytes in my ministry on Sunday mornings with both jr. high and sr. high classes. Each video is very well done, has a lot of flexibility, communicates Biblical truth very clearly, and sparks great discussions among our teenagers. I highly recommend them!

YouthBytes is giving away a 20 DVD set of video curriculum (40 episodes, $400 value) to one Life In Student Ministry reader.

To win, comment two things below:

1. What do you like best about Life In Student Ministry? How has it blessed your ministry?
2. A suggestion for how this site can improve in some way. How can it bless you even further? A new feature to add? Maybe a current feature that you don’t find particularly beneficial?

Next Friday, November 28, 2008, I will randomly generate a number at random.org and count that many comments down from the top. That person will be the winner! (Must comment with a valid email address.) I’ll also post a comment below announcing the winner 7 days from today.

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Join our LIVE YM Talk today at 2:00 PM EST! We’re talking about if youth events are still working. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone!

Freebie Friday #99: Video of The Skit Guys performing The Chair

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:10:53 +0000

This week’s resource is a bit of encouragement from The Skit Guys, not just for you, but for all the youth workers on your team. This skit really comes from their heart for adults who serve teenagers. On the original DVD where I got this video, The Skit Guys encourage us to copy and distribute this video to other youth workers, so feel free to spread it. Download the original file below, burn it to DVD, and give a copy to each of the adult youth leaders on your team. Tell each one how much you appreciate them and remind them of the tremendous Kingdom impact their dedication is having.

Skit Guys – The Chair from rockinyp on Vimeo.

Download the original video file of The Skit Guys performing “The Chair”

Or download it in iTunes

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Join our LIVE YM Talk today at 2:00 PM EST! The topic is pretty loose and will NOT be recorded as we share, off the record, about our struggles in youth ministry. Come talk with other youth workers, vent if you need to, share your struggles and seek advice and wisdom from others who have been where you are. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone!

Freebie Friday #98: “Wii > Mii” 4-week youth Bible study series

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:33:48 +0000

Dustin Wilson graciously provides this week’s Freebie Friday.

He wrote a youth Bible lesson series with a very creative name: “Wii > Mii.” This is a 4 week series on our relationship with God and others.

Week 1: True Friendship – 1 Samuel 18:1-4 (Jonathan and David)
Week 2: We Need God – We can’t save ourselves – Eph. 2:8-9 also John 15:13
Week 3: Come Together – Part 1 (Teamwork) – 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 – The body of Christ
Week 4: Come Together – Part 2 (The same Goal). (Nehemiah 3)

Download Wii > Mii youth Bible study series

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Join our LIVE YM Talk today at 2:00 PM EST! The topic is, “Working with Sr. Pastors.” Tony Myles will be our featured guest. After spending many years in youth ministry and now serving as a sr. pastor himself, he will speak candidly from both perspectives. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone!

Freebie Friday #97: Coupon for free video download from BlueFish.tv

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:15:51 +0000

Although originally posted at YouthMinistryIdeas.net earlier this month, I have permission from both BlueFishTV.com and Steve Blanchard to share with you this special coupon code for a free video download. Choose from a variety of different $1.99 videos that illustrate Biblical truths and concepts that you can use in your teaching at BlueFishTV.com. Then use the coupon code BF199 at checkout to get the video absolutely free. Cool! Thanks Steve and BlueFishTV.com!

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Join our LIVE YM Talk today at 2:00 PM EST! The topic is, “Planning a meaningful youth event.” Terrace Crawford will be our featured guest teaching us how to plan, coordinate, market, and even team up with other ministries to pull off meaningful youth events. He’s done many big events both for ministries and radio stations and has a lot of experience and ideas that will be beneficial to us. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone!

Freebie Friday #96: “Seeking God” youth group bible study lesson

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 05:15:01 +0000

Russ Bowlin is the youth director at Williams Memorial UMC in Texarkana, Texas. He wrote a youth Bible lesson on “Seeking God” and send it to me to freely share with all of you. The candy theme fits well with this time of year. Thanks, Russ!

The game
Before Sunday, hide candy in the youth area. Explain that the game today is going to be a little bit like and Easter egg hunt. The only differences being that the candy isn’t in eggs. Each youth should be given a bag and instructed that they have approximately 3 minutes to find all the candy. Then turn them loose and chaos will probably ensue. After the hunt is over, split into groups and begin the discussion about the game and scriptures.

Debriefing the game

Did you help anyone else get candy? Why or why not?
Was this activity fair?
Did you get enough candy? (Hopefully they’ll say no and set up our discussion of scripture!)

Scriptures & Discussion Questions
Proverbs 2: 1-6

Who wrote the book of Proverbs? (Most scholars agree it was Solomon, with some other contributors in the later chapters)
What do we know about Solomon? (rich, king, wise)
Is wisdom acquired, or is it just something we have or don’t have?
Why should we seek wisdom just like we seek riches? What does he mean when he says that wisdom will help us to understand the fear of the Lord and knowledge of God?

Matthew 6:19-24

Why should we “store up treasures in heaven”? How can we do this? (It’s not just by giving to the church, but by being obedient to God in everything we do)
Why does he talk about the eye? (The eye is one of our biggest challenges when trying to stay focused on God. We see so many other things that we “need” and “want” that it makes it difficult to see what God desires) Being clouded by our own ambition and wants keeps us from seeing God’s will in all situations, a bad eye is one that is focused on personal, worldly gain.
Do you think it’s possible to “serve [the] two masters” of money and God? What problem does this present to Christians today?

Acts 4: 32-37

While this is not an example of how churches are supposed to work, it does offer some insight into the importance of unity in a church. What are some other ways that churches show unity?
In verse 36 Joseph (aka Barnabas) is mentioned. Where else do we hear about Barnabas? (Acts 13- He accompanies Paul on his first missionary journey). What does this tell you about the role of laypersons in the church?

Hebrews 10: 32-34

Do you remember your early days? When you were bold and confident in your faith?
This section addresses perseverance and includes Heb. 10:25 (one of my favorite verses) which addresses the necessity of having a church family to support you and not trying to be an island. How does verse 34 encourage community?
What are the “better and lasting possessions” that Paul refers to at the end of verse 34?

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Join our LIVE YM Talk today at 2:00 PM EST! The topic is, “Using media like film, music, and photography in teaching.” Michael Rothermel is a teenager himself and will teach us how to communicate more effectively with his peers. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone!

Freebie Friday #95: Video devos and sky PowerPoint backgrounds

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:24:09 +0000

VIDEO DEVOTIONALS
Last week I told you about a video curriculum called YouthBytes. I’m actually ditching our current curriculum for our jr. highers on Sunday mornings (Group’s Jr. High Grapple) and am gonna use this instead. Chad Daniel, host of YouthBytes, goes into more depth and creates videos that seem to promote a better follow-up discussion.

Since each lesson comes with a 1-minute summary version, I decided to include it in my youth group’s announcement video/podcast as a devotional and a promo for what’s coming up.

If you’d like to use some of YouthBytes’s 1-minute videos as devotional thoughts for your kids during the week in your email udpates, website, Facebook messages, whatever, just this week they added a lot of the videos to YouTube where you can access them for free.

YouthBytes video channel on YouTube

SKY POWERPOINT BACKGROUNDS
Once again, Russell Martin of Fork In The Road Music, is donating a great resource for Freebie Friday. This week he’s contributing a zip file of 15 sky photos he took. Combine this with my tutorial on how to turn digitial pictures into PowerPoint backgrounds with PhotoShop and you should have some great worshipful imagery for your church and youth group.

Download the sky image for PowerPoint

FREE WORSHIP SONG DOWNLOAD
Also noteworthy is that Russell has another free worship song download available on his site. Contact him through his site if you want the chord charts, too. He’ll gladly send them your way.

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Join our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation today at 2:00 PM EST! The topic is, “How to minister to parents of unchurched kids in our youth groups.” Chris Day has a lot of unique experience in this, so he will lead our discussion. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone!

Freebie Friday #94: Ministry Mutiny discussion guide

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:21:38 +0000

Several weeks ago I told you all about a book every youth worker must read: Ministry Mutiny, by Greg Stier. You will find that Greg lays out all the struggles and frustrations you have in ministry, including the ones you’ve felt but never identified, and then gives a plan for how we should shape our ministries. Here’s the full review.

Ministry Mutiny is a required text for those in the Youth Ministry Mentorship program because it has so many critical insights for new youth workers (of things to avoid) and for veteran youth workers (of things to change). I put together a discussion guide for the mentor team to use as they go through the book with their mentees and am now making it freely available for you.

The Ministry Mutiny discussion guide goes through each chapter in the book, asking tough questions about the ideas and principles mentioned, along with self-reflective evaluations of our own lives in ministry. Dare 2 Share may distribute this guide with Ministry Mutiny in a forthcoming second revision, but for now you can grab it free right here:

Download the Ministry Mutiny discussion guide

[ Ministry Mutiny on Amazon ]

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There is NO LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation today! Instead, I’m at the National Youth Workers Convention in Sacramento, CA, liveblogging the event. Go to http://www.nywc.com/live to follow the play-by-play of thoughts, ideas, videos, pictures, and more of what’s happening at the conference.

Freebie Friday #93: PowerPoint praise songs AND Engage Journal

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:01:58 +0000

I have two freebies for you guys this week! The first one is a listing of lots of worship praise songs in PowerPoint. If you’re like me, I usually type up the lyrics in PowerPoint but never bother to save it because “it’ll be a long time before we sing these songs again.” However, only a couple weeks later I’m like, “Ugh, I need that song again!” So, maybe this will save me some time, and you too! The slides are plain in black and white, which is good if you like it simple and also good so it’s easy to apply your own formatting. See a listing of free worship song PowerPoints here:

PowerPoint worship songs directory

The other freebie for today is from CYPU (Center for Parent/Youth Understanding). They’re giving away the latest quarterly edition of their youth culture journal, ENGAGE. You can download/read/print it out by clicking on the link below

This quarterly edition of ENGAGE

CYPU is in the process of evaluating the content and delivery of ENGAGE. Give it a read and then give them some helpful feedback in the CPYU Facebook group.

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Join our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation today at 2:00 PM EST! The topic is, “Dealing with the demands of extra-curricular activities and how it effects our youth ministries.” Brian Ford recently wrote an article on this matter that circulated the Internet for a while, so he will lead our discussion. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone!

Freebie Friday #92: Free “Essential Church” ebook download

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:10:37 +0000

Why do so many young adults (18 to 22) leave the church, and what will it take to bring them back? This important question is examined and duly answered in Essential Church?: Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts, a follow-up to Thom S. Rainer’s best-selling Simple Church cowritten this time with his son, research expert Sam Rainer.

The book is based on a study of one-thousand so-called “church dropouts” who were interviewed about why they left. Their answers are quite surprising, having less to do with “losing their religion” and more about the desire for a community that isn’t made stale by simply maintaining the status quo.

That’s a summary of the new book, Essential Church. Looks like a must-read for youth workers. Fortunately, you can download the book in it’s entirety for FREE right now if you’re willing to give away your email address. I’ve never read a 278-page book on a computer before and I’m not sure I will with this one either, but at least it was good to skim through the book and decide that I should probably buy a paper copy on Amazon sometime.

Download the book “Essential Church” for FREE!

[ ht Terrace Crawford ]

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Join our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation today at 2:00 PM EST! The topic is, “Building community with teens online to enhance community at youth group.” Adam McLane, the online community guy for Youth Specialties, will be our featured guest. He has a lot of good information prepared for our discussion. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone!

Freebie Friday #91: See You At The Pole training guide

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:04:10 +0000

See You At The Pole is coming up this Wednesday for the U.S. and Canada! Bill Allison of Cadre Ministries is giving away a free PDF training guide to help you prepare students for the event. His blog post also gives you seven tips for doing training successfully. It’s quality material!

Get the See You At The Pole training PDF here.

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Join our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation today at 2:00 PM EST! The topic is, “Helping teenagers lead their peers in worship.” Russell Martin, a former youth director, now worship director, will be our featured guest on the topic. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone.

Freebie Friday #90: Six youth ministry training videos

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:02:10 +0000

Last month the youth worker network in my community hosted a training conference for all of our adult youth leaders and anyone else in our surrounding community that wanted to attend. We had a blast and learned a lot. We’ll be doing it again next year.

The featured speaker was Jeremy Hughey, the Deep & Wide Coach at Dare 2 Share Ministries. He spoke for two sessions to teach us what Deep & Wide ministry strategy is and ideas for what that should look like in our youth groups.

Since the other guys our youth worker network share the same heart I do to train leaders, we video recorded most of the seminars, including Jeremy’s, so we can make the training freely available to other youth workers around the world who might not otherwise have the money or resources to travel someplace to get it.

These are the seminars available:

Deep & Wide: Session 1
Deep & Wide: Session 2
How to lead a small group
Answering the tough questions
Using music in youth ministry
Panel discussion on teen issues

You can find detailed descriptions of each seminar here.

All the youth ministry training videos are available to view and download on our Allies website. I pray they encourage and bless your ministry.

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Join our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation today at 2:00 PM EST! The topic is, “Working with students who suffer from depression and eating disorders.” Dave Huizing, a Christian counselor from Word of Life in New York, has a lot of experience in this area and will be joining the conversation to train us on this topic. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone.

Freebie Friday #89: Guide for students who are exploring full-time ministry

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:30:36 +0000

Back in July I featured Steve Quatro in our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation where he gave us ideas for encouraging teenagers to consider ministry as a full-time career. He gave lots of insights about the need for this generation to start becoming pastors, especially before the baby boomer generation retires and leaves a lot of holes in our churches. Listen to that conversation here.

As the director of the Kern Center for Vocational Ministry, Steve has been working hard to put together a Biblical study designed to help high school or young college students who are exploring a call to vocational ministry.

This study is a self discovery tool that will help students better discern and clarify a sense of calling into vocational pastoral ministry. The study consists of six sessions, which can be completed either individually or in conjunction with a mentor, although the latter is highly recommended over the former.

The 6 sessions answer these questions:

Session 1: Do I Have A Foundation?
Session 2: Can I See The Need?
Session 3: How Has God Gifted Me?
Session 4: How Has God Prepared Me?
Session 5: Do I Sense God’s Calling?
Session 6: Will I Take The Next Step?

Each session includes a lot of scripture, teaches principles found therein, asks self-evaluative questions, and helps the reader reach conclusions regarding the session’s topic.

Thankfully, Steve is willing to send the PDF free of charge to any pastors who need it. He only asks two things:

That you have at least one student in mind who you think may be considering pastoral ministry as a vocation.
That you or the student give him feedback on the guide when you are done.

If you meet these two requests, email Steve at squatro@apu.edu and simply ask for the “Who’s Calling You?” guide. He’ll gladly send it your way.

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Join our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation today at 2:00 PM EST! The topic is, “Evaluating the spiritual depth of our youth ministries.” Of course, we also want to discuss your questions and any advice or ideas you need from other youth workers. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone.

Freebie Friday #88: Discussion about “living a show” at church

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:30:14 +0000

Russell Bowlin is the youth director at my father-in-law’s church in Texarkana, TX. While my wife and I were visiting them a couple weeks ago, we hang out at their youth meetings. Russell led a significant discussion on how we live our lives as a show at church and youth group but outside in “real life” we live lives that are often completely void of God. (Tip: If you haven’t read Malachi from The Message yet, you need to! I dare anyone to just read that short little book in front of your congregation and then sit down. You’ll probably lose your job because it hits so close to home.)

Russell took Jon Foreman’s song (lead singer of Switchfoot), “Instead of a Show,” played the song for the teens with the lyrics overhead, and then lead the discussion. (Grab the song here in iTunes.”)

Here’s a copy of Russell’s notes:

1. Listen to “Instead of a Show” by Jon Foreman. If possible, use power point or some kind of media to project words. The power point I made has a slide for each of the lines in the song. This may seem odd or excessive, but I find that it helps to keep people focused on listening to the message of the song, instead of reading ahead. I also chose to have a plain black background with white letters in an attempt to make sure the focus is on the message, not the cool design, etc.

2. Open up with some discussion starters/clarifying questions

Who is speaking in the song? Or, who is “I” referring to in the song?
Who is God (“I”) speaking to?
How did the song make you feel?
What do you think “a show” is referring to?
Does the problem come from the way we worship, or could it be that the problem is that the rest of our lives don’t always line up with the way we worship?
Does God “need” us to worship?
What does God desire from the church/Christians?
Do you think that this song is speaking to a problem in the church today?

3. Use some scriptures

The song comes from Isaiah 1:11-18
Sections of Amos 5 have some striking similarities to the Isaiah passage.
Matthew 6:1-8 Jesus talks about “shows” of religion
Titus 3:3-8 We did not earn salvation, but we are commanded to do good

This can be a powerful discussion or Bible study as youth and adults explore the difference between going to church and living a life for Christ. Here’s a guest blog entry he wrote for worship leaders based on this song.

See the song’s lyrics here.

Download the lyrics to “Instead of a show” in PowerPoint

CONTRIBUTE TO FREEBIE FRIDAY: If you’ve benefited from others who have freely shared their youth ministry resources online, consider giving back to the community by sharing your own materials here. Send me your donations for review and if I publish them in a Freebie Friday, you’ll receive full credit, a link, lots of gratitude and a warm feeling inside that comes from sharing with others.

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Been in youth ministry for 2 years or fewer? Life In Student Ministry has an outstanding team of youth ministry veterans waiting to mentor you one-on-one! [Mentorship made free for you thanks to YouthBytes video curriculum.]

Freebie Friday #87: 16 weeks of ready-to-go youth group meetings

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:26:12 +0000

Thanks to Trazy Richter of Home Acres Church in Kentwood, MI, for donating a boatload of ready-to-go youth group meetings! She pretty much has your youth meetings covered from now until Christmas! Each lesson includes:

Game ideas
Group activities
Material/supply list
Bible lesson/discussion talk-sheet
And a nicely laid-out, timed agenda.

Here’s a list of the topics:

Week 1: Finding meaning in life
Week 2: Who is God?
Week 3: Who is Jesus?
Week 4: Who is the Holy Spirit?
Week 5: Righteousness of God
Week 6: Promises of God
Week 7: Love
Week 8: Friendship
Week 9: Family
Week 10: Silence
Week 11: Service
Week 12: Death and Dying
Week 13: Our enemies
Week 14: Salvation
Week 15: Identity in Christ
Week 16: Being a disciple of Christ

Download the 16 weeks of ready-to-go youth group meetings

Freebie Friday #86: “Just Going Out” dating lesson

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:30:43 +0000

The other day I was catching up with ministry resources people had posted at PlugRug.com and came across this great one from Chris Bowditch, the youth minister at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Australia. He posted a lesson called, “Just Going Out? Issues of Dating,” where he tackles topics like:

Purity
True love
Who to go out with
How to behave physically, socially, and spiritually
Establishing accountability in your dating relationships
And more

Of course, you’ll want to tailor the lesson to the values and experiences you hold from scripture, but it still makes for a great skeleton of what to talk with your teenagers about and a springboard for starting those conversations.

Just Going Out? Issues of Dating [ via PlugRug ]

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Freebie Friday #147: “Porn Again Christian” free ebook

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Freebie Friday #146: “Tear down the walls of the youth room” ebook

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Freebie Friday #145: Motion background for PowerPoint, MediaShout, or Keynote

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Freebie Friday #144: Outlines for 4 youth leader training meetings

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Freebie Friday #143: A free Twitter-themed youth group newsletter template

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Freebie Friday #142: B90X intense Bible reading workout

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Freebie Friday #141: “Savvy Youth Ministry” YLO book

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Freebie Friday #140: The 31 Day Challenge

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Freebie Friday #139: Bible memory verse tracking sheet

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Freebie Friday #138: Instrumental Reflections mp3 downloads

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Freebie Friday #137: Teaching illustration video on trusting God

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Freebie Friday #136: 21-day devotional through John for teens

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Freebie Friday #135: Salt and Light Prayer Stations package

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Freebie Friday #134: Free dramas and skits for youth groups

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Freebie Friday #133: Rockin Road Tunes music CD

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Freebie Friday #132: Audiobook download of “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan

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Freebie Friday #131: Loads of freebies at Simply Youth Ministry

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Freebie Friday #130: Meditative prayer exercise with a rock