Comments on: Open the lines of youth group communication

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:33:04 +0000

You could google "Operator Sue," it's more like a mobile chat room that could help keep everyone all on the same page.

By: Callie

Callie — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:43:32 +0000

I would check out www. blastogo.com for text blasting…its free and easy and we’ve had some youth groups and prayer groups trying it out!

By: TXT / Text Messaging Communication Tools? - The Worship Community Forums

TXT / Text Messaging Communication Tools? - The Worship Community Forums — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:13:52 +0000

[...] can do. Plus, from reading another article on that guy’s site, they give ministries a discount. http://www.studentministry.org/2007/02/02/op…communication/ Thanks a bunch for your help. __________________ Be Awesome for God! Chris Moncus [...]

By: Sending youth group announcements as mass text messages (on virb.com)

Sending youth group announcements as mass text messages (on virb.com) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:39:30 +0000

[...] course, if you have a smaller group you can follow Matt’s instructions for sending mass text messages for free, but it requires a lot more footwork and I’ve found it isn’t as clean or [...]

By: George Morales

George Morales — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:56:26 +0000

How about getting your very own customizable bulk sms service for your youth group? MobileCause is run by devoted Christians who are making a difference in the world by equiping churches and youth groups with SMS technology to serve the cause! I’d love to share more….george@mobilecause.com
Blessings!

By: Sending youth group announcements as mass text messages » Life in student ministry

Wed, 23 May 2007 15:43:23 +0000

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 14:28:35 +0000

Jason, those are excellent suggestions! I’ll probably end up trying both of them with my new youth group.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 05:39:27 +0000

I have noticed that if I try to send an email sms message with a bunch of snumbers it gets kicked out by the verizon gateway, so I use this program called groupmail 5 here and it will mail an individeal email message to each member. Here's a tip, when you're creating you list, I added a collumn for extra data. I've used that extra collumn to mail merge in how much each kid owes for their t-shirt order or what not, and that way each teen can get a txt message with their own name and personalized information. As far a postcards go, we had a "Big Game" party (Go Colts) and what I do for postcards is create the post card then send it to walmart, and have them print them as photos. They look awesome and can be mailed. You could make personalized postcards from pictures from events or trips.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 05:42:39 +0000

I saw a good article today at http://www.teenlifeministries.com about setting up autoresponders for visitor follow-up. The day a guest visits your group add them to your autoresponder. Your preloaded messages could be:

Day 1: Thanks for stopping to meet with us.
Day 3: Do you have any questions about the group or ministry?
Day 5: Here’s a list of our bible study courses if you’re interested
Day 6: See you again tomorrow?

You add their name once and they get the message automatically. Cool idea.

By: CBQ

CBQ — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 20:30:52 +0000

I am a postcard queen. I like postcards because: they are easily seen in the mail because i use bright colored cardstock, parents and youth get the same info, and they can easily be clipped to a calendar or posted on a fridge.

I like the phone blitz idea though…gonna have to use that!

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 00:10:01 +0000

Gregg, this brings up a question that’s always gone back and forth in my mind. I feel that students are quite capable of keeping up with what’s important to them — TV shows, athletic schedules, extracurricular activities, parties, etc. — and they don’t need us to remind them about youth group every week. So what’s the balance between begging kids to come and just informing them about what’s going on?

In my current youth ministry I reserve phone calls for personal contact and communication from their small group leaders, as in my wife’s example above. Not sure how it’ll work in Minnesota, but since it’s a larger group your suggestion may be very helpful. Thanks!

By: Dana

Dana — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 23:11:33 +0000

I like that idea Greg. I know a lot of kids like the personal invitations to come to youth. They want to feel like someone wants them there. When I came on as youth intern for a summer at a church my goal was to connect with all the students who were the age to come to youth group. I had kids coming who people didn’t even know where part of the church. All it took was time to personally call and talk to them and invite them.

By: Gregg

Gregg — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 20:42:33 +0000

Great ideas guys. Another thing we have been doing is a phone blitz. We get about 4-6 kids to come to the office and give them each 1/4 to 1/6 of the list of students we have with their phone number and parents name. Also we give them a talk sheet to tell them what to say. It works great getting invites out or just a reminder for something. I’ve had it work so good sometimes that we have had 50% increase on attendence at an event or normal service. You can give the kids the list to take home to call but it’s not as effective because they usually only call part of the list.

By: James Tippins

James Tippins — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 02:11:30 +0000

Tim,

This is a great article. It will help many people not only transition, but stay focused currently in their ministry by connecting to teens.

I announced my plans to move to a pastorate last week and some of these will come in handy if I leave the area. My prayers are with you.

James Tippins

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 22:08:40 +0000

That’s great, Matt! Thanks! I knew you could send text messages via e-mail like that because I sometimes text myself e-mail notes of things I need to remember at home. Using the idea as an e-mail list is a great idea. Finding out what network every student uses might take a while, but fortunately they don’t switch phone numbers and service providers every other week like they do e-mail addresses and AIM screen names.

The thing about text messaging is that people tend to respond right away, unlike e-mail. So, if I send out over 200 text messages by e-mail, that’s a lot of short little responses over the next couple minutes to keep up with! :)

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 21:58:31 +0000

For sending text messages, you can simply use email on pretty much any network. Check out this link for how to configure emails for different service providers. All you do is type the 10-digit phone number @ the carrier’s domain name and viola! For example, a kid with Verizon with the phone number 012-345-6789 would be 0123456789@vtext.com. Obviously, it’s simple to create a massive and quick email list dedicated for text messaging using this method.