Yesterday I wrote about why I’m abandoning outreach events and gave several reasons why “outreach campaigns” may be a more effective solution.

For several months now I’ve been planning an outreach campaign for my own youth group and am excited to have other youth groups join us! The best part is that it’s completely FREE! We’ll be going all over the world, sharing the gospel with friends both in our local neighborhoods and friends far away. It’s an online missions trip, a “missions trip to Facebook,” if you will.

The Internet has never made it so easy to share Christ with those all over the world! Teenagers spend a crazy amount of hours talking with friends on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, World of Warcraft and other such social hangouts online about things that don’t really matter in light of eternity, let’s train them to share their faith and push them to do it online. The Online Missions Trip is a 2-week campaign to empower them to use social media to share Christ with their friends who don’t yet know Him.

The structure looks like this:

January whatever-31, 2009

Pre-trip training. Use youth group meetings to train kids how to share their faith, think through the Online Missions Trip concept, and start praying for unsaved friends.

February 1-14, 2009

Online Missions Trip! During these two weeks teens and youth leaders are engaging in spiritual conversations with unsaved friends online. They’re uploading videos, photos, posting links, using status updates to share what God’s doing in their lives, writing notes, sending messages, posting on blogs, creating event invites to youth group, and anything else that will bring God up in a conversation that starts online and hopefully spreads to a face-to-face discussion.

February 15-whenever, 2009

Outreach event/series and new-believer follow-up starts. Follow-up on this missions trip with a series that helps the new teens in your ministry either investigate Christianity a bit closer or start growing in their new faith. Be sure to follow-up one-on-one with new converts, as well.

To learn more about this trip, visit OnlineMissionsTrip.com. There are many ideas, free resources and tools, a 24/7 Prayer Room, a Facebook app you can use, and more. It also has a video of me explaining the trip in more detail.

While you’re there, join the OnlineMissionsTrip.com Facebook Group and meet some of the other teens and youth leaders who will be attending this missions trip with you in February.

———————————————————————————

Thanks to YouthBytes, Dare 2 Share Ministries, and Xtreme Youth Alliance for their support, promotion, and free resources for the Online Missions Trip! Thank you Brian Ford and Michael Rothermel for all your help in creating content and tools for this missions trip that will bring teenagers to Christ! And thanks Janelle Painter for designing the Online Mission Trip logo!

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.

———————————————————————-
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!

When I first heard about YouthBytes.org I thought, “Oh no, not another video curriculum of shallow content and lame production. The youth ministry video curriculum market is already saturated with products that enable youth leaders to outsource the teaching of scripture.”

But what I appreciate about the videos from YouthBytes.org is that, not only are they MTV quality videos, but the host, Chad Daniel, actually communicates the Word. The videos are not intended to be a surrogate teacher for your kids — they’re created to spark discussion and engage teenagers’ minds on Biblical truths that you, their youth leader, can (and should) follow-up on. That’s why each episode includes a 1-minute version, a 3-minute version, a 6-minute version, even up to a 30-minute version so you can pick which works best for your group. The included leader’s guide contains ideas for icebreakers, a lesson, discussion questions, key scripture passages, and more to help you teach your kids on the subject matter covered in the video. They really do a professional and quality job with everything they produce.

When you get a chance, check out some of the video clips at YouthBytes.org. The first time I went to their site, I only intended to check out a couple clips, but I actually ended up watching all of them! They’re engaging, funny, and thought provoking. And the longer DVD versions are even better! I actually watched the episodes on the YouthBytes DVD I have twice!

I actually had no faults with YouthBytes until the second time I watched the DVD: I realized that I was so engaged with what Chad Daniel was doing the first time around that sometimes I stopped paying attention to what he was actually teaching. Instead my mind focused on things like, “Oh wow, flares strapped to tennis shoes! I so wanna try that!” or how I need to tell my wife about a funny clip that made me laugh out loud. Unfortunately, I missed some of the valuable gems of wisdom that Chad Daniel shared the first time I watched it. However, this could actually be a positive thing because it makes the replay value of the DVDs pretty high. You could watch it several times and pick up something new each time. I’ll probably use YouthBytes as discussion starters for my own Sunday morning Jr. High ministry starting in 2009.

Tips from Chad Daniel: How to improve your teaching

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to talk with Chad Daniel. Of course, YouthBytes entered the discussion and how to communicate with teens in a media-based culture, but he gave me some great tips on how to improve my teaching and communication with teenagers. Listen to this interview with him to hear his advice.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:42 — 15.6MB)

Hear it in iTunes

———————————————————————-

A HUGE thank you to YouthBytes for being the official sponsor of our Youth Ministry Mentorship program! Because of their support, every mentee received the required books for free and every mentor was blessed with a gift. Thank you, YouthBytes, for your investment into the training of new youth workers across the country!