I find that most of my youth ministry friends are using their phones for organization; in fact I have not used a paper organizer for years (from my monochrome Visor Palm device in 2000 to currently my Motorola Droid). That said I do prefer a pen and paper when it comes to brainstorming ideas, I mostly use a homemade journal or a Moleskine for creative space.  Other than blank paper here are a couple of sites that I think do a good job of offering several templates for you to use in sparking ideas or if you are just looking for free day planner inserts instead of giving Franklin Covey $50 bucks.

Pocket Mod:
Disposable organizer on one sheet of paper with multiple uses. There are dozens of options to choose. (My mother-in-law said she would use this concept as a kindergarten teacher for making little booklets).  Here are similar sites that do the same thing (www.pocketmod.com/v2 and www.pocketmod.com/app)

DIY Planner:
You can Google and find several calendar tools but this site has it all. Browse through all their “templates” and find downloads for several types of time management tools.  From 3×5 card size to full sheets. Sift through all their FREE resources.

The number one tech question I am asked is still, “How do you download a youtube clip?”  Well I have a new favorite and a Vimeo video grabber that has been great!  The youtube grabber is simple and sweet!  Just remove the “http://www.” and replace it with the word “kick” and you will be redirected to a new site where you can choose your format and download.  Here is the countdown clock I used at SYMC, click the link and try the “kick” and download it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ieR706LjrQ.

The Vimeo grabber I have been using is called Clip Nabber…Check it out clipnabber.com.

Enjoy!

If you are not familiar with Evernote, it is a clean and easy note taking software (Learn  More). It is a great way to capture and organize ideas, web pages, audio, and more.  It is a web app, desktop app (syncs beautifully), it is available for Mac and PC and most handheld devices.  But this is not a commercial for Evernote (which is FREE).  I wanted to share a few of the way I am using it that might spark ideas for you in your ministry context.

In Evernote you can create different “notebooks” to work from and store things in.  I have “notebooks” with ideas, links to youtube clips I might want to use in a lesson, series ideas.  I find this to be much better than having several documents on my computer (which are not synced with an online source) or a bunch of scattered documents in Google Docs.  It is one location to do a mind dump, and that helps me sleep at night.  (Another place to do a great mind dump is “OmniFocus” but that is a different post for another time).

One of my folders is called “CODES.” I use have tons of serial numbers for software and did not know how to keep track of them. Now they are all in one place.  I guess I could use a word doc but Evernote is searchable so I can search the word “Burning Monkey Solitaire” and the note with that serial I entered will pop up.  I cannot lock it so I guess I am a little exposed but no one uses my computer but me and to access it online you need my user name and password.

This is my favorite use for Evernote.  Back in the day my youth ministry professor challenged us to take time and write out stories from our lives.  Write down what ever we could remember…the funny, dramatic, edgy, capturing stories that have happened in our lives.  So I wrote.  I took a word document and started writing bullet points and then went back to fill in details.  I would carve out time in my schedule to remember and write. If I would be reminded of a personal story throughout the day or while others were teaching I would jot it down and add it to this list.  This Word doc with dozens of stories was hard to sift through but I would go through this list as I planned messages.  Then came Evernote! Evernote allows you to “tag” notes within notebooks.  So I created a notebook called “Stories” and I added each story as a note and then tagged the note according to topics that would fit in different messages. So I have one notebook with dozens of notes that are easily searchable by topic (through tags) and searchable by content (meaning words in the story).

For example, if I were teaching on dating, I click on my notebook and search “date” or “girls” or “purity” and all stories that I tagged with those words pop up. This has been a great asset for my teaching and planning.

Are you using Evernote differently?  Post a comment and share any of your ideas

LINK: Evernote

We are always trying to think up new games to use in our ministry.  NBC has done a great thing for youth pastors!  The new game show Minute to Win It (premiering this Sunday March 14, 2010) has between 60 and 70 doable games that can be used as youth ministry crowd breakers.

Check out the site Minute to Win It and look at the “Game Vault.” There are videos to show you how to play each game and written directions that you can copy and paste in a document, and a list of items required. This is a gold mine of game ideas!
Here’s an example of one of their videos:

There is an interesting article over at churchrelevance.com about the most popular words searched by teens.  This is good insight for youth workers.

Here’s what they deemed as “bad” in the top 100:

BAD SEARCHES FROM THE TOP 100
by boys and girls (ages 18 & under)

#4 – Sex (#4 for boys & #5 for girls)
#5 – Porn (#5 for boys & #24 for girls)
#32 – Boobs (#17 for boys)
#82 – Pussy

Here’s a little of what they found:

You can learn a lot about someone by what they search for online. These top search results paint a pretty clear psychographic picture of the priorities, preferences, and habits of online youth.

Kids and teens are obviously learning and experimenting with adult content much sooner than many parents, kids’ ministries, and youth ministries realize. As Time magazine reported early this month, 40% of adolescents have intercourse before ever talking to their parents about safe sex, birth control, or sexually transmitted diseases. Parents often dread giving their kids the sex talk(s), but studies show that kids want to learn from their parents. Instead, many kids learn about sex through friends, the Internet, and experimentation.

I find it really ironic that in the top 100 is a search on how to disable one of the more popular internet filters that many parents use thinking they are protecting their kids.

Read the article: Top 100 Kids’ Online Search Words for 2009

Original research from: OnlineFamily.Norton

There’s a lot of Christmas Freebies floating around this year.  I thought I’d let you know about some before it’s too late.

• Free Media from the Simply Youth Ministry Media Store
• Free Media from Centerline Blog
• Free Training from Cadre Connection
• iTunes Holiday Sampler
• Appvent Calendar – Free iPhone games
• Free Christmas PowerPoint Game
• Free Christmas Backgrounds
• Free Christmas Message – “The Christmas Killers”

Some of these are daily or every couple days.  Even if you missed a few of them, there’s still a lot of freebies left before Christmas.

I am always on the prowl for good leadership resources: books, dvd’s, mp3′s, etc.  When I attend a conference I often buy sessions and workshops that I could not attend at sites like these ($3.50-$30):
National Youth Ministry Conference (Now the Simply Youth Ministry Conference)
National Youth Workers Convention
Founders Week at Moody Bible

Maybe a conference is not in your budget but you still need to pause and refresh in the office by popping in a few good leadership dvd’s ($150-$200):
Willow Creek Leadership Summit
Catalyst

If you are willing to spend a little more and looking for a more versatile resource you should check out Catalyst Filter.com.  For $144 you get a one-year membership to  online content from Catalyst. You will have access to downloads, audio and video from Catalyst, and some perks (like 10% off at the apple store – that is better than the educational discount).  FILTER also includes the quarterly “Aqua Box” containing all types of resources (pre-release books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, and more).

Maybe your budget is to tight for any of the above.  There are free resources all over the web.  Here are some podcast and good online content (FREE):
blogs.efca.org/challenge
www.churchmediadesign.tv

These link will open up a podcast in iTunes (you need iTunes for these links to work)
Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast
Catalyst Podcast

Remember that many churches post their sermons for free online.  You have access to the world’s best communicators at your fingers.

The geek in me loves this.  A friend of mine and her husband are in the process of learning Argentine Sign Language.  Their long-term goal is to translate the Bible using 3D animation.  Here is a slice from an email she sent me,

“The idea is to have a stationary avatar signing the Scriptures. Up until now people have tried to use stationary 2D animations (drawings) to represent a 3D language. This is really new in the world of Bible translation and very little has been produced (almost nothing!). They/we (Wycliffle Bible Translators) are in the huge learning curve as far as the software is concerned (it’s a bit complex). Ultimately, the end user will be the deaf, so it needs to be a pretty straight forward kind of software.”

This looks amazing.  Here is link to who is doing this http://www.wordsign.org. Check out this link to see a demo of the 3d animation http://www.wordsign.org/demos.html.

Brandon

I received an amazing gift this week. Someone sent me an Amazon Kindle (click the link to watch a video)! This is one of the coolest and most useful gadgets I have seen in a long time. Chiropractors around the world are hating this because it is causing people put put less books in their backpack saving back stress.

* I can buy books form amazing (so far I have not seen anything over $9.99 that I would want)
* I can highlight a section and add a note to that section or any section and then download what I had highlighted and written…this will be great for leadership training, I can send out some great quotes and not forget where they were (because they are saved and downloadable) and I do not have to spend time typing, I just copy and past!
* I can upload a .txt document and take it on the road with me (maybe illustrations of my sermon notes and practice…I cannot change them but I can add note and highlight areas I need to give attention to) or I can use mobipocket (PC only) that converts a word DOC, PDF, HTML, etc…to a kindle file. I am not sure the difference yet but I will try and see what this software can do. I can also email files to my Kindle with that cost 10 cents…I am not sure why I would do this when I can dump a .txt file on for free…I will probably try it though to see what happens.  If the lighting is right you could even give your messages using this…go paperless!
* There are other cool features like basic web…yes, I can brows the web anywhere for FREE, not great graphics but FREE! I heard it uses the Sprint cell phone feed. I can also use it as an MP3 player, and there is a feature called NOWNOW…you send in a question and they will research it for you. Don’t let one of your students get hold of this or watch out high school term papers.

I am really excited about the future or reading with my Kindle! Thank you who ever sent this to me, it will be used often.

Brandon

I love free resources…did I even need to say that? Obviously some free
stuff is free for a reason but you still might be able to glean something
form it. Maybe there is a usable series title, or a lesson to pass off to
leader, or there could be a graphic to grab for a talk. Here are some links
to some solid finished resources and a few things to dissect for the little
nuggets. Please add links that you frequent in the comment section.

http://vineresources.com/swag
http://www.muddyrivermedia.org/
http://www.openresources.org/
http://open.lifechurch.tv/
http://www.simplyyouthministry.com/freebies.html
http://content.simplyyouthministry.com/ffa08/

http://www.crazychurch.com/

http://www.newspringonline.com/
http://www.pastor2youth.com/
http://www.thesource4ym.com/
http://www.youthministry.com/?q=freebie-library/popularity/
http://www.youthspecialties.com/freeresources/articles/
http://www.dare2share.org/
http://timschmoyer.com/category/friday-freebie/
http://studentministryresources.com/