Here’s another video from Tim Schmoyer for a session he did in the media center at the National Youth Ministry Conference last week. He talks about the tools he uses to keep the lines of communication open between him and the students and parents in his ministry.

Communicating with teens and parents throughout the week from Tim Schmoyer on Vimeo.

You may also find some helpful links on this topic on our Communcation Tools page.

What are the best tools you use?

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)

Continue Reading “Leaders are Learners”

Did you know you can text message Google for translations, flight status, addresses, stocks, movies, directions, math, and a lot more? You simply send a properly formatted text message to 46645 and it replies almost instantly with the info you requested. By properly formatted I mean generally you start with a command and then type the information you need. One of my favorite command is translation. Take a look at how that works:

I texted:
“Translate English to Spanish: I love you”

and it replied with:
“Translation
‘i love you’ in English means ‘te amo’ in Spanish.”

Pretty great! And super handy!  For a list of commands and other information you can click here, but that list is by no means exhaustive.   Just by playing with it I have discovered that it will do simple math like: “(2+2+8+4)/4″ returns the answer of 4.  Leave a comment for other “unlisted” commands you know or discover!

Here’s the video from the Blogger Panel from National Youth Ministry Conference a few weeks ago.  The panel was made up of Josh Griffin (MorethanDodgeBall.com), Tim Schmoyer (TimSchmoyer.com), Chuck Bomar (CollegeMinistryThoughts.com), and Me.  Although I was more AV support, but I managed to get a few words in.  Thanks to Tim for filming this and posting it.

Panel discussion with a few of our favorite youth ministry bloggers from Tim Schmoyer on Vimeo.

I’ve been thinking about getting a Kindle 2 for a while, in fact I was pretty sure I was going to order one this week, but I’m not so sure now.  I was traveling home from NYMC yesterday and was telling my buddy Andy, that this exactly what I wanted, and today Amazon did it.  They released an iPhone / iPod Touch app for that allows you to read any Kindle books right on your device. Some (like Andy) don’t think that the iPhone has the right screen or size for reading, well now we can decide for ourselves.  I’ve tried a number of book readers for the iPhone, but the biggest problem was always buying the content (it was really expensive) or finding a good way to get books I already had on to it.  It looks like this solves both those problems.

Here’s a video about it (it’s a little long, but gives a good overview):

Here’s my quick Pros and Cons to this:

Pro:

• I don’t have to spend $389 to get access to the kindle content, I can buy it right on my phone.
• I don’t have to carry another device, I always have my phone
• If I do get a Kindle all my [...]

  Continue Reading “New Kindle App for the iPhone”

I can’t believe this special that Amazon mp3 store is running on the new U2 album, No Line On The Horizon. It’s only $3.99. That’s crazy. The catch is it’s for today only. You only have a couple hours left so hurry up. From what I’ve heard so far, it’s definitely worth the $3.99.

MacBundleBox is doing it again.  They are offering a ton of software (14 programs to be exact) at a huge discount!  The total cost of the software purchased separately is $333.82, but for  limited time are being sold for $49.

Some of the more interesting programs are Espionage which allows you to password protect individual folders in the finder, Draw It to create and edit vector art like Adobe Illustrator, Magnet which is a special effects program that allows you to do motion tracking (think changing someone’s eyes or adding a tattoo) and other effects, and Mac Pilot that gives you a safe environment to enable and disable things that would normally require using the terminal.

O top of all these, you also get these:

Relationship
Code Collector
Cover Stream
DEVONnote
Quick Scale
Project Calculator
Transcriva
Involver
Stuf
Blog Assist

Like all of these sort of offers, it is not forever.  TUAW says that it will end on March, 12th so if you are interested, time is of the essence!

I thought it might be helpful to do a quick roundup of a couple of my favorite website creation/management tools.  These are all web-based solutions which means you sign into your site and do everything within your web browser.

The first of these solutions I ever used was Artistry Marketing’s Youth Fusion ($41/mo plus setup). This is hands down the easiest of the group. They excel in creating pretty interesting looking sites that are quick and easy to update. They also have an easy way to upload pictures.  The problem with this provider is that to make more complex page layouts or site organization design, you have to do more HTML coding than you should to accomplish the task.  However, if what you want is ease, this is it.  Another great feature is that they regionally protect your theme so that other groups in your area don’t have an identical site.

Unsatisfied with that I went to the opposite extreme with Truewell which is not around anymore.  Truewell was super-deep and focused on creating an online community.  The problem was that you paid for the depth with ease of use.

I finally settled on Snapshot Web (prices vary from$299-$699/yr plus setup)  It has gone through several iterations, and is amazing in its current form.  It’s easy to use, has extremely stylish design, and is quite affordable.  One of my favorite aspects of the tool [...]

Continue Reading “Site Creation/Management”

I don’t know how many of you out there participate in giving something up for lent, but if you are, how about Facebook.  Really, that’s just what a WallStreet Journal Report is talking about.  Here’s a bit of it:

Ms. Wentland, who is 38, recently got in touch with a guy she had last seen three decades ago when, at the age of nine, they acted in a school play together. Within the comfy confines of Facebook’s blue-and-white pages, he confided he’d once had a crush on her.

That was a total rush — until Ms. Wentland paused to ponder the point of such ephemeral connections. They were fun, yes, but they took up more time than she cared to calculate. It had been ages since she’d sat on the floor and played trains with her six-year-old son or baked cookies with her three-year-old daughter.

“I have a real life here, with children, a husband and a job. They need my attention and energy,” Ms. Wentland says.

A few months ago, she tried to limit herself to online networking once a week. Facebook Friday, she called it. “I don’t think it lasted a week,” Ms. Wentland says. “I just couldn’t do it.”

She’s hopeful that putting her renunciation of Facebook in the spiritual context of Lent will help. She plans to use some of the time she would have spent online in prayerful reflection. She’s also joined an online quitting-Facebook-for-Lent support group. [...]

Continue Reading “No Facebook for Lent?”

I know a lot of people that have been abandoning traditional cable and satellite TV services and moving all their viewing to online sources.  Some are doing it to save money, others are doing it to cut down on the amount of TV their family is consuming.  One of those who took this step was Josh Griffin from MoreThanDodgeball.com.  He posted an update on how it’s going.

Why we love it
We haven’t missed traditional TV nearly as much as we thought we might. The big win here is the money we’re not spending on the cable bill. We also don’t waste time channel surfing and we’re just watching less TV altogether. The TV is no longer the focal point of the house and life, it is a side note when we want to enjoy it. The picture quality is great, and nearly every show we do watch is available within 24 hours of the TV airdate.

Why it isn’t for everyone
I still miss a few live shows – American Idol being the big one this season. I haven’t even seen a single episode, which is hard to believe given my past. We still get football, but some special events like the Academy Awards tomorrow night won’t hit the web live. Also, certain sites work better than others – Hulu has the best interface, but ABC has the best [...]

Continue Reading “Great TV Experiment”