Over the course of ministry numerous resources have provided helpful strategies for doing ministry in various ways. The list below is an ongoing attempt at resourcing the Church with some of the resources I’ve used personally or have heard that others have found useful. Special thanks to my buddy Kevin Beers for his personal attempts at making this list as extensive as it is.
{ PRINT MEDIA RESOURCES }
gotprint.com – GotPrint offers great print-deals like 500 4×6 glossy postcards for about $35 shipped!
vistaprint.com – offers print deals like 250 FREE business cards with their logo and website printed on the back. Also offers other printed materials.
clubflyers.com – Club Flyers is the home of the “famous” 5,000 4×6 postcards for $99 deal. For high-volume printing, Club Flyers is a great resource.
fontsquirrel.com – Tired of old, I-see-that-everywhere fonts? Add some of the freebie-fonts at Font Squirrel to your design-arsenal.
{ IMAGE RESOURCES }
creativemyk.com – A social network of church-media designers. Some free graphics for ministry-use as well as plenty of designs to inspire your creativity!
openresources.org – free series content (bumpers, title slides, countdowns)
sxc.hu – free stock photo exchange
stufficanuse.com – series content and .mp3s
vecteezy.com – free vector downloads (for programs like Illustrator)
123freevectors.com – Free Vector downloads
vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vectors/free-vectors – more free vectors
istockphoto.com – another stock-photo website (pay per photo)
{ VIDEO RESOURCES }
pwnyoutube.com – a no-frills site that instantly allows you to download any YouTube video by simply adding “pwn” in front of the address.
online-stopwatch.com – an online stop-watch that you can project on screen to have a visual countdown of service-starting time and/or use to know when you need to be done speaking!
worshiphousemedia.com – clearing house for all things “churchy-media”
deidox.com – well-made testimonial videos
freecountdowns.net – free countdown videos
wingclips.com – free or pay clips from popular movies for illustration purposes
ignitermedia.com – great visual resources
bluefishtv.com – great illustrative video resource site
radiatefilms.com – another online source for video-media in youth ministry
{ WEB-BASED SOFTWARE }
youversion.com – the only online Bible you’ll ever need
NEW! examen.me – an online devotional based on the ancient Lectio Divina practice of hearing from God through His word. If you’re a computer-guy/gal, this online devotional is designed for you!
scribblelive.com – an online service that allows people to “live blog” events.
polleverywhere.com – On-screen txt-polling for FREE!
tatango.com – mass-txt groups of people for FREE
google.com/reader – if you’re still bookmarking blogs and sites and reading by clicking on links, switch to RSS!
skype.com – free videoconferencing software for pc and mac
tokbox.com – web-based video conferencing software
logmein.com – remotely access and use any pc or mac
getdropbox.com – 2gb of FREE file-sharing storage for remotely accessing files.
mediaconverter.org – convert YouTube videos into usable file formats.
zamzar.com – another online converter – YouTube to .wmv, etc.
dial2do.com – free voice-to-txt service. To-do, e-mail, Twitter, etc.
animoto.com – an online slideshow maker.
polldaddy.com – online polling website – allows for polls to be embedded
evernote.com – an online organization tool to simplify your life!
jarbyco.com – interactive TXTing for a fee
wufoo.com – create online forms with ease.
pandora.com – online music player – radio-style, plays similar artists
playlist.com – create playlists of songs to play at random or in order
{ BLOGS, PODCASTS, AND WEBSITES }
human3rror.com – John Saddington, web designer for Northpoint Community Church
tonymorganlive.com – Tony Morgan, “creative solutions strategist guy” for NewSpring Church
leadingsmart.com – Tim Stevens, “executive creative guy” at Granger Community Church
daveclark.com – Dave Clark, “media pastor” at National Community Church
churchmediadesign.tv – Brad Zimmerman, weekly podcast “how to” for ministry with everything media
avclub.us – Ken Wilson, “graphics guy” at NewSpring Church
benarment.com – Ben Arment, experience and innovation director of Catalyst Conference
joshuablankenship.com – Joshua Blankenship, “artsy-web-guy” at NewSpring
collidemagazine.com – great online and print magazine
thesourcefym.com – Jonathan McKee’s website (games, articles, etc.)
simplyyouthministry.com – All things Doug Fields
morethandodgeball.com – Josh Griffin, youth pastor at Saddleback
gregatkinson.com – Greg Atkinson, Director of Technical Arts at Bent Tree Church
churchtechtalk.com – podcast dealing in church-tech
timschmoyer.com – Tim Schmoyer, youth pastor and great resource for other youth pastors
{ WEB-BASED RETAILERS }
craigslist.org – web-based classifieds by major cities.
eBay.com – still the largest and most well-known online auction
musiciansfriend.com – great online retailer for instruments and misc.
fullcompass.com – best pricing on anything lighting/sound/video
newegg.com – another tech-retailer
woot.com – a deal-a-day website, check daily for great deals
slickdeals.net – web deal forums. Subscribe and get great deals!
{ NETWORKING }
Suggestions on how to use Facebook for your youth ministry:
1. create a “page” for your ministry – students can become a “fan of” your ministry
2. create youth events and invite students via Facebook
3. consider forwarding a youth group dot-com address to your Facebook page
Twitter is the mini-updates website “everyone” is talking about.
1. get a desktop twitter-feed application: twhirl, tweedeck, etc.
2. follow youth pastors, speakers, news outlets, etc.
3. Check out tinyurl.com/6mv5un for great Twitter-tools
4. Read the Twitter For Churches e-book (twitterforchurches.com)
{ OTHER }
bookmooch.com – a free book-trading website
videolan.org/vlc/ – VLC Media Player – a media-player that plays almost every file-format (.mov, .wmv, .mpg, etc.)
cafepress.com – create pay-per-print t-shirts and other items
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Got a resource-link that you think should be here? Sent it my way – stevan{at}stevansheets.com (be sure to include a “why” it should be added to this list – how you’ve benefited from it!)
Hey ol buddy, would it be ok for me to copy this page and stick in on our district site?
do you know @whatsinthebible? http://whatsinthebible.com
It’s a great new DVD series that teaches about the Bible. They are by Phil Vischer – maker of Veggie Tales. And there will be curriculum soon to go along with them. We love 1 and 2, thought you would too!