One Minute Bible Sale over at Simply
Hey everyone, getting students to start reading the Bible is always an uphill battle. I noticed that over at Simply Youth Ministry today they are having some kind of big sale on all the new editions of the One Minute Bible.
Episode 34: Photography in Ministry
Whoa! My life has been sabotaged by multiple issues (work, computer, etc.) over the past couple of weeks - still no excuse but here is the show we did on Photography in Ministry. We talk about what cameras work best, what to watch out for in posting images of students and what tools to use to get them online. Thanks to Tom and Scott for jumping in with me late at night for the show!
Picks of the Week:
Scott’s Pick: drop.io - online storage exchange points - GREAT PICK!
Tony’s Pick: Audio Books - Audible.com
Tom: Prince Caspian Insider Videos!
Episode 33: Best Practices for Weekend Programming
We have the gang back again with Tom, Scott, Matthew and myself talking about everything from eating and exercise, best practices for weekend programming and our picks of the week!
Picks of the Week:
Tom’s Pick - Six Reasons a Pastor Should Blog
Matthew’s Pick - DVD Ripper at www.aoamedia.com
Scott’s Pick - www.wetpaint.com - free wiki software for group collaboration
Tony’s Pick - SuperDuper - backup software for Macintosh Computers
Show Notes:
Simply Youth Ministry
Josh Griffin in Dubai
Rick Rolling
Rick Warren
Techcrunch sues Facebook
Google Documents
Matthew McNutt’s Biggest Loser Story
Marko’s Biggest Loser Content
Planning Center Online
John Eldridge
Focus on the Family Institute
Media Shout
Tom Roepke - Review of Planning Center Online
Managing multiple tasks is second nature to those that lead student ministry so when our Worship Pastor invited me to add a software package to our weekly endeavor I was pretty excited. Planning Center (www.planningcenteronline.com) has made numerous administrative duties light. Our church was already using it to manage our multi-site campuses with four weekend services
Planning Center has lived up to its own promotional material. It allows you to develop a matrix that can track all songs used, track and notify volunteers, and give you critical control of all aspects of the service.
The biggest and most useful part of PC is that all the information regarding a service is located in one centralized place. Since it is web based it allows all users and participants quick and easy access anywhere anytime.
I found it especially useful with our youth praise team since they are all currently students and regular face to face communication during the week is complicated. I can add the plan for the next several weeks, plan the flow, songs and get feedback from the students at their leisure. Probably the most powerful component is the scheduling feature. You are able to manage a list of volunteers, email any and all plans that they be assigned and most importantly quickly find and conflicts. This is especially useful as several of our students also serve on the adult worship team.
Planning Center has a very clean look and uses a “drag and drop” editing feature which makes it very flexible. It handles multiple plans, service times and even rehearsal times. And I found that the learning curve is very short.
Beyond the weekly youth service, I have used it to manage our community events i.e. fall kickoff, SuperBowl party, even overnights. Planning Center gives you the ability to walk through an event from start to finish, provides a record to review for post-event critique. For productivity it is an essential tool in student ministry.
[This is a guest post by Tom Roepke , one of the excellent hosts for the Who Are These Guys Podcasts}
Three Ways to Stay Healthy as a Youth Pastor on a Fast Food Diet
[This is a guest blog post by Matthew McNutt, a youth pastor in Maine and a consistent host on the Who Are These Guys Podcast.]
Okay, obviously I’ve done the fast food thing. I value-mealed my way right onto Biggest Loser! The whole “my second office is Taco Bell” line was absolutely true for me. But now I’m trying to keep myself at an appropriate weight and still eat out on a youth pastor salary … is it possible to do fast food without big time damage? Here’s a few tips for what to look for:
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Find out the calories in what you are eating! Every fast food restaurant has the nutritional information somewhere! Whether it’s in the form of a poster or just a pamphlet, they’ve got the calorie counts in print. It only takes a few moments and it can make a world of difference in what you eat - the calorie counts for similar looking items can be wildly different. If I can do a fast food meal for around 500-700 calories, I’m thrilled.
Sometimes that means simple modifications; removing the cheese and mayo from a Whopper lowers it’s calorie count by over 200 calories, and hitting the Fresco options at Taco Bell mean I can have two to three burritos for around 600 calories.
- The easiest step is to make a choice before you ever go through the door: if you want low calorie and healthy options other than a salad, then you’re not looking for Burger King. You want Subway, Baja Fresh, or some other fast food place that has the ingredients fresh and out there, ready to put together something that isn’t deep fried, or otherwise mutilated. There’s a reason why Jared lost so much weight - Subway blows away McDonald’s any day when it comes to healthier options. And while I can’t speak for your town - it’s just as popular to the teens in mine as the Burger joint.
- Finally, skip the regular soda! One 32 oz. Coke has as many calories in it as a healthy portioned adult meal! Piles of sugar! Lets be honest, we youth pastors and youth workers like to have our caffeine by the gallon, but let’s be smart about it. Do water, or at the very least Diet Soda. And yes, you can retrain your taste buds to like Diet Soda! I sure did!
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