Archive for July, 2006 Page 2 of 5

Simply Remixed




Quicktime Movie; Windows Media

This is the first video post in a while, I know. I think you’ll enjoy this remix of the Simply Youth Ministry podcast, though. We had fun making it. Be sure to check out their weekly podcast/video podcast. You can also subscribe in iTunes.

Related links: ccmixter (free usable audio)

Tips For Using Media in Worship

Midnight Oil Productions has posted a great article about using media in worship called Expanding the Pallette: 18 Ways to Use Media in Worship. I especially liked their tips on using video in worship. Some of their ideas include:

  • When using announcement videos, always follow up with a “live” announcement as well. Using multiple media for the message is much more effective.
  • With a little practice, adding simultaneous audio and video to a sermon can create a powerful, emotional moment.
  • “Drama can be a very effective way to share the message in a different creative form. While many churches don’t have a budget large enough to build elaborate sets, most have screens now. Rather than relying on physical sets alone, consider creating a video intro to your drama.” I especially liked their example of this…read the article!
  • “One of the keys to worship that connects to the digital culture is moving away from a linear format where one element ends, then another begins, often after an excruciating 20-30 second pause in which whatever awareness of the Holy Spirit the congregation has is lost. More tightly connected worship flows create the sense of one seamless worship experience. One of the best ways to achieve this is by overlapping elements and using visual imagery to fill gaps. Fifteen to thirty second videos and animations can bridge from one element to another, creating a smooth worship experience.”

Their whole site is full of ideas and tips, and they also have some tutorials to help you design better graphics and ideas for ministry. Check them out, and be sure to read through their reading section. They have a lot of thoughts and tips on media in ministry.

Seminary Offers Free Youth Ministry Course Online

Have you ever wished you could take a seminary course on youth ministry? Do you wish you could send your volunteers to a seminary class? Well, now you can. Covenant Theological Seminary has made a youth ministry course available for free download.

The course materials include MP3 recordings of the class lectures as well as PDF files of the study guide, and the topics include Developing a Vision Statement, Building a Ministry Team, Developing Listening Skills, and others.

The best part is that it is freely available under a Creative Commons license. This means you can download it, use the information for your own ministry, and give it away to other people for free, as long as you license it under the same kind of license and credit the original source.

The free youth ministry course is part of Covenant Worldwide, a ministry of the Covenant Seminary that makes 20 courses available online for free.

Text Messaging on the Rise


As if you didn’t already know, text messaging is on the rise with young people. But this news article has some interesting thoughts about the subject and is worth checking out. Some of the things I like that are in the article are:

“In this world of instant gratification, e-mail has become the new snail mail,” says 25-year-old Rachel Quizon from Norwalk, California.

When immediacy is a factor, as it often is, most young people much prefer the telephone or instant messaging for everything from casual to heart-to-heart conversations, according to research from the Pew Internet&American Life Project.

“Adults who learn to use IM later have major difficulty talking to more than two people at one time _ whereas the teens who grew up on it have no problem talking to a bazillion people at once,”Boyd says.”They understand how to negotiate the interruptions a lot better.”

“Nine to 5 has been replaced with’Give me a deadline and I will meet your deadline,’”Kirah says of young people’s work habits.”They’re saying’I might work until 2 a.m. that night. But I will do it all on my terms.’”

Some implications for youth ministry from this new trend is that young people are better at multi-tasking. If we need to contact them, we should know how to text message them. They are more likely to respond to a text message than to an email, making this an even more “personal” way of connecting with them. Maybe we should start sending text messages to our students to see how their day went. That’s where they’re living now, anyway.

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