Do you have a technology strategy for your youth or family ministry?  Not sure what that even means?    It was just a few years ago when I was arguing for the distribution of church newsletters via e-mail and now, if you work with teens, you know that e-mail is old news.  So how do you get the word out on this week’s youth group trip to the soup kitchen in a way that gets their attention?  Here is one strategy that you might employ and it used lots of free on-line tools.

 

To begin with, do you have a facebook group for your youth ministry.  They are simple to use and set up and connect with where many youth spend a good deal of their time.  This can also aid in connecting them with positive relationships on-line.  You can use the facebook group to post comments about coming events and ideas about what could take place.  

 

To connect those of us who still use e-mail to the conversation I would recommend www.mailchimp.com.  The free basic account allows up to 2,000 e-mails on your lists and as many at 12,000 e-mails to be sent a month.  Which means if you have the full 2,000 e-mails you can send something to them every week (even in a five week month) and still have 2,000 leftover e-mails.  MailChimp is similar to Constant Contact only I find their design process to work far more flexibly and you can’t beat the price!  

 

You can link your MailChimp account to either facebook or your twitter account.  Which brings me to another question, are you tweeting yet?  In just 140 characters you can let your youth know what is going on or help connect them to your mass e-mail by sending a link via twitter (which can also be linked between facebook and twitter to provide both in one move on MailChimp).  

 

On twitter you can share a quick Bible verse from YouVersion  (an app on iPhone and Driod) or let youth know where you are by checking in on foursquare (another app on iPhone and Driod). 

 

OK so now you want to share a form that you need to get out to your group ASAP.  You have two options.  If you have formdesk and you have already created your forms on-line, just include the link in your mass e-mail.  If you done have formdesk  (or wufoo) you can always set up a quick dropbox account and load the file there.  On dropbox you can place files from your computer into an on-line folder that can either be public of private.  That way you can send the link to the printable form just as you could the formdesk on-line version.

 

Dizzy yet!?!  I know that this is a lot to digest if this is new to you.  But other than formdesk.com or wufoo.com all these can get the job done for free.  So take some time to learn how to use and integrate some of the these tech tools into your ministry and you may find them to be well worth it.  If you have questions you can always drop me an e-mail and I would be happy to fill in the gaps (david.rueter@psd-lcms.org). 

 

Do you have a technology strategy for your youth or family ministry?  Not sure what that even means?    It was just a few years ago when I was arguing for the distribution of church newsletters via e-mail and now, if you work with teens, you know that e-mail is old news.  So how do you get the word out on this week’s youth group trip to the soup kitchen in a way that gets their attention?  Here is one strategy that you might employ and it used lots of free on-line tools.

 

To begin with, do you have a facebook group for your youth ministry.  They are simple to use and set up and connect with where many youth spend a good deal of their time.  This can also aid in connecting them with positive relationships on-line.  You can use the facebook group to post comments about coming events and ideas about what could take place.  

 

To connect those of us who still use e-mail to the conversation I would recommend www.mailchimp.com.  The free basic account allows up to 2,000 e-mails on your lists and as many at 12,000 e-mails to be sent a month.  Which means if you have the full 2,000 e-mails you can send something to them every week (even in a five week month) and still have 2,000 leftover e-mails.  MailChimp is similar to Constant Contact only I find their design process to work far more flexibly and you can’t beat the price!  

 

You can link your MailChimp account to either facebook or your twitter account.  Which brings me to another question, are you tweeting yet?  In just 140 characters you can let your youth know what is going on or help connect them to your mass e-mail by sending a link via twitter (which can also be linked between facebook and twitter to provide both in one move on MailChimp).  

 

On twitter you can share a quick Bible verse from YouVersion  (an app on iPhone and Driod) or let youth know where you are by checking in on foursquare (another app on iPhone and Driod). 

 

OK so now you want to share a form that you need to get out to your group ASAP.  You have two options.  If you have formdesk and you have already created your forms on-line, just include the link in your mass e-mail.  If you done have formdesk  (or wufoo) you can always set up a quick dropbox account and load the file there.  On dropbox you can place files from your computer into an on-line folder that can either be public of private.  That way you can send the link to the printable form just as you could the formdesk on-line version.

 

Dizzy yet!?!  I know that this is a lot to digest if this is new to you.  But other than formdesk.com or wufoo.com all these can get the job done for free.  So take some time to learn how to use and integrate some of the these tech tools into your ministry and you may find them to be well worth it.  If you have questions you can always drop me an e-mail and I would be happy to fill in the gaps (david.rueter@psd-lcms.org).