Top Youth Ministry Apps

       What’s up guys and gals! For this post I wanted to talk tech. I wanted to list the top app’s that I have found to be beneficial to my youth ministry and/or myself as a youth minister. I will also give a brief description of why I like this app. These are in no particular order so don’t think I value one more than the other.

1: LIVE Curriculum App: by Simply Youth Ministry

This app single handedly has probably saved me hundreds of dollars in printer ink and paper. Before I purchased by iPad and downloaded this app, I had to print off a physical copy of my Sunday School lessons. This got costly real quick. And don’t worry if you’re in a Internet dead zone in your youth ministry area, this was a big concern of mine, the app loads your last couple of lessons. So when I get to church and have no Internet I still have access to my latest lesson. Simply Youth has once again done youth ministers a great service with this app. You must have a current online access account of the LIVE curriculum to use it.

2: Facebook: by Facebook

This one kind of goes without saying. I’m not saying all youth ministries need a social networking presence, and at my previous church my students never visited our Facebook page. However if you are in an area where your students are on Facebook, meet them where they are by having a youth ministry Facebook presence. The connection time I get with my students on Facebook cannot be replaced. It makes a difference when I see that a student and her boyfriend broke up and I can drop a message to her. Or that a student had a great basketball game the other day and I wasn’t able to attend. I can give them a shout out.

3: Meeting Attendance: by Corvus Technologies Inc.

This is great app and you can customize the look. I have it set up with our youth ministry logo. Not only can I log my students as they come in, but I can also set it up where the students log in as they enter the room. This app works great for me with a group size of around 20-30. It may not work as well for larger ministry settings, but for small groups you could have your leaders use the app, then use the feature to email you their roll. You could then transfer it to another program. Great app! Cost of application: $6.99.

4: SlideShark: by Brainshark Inc.

This is a great app! I post our youth ministry news up by slide show every Midweek and Youth Worship. This makes a Power Point presentation play on iPads. It also allows you to control the loop and time the slides stay on the screen from within the app. I can also set my iPad up as a small screen news feed on our information table for smaller events.

5: BlogPress: by CLT Studio

This is an outstanding app if you run a youth ministry blog or a blog of any sort for that matter. When I travel I usually only take my iPad with me, this allows me to post a blog from the road if I want. Great tool!

6: Groups App: by Qbix Inc.

This application is something I keep on my iPhone that has saved me money on a text messaging service. With this app I can text message

large groups including my students and their parents. I just have my students opt in for texts when they sign a visitors card, I plug in their number, and go to the app when I need to message the students in my ministry. Same with the parents when we have an event and I’m going to be sending out text updates, ie camp, concerts, etc, I have them fill out a written opt in form and message away! Great time and money saver.

7: Holy Bible App You Version: by LifeChurch.tv

This is a spectacular app! Our senior pastor likes to switch between different translations, so it makes following along easy. Also this has

different bible reading plans and I have been checking out the Youth
devotionals, they are top notch. And not to mention they are Free! How can you beat putting the Word of God into your student’s digital lives for free? You can also download certain translations for use when you’re not near Internet.

8: Group Magazine HD: by Group Publishing

Not only do you get the great content of a normal Group Magazine at your fingertips but also digital only content such as videos and links to some of the articles and products. Not only that but you can save money by taking your Group subscription digital.







9: Youth Ministry Wire: by Group and Simply Youth.

All of your favorite youth ministry blogs latest posts at your fingertips? Yes Please! I love this app because it keeps me current with content from great bloggers such as Josh Griffin, Kurt Johnston, Stephanie Caro, and more. The only additions I would love to see on this app is the ability to add feeds to it, that way you can get your lifeintheymfishbowl.com at your finger tips if you choose! ;)

10: Crossings Ministry app: by Crossings Ministry

Crossings has once again put a great product out there! Not only are they the only camp destination for me as long as I am in Kentucky or the surrounding area, but their app puts great content right at your hands. You can see highlight videos, pictures, read bios of the staff, you can access blog posts from a great youth minister from Kentucky in Troy Temple, and you can stay current on the happenings of the Crossings Center for Youth Ministry. What a great app! Awesome content and great organization.

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What's you top youth ministry app? Shoot me an email at madisonvillerunner@yahoo.com and send me your picks! I'm putting together a reader top list that I will post on here. Make sure to include your name and church if you would like, that way I can credit you for that pick. Until next time, God Bless and Just Keep Swimming!

Somedays..

Today I was hanging out with some of the guys from our youth ministry, doing something we call Burgers and Bro's. Just hanging out, eating burgers, and tossing the football around. Awesome time! It also got me to thinking about something.

I saw a picture that I had saved to my iPad. It was a youth minister's meme picture. You know the silly picture floating around Facebook that say, Youth Pastor, What I do..What the senior pastor thinks I do..What the deacons think I do..etc. Reminds me as a youth pastor we wear many different hats.

Some days I feel like the school principle. When I have to tell a student they cannot go to camp because of "fill in the blank".

Some days I feel like a crisis hotline worker. When a student gets dumped by their girlfriend, and I'm up until 1 AM listening to them talk about it.

Some days I feel like the churches multitool. Need a recreation director for an event? Call the youth pastor! Need someone to volunteer for some random non-youth related task? Ask the youth pastor!

Some days I feel like a horrible parent. When I miss my daughters only goal of her soccer season because I'm on a youth ministry trip.

Some days I feel like the "man". When a program or game God inspired me to do goes over perfectly.

But some days....some days....I feel like Paul. When my "Timothy's" finally get it. And I can see the fruit in their lives. Somedays....

Just Keep Swimming!

Review: Crossings CAMP40 Jonathan Creek, KY

Wow I have never been so excited to write about an event as I am about this one. We just got back from our church camp/weekend retreat and it was amazing. A little background first. My "other" job prevented me from doing a week long church camp this year. So I was looking to see what my options were. I was thinking of just doing a DNow event and calling it good but I stumbled upon something that was available at our local Baptist Church Camp at Jonathan Creek, KY. It's ran by Crossings Ministry and they offer something called Camp40.

Camp40 is an entire week of camp rolled into 40 hours. I know what your thinking, thats impossible. That's what I thought until I went. Camp40 lived up to the billing. It was a weeks worth of bible study, worship, activities, and relationship building rolled up into one weekend. I left exhausted, like any church camp, but feeling like I just jammed in a years worth of youth ministry into one weekend. The Crossings staff was unbelievable! They knew my name before I even got off the church bus, they had called ahead and spoken two my wife and had my favorite drink and snack waiting on me, and when something came up and I missed the leaders meeting; they were awesome and helped me get caught up on what I missed.

I also cannot say enough about the interns and bible study leaders that they had brought on for the summer. My students instantly connected to them and were having great conversations with them. Not only that but they also played in the worship band, lead worship, donned costumes and became zany characters for the celebrations and announcements, and ran the late night snack hut. These young men and women have a servants heart and it showed.

The camp has awesome activities for the students to do, not only in Camp40 but also their weeklong camps. They have The Blob, Ziplines (water and land), water obstacles, Bazooka Ball, Water Tubing, the normal sports activities (basketball, soccer, etc), and awesome indoor activities (crafts, cake decorating, evangelism and missions class, etc)

My experience at Crossings has cemented it as our yearly church camp location. It was an unbelievable experience and if you are looking for a church camp location, you cannot beat Crossings. They not only have the JCreek location in Western Kentucky but also have a location in Baghdad Kentucky out East.

Check them out at http://www.gocrossings.org


Just Keep Swimming!