Youth Ministry: MySpace

MySpace is ugly. I think that it isn’t particularly functional, the designs are ugly and cumbersome. The system for commenting is annoying. Users often talk about rubbish, but then again teenagers are the key demographic for using MySpace. I think that there are better methods of having a presence on the internet (such as blogger and wordpress). BUT… having said all this, ccecyouth has a myspace page. I made it earlier on this year before I knew of any youth group kids that had one. A couple of months ago I stumbled onto a whole bunch of them (only 29 at the moment). I don’t spend much time at myspace. I will occasionally quickly peruse their pages but not much.

Why have a youth group myspace?

  • Teenagers have them – so it’s a way of being present in their world
  • Teenagers often write stupid things, ungodly things – so it’s good for Christians on MySpace to have some form of accountability knowing their youth leaders and friends from youth group will look at their page
  • It’s a way to redirect people to our main site
  • I’ve encouraged our youth to put ccecyouth in their top 8 friends so that non-Christian friends will see the distinct ccecyouth logo and possibly visit our site or youth group – or at least know that their friend is happy to be associated with ‘Christians’

Here is the page of a youth group for a series they did on Moses. Not a bad idea.

Do you have a MySpace? Does your church or youth ministry or organisation or band have a MySpace? Do you think it’s ugly?

21AUG Update:
Article here & here (h/t Tracy) and here (h/t Josh)

24AUG Update:
Interesting article here. It talks about the link between myspace, generation Y, meaning and ministering to Gen Yers. Too many good quotes to put here (so go read it!)… but here’s one: “In a media environment in which marketing is king, young people have become marketers of their own personal image and ‘brand’.”

25SEP Update:
Check out this article (h/t Josh)

17 Responses to “Youth Ministry: MySpace”

  1. David August 15, 2006 at 2:32 am #

    just found they have myspace groups.
    so made one.
    see how it goes
    dave

  2. David August 15, 2006 at 2:33 am #

    woops forgot address…
    http://groups.myspace.com/ccecyouth

  3. Joel C August 15, 2006 at 3:51 pm #

    What is the significance of making a ‘group’?

  4. Christopher August 15, 2006 at 4:17 pm #

    That picture looks just like the cover of Tom Waits’s brilliant album “Real Gone”. Great record, nothing to do with youth groups though, unless you played it to them, which I am sure they would love.
    the wildfrontier

  5. Ben August 15, 2006 at 4:18 pm #

    Dude,

    you forgot Ze’s “I knows me some ugly myspace showdown”. These define ugly myspace.

    Here are the entries, and this is the winner. The music on the winning page has to be heard to be believed.

    Also, want to link to our blog? It’s bathgates.net.

    Love your work.

  6. Matt P August 16, 2006 at 12:32 am #

    Yeah can’t say I’ve ever been a huge fan of the whole myspace movement, but good to see it being used for the gospel!

    That winning page…*shudder*…

    BS was good tonight…Steve led us blokes (all 2 of us) well :)

  7. Andy M August 16, 2006 at 9:34 am #

    what’s myspace?? never heard of it. I gather it’s some youth thing. I must be gettin’ really old! (actually, as of last Saturday I guess you could say I’m in my mid-thirties! Aaaggghh!!)

  8. David August 16, 2006 at 5:45 pm #

    joel c
    don’t know.
    i just saw another gropu on someone’s myspace and thought i’d make one… it only took 2minutes

  9. David August 16, 2006 at 5:47 pm #

    christopher
    just had a listen to some of your band’s music.
    i like how you haven’t uglified the myspace site… kept it simple!

  10. David August 16, 2006 at 5:49 pm #

    ben,

    thanks for the ze refs. didn’t have tme to link to them… how funny is the i knows me some ugly myspace theme music!!

    (by the way – i thought mysapce was ugly b4 i knew that ze existed!)

    will put your link in next time i change html… soon.

    i put you on my rss reader thing

    peaceout

  11. David August 16, 2006 at 5:50 pm #

    matt
    agree on that *shudder*!!

    glad growth group was good.

  12. David August 16, 2006 at 5:52 pm #

    andy
    yes ur getting old…
    but you’ve got a pretty hip music device!!

  13. Andy M August 17, 2006 at 8:33 am #

    yes, I do have a pretty hip music device! But I’m feeling a bit out of my depth knowing what to do with it! I’ve gone onto iTunes a few times and don’t know where to start! Downloaded whole INXS album last night (the latest one with the new lead singer) and have been listening to it this morning.

    Wait till you see the cool photo I’ve got with EJ wearing said music device – you’ll love it!

  14. Christopher August 17, 2006 at 1:00 pm #

    i like how you haven’t uglified the myspace site… kept it simple!

    Thanks, but I must say, even if I wanted to uglyfy it I wouldn’t know how to.
    Still haven’t put a picture on my blog yet

  15. David August 21, 2006 at 10:21 am #

    here is an article related to this topic.

    peaceout
    dave

  16. Daniel August 22, 2006 at 5:26 pm #

    Spot on David – myspace is ugly.

    Point two is right on the money. I wonder what difference it might make if some people knew that their parents or people at their church looked at their blog/myspace!

  17. David August 22, 2006 at 5:51 pm #

    i spent a shortwhile this arvo having a look at some of their comments and so forth. generally things look okay. immature stuff… but not necessarily ungodly.

    the main stuff that may be more dodgy is the comments from their non-Xn friends…

    i’ll keep an eye out… and try to remind people of the other eye being kept out in Psalm 139…

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