Tag: technology

This is part 8 of a 10-part blog series on HOW TO GET YOUR MINISTRY ONLINE. You can follow the DIGITAL SKATEPARK tag or go back to the intro post for links out to the rest of the series.

< See the previous post in the series

CREATE MEDIA STREAMS

For those who have been reading along closely, it might seem strange to suggest working hard to create a centralised HQ when most of your young people will naturally flock to the latest social network.

Therefore, I think it’s worthwhile setting up youth group accounts in a few of the popular social networks. If all of your youth are hanging at the beach and you want to hang out with them or communicate something to them, go to the beach.

At the moment we have the following social media streams:

Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Mailchimp
YouTube

Each of them is used in a different way.

Facebook is currently the champion. It’s a key way that I communicate with leaders and the majority of our youth are online each day.

Instagram is a close second. Facebook doesn’t allow children under 13 to have an account. A significant number of our years 7 and 8s have, with parental permission, Instagram accounts as they allow for under 13s. (I’m currently checking whether this is still the case… stay tuned, or let me know in the comments if you know…)

Twitter doesn’t much pull in our youth ministry and we could do without it.

Mailchimp is the system we use for our weekly newsletter, only 25-30% of our youth open the email while close to 100% of parents who are subscribed open it.

YouTube is used every time we have a new video to share.

Through each of these streams we engage different people at different times.

See the next post in the series >

—
This series forms the basis of a chapter I wrote in a forthcoming Youth Ministry book to be published by Anglican Youthworks. The rest of the book is written by Scott Petty (Youth Minister from Christ Church St Ives) and is published here with permission.

This is part 7 of a 10-part blog series on HOW TO GET YOUR MINISTRY ONLINE. You can follow the DIGITAL SKATEPARK tag or go back to the intro post for links out to the rest of the series.

< See the previous post in the series

NOBODY LIKES STALE BREAD

We’ve all visited out-of-date websites advertising the Christmas lunch from 4 years ago. Content is king online. So keep the content fresh! I know you might be thinking that this requires a lot more work. Right? Not necessarily.

There is probably someone(s) that is regularly producing content for your weekly gatherings. So rather than producing brand new material for your website, adapt the material you’re already creating.

Continue reading “NOBODY LIKES STALE BREAD”

This is part 6 of a 10-part blog series on HOW TO GET YOUR MINISTRY ONLINE. You can follow the DIGITAL SKATEPARK tag or go back to the intro post for links out to the rest of the series.

< See the previous post in the series

MINIMAL IS BETTER THAN MAYHEM

If you’re not a designer, don’t pretend to be. If you are unable to find a designer in your community – be content with a simple minimalistic website.

WordPress comes with many great and simple free themes as well as a good range of paid themes at affordable prices.

Christians have been known to perpetually commit the most grievous of design sins: using the universally banned typeface Comic Sans. Youth leaders have likewise committed other design faux pas in choosing and using ugly themes for their websites. Go for simple and minimal.

Continue reading “MINIMAL IS BETTER THAN MAYHEM”

This is part 5 of a 10-part blog series on HOW TO GET YOUR MINISTRY ONLINE. You can follow the DIGITAL SKATEPARK tag or go back to the intro post for links out to the rest of the series.

< See the previous post in the series

CREATE AN OFFICIAL “HEADQUARTERS”

It is worth having one website that becomes the official headquarters (HQ) for your ministry.

There are two ways that you could do this:

1. Your own website e.g. www.youthministryname.com
2. A section on your church website e.g. www.yourchurchname.com/youth

If you choose to house your HQ on your church website, you will need to talk to those responsible for the site about how to gain access so you can keep the content up-to-date.

If you choose to house your HQ on your own unique youth ministry website, you will need to get it made. You can build it, you can get someone in your church to build it for free or you could pay a designer. Companies like Bridge Element (www.bridgeelement.com) create good-looking ministry websites at a very reasonable price. Likewise you can find others via a search engine or asking other ministries who they had make their website.

Continue reading “CREATE AN OFFICIAL “HEADQUARTERS””

This is part 4 of a 10-part blog series on HOW TO GET YOUR MINISTRY ONLINE. You can follow the DIGITAL SKATEPARK tag or go back to the intro post for links out to the rest of the series.

< See the previous post in the series

In 2006 MySpace was massive! It was the social network of choice. It died a painful death and was subsequently taken over by Facebook. Close to 1 Billion people in the world actively use Facebook. However, while MySpace try desperately to resurrect their way back into the social network spotlight, some have suggested that Facebook is on the decline. The current teenage generation spend less time on Facebook and more time on mobile apps like Instagram and Snapchat. Add to that people being annoyed by constantly changing policies by Facebook regarding advertising, ownership and privacy.

Continue reading “SOCIAL MEDIA SOAP OPERA”