I have been a youth pastor for nearly 10 years now and a great advocate of utilizing IT to maximize ones effectiveness in ministry.

With the huge popularity of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter it is most important that ministry practitioners familiarize themselves with the potentials and the dangers of social networking sites.  They can be powerful tools of communication but also powerful tools of distraction.  I have put together a list of suggestions & thoughts (in no particular order) for  using these resources which I hope will help you in your ministry:

1. Make them serve you, not the other way round. You can farm, comment on photos, check your personality, chat, private message, and much more, but is it worth it? Ask yourself this question, “Is this the best use of my time; can I be more productive elsewhere?”
2. Don’t comment on others unless you really need to. I know it sounds harsh, but it can really be a waste of time commenting on the status updates and wall posts that people make.  Use them thoughtfully and sparingly.
3. Don’t bother with Applications – It really is a time waster. There is nothing to gain from throwing a snowball, farming, or SUPER walling.  Some of the utility applications are good, but don’t waste your time with games.  I’ll post a recommended list of must have applications and utilities at another time for both facebook and your computer.
4. Use personal status updates with care. Don’t fall into the trap of sharing your deep personal life on facebook (especially if you minister regularly with youth).  I know a number of youth pastors who seem to forget that all their youth have added them as a friend and share about dumb things which only make them & their ministry look stupid.  It is most important to show that we are human, but keep the dirt to a minimum.  Share your life as well as the gospel.
5. Address facebook etiquette/behavior with your youth & young adults. Why is it that so many of our young people seem to live an alternative life online? THEY FORGET WE’RE WATCHING! You really start to see the true character or the character they WANT to be through their social networking comments and photos.  Use it to develop their character and deepen their discipleship.  That may well mean rebuke!
6. Bulk messages in Social Networking Sites – I generally try to use Nspire to bulk message my youth & young adults. Why? Because I can track the correspondence individually.  I will always post a link to the facebook page or our website.  If it’s really urgent, I SMS them.
7. Groups & Events- Probably the most utilised facebook tool by me.  Give them a connection point with a group and then make sure you have your upcoming events in there.  Always try and create an image for your group and event to spice up your page just a bit and cross link it to your group’s or church website with more details etc.
8. Use a third party tool for status updates – If you have multiple accounts then using a third party application to update your status saves a bucket load of time. I quite like the Yoono add-on for firefox which updates Twitter, Facebook, AIM, Messenger, and more.  It sits on the side of my browser and let’s me update my status in one place and feeds me my friend’s status updates.  On my iPhone I use StatusTIC to update Twitter and Facebook status’ quickly and with only a couple of keystrokes.
9. Don’t put all your eggs in the one basket – Try and utilise multiple connection mediums (email, social networking, SMS, webpage, personal contact, phone call, snail mail, etc).  A young person will need at least 3 contacts each week to maximize their discipleship (ie Small group + Email + Phone call, OR Small group + Facebook + Visit, etc).
10. Find someone else to champion your online presence – Let’s face it, we didn’t get into ministry to update websites.  We were created to dream, plan, develop, train, recruit, seed, and grow ministries for the gospel.  If we get caught up with maintaining a facebook page or a website, we are being distracted from what we have been called to do.  Always be looking for the champion to promote your ministry etc.  Guide them, grow them, and then let them do it while you keep the main thing the main thing.

What are your sucesses and insights into social networking and your online presence?

Dan

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The click I listen for is silent… it happens when I know they just gave themselves the answer they were thinking was going to come from me… I love it… all I do is just sit and watch for it. Sometimes it takes a few questions… in this case it only took one.

I asked, “Mr. Youth Pastor man… tell me about how well you do with remembering your kids birthdays with birthday cards” <simple enough huh> well, the answer I received was, “you know I’ve tried that before but I just have so much to do and stay so busy that I have not been able to do it” (This is the part where I was listening intently!!) After a few seconds it hit him… he just answered himself on why he needed a youth ministry software… he was already so busy that the simple things looked like such big tasks. (At this point, inside myself, I was doing CARTWHEELS and SHOUTING AWH, YESSSSS YOU ANSWERED RIGHT DANIEL’SON)

What’s the point of this short story. Like many other youth ministry pastors and workers, you are busy. Teaching a lesson is just a grain of sand in what your week looks like. But it can seem like the simplest of things (aka. birthday cards, email’s, we missed you letters, postcards, or just simple phone calls) can seem to take a back-seat to “other” ministry items (aka. trying to find out who has not paid for the upcoming event, for example) … seems a little backwards huh? Effectiveness in ministry should not be limited because of a lack of time. Products like youth management software can help to speed up time consuming administrative tasks, even do them better than without software. Effectiveness in ministry happens from being obedient to God and a good steward of the resources you have… time being one of them.

Who’s ready to be more effective???

To demo the leader in youth ministry management software, head over to www.youthassistant.com

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One of the great things about school season starting back up is all the new faces that come with it. I love it when school season kicks back into gear, but at the same time it can quickly turn into a organizational nightmare… unless you are prepared. Come on, you know what I’m talking about… as a youth pastor your opportunities increase and as those opportunities increase so does the administrative work that comes with them… blah…. I don’t think I met any youth pastor that just loves, with an intense passion, administrative work… they do however love being with their kids and helping them grow. Tracking event money, attendance, pictures, names, phone numbers, email addresses, and all the other gamuts of information can quickly suck up your time, unless you have the right tools.

I try to think of if like trying to repair the broken screw on your car with an old butter knife… it just never seems to do the job like the right tool would. The same thing applies with administration in youth ministry… spreadsheets and word doc’s just are not the right tools for the job. Sure, they can work… I’ve been there… I actually love spreadsheets and formulas and functions… but they are time consuming… and there is a better way. The answer…. get software designed especially for youth ministry admin. This will not only save you time… but it will make you more productive… and I know being more productive is something we all would like to be in youth ministry. A good youth ministry software will easily track pictures, names, addresses, phone numbers, event money, attendance, and more. But what makes youth ministry software shine even more is the ability it will give you to search the information in the database.

If you need to find all the 8th graders who signed up for next weeks event but still have not paid all the money, or just simply the youth who have a birthday coming up… no matter what it is a good youth ministry database will make these tasks a breeze…. oh, and you shouldn’t have to know any programing language to do this. What I have listed here is only the tip of the ice burg of what youth ministry software can do for you. So, That’s why I will be starting this series on "Why Youth Ministry Software" Keep an eye out and if you have questions be sure to post a comment and I will get it answered for you.

In the mean time, head over to www.youthassistant.com to see the leader in youth ministry database software.

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