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The Source for Youth Ministry is dedicated to reaching youth across the world with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. As most of you know, one of our ministry's trademarks is providing free youth ministry resources for youth workers. People think we're crazy with how much we give away ... but we just call it ministry! But we also realize that many of you are also buying Christian resources, books, CD's and even videos from Christian stores. Well, if you're going to buy something, buy it through us at Parable's book store by using this link. By clicking on this link and shopping on Parable, your next purchase of Rick Warren's new book, Michael W. Smith's new CD or the new Veggie Tale video will help support our ministry and help us continue to make a difference in the lives of youth across the world. And the prices are great- check them out! Thanks for helping us make a difference! A Li'l Bit: A Li'l Bit was created by some youth workers that are all about authenticity and truth. These guys wanted to provide a weekly podcast where kids could simply hear God's word presented in a real and relevant way. Nothing crazy, nothing too hard to understand... just pure truth shared in 10 minute "easy to understand" segments. We chose iTunes as our vehicle for communicating this truth because we see more kids carrying iPods with them than Bibles. So we figured that this would be a good way to get the truth into the ears of a generation of young people who are going to make an impact in this world. Adventures In Missions: Looking for a mission trip opportunity for your youth group, college group, or church? Check out AIM. These guys are solid and have some great mission opportunities for you and your group. The site's easy to follow, and they're easy to get a hold of. Al Menconi: Many of you who The Source Ezine recognize the name Al Menconi. I've quoted Al and plugged his newsletters in the past. Al Menconi Ministries' mission is to educate and equip Christian parents, leaders and youth to consider the values communicated in their entertainment—especially today's music—and encourage choices consistent with God's Word. Al writes fantastic articles; be sure to check this site out! Apple Sauce Kids: This is a great place for FREE children's ministry resources. You name it: games, coloring pages, crafts, tips, puzzles, clowning info, puppet scripts ... all free. My kind of site. BibleGateway.com: This is an invaluable tool for plain ol' BIble study, small group discussion write-up, and sermon prep. The primary features are "Passage look-up" and "Keyword Search". It features 50 online Bible versions in 35 languages. In English, all the major players included: KJV, NKJV, NIV, NASB, NLT, TNIV, The Message, and 13 other English versions or translations. Great for cutting and pasting passages to your notes or PowerPoints. Footnotes with Greek stuff and other helps included. Bibles At Cost: This site is the best place to order Bibles. If you don't believe me ... check out the prices. They are the LOWEST!!! Gordie, the owner of this organization believes in getting Bibles out, as opposed to driving a nice car! Awesome organization, I use them for all Bible and software needs! Buckets-O-Fun: Here's one of the few not free exceptions we've made to our web links page. As the Buckets-O-Fun home page touts, "From things that fly to a bucket full of slime, we are your #1 source for unusual and hard to find items for your group activities. Age is no limit to the fun to be had." Lots of goofy, fun items to add to your youth event or camp experience: rubber chickens, pigs, or bass (the fish not the instrument), finger rockets, slimy stuff they call Chunky Yuck, Saucy Yuck, and Snowy Yuck, not to mention a page devoted to Yuck Accessories. And you know how much The Source likes slimy stuff. (In case you're wondering, according to their Safety Data Sheet, Yuck is Non hazardous under OSHA 29CFR 1910.1200). Another thing we really like is that they include free Game Instruction PDFs for all their products. Super Chicken Tag? Now that's our kind of game! Center for Parent/Youth Understanding: This site has a veritable plethora of great resources about youth culture. Walt Mueller, president of Center for Parent/Youth Understanding (CPYU), publishes a quarterly newsletter about youth culture available on this CPYU web site. This is great site with lots of useful links to help us keep current with where youth are today. Check it out. Children's FREE Bible Curriculum: (ENGLISH & SPANISH) Looking for some new children's curriculum but you have NO budget? No worries. Calvary Chapel posted their curriculum online for free. Check out this children's curriculum with coloring, word searches, Q and A, both Old and New Testament, in both English AND Spanish. What a great resource! Creative Youth Ideas After 20 years in youth ministry, Ken Sapp has quite a few ideas and he's sharing them for free with children's and youth workers on his web site. A little bit of everything: icebreakers, evangelism ideas, drama ideas, over 40 object lessons, more than 100 creative teaching ideas, and 50 teaching illustrations. Take your pick! Dare2Share Ministries Energizing and equipping teenagers to know, live, share, and own their faith in Jesus is Dare2Share's bottom line. Dare 2 Share is convinced that the answer to this crisis in Christianity lies in an aggressive initiative to transform youth ministry from reactive and entertainment based to Great Commission driven and Scripture based. They understand the power of giving students something to do and something to believe. D2S provides thought-provoking and insightful books, hosts radical conferences, and has produced two reality based DVD productions called The Gospel Journey, each bringing together seven strangers first in the Rocky Mountains, then in Maui, and taking them on a journey through the gospel message as it unfolds throughout the story of the Bible. Raw, real and riveting discussions, an emotional breakdown or two, and a few shocking surprises! Also, check out their web site, including a FREE STUFF link, which currently provides over 1,400 FREE evangelism and discipleship resource pieces. Deeper Devotion - A Site for Growing Christian Students Deeper Devotion is a free web site which was started with the purpose of encouraging students to know God more intimately. It does that with several elements, the main being a daily text devo that's short, biblical, and available as a podcast. Students can sign up and choose to receive their daily devo via email, RSS feed, or iTunes. Also available are relevant articles with an anonymous user Q&A comment thread on each. We got positive feedback from sr. high students we asked to check it out. One guy said, "I really like the site because it allows teens to ask questions that many are afraid to go straight to a Christian adult or (another) teenager, for that matter." There's nothing fancy about the layout, so it's not like showing up to a virtual playground, but if you want biblical substance, we recommend this site. Door of Hope 4 Teens For teenagers and young adult women who struggle with cutting and similar forms of self injury, Door of Hope 4 Teens not only provides free and confidential phone and email support, but good basic info on the issue for teens and those who want to help them, scriptural encouragement, a great web links page and multiple book recommendations by respected authors. EGAD! Youth group ideas: These guys have one of the best game and activity sites on the net. Aren't you tired of clicking on sites that advertize "Games." You click on it and there are a total of five games and two of the are modified versions of Chubby Bunnies. EGAD has large lists of games and activities that you don't have to click on individually to find the description (I hate that!). FaithFreaks: The purpose of FaithFreaks.com is to glorify God by providing an alternative social network that is safe, clean, friendly, and Christ-centered. The site is set up similarly to MySpace, highlighting featured musicians and new people. User pages are exactly like MySpace, as well, with the capacity to download layouts, videos, and music. The difference? NO SKANKY ADVERTISING OR PICTURES! Profiles of users under 18 are automatically set to private, but a browse showed that they have the option to go public. Those under 13 are given extra precautions and are encouraged to ask their parents' permission before setting up an account. Family.org: I use this Focus on the Family website for their section on media. Scroll down the left hand side and press Media and Culture for Film reviews, Music Reviews and TV reviews. The Film reviews are from a Christian perspective and list all positive elements, spiritual content, sexual content, violence, etc. A great site to check out before taking your family to see "American Pie." Free Bible Commentary: Dr. Bob Utley (Bible Lessons International) has built a free commentary in written, audio, and video formats. We can't explore every one, but if you listen to his " You Can Understand the Bible" opening seminar, you'll know where he's coming from. He's unabashedly Baptist, but doesn't hesitate to quote from How to Read the Bible for All it's Worth by charismatic author Gordon Fee. He takes manuscript errors and translation problems to task without dishonoring the overall accuracy and holiness of God's Word. Some may disagree on points of denominational difference, but overall, Dr. Utley helps one consider the historical context, author's original intent, the original recipients, manuscript variants, and encourages thorough Bible study and dependence on God's Spirit for understanding. Fun and Games: Often, when I'm sent one of these links, it's just a site promoting the sale of some book or another. Or maybe a site with just a handful of games. Well, Kit from the UK and his site are worth checking out. Kit has a respectable amount of games, arranged by type. He also has mind benders, dramas and more! Good stuff. Go Campus Coaching Center: This web site is a great resource for anyone wanting to reach a campus for Christ. The Go Campus Coaching Center is a service to the Challenge 2000 Alliance (Challenge Alliance). This web site consists of resources from many different organizations. It not only provides resources, but is committed to give ongoing help to starter youth ministries and to help current ministries grow. Good resources and hands-on help! HomeWord: HomeWord, formerly Youthbuilders, has developed this web site as a resource to parents and youth workers. This site is the home of the popular radio show "HomeWord with Jim Burns." The site is laid out extremely well with resources for all. Some of the highlights are their free parent newsletter, daily devotions, real life answers and articles. Check it out! Icebreakers.ws: This site features instructions to several playtested, high quality free icebreakers, fun games, and team building activities - perfect for group facilitation, the first day of class (teaching), training, and meetings of all kinds. To achieve good group dynamics or just for fun, these free icebreaker games can be useful as youth group activities, party games, business and corporate training activities, college group activities, activities for kids, or simply good icebreaker games for family or friends on a lazy Saturday afternoon. The Internet Movie Database: This is the coolest movie site to find actors, directors, movie titles, release dates, etc. Just type in "Harrison Ford" in the actor blank and see all he's ever done, biographies, etc! JC TV: This is a completely on-line television station that is also available through some satellite providers. It has Christian shows ranging from music videos, movies, extreme sports, talk shows and preachers. Plus it has encouraging youth programs like "24/7 Youth Group," "The Ramp" and "Youth Group Europe." It streams really easily and if you have dial up you can still listen to it without having to see it. This site will hook a lot of your youth, leaders and sponsors because it is geared towards ages 12-30. Honestly to call this a Christian MTV would be an insult to it, because it is so much better in variety, quality and content than MTV ever has been. Kid's Sunday School Place: Kid's Sunday School Place is your source for fresh, creative Children's Ministry resources, Sunday school lessons, Bible crafts, activities, object lessons, stories, skits, games, songs & much more. Teaching elementary Sunday school has never been so much fun! There's even a Spanish edition to the site. Learn to Ballroom Dance Online at Dancetv.com: You may ask, "What does this have to do with youth ministry?" And Jonathan will answer, "Nothing. But it sure is a cool site!" Check out the cool video, too! LifeChurch.tv Downloadable Resources: LifeChurch.tv, a multi-location church with sites in Oklahoma, Texas and Arizona, has made their sermon series resources available for free. You can download short video intros, layered graphics files (for bulletins and posters), and sermon outlines. You can preview almost all of these resources before downloading. Though time consuming, if you're serious about patterning a series after theirs, it's worth sitting through part or all of the sermons and video shorts. While not exhaustive, what's here is relevant, funny, and well done. One reviewer observed that there wasn't much scriptural teaching within the lessons; they're mostly topical, though useful anecdotes. So, I guess we'd add B.Y.O.B.V. (Bring your own Bible Verses). Just for laughs, check out a few of the video intros in their Parenting series - funny stuff. Missions to Mexico: If you're looking for a low-priced (under $250 for a 7-day trip!) STMO (short-term missions organization) to work with for your next mission trip to Mexico, this experienced outfit might be a great option. They answer almost every imaginable question on the site's 13 pages (not including their links), providing details about what you can expect, from what group fees are used for, safety issues, to schedules, VBS, and work projects. If nothing else, the Coordinator's Manual seems to cover all the bases and might be a good comparative reference for any missions trip. MP3Bible.org: You won't believe this resource. A bunch of guys out of Calvary Chapel decided to start a ministry to help create, provide, & distribute the Bible in MP3 audio format for evangelism, discipleship, new believers, conferences, retreats, and outreaches. Here's the skinny: If you want some great follow-up material to give to new believers at an outreach event, at church each week, etc., these guys will put it together for you for FREE. You just pay the cost of the duplication of the CD's, only about $1 or $2 each. So you could have them create a CD with your logo, your best "discipleship" sermon, and the audio of the entire New Living Translation of the New Testament all on a CD for you to give away. This is NOT to sell- only to give away. What a great resource. Passageway: One of the best sites on the net for Christian students. Be sure to hit "Play" on the home page to listen to cool music while you browse this site sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Assoc. (Click the "Track" button for more tunes.) A not-too-busy, easy to follow resource with a Q&A page worth referring your students and their friends to, along with "Believe" and "Grow" pages for non, new, and used Christians to explore loads of culture current topics and other questions about growing and becoming a follower of Jesus. There are also informative pages on pop culture profiling believers in the arts and sports and quick takes on movies and music. Students and youth workers alike will appreciate the free downloads. Pastor 2 Youth: I love web sites with free resources. Ryan has dedicated this site to bringing you plenty of free resources you can use. His games are divided by "where you play them"—I like that. My favorite part of this web site is a database that contains over 2,000 illustrations. Project Serve: For years my buddy Chad took youth on an annual mission trip to Ireland with Youth for Christ's Project Serve, and he couldn't say enough great things about it! Find opportunities to travel domestically and throughout the world on a Project Serve mission trip. Trips are usually 1-3 weeks. They combine work and evangelism to assist local leadership in their strategy to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to area young people. A great opportunity! REAL TEENS, REAL FAITH: T. Suzanne Eller's web site talks about tough issues facing today's generation and how to live a life of faith in an R-rated world. With real-life advice about sex, relationships, and self image in light of faith, Suzanne shares biblical answers to questions sent in by teens. Teenagers also share their original poetry, stories and testimonies. Tons of links and helps for the seeking teen. RECOMMENDING SEX: A Ready-made Event How do we address the topic of sex to today's generation? "RECOMMENDING SEX" is giving answers. The top three questions about sex asked by Christian teens today are: 1. Why should I wait until marriage to have sex? 2. How can I wait until marriage to have sex? 3. How far can I go in the mean time? Jonathan gets in their face and answers these questions clearly. Then, the RECOMMENDING SEX event gives students the opportunity to ask questions in a guys-only and girls-only setting. Finally, students are challenged to respond. Check out what people are saying about this event. You can bring this event to your city. Rock-N-Water: I don't usually link local organizations, but people travel all over for Rock-N-Water camp. Rock-N-Water is a very cool Christian youth camp in California that uses outdoor adventures like white water rafting, rock climbing, backpacking, canyoneering, and team building for working with youth groups. They are located on the South Fork of the American River in Coloma. They even host a Walk-on-Water winter camp! Ron Hutchcraft Ministries: If you've never had theprivilegeof hearing Ron, check out this site! Ron is one of the most powerful speakers I have ever heard. Check out his "Life Issues" section under the "Real Answers" menu at the top for incredible resources on hot issues, organized by topic in alphabetical order. Screen It: This is an incredible resource to screen movies or videos before you see them. This detailed site reviews and lists every influential element, from specific bad language and imitative behavior to drug and alcohol content and scenes you'd just rather your kids or yourself not see. This isn't just a "warning label" site; there's also a box labeled, "Topics To Talk About" on each movie description page. Don't let the "subscriber" prompt fool you; you can look up loads of movies after you scroll to the bottom of the home page and just click the "No Thanks" button. STEEL ROOTS: If there's a skateboarder, snowboarder or surfer in your youth group, send them to Steel Roots.com. This site has info on Christian athletes in these sports, an on-line daily devotional, a prayer board and a whole lot more, including on-line episodes of the Steel Roots tours, videos, and cool free downloads. The shows stream easily and are updated about every two weeks. If you have the ability to put the internet on a large screen, you could even show an episode and lead a discussion on the "Hardcore for Christ" segment at the end. Definitely a great ministry and website. Streetbrand Magazine: Streetbrand Magazine is an online faith-based youth culture magazine birthed in the UK for today's young, trendsetting and multicultural audience. The site is geared toward but not exclusively for Christians. Readers will find a wide variety of jargon-free articles from music, films and books to exclusive celebrity interviews, fashion and style, in-your-face columns, relationships, health and fitness, career, money, positive living, and thought provoking pieces on current issues. Teen Sunday School Place: Whether you need Sunday school lessons, Bible study ideas, activities, object lessons, skits, games, or tips for leading, this site has it. Titles with a green dot are free, items with a red dot are available to registered members. To their credit, TSSP supplies plenty of green dots, and while not comprehensive, resources are quality. ¿Querría usted esto en español? Everything has been translated to Spanish so that you can click the Spanish link button at the top right of any page to toggle back and forth from English to Spanish. ¡Super fresco! Troubledwith: Looking for answers to tough "life-issues" that you're facing? Alcoholism, depression, eating disorders, sexual pressures, pornography ... how do you deal with these things? TroubledWith.com is a collection of articles, resources and referrals organized by topic around family issues and concerns. Their goal is to help families by providing complete coverage of issues including a brief introduction to each topic, an overview of the issue at hand, Q&A with experts and tips for making things better. Volunteer Power: VolunteerPower.com provides free online resources you can use to recruit, motivate and train volunteers. Use Volunteer Power's online interview guide, including interview questions for volunteer or paid staff. Or check out a complete plan for a strategic planning retreat. Also find helpful articles on motivating, recruiting, managing and even firing volunteers. Don't stop at the website- sign up for the free monthly newsletter that provides fresh ideas, resources and even interviews with people who are actually doing it right! Whirlwind Bible Tour: If you haven't seen this, you've got to check it out. It's like an "Intro to the Bible for Dummies" or as the home page states, "a whimsically humorous and brief overview of the Bible." Wild Frontier: "Youth ministry resources for those outside the norm," is the motivating thought behind veteran youth worker and founder Brenda Seefeldt's web site. She was leading youth in her church from a family-based model before all those books came out. She believes that, "Youth ministry is not us vs. them. We have been charged to come along side of the parents to help them in the spiritual nurturing of their child. What a wonderful resource we can be to the parents." Insightful articles on everything from "The Hip-Hop Culture" to "The Secret Lives of Teenagers". Plus, a sweet link about her husband's Paint Ball business (a former professional paintball player, still considered one of the top 200 players in the world, John is the editor of Paintball 2Xtremes magazine and executive producer of PB2X TV.). Youth Games: Here's a fun game site from down under. Not a ton of content yet, but the tools are quite helpful with a custom search, favorites, etc. I always like to keep game sites like these in my favorites! Youth Group Games Directory: Joel Zerner, who leads youth in Adelaide, Australia, has created a new web site with just games. The database is small at the moment, but growing. It features a custom game search which allows the user to search by game type, keywords, duration, messy-rating, number of teams needed and others. It also provides categories like Relaxing Rainy Day, Outdoor Action, Olympian Style, Team Challenge, and more. YouthMinistry.com: Group Publishing, Inc. added this site Summer of 2000 and it looks like it's going to be good. It features articles on current youth trends and ministry ideas. It also provides a free resource section that will be filled up with games, discussion starters and ideas. Hundreds of FREE articles and ideas are available from Group Publishing's archive of resources. They also list more than 700 links to other web sites. Youth Ministry Architects: Group YMA is a ministry associated with speaker and author Mark Devries. YMA partners with churches and youth ministries, working alongside key stakeholders -including senior pastors, youth ministers, parents and students- to customize strategic plans for building successful and sustainable youth ministries. Youth Network Television: This new, cutting edge Youth Network web site is a Christian hub for teens (like Facebook and MySpace). It links to Facebook, Youtube, and MySpace, and promises to provide new content every day. Users can slam in their video uploads, pictures, comments, and blog posts. The site creators plan to link up around 60 bands from the Gospel Music Awards in April, when they interview them for their TV show, which airs three times per week on Dish Network and Sky Angel IPTV. Here's something you won't get from too many other networking sites: With permission from bands, they're also working on having live, hidden concert cam streaming on this site when they video tape Christian concerts and youth events. No one can randomly look at users' profiles without signing up themselves. YouthPastor.com: This sight hits the ball out of the park. Great search engines and resources for all types of youth ministry. They have games, curriculum, events ... you name it. Check it out! Youth Roots Digital Youth Rooms: Youth Roots boasts that it takes the best of social networking sites and reinvents them to help youth leaders interact with, involve, and inspire their youth members, friends, and family. The leader controls the roles of those people on their pages, along with the visibility of the group online. Youth Roots provides access to original content - faith-related articles on culture current events, videos, music, and a "yPod" radio streams that run 24/7, one for Christian and one for Jewish listening audiences. Students create pages with blogs and pics, controlling what features are visible to others. Groups can post their calendar of events, online discussions, and create online photo albums. I like the fact that this site seems to have plenty for leaders AND kids. This could be a great alternative for those who don't want to build either a Facebook or MySpace. Plus, it's FREE for groups under 25 members. Youth Specialties: This site needs no introduction. The Youth Specialties page is the hub of youth ministry resources. "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!" Especially check out their games page and choose Youth Ministry Forum's message board on Games & crowdbreakers. All their links are extremely helpful ... the entire site is a "must see!" Youth Work Practice: Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Well, now you don't have to, because 30-year German youth ministry veteran Hans Hirling has converted his massive youth work resource site into English. The few translation blurbs are actually kind of cool and don't take away from the value and access around this site. For both children's and youth workers, there are tons of games, ideas for both kids' and teen camps, complete meeting programs and theme nights, devotional discussion starters with graphics, and a youth leader training page with insightful articles. Haben Sie Spaß! (Have fun!) YouthWalk magazine: Great graphics on this site. Check it out! It's a devotional magazine for teens published by Walk Thru the Bible Ministries. website just copy and paste the code below:  |
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