Archive for the ‘Youth Ministry and Technology’ Category
Fewer Teens Want iPhones
Only 16% of teens want on iPhone, compared with 22% last year.
Apple might be worried, but I think that’s probably good news.
I love my iPhone. I actually prayed a lot before we bought it because it’s not exactly cheap. But it’s made life and ministry so much easier, especially when I’m on the road.
The technology is shockingly awesome. I mean, I can browse any website in the world with ease. And download all sorts of cool apps.
That’s the scary part. The Lord rescued me from porn years ago and I’ve never turned back. But I know that struggle would have been ten times worse if I had an iPhone back then.
If you struggle with porn in any way, hear me loud and clear: Do not get a any type of smartphone. “It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell” (Mark 9:43, NIV). It only makes things worse. I’ve watched it happen.
That’s why part of me worries so much when I see a student with the Internet in their pocket–whether it’s an iPhone, Blackberry, Tanberry or Palm. It makes sin so terribly easy, so accessible.
I’m a big believer in technology’s ability to make life easier. I’m also a big believer in technology’s ability to tempt and corrupt.
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Social networking safety tips from an expert
I recently came across the Barking Robot blog and found several helpful posts, including this one:
Social Networking Safety Tips for Parents & Educators
In it, Derek talks about several quick and easy steps parents can take to protect their kids from online preditors and other risks of social networks.
One issue he didn’t address (and I wish he would have) is how to also protect your kids from the objectionable content you can sometimes easily stumble into on these sites.
One more incredible TXT tool
On my last post about great texting tools for youth ministry, Lex commented about another great way to send announcements to to your teens via text messages, this time for free.
She created a Twitter account for her youth group and then told her students how to sign up for mobile updates. Whenever she posts to the main Twitter account, every student gets a text message! Great for announcements, reminders, and encouragement. And because it’s web-based, parents and other adults who want to stay in the know can just go online to the profile page and see the latest posts.
Ready to do it? Here’s how. To create the youth group Twitter account:
- Go to www.twitter.com.
- Click “Join the conversation!” and follow the steps for creating an account.
Easy right? Now here’s what you need to tell your students to do:
- Start with the same thing you just did–go to www.twitter.com and create an account.
- Once created and logged in, go to “Settings”
- Click on “Devices”
- Follow the steps to add your mobile device (for US phones, in step one, enter “+1″ followed by your area code and number, no spaces).
- Go to the youth group’s main Twitter account (i.e. www.twitter.com/your_twitter_name)
- Click on “Follow”
- Click on “Device Updates Off”
- Click the “On” option
Sound complicated? It might be to us, but 99% of your students already use Twitter daily and could probably do a better job than me explaining how to do this ;)
Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
Two Don’t-Miss YM Resources
- Simply TXT: Send individual or group text messages to your students, parents, or volunteers. This tool seriously blew me away. I’ve been dreaming about being able to create groups and send text messages on the fly, like I do with email now, but I had never seen something that could actually do it. Simply TXT lets you build groups and send messages whenever you like–you can even schedule them in advance–and the pricing is pretty reasonable.
- Poll Everywhere: Create polls and free response questions your students respond to via text message. Results are updated live and can be displayed right on the screen. Another tool I was honestly thinking, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” before I heard about it. Pricing is also very reasonable with a free option for audiences under 30 people.
