Interlinc already thought of it and wants to send you a FREE music CD with 19 songs with music from well-known artists like Family Force 5, John Reuben, Ayiesha Woods, Tenth Avenue North and a number of amazing new artists. They’ll also be adding Bible Studies and other downloads to go with the CD, five of which are already available as a free download.

Check out this page on Interlinc’s website to request the free CD and check out the free Bible studies.

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. It’s our 1 year anniversary show and YOU are the featured guest! We’ll all have a chance to answer the question, “What have you learned about youth ministry in the past year?” See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

Of course the music CD comes with a bunch of music tracks from various Christian artists, but it also has a 48-page booklet containing some great stuff from Dave Ramsey (on financial issues) and Francis Chan (about avoiding the spiritual status quo). The set also has a media DVD containing videos from the two aforementioned guys, along with clips of other advice and wisdom for the big transition in life.

I personally have never given these sets away as graduation gifts, but I’ll be happy to take a free copy to check it out. Use the link below to get your free copy and evaluate it as a potential gift for one or more of the seniors graduating from your ministry this year.

More information about the ConGRADulations 2009 CD/DVD/Booklet set

Order your FREE Interlinc ConGRADulations 2009 CD/DVD/Booklet set

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Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Look at these pictures of Shane. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? lol

Here’s some other more serious pictures. You can also see more pictures here.

Where do you get your creative ideas from? (Perry Noble talking about how he sparks creativity and new ideas for ministry at NewSpring.)

Two new sites in the YMX family! (Reviews of two new YMX sites: youthministrytips.com and youthministryclassifieds.com)

Youth worship team expectations (A good list of what you should expect from students on your worship team.)

Youth ministry mapped out (A great graphical chart of what youth ministry looks like all laid out. Kinda cracks me up, actually.)

BONUS LINK
SkreemR mp3 search (Music search engine SkreemR turns up a selection of MP3 files from all over the web. Download copyrighted material at your own risk.)

GET ROBBIE SEAY’S ALBUM

(ht to Joshua Johnson)

CONTRIBUTE TO FREEBIE FRIDAY: If you’ve benefited from others who have freely shared their youth ministry resources online, consider giving back to the community by sharing your own materials here. Send me your donations for review and if I publish them in a Freebie Friday, you’ll receive full credit, a link, lots of gratitude and a warm feeling inside that comes from sharing with others.

[ Sign-up for other freebies and content added to this site! ]

Inspired by all the positive response to my post on Simplify Media, I found Jinzora, a free open-source web-based music jukebox. In my true geek-like fashion, I set it up on my church’s server and integrated it into my youth group’s website where the students can now stream their favorite Christian music 24/7. No more checking out CDs, losing them under the bed or copying them several times over.

Click the screen shot below for a clearer picture of what it looks like. Nice, eh?

(Sorry, the library is available only to manually approved members of my church’s youth group.)

SpiralFrog is a legal alternative to pirate file-sharing sites, providing a comprehensive listing of artist information, over 700,000 songs to download at no cost – with more added weekly – videos and music discovery tools.

They’re able to provide FREE legal music downloads because of the support from advertisers, so I was kinda expecting to hear 10-second ads at the beginning or end of each track, but was pleasantly surprised to hear that wasn’t the case. Instead, it looks like they ask you fill out a survey and check out some advertisers every 30 days in order to continue your service and renew the DRM licenses on your downloaded media. Granted, SpiralFrog’s music library is considerably smaller than Rhapsody’s, but SprialFrog’s press releases shows agreements made with most of the top record labels in the industry, so given some time SpiralFrog might catch up.

Unfortunately, SpiralFrog didn’t give me any free invitations to pass out. If you want to join the free legal music downloading service, you’ll have to sign up at SpiralFrog.com and wait in queue for your invitation email to show up.

[tags]SpiralFrog, Rhapsody[/tags]

I hear a voice inside
It’s grown into a scream
I’m not the next of them
I am the first of me
‘Cause I can’t live the lie
I am just what you see
I’m not the next of them
I am the first of me

How many youth pastors are frustrated in ministry because they’re trying to copy someone else’s ministry? We look up to and respect the youth pastors at the “big churches” who appear to be very successful because they have a calling from God and follow it diligently. But we often fail to remember that we too have a calling from God and need to follow it to the best of our ability.

I am not the next [insert big youth ministry name here]. I am the first Tim Schmoyer.

Oh how I adore you
Oh how I thirst for you
Oh how I need you
– Comatose, by Skillet

Despite the lies that you’re making
Your love is mine for the taking
My love is just waiting
To turn your tears to roses
I will be the one that’s gonna hold you
I will be the one that you run to
My love is a burning, consuming fire
– Whispers in the Dark, by Skillet

Listen to sample tracks here.

May I especially recommend Rebirthing, The Last Night, Yours To Hold, Falling Inside The Black, and Whispers In The Dark.

Fans of Nickelback and Hinder will appreciate the refined talent Skillet puts forth in this album. Comatose is probably one Christian album that is actually worthy of mainstream attention. I’d love to see it earn the respect of secular critics.

[tags]Skillet, Comatose[/tags]

Here’s a bunch of video clips of the music at the [tag]National Youth Workers Convention[/tag] all rolled together as one. It includes:
– [tag]David Crowder Band[/tag]
– [tag]Hawk Nelson[/tag]
– [tag]Ceili Rain[/tag]
– [tag]Shane and Shane[/tag]
– [tag]Building 429[/tag]
– [tag]Jars of Clay[/tag]
– [tag]Jeremy Camp[/tag]
– [tag]Thousand Foot Krutch[/tag]

[tags]NYWC, Youth Specialties[/tags]

So if someone tells me they can’t worship at their church, who’s fault is that? True worship is not dependent on anyone or anything else other than ourselves and our heart’s attitude toward God.

Derek Webb, on the other hand, is making his new album, “Mockingbird,” available for download from his site completely free — no strings attached. As a former member of one of my all-time favorite bands, Caedmon’s Call, Derek seeks to use his music to spark discussions among people by using the power of the Internet. He says this:

one of the things that excites me most about the future of our business is how easy it is becoming to deliver music to people who want to hear it. i heard a story once about keith green caring so much that people were able to hear and engage with his music that he gave it away for free, which was a very difficult and expensive thing to do at that time. it’s actually never been as simple as it is today to connect music with music fans. and i want people to have a chance to listen to mockingbird and engage in the conversation.

so this is why, on september 1st, we’re launching freederekwebb.com, a place where anyone can go online and not just hear but actually download, keep, and share ‘mockingbird’ completely for free. In addition, freederekwebb.com will give you an opportunity to invite your friends to download ‘mockingbird’ in order to get them in on the conversation as well.

I’m curious to follow Derek’s plan for communicating his message through music made freely available online. One thing is sure: he must absolutely believe in what he’s doing to go through all the time and expense of recording an album and then to give it away for free. I’m impressed that he would forfeit all monetary profit on something like this for the sake of promoting conversations.

Sometimes it seems that we sacrifice solid theological truth in worship songs for the sake of something that just sounds good or rhymes well. It makes me think how many Christians across the nation are singing these words without even thinking about what they’re actually saying. Fortunately worship takes place in our heart’s attitude toward God and not solely in the words we say.

The part I did see, however, was kinda disturbing, but unfortunately expected. It seems like the world is continuing to follow a downward sexual spiral. It was hard to make it through 60 seconds of the VMAs without seeing women dressed immodestly and sensual dances. Everything from Evanescence’s little talk on having sex with yourself versus group sex to Victoria’s Secret commercials that sold a lot more than just an underwear product. Other prevalent themes I saw were drunkenness, partying and pressure on girls to be physically thin.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, though, since I can’t expect lost people to act like anything other than what they are.

Still, my heart goes out to the teenagers who watch TV programming like this and unconsciously adopt the hidden worldview being communicated as if it is liberating and carefree. Little do they know the damaging affect it will ultimately have on their lives. As a youth pastor, the need to instill Godly values in the lives of teenagers and develop them to be leaders seems to be more important now than ever before.

A couple weeks ago I was asked about my personal relationship with Christ and what I did to maintain it. I guess most people except an answer like, “I read my Bible, pray, and have personal worship time and 6:00AM every morning.” Although I participate in these things (rarely at 6:00AM, though!), it’s not a forced disciplined routine for me. My time with God is different all the time. I find new and creative things to do with Him. Otherwise my spiritual walk begins to feel like a rut, not an active and vital relationship.

Although Mark Batterson’s post relates more to ministry philosophy than to personal spiritual growth, I think his concept can be applied both ways.

The program is still in beta and will not release to the general public until July 4th of this year. However, as a beta testing member, I was granted 5 special membership invitations to extend to friends, family, or whoever. Check out the site and read around a little. PCWorld also did a review that may be helpful.

If you’re interested in trading your old CDs for new music, let me know and I’ll gladly send you an invitation. Obviously, I can only invite the first five people to contact me (either by e-mail or posting a comment). The only info I’ll need is your e-mail address.

The market for digital music downloads via the Internet and mobile phones nearly tripled in 2005, accounting for 6 percent of total record industry sales, a sign anti-piracy efforts are working and digital music is catching on.

I’m not really an expert on this, but as a consumer it seems to me that the increased sales of legal music isn’t really due to anti-piracy efforts. All their law suits and hissy-fits didn’t do a thing to deter me from downloading from newsgroups as fast as my Internet connection would allow. What sold me on legal digital music was that they finally made downloading simple and flexible enough that it was worth my money. I would’ve gladly started paying earlier, but the music industry took so stinkin’ long to catch up to the ease of newsgroups and peer-to-peer networks.

Although I am generally happy with my Rhapsody-to-go subscription, there are still many times I feel like to switch back to illegal mp3s. The music licensing technology still creates all sorts of annoying errors and problems for me. Several months ago I even had to completely format my Creative Zen Micro and re-flash the firmware because, according to forums I googled since Rhapsody’s online support is weak, some music licenses somehow became corrupted and were unrepairable. Fortunately I know enough about formatting and firmware to make my Zen usable again, but I bet the average person would just trash it and give up.

Legal online music may have done better last year, but it has a far way to go until it’s as simple and easy to use as illegal music. I’m looking forward to whenever they stop tempting me to ditch their legal services.

*deep breath* Okay, so after watching the video I decided I needed a good “pick-me-up” and that this entry should do more to offer encouragement for the answer that lies in Christ rather than point out what most of us already know to be true about America’s youth. Jeremy Camp’s video also addresses pain in life but from a much different perspective. His message offers hope, a message I intend to communicate to as many students as possible.

Looking forward to seeing David Crowder again in Nashville at the Youth Specialties Convention next month, too. NYWC is gonna rock! I’m so excited!

Other tracks, however, I have a hard time listening to, and for good reason. Although most of the songs address issues of personal pain and disappointment with life and society, some include lyrics with negative spiritual overtones. One song, Deify, is even outright blasphemy!

Deify chorus:
You’re no immortal
I won’t let them
Deify you
They view you as the new messiah
Deify you
Renew belief in some demented man

I reserve no apologies for utilizing my “next track” button when songs like this start playing.

If you choose to listen to this album, be aware that the band’s spiritual outlook on life attacks Christianity, offers no hope for struggles, and offers harmful advice for dealing with pain. Why anyone would choose to live like this is beyond me.

(Due to the graphical nature of their album cover, I have decided not to post it for public display. However, having said that I know most of you are curious now. Use this link if you need a visual of it: Ten Thousand Fists album cover)

“Our father, God, Allah, we thank you for this moment in time. Bless Kanye, bless his album, take over his album and take it to the highest place possible . . . In the name of Jesus, in the name of Allah and the spirit of our inner essence. Amen.�
- Prayer by rapper Common prior to a Kanye West concert, Blender, September 2005, p. 126.

lol! Who’s he praying to? If he actually had any idea about the “gods” he’s praying to he’d know that his prayer is one of the most rediculous ideas out there. Here’s a guy who I guess trying to please a lot of people but in doing so proves his total ignorance of who God is, Allah, and whatever “inner essence” is. These concepts are all completely opposed and contradictory to each other. He might as well pray to the gods of oil, water, and gravy.

“My body was made for sin.�
- Singer/actress Jessica Simpson, Blender, September 2005, p. 46.

Jessica is going downhill fast. Whats’ the deal with her? She used to be the last female pop artist that held some kind of morals, but after her sexually-charged appearance in Dukes of Hazzard and a statement like this, I start wondering where her morals went. When asked about her role in the film, she says that God put her here on this earth to make people happy. “If showing clevage makes people happy, then that’s what I need to do. Besides, I work d*** hard for my body so I’m gonna show it.” She’s lost my respect.

Furthermore, The Parents Television Council examined 136 shows on MTV over a six month period and discovered there were 1,480 instances of swear words (938 bleeped and 542 non-bleeped) in the 71 hours of programming studied. The PTC also reports that 73% and 78% of 12-19 year-old watch MTV. That’s more than a swear word every 3 minutes! Plus, the network’s intentional agenda of promoting casual relationships, meaningless sexuality, and selfish “do what feels good” mesasges should make a Christian reconsider if anything positive could come out of consuming it’s programs.

On the other hand, the Christian band Relient K is making the charts in the mainstream market. Their music video of Be My Escape from their latest album made it into the top 10 on MTV’s TRL. The band even performed the song live on TRL on August 16, 2005. Watch the video on MTV’s site by clicking HERE.

The album, The Chronicles of Life and Death, clearly communicates that band is searching for something deeper and more meaningful in life, and by doing so they unintentionally point to God as the answer to their search. Check out some of these lyrics:

The doctor cuts your cord.
He hands you to your mom.
She sets you free into this life.
And where do you go with no destination, no maps to guide you.
Wouldn’t you know that it doesn’t matter, we all end up the same.
– Chronicles of Life and Death

As a Christian, I have a pefect map to guide me and a plan that’s been determined specifically for my life, making me unique and different from anyone else in this world.

Separate my soul
With all the things we shared
I’m fallin’ to pieces now
Say a prayer for me
When you go to bed
I’m in need of your faith now…
Pray for me now
I’m in need of faith
Pray for me now
I’m in need
– Walk Away (Maybe)

Man, they don’t even try to hide it, do they? Their lives are falling apart, so they just come straight out and ask for prayer. They seem envious of those who do have faith. Apparently someone’s been living as a positive example in their lives. Are you a Christian that’s publicly demonstrating a faith worth being envious of?

I’m lost here
I can’t make it on my own
I don’t wanna die alone
I’m so scared
Drowning now
Reaching out
Holding on to everything I know
Crying out
Dying now
Need some help
– S.O.S.

Scared of death and the unknown of what lies ahead, they’re reaching out for anything they can get their hands on. The song sounds like a desperate cry for something meaningful and purposeful in life, even something relational with someone who can provide that! “Dying now” are strong words — they need help and they know it.

The whole song, Ghost of You, deals with the reality of death. The lyrics indicate that someone close to them has died and has left them with a huge loss. Is death just a time for us to “sleep eternally together” or do we become ghosts or maybe just slip into nothingness and leave behind only memories for other people?

In the back, in the closets of your mind
Thats where skeletons and dirty secrets hide
And I’ll rip out my insides
And leave them on display for you tonight
– Secrets

Oh man, how many Christians should take this advice? How many of us are just hypocrites walking around pretending like everything is okay? We go to church, work, school, and home wearing a difference face at each place. We all change to become whoever we need to be in order to be accepted and approved in these different arenas. I wish Christians could start setting the example of what it means to “be real” and transparent the way Good Charoltte values.

Turn on channel seven at a quarter to eight
You see the same d*** thing it’s just a different day and
No one really knows why this is happening
But it’s happening…
But the world is black
And hearts are cold
And there’s no hope…

People always tell me this is part of the plan
That God’s got everybody in His hands
But I can only pray that God is listening
Is He listening?
– The World is Black

The age-old question of “If there’s a God, then why do so many bad things happen? Is He really in control or does he just choose to let the world become such a dark place?” It’s a great question that everyone has asked at some point in their lives. I’m glad Good Charoltte is publicly asking questions like this and in-turn challenging others to do the same.

I wasn’t on a mountain
When it came to me.
All my life’s been wasted,
Chasing shallow dreams.
Years go by
And nothing’s slowing down the time
Years go by
And then they’re wasted.
All this time
I thought that I gained everything,
If you are not mine
I’m so empty.
– Mountain

Okay, a slight diversion from the focus of the album so far, huh? They know they’re empty and in need of something deeper, and they’re even heading in the right direction to finding it in a relationship! But they make a wrong turn and look to an earthly relationship to fill that void instead.

There’s a woman crying out tonight
Her world has changed
She asks God why
Her only son has died
And now her daughter cries
She can’t sleep at night…
We are all the same
Human in all our ways and all our pain (So let it be)
There’s a love that could fall down like rain (Let us see)
Let forgiveness wash away the pain (What we need)
And no one really knows what they are searching for (We believe)
This world is crying for so much more…
So this world
Is too much
For you to take
Just lay it down and follow me
I’ll be everything you need
In every way
– We Believe

Aww man, they get so close to the answer! Yes, this world is full of pain and questions of “Why?” bad things happen so often. Yes, we’re all human and experience pain. Yes, there’s a love that could fall like rain! Yes, forgiveness is what is needed to wash away the pain! And yes, the world is crying for so much more! But why do they stop there?! Following what almost sounds like a direct quote from Christ Himself about laying “it” down and following Him, they say, “I’ll be everything you need.” I don’t see any other explanation for this other than another reference Christ, even if it’s unintentional. I hear this song and I become excited about the message being communicated, as if the band has almost reached the point of trusting Christ. They at least seem to understand His message, huh? But the excitement is quickly extinguished by the next song on the album.

I will try to believe in the things I cannot see
But my faith is shaken now like it’s never been before
When I call
And you don’t come
I don’t know what I should do
Should I call?
Should I even count on you?
– It Wastn’t Enough

Man, my heart sinks. They were so close. Asking tough questions like this can be good and healthy, but they almost seem to reject faith in God rather than honestly search for answers. They seem to know the answer to their pain, lonliness, and emptiness but I guess they’re having a hard time trusting Him. They cry out for help but receive no apparent response. Should they keep trying? It God even trustworthy or dependable at all to answer our cries?

In This World (Murder) seems to speak either against abortion in our country or the war in Iraq. They call the act of taking innocent life “sin” and “murder.” They furthermore say pretty strongly that those who take innocent life will never make it to heaven.

The album goes on to discuss in songs like Meet My Maker and Wounded how they plan to give up on life and (flipantly) meet their maker. They sing about the continual bleeding they feel in their faith-stretched soul until death comes to offer relief. It’s a disappointing ending.

Personally, I really enjoy Good Charlotte’s music and their artistic abilities to communicate through modern music. They do a great job in this album of communicating three things that Christians need to take very seriously:

First, people are experiencing deep pain and struggles.
Second, the pain is causing them to ask tough questions about God and faith.
Third, they’re looking for answers!

What’s even more exciting is that people are not even entirely opposed to God being the answer. They’re searching for something, some meaning, something kind of relationship fill the empty void. We have the answer they’re looking for. They want and need to hear about it, so let’s not keep the answer to ourselves. It’s time to be transparent and real about our lives and our faith. Based on Good Charlotte’s album, The Chronicles of Life, it sounds like an unstoppable combination to winning our world to Christ.

Sometime around last year I subscribed to Rhapsody music service, a legal online music company, in striving to become a little more legal with my music downloads. I paid $8.95/month for unlimited access to all the streaming music my little heart could desire. The service was simple to use, I could easily have all my music syncronized on any computer, and I had the option to stream the music, saving me lots and lots of diskspace. The downside was that I could only listen to the music on a computer — I couldn’t transfer any of it to a portable mp3 player or burn them to CD without buying the track for $0.89 per song, which could obviously add up pretty quick.

Well, along with recent efforts to become completely legal with all my music, Rhapsody has added a new service that not only makes that possible for me, but also makes it worth the extra money. Now, for the cost of one album a month ($15), I can download and transfer an unlimited number of tracks to my 5 GB Creative Zen Micro mp3 player to take with me wherever I want. That’s somewhere around 1,500 songs I can now take anywhere for the price of one album a month. And the process is so simple: just connect the mp3 player to your computer, easily find the music you want (out of 1,000,000+ tracks available), drag it to your mp3 player, let it sync, and you’re good to go. I can also sync individual playlists or use the Creative Zen Micro as an external hard drive to store normal computer files. It’s not that I can’t find this music for free in other places, it’s just that now paying $15/month for such simplicity and ease of use is totally worth it.

So yeah, as I write this I am downloading hundreds of songs off Rhapsody and sync’ing it to my Zen Micro, all legally! Not that this makes anyone else excited besides me, but just thought I’d share anyway.

In other brief news, we leave for the missions trip a week from today. Oh so much planning and little details to remember and work out. Hopefully by the end of today I’ll finally have the bible studies finished and sent out to the leaders to review this week. It looks like we’ll have over 40 campers, which will make camp much different from last year when we only accepted 18. That’s 220% growth! Good thing all the Redeemer people are coming to help with that. Whew…

Also, Pastor Rol gave me the option of preaching on Memorial Day since he’ll be out of town. He usually arranges to bring in guest speakers when he’s away, but he asked me if I’d like to teach that Sunday instead. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to take his offer, but I just may. I would conduct the message much differently than a normal sermon because, one, I hate “preaching,” two, I always like to find new effective ways of doing things, and three, I can get away with doing weird things since I’m the youth pastor. I think it’s kinda expected of me now anyway.

Okay, off to do laundry, food shopping, cleaning up around the apartment, and working on missions trip bible studies, and of course filling up my Zen Micro.

1. Right Here (Album Version) – Staind
2. The Wait Is Over – Disciple
3. Stripped Away – Disciple
4. Into Black – Disciple
5. Only You – Disciple
6. Rise Up – Disciple
7. Worth It All – Disciple
8. Shine Down – Disciple
9. Falling Over – Disciple
10. Go Ahead – Disciple
11. Beautiful – Disciple
12. Be The Quiet – Disciple
13. Backstabber – Disciple
14. All We Have Is Now – Disciple
15. Tribute – Disciple
16. Heavy – Collective Soul
17. She Said – Collective Soul
18. Shine – Collective Soul
19. Energy – Collective Soul
20. Run – Collective Soul
21. Gel – Collective Soul
22. Precious Declaration – Collective Soul
23. Why Pt. 2 – Collective Soul
24. The World I Know – Collective Soul
25. Next Homecoming – Collective Soul
26. Listen – Collective Soul
27. December – Collective Soul
28. Forgiveness – Collective Soul