I love video games, especially when I play with other students and everyone’s only goal becomes to beat their youth pastor! I tend to have at least an idea of what’s new out there in the video game world, but I still found WhatTheyPlay.com to be a tremendous resource. It’s geared toward helping parents (and youth workers) figure out what’s appropriate for their kids to play without making the parent play through the whole game first. The reviews are pretty neutral, covering the synopsis of the game and a brief rundown of anything that might be considered inappropriate (although the Guitar Hero 3 review failed to explain the extent of how far sexuality actually goes in the game). The parents are then left to decide if it’s ok for their kids to play or not. A rating at the end indicates what age level other parents think the game is appropriate for, as well as comments and insights from site visitors that I often found to be even more helpful than the original review itself. The screenshots and video trailers posted with each game are also helpful for someone who wants to see visuals of what the game is all about. Check it out: WhatTheyPlay.com

P.S. If you play on Xbox Live, let me know and let’s exchange gamer tags!

This Internet tool I use in ministry came as an afterthought because I often forget I’m even using it, but it’s so critical that I have to mention it.

What is Mozy.com?
Mozy.com is an award winning backup service that offers 2GB of FREE online storage for all my important computer documents, emails, photos, music, address books, and more. It’s safe, secure and best of all, it’s so automated and easy to use that I often forget it’s even there. I’ve suffered from several computer crashes and hard drive failures in the past and I hate the process afterwards of trying to gather and re-enter contact info again, remembering details contained in certain documents that I’ll never see again and kissing all my hard work goodbye. But I also hate dealing with many of the other backup solutions out there that I’ve tried. They either don’t work, contain errors in the backups, require an external hard drive, or are difficult to set up.

Configuring backups is easy
Mozy’s service couldn’t be easier to configure! I can tell the Mozy software to backup certain types of files, specify certain files and folders to backup, or a combination of both, as you can see by clicking on the screenshots of my configuration below.

Restoring files is even easier
Restoring either individual files or my all computer’s data is just as simple. There’s a couple different options:

Option #1: The first restore option is to simply right-click on the file or folder that you want to restore and select “Restore Previous Version.” You can then select the version to restore, from the most recent version up to 30 days back.

Option #2: The second restore option is to restore via the Mozy Virtual Drive. You can find this when you open up “My Computer” on your machine and select the Mozy icon from the “other” category.

Option #3: The third restore option is to restore via the web. Go to the Restore page, login and select the computer and time/date you want to restore data from. Select all the data you want to restore.

Here’s a screenshot of the web’s restore interface and the software’s restore interface. Click the image to view it full size.

You can then choose whether or not you want to restore via download or, for a fee, have a DVD shipped to you. Make your selection, and the restoration process will begin.

How to get more storage space
Of course, 2GB of free online storage is not a whole lot of space when you have multiple hard drives filled with data, but at least it’s sufficient for backing up critical documents and files you can’t replace. If you need more space, you can get it for free by asking others to sign up for the service under your referral link (found under your account’s referrals page on Mozy’s site) as I’m doing here or you can purchase the unlimited plan for $4.95/month.

Conclusion
There’s a lot of backup solutions out there, but Mozy is the only one I’ve found that’s actually easy to use, works perfectly, and doesn’t pester me with errors. Plus, it’s completely free. I put too much hard work and time into the content I generate for my church and youth ministry to kiss it all goodbye due to a hard drive failure, system corruption or even having my MacBook Pro stolen.

Earlier this year I blogged about a site called vixy.net, a tool I used to download YouTube videos in various different formats to use for teaching purposes. Unfortunately, many of the same problems that plagued vixy.net still continue today: slow convert time, sluggish download speeds, often unresponsive site and the annoying logo it added to the end of all you videos. It really hasn’t improved at all.

Since then I’ve since found another site that does the same thing, but with less problems: vconvert.net. Not only does vconvert.net have more video formats to choose from, it also downloads your YouTube video selection much quicker and does nothing to add a pesky logo to your clip.

There’s so many great video clips on YouTube that serve as great teaching aids and vconvert.net helps me save those clips to my computer in a format I can use for embedding into slideshow presentations and even burning to DVD.

I’ve been using TheParentLink.com for a couple years now for my parent ministry newsletter. Every month they provide an customizable newsletter full of great content, insights and resources for parents. You can add your own logo, write your own columns if you want or use their default content, which is usually pretty excellent. Each newsletter also includes a calendar where you can post scheduled events and meetings. When you’re finished, they give you several ways to save and distribute your newsletter: PDF, HTML or Word document. Personally, I archive a PDF version on our youth group website, print out several copies on 11×17 paper for our youth display at church, and then distribute the HTML version by email (I import the HTML newsletter file into an email that retains the layout and all formatting).

• Complete: A ready-to-print, monthly newsletter
• Flexible: Customize 2 articles, calendar and more
• Relevant: Biblical-based content, 7-12th grade topics
• Affordable: $99 per year (that’s only $8.25 a month)

Each month covers a different topic. Some recent topics are:

• Teaching your teens to manage their time
• Encouraging your teen’s talents
• The disconnect of integrity
• Helping your teens find THE answer
• Joining the fight against poverty
• Teaching teens that words matter

To take a tour and find out more information, go to TheParentLink.com.

Maybe this should go without saying, but I use Facebook a lot in ministry. Since almost every student has a Facebook account it makes for a great centralized place for easy communication. Here are some of the ways I use it:

Private Messaging
Last week I blogged about how email is old-school and teens no longer use it as a primary means of communication for various reasons. However, private messaging on social networking sites is definitely one of the top ways they talk online now, so I use it as a replacement for email. If I need to send a message to a student, I send it on Facebook instead of email.

Youth Group “group”
With our youth group Facebook group, all the students can share pictures, videos, cool links and exchange comments throughout the week. It’s an easy central hub of communication throughout the week. I use our Facebook group mostly for sending mass private messages to everyone in the group about upcoming news and announcements they should be aware of.

Event RSVP
Through our Facebook group, I sometimes create events and send invitations all the youth group kids to RSVP as “attending,” “not attending” or “maybe attending.” Even though we have sign-ups on our website, too, when people join an event in Facebook, it shows up in all their friends’ news feed and gives the event some free publicity to other students who otherwise might not know about it. Of course, they can easily check out more details of the event and sign-up to attend, too, if they’d like.

News application
Creating a Facebook application that streams your latest youth group news straight to student’s profiles is a bit nerdier, but I tried to make the process as simple and easy-to-understand in this tutorial. Basically, it’s nothing more than an RSS reader for you youth group news inside of Facebook for students. This puts announcements right where they’ll see it and where their friends will see it, too.

See what kids are up to during the week
Although all these other things are nice and all, the main thing I use Facebook for is to keep up with kids lives through the week. I love seeing what they’re up to, what they’re thinking, how they respond to different things their friends post, the kinds of content they post themselves, and all the joking around that takes place. It’s fun.

Results of my blog’s Facebook application
Two weeks ago I announced my first Facebook application, a simple RSS reader that streams my latest blog posts to Facebook profiles. It’s actually been quite effective so far. Facebook is sending me a modest amount of traffic and new people are adding the app every day.

Why you should use this for your youth group
I also copied the app and made another one to stream my youth group news, updates and announcements straight to my students’ profiles. There’s several advantages to using a tool like this:

• My students have direct access to youth group news right within Facebook.
• All their friends will also see the youth group news, a great outreach tool.
• Every update title automatically links back to our youth group site for more info.
• Students can invite their friends to add the application to their profiles, too, thus spreading the news even further.
• It’s one of the most ideal ways to communicate with students on their turf.
• The app only shows headlines and a summary of the content so it doesn’t overcrowd profile pages.

Two ways to get this Facebook app for yourself or your ministry
This is such a great communication tool that I want to show you all how you can have one, too. There’s two ways to do this:

1. Let me build and host it for you. I realize a lot of people feel lost when it comes to this kinda stuff, but still could greatly benefit from having the tool. So, I’m willing to create the app for you, host it, maintain it and everything! Just click here to find out more details.

2. Follow my instructions below and create one yourself.

Continue Reading

Wow, I never thought this would happen to anything I write! Waldy Schröder, a youth worker in Germany, took my free ebook, “130 Youth Ministry Tips & Ideas,” got a couple friends together and translated it into German. I can’t read a single word of it, but still, that’s just awesome! Who woulda thunk it?

130 Tips und Ideen fur Jugendarbeit

Anyone want to translate it into Spanish?

Of course, the English version of the ebook is still available, too. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s a free download and packed with 130 tips and ideas for youth ministry. Get it in English here.

For one week only, download Group Publishing’s “ER Handbook for Youth Ministry.” It normally costs $14.99, but for one week only they’re making it available for free! Here’s the description from their website:

Teens face difficult, painful stuff in life — and they shouldn’t struggle alone. But what do you say? How do you help? What if you make things worse? This rapid-response handbook gives you and your youth group the confidence to share God’s love and comfort with hurting friends. You will be prepared to respond with 12 chapters focused on twelve emergencies that the teens you care for may encounter.

Topics include:

• Grief
• Depression
• Suicide
• Addictions
• Divorce
• Abuse
• Crisis Pregnancy
• Academic Problems
• Family Conflict
• Stress and Anxiety
• Destructive Behavior
• Gender Identity and Sexual Choices

Each chapter includes:

• Real Life Narrative - Learn from someone who has been there
• Care and Counseling Tips - Practical ideas to personally reach out in love
• Tips for your entire youth group - Great ways your group can offer support
• What to say and what not to say - Positive encouragement to help the hurting and advice on what not to say
• You’ll also find Scripture connections, guidelines for referring your friend to a professional counselor, additional resources, and ways your group can stand by your friend in need.

Download, “Emergency Response Handbook for Youth Ministry” *

*download available for one week only

I saw this news clip on YouTube about Owen Wilson’s recent suicide attempt. There’s a lot of good comments in this clip by (assumed) unbelievers about how empty fame and fortune really is.

“How can someone who seems to have it all be such a troubled person?” (News reporter)

“We succeed to the very best we can be and there’s still an emptiness within us…and we don’t know how to appropriately fill that… If we don’t get the help we need, the only answer is to end it.” (Interviewee)

“He’s a celebrity, he dates beautiful women, he’s got tons of money, a guy who really seems, on the outside anyway, to really have it all. Does this just point out that living the Hollywood dream really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?” (News reporter)

“No matter what it seems like on the outside, living to get that ‘next fix’ is the only thing you live for. It’s hell! It’s a living hell!” (Interviewee)

I edited the YouTube clip a little to make it shorter and used it as a part of my lesson today about how only a relationship with God can satisfy. It also works well with Dare2Share’s latest youth leader lesson, Owen Wilson’s Meltdown (free, but site registration is required). Download the clip here if you wanna use it sometime:

Owen Wilson suicide news report (3 min, 16 sec; Divx format; 27.6MB)

When I posted about Simplify Media, the free service for sharing iTunes libraries online with friends, it seemed to be a big hit. I actually used the service for a while before I even thought to blog about it. It made me think, “What other free services do I use and take for granted that others should know about?” Today I read a post on Chris’ blog that triggered another one for you guys.

Ever since I got my beloved MacBook Pro I’ve been using Mozy to safely backup all my data online. The client sits in my taskbar and automatically backs up all my data online. A free account gives me 2GB of storage space, which is plenty since I don’t bother to backup my iTunes library, pictures or videos (I still have all the music CDs, the pictures are also stored on my desktop at home and videos I manually dump on our church’s backup server). There are three things I love about Mozy:

1. It doesn’t bug me. I seriously forgot it was there until I read Chris’ blog. It just works on its own.
2. It’s easy to set up and use. I just choose what I want it to backup (like iCal, Mail, system preferences, documents, even specific file types or folders) and click OK.
3. It uses almost no system resources. It has never affected CPU usage or memory, the exact opposite from other backup solutions I’ve tried.

Backups are something you don’t usually think of until it’s too late, which is why I love Mozy. I thought of it once long enough to setup Mozy and haven’t thought of it since then. I just love the security of knowing every time I check on it I see something like, “Last backup: 1 hour ago.”

Admittedly, I’ve only used the Mac beta version, so I can’t speak for the Windows version, but if the Mac beta works this well, I can only assume that the Windows version, which is not in beta, works just as well. The biggest downside to the Windows version is, well, that it’s running on Windoze.

Check out Mozy.

[tags]Mozy[/tags]