I probably should’ve blogged about this a while ago for you guys since a lot of your graduation parties and events are probably over, but if you’re like me, it’s coming up this weekend.

Animoto.com is the easiest to quickly create professional looking video slideshows from all the pictures you’ve collected of your seniors over the years. Upload your photos, add your own soundtrack, Animoto analyzes the music, and melds it with the photos in a way that feels somewhat like MTV video.

A free account will get you unlimited 30-second slideshows, so if you want something longer than that you’ll have to pay $3 per video or upgrade to an All Access account for $30/year. Alternatively, I heard some churches are scoring free All Access accounts through Animoto’s “For A Cause” program. (Click on “a cause” at the bottom of the screen on their site.)

Here’s a video I made a couple weeks ago mostly with Animoto.com for our Volunteer Appreciation Sunday at church. (I used iMovie to put our church’s intro and outro on it.) Check out our Volunteer Appreciation video on YouTube.

[ Visit Animoto.com ]

The guys at Animoto.com have been nice enough to give me another set of FREE 3-month All Access passes to give away to five of you all. If you’re not familiar with Animoto.com, it’s a website that makes amazing video slideshows from your pictures. Upload your pictures, add your own soundtrack, it analyzes the music, and melds the two together in a way that feels somewhat like MTV video. You can either upload your pictures manually or send Animoto to fetch them from other sites like your Facebook account, Picasa, or Flickr. Adding music works the same way: upload your own mp3 or select a track from their growing library of music beds, including many Christian artists like Steven Curtis Chapman, TobyMac, and Jeremy Camp. For an extra measure of fun, you can remix the pics and music again and again to get other versions of your slideshow. No two videos are ever the same. It’s definitely worth checking out for transforming all your youth group pictures into very professional videos. In fact, here’s one I made a while back for our missions trip last summer.

Belize Missions 2008 Pictures

Thirty-second clips are free, or you can upgrade to an unlimited All Access pass for $30/year.

OR, you can win a 3-month All Access pass to Animoto.com by contributing to MinistryQuestions.com. I’ll give away one All Access pass every Wednesday for the next 5 weeks to the top user on the Weekly Top User Chart (excluding myself and any previous winners). This chart is based on the number of points you earn. Although you can earn points by asking questions, posting answers, and responding to debates, the fastest way is to be awarded points from others on the site. This is done by rating each other’s questions, answers, and debates with the star ratings in the red division bar below each user’s response. If you think someone gave a good answer, give them some points! If you think they asked an excellent question, give them some points! If you see someone was awarded 4 points for a question, but you think it’s only worth 1, give them a one-star rating and lower the point value of that question. Points are determined by both you and your peers, so have fun!

Head to MinistryQuestions.com and join a community of ministry workers who will invest into your ministry as you invest into others.

1. TxtSignal.com: $30/month

With a couple of my youth group kids burning through 18,000 text messages in one month each (yes, seriously!), it almost seems remiss not to use it to communicate with teens. I use TxtSignal.com to send announcements and last-minute reminders, cancel events, send daily devotional thoughts, run contests, share prayer requests, and get quick feedback about a question or idea, and more. It’s definitely our #1 most effective tool for communicating with teens in our ministry. Although the TxtSignal.com plan I use runs $30/month, you can get plans as cheap as $10/month with a 30-day FREE trial.

2. Youth group website: $15/month

In my youth ministry, our website is the #2 most effective tool we have for mass communicating news and announcements. Although there are places to get free websites (like WordPress.com), I opted to purchase a web hosting plan and build it myself so we could more flexibility in how we use it. Check out the tutorial I wrote about how to build an interactive youth group website for more on what the site entails and how you can build one, too. Of course, you could always check out my own website service at MinistryWebsites.biz and help support the ongoing work here at Life In Student Ministry.

3. Covenant Eyes: $8/month

I have Covenant Eyes installed on every computer in my house. It logs every web page I visit and sends a weekly email report to a couple people for accountability. As a guy in ministry, it is absolutely imperative that I protect my integrity. In case an accusation is ever made, I have reports on record. Definitely worth the $8/month! Use promo code “youthministry” to get the first 30 days free!

4. Volunteer appreciation gifts: varies

Without adult youth workers, there would be no youth ministry. They serve in so many ways, giving up so much of their time, energy and resources, and they absolutely must be thanked. Occasional gifts and thank-you cards can never repay all that they give to teens and the ministry, but it’s better than nothing. In my ministry’s youth budget, I seem to always overspend the “Volunteer appreciation” line item, and they are totally worth it.

5. Animoto.com: $30/year

If you saw the Christmas greeting video from me and Dana, you’ve seen a sample of what Animoto.com does. It takes your digital pictures from your latest youth event, lets you add some titles and music, and spits out a video that is entertaining and very professional. It’s a great way to share memories with the congregation and preserve the experience for kids online. An unlimited pass for the site costs $30/year, but 30-second clips are free if that’s sufficient for you. Sign up at Animoto.com.

I’m very excited about what Life In Student Ministry has become over the past two years. I certainly did not originally intend for this site to grow into the youth ministry resource it is now, but I’m excited to see the Lord has used it anyway, with almost daily 2,000 visitors and 1,600 subscribers via RSS, email, Facebook app, and the Mac widget. As it continues to grow along with the field of youth ministry, it also needs to be tuned up a bit. I have a lot of ideas running through my head about how to bless you and your ministries, but I need your input to know how to prioritize my time and energy for you.

I’d appreciate it if you’d take a very brief survey to help me know how to best mold Life In Student Ministry. It should take about five minutes to complete the 7 objective questions and the 1 open question (optional). Here’s the link:

Survey ended! Congratulations to Jeremy Simons, Claudia Farr, Brian LaRue, Justin Ross, and Mike Kupferer for winning a 3-month unlimited FREE pass to Animoto.com!

Last week I wrote a review of Animoto.com and how great it is for creating easy MTV-like video slideshows from your youth group pictures and music background. As an incentive, they’ve given me five 3-month Unlimited Passes to give away to 5 random people who complete the survey. Just include your name and email address in the survey and you’ll be entered in the drawing on Monday, August 4th, 2008. (The 5 winners will be announced via Twitter, the Life In Student Ministry Facebook page and contacted privately via email.)

If you haven’t checked out Animoto.com yet, do so! Your teens will think you’re a video tech genius.

And, of course, thank you for a brief moment of your time to help Life In Student Ministry know how to effectively minister to you and your ministry. You can also leave any public thoughts on this matter in the comments below or contact me privately.