Free E-Book - Firing Jesus by Greg Stier

I had the opportunity to participate in a webinar hosted by Greg Stier, the president of Dare2Share Ministries. I will be sharing some of the notes that I took during the webinar in a later post, but I wanted to get this into your hands quickly.

Not only is Greg the president of Dare2Share, he is also a prolific writer. His latest book is called Firing Jesus. The idea behind Firing Jesus is whether or not Jesus would make it as a youth pastor in many of today's churches. While I have not had the opportunity to read the whole thing, I have read the first two chapters and it is really good stuff. The book is fairly short (about 112 pages) and many have told me on Twitter that they read it in one sitting.

Because Greg is so gracious, he gave me permission to give out the link for the book. If you would like to get a free copy of Firing Jesus, you simply need to follow this link. In return for the book, you simply need to give them some information and get signed up for their newsletter. Dare2Share is an incredible ministry and their newsletter is always backed full of great stuff.

Go here to get your free copy of Firing Jesus.

If you have never taken the time to read Greg Stier's book Outbreak, I highly recommend you do so. It will give you a passion to train students to share the Gospel.

My Top Five iPad/iPod Touch Apps For Youth Ministry

One of the most important tools that a youth pastor can have is an iPod Touch or iPad. I have been blessed to have both. I purchased the iPod about a year or so ago, when the headphone jack on the first one went out. Additionally, the school I teach at has given a few of the teachers iPads to use in the classroom.

One of the things that youth pastors like to write about are their favorite apps. One time I wrote about my favorite apps for the Kindle Fire, but here is a list of the most used iPod/iPad apps in my ministry.

Evernote is probably the most important tool you will use in youth ministry, other than your Bible. Evernote is a storage system that you can access from nearly everywhere. I use to store my sermon notes, meetings notes, and blog posts that I see that I want to go back to in the future. I can type the notes on my laptop, save them to Evernote, and then access them on my iPad. The only downside is that you have to be connected to the internet to readily access your files, but this is easily solved by downloading your files before you get to an area where you may not have service.

I think Facebook should be pretty self-explanatory. I have heard that there are more individuals on Facebook than live in a lot of countries. That means your students are probably on Facebook. If you want to keep up with what is going on in their lives, Facebook will tell you. You can also use Facebook to send out events and announcements. This is a great app to have.

   Students love to see pictures of themselves, especially when they know that it will be posted on Facebook. Instagram is an incredible camera app that works with the camera installed in your iPod Touch or iPad. After taking the picture, you have the option of choosing various filters, applying a caption, and sending it directly to your Facebook account.

The Hootsuite app is essential if you are trying to update and maintain a personal Facebook page, a youth group Facebook page, and a Twitter account. Hootsuite allows you to link a number of accounts to it and you can update as many as you would like in just a few simple steps. Right now, I am able to update two Twitter accounts (@wannabepreacher and @ctbcjonathan) and both of my Facebook pages with one app. It saves me a lot of time.

I don't see this app mentioned often, but it is a great tool, especially when you need to learn a lot of new names and faces. While I have not figured out all of its functions, I do know that Evernote Hello allows the user to take a picture of an individual, attach a name, and write the location. My plan is to use it more extensively when our youth group has a number of guests coming in. I had a pastor who took pictures of individuals with a Polaroid camera, so he could learn the names and faces. This is the updated version.

There you go, my five favorite iPad/iPod Touch apps. I use most of these apps almost everyday and I believe that they have had a huge benefit on my ministry.

What apps do you use in your ministry?

Preaching from a Tablet - Yes or No?

There has been some discussion as of late as to whether a preacher should use an iPad or other device when speaking to a group. Some say yes, some say no. Personally, I nearly always preach from either my Kindle or an iPad. Here are some reasons why.

1. Preaching from a device keeps me on track. I type up my notes and load them as a PDF onto the device. This prevents me from losing my notes or having the pages get mixed up. There is nothing worse than losing your place on the paper or having one of your sheets fall out.
   
2. The device is more efficient. With just a swipe of my finger, I can go to the next page or go back to a previous page. There is no shuffling of notes or pages to drop.
   
3. Putting my notes on a device is more economical. Let's face it, paper and ink cost money. The average sermon outline is around 4 pages and the average manuscript can run up to about 10 pages (well, if you are verbose like me). Those little ink cartridges are expensive and they always seem to run short on the day I am supposed to preach. Putting my notes or manuscripts on my device lets me use as much color and "ink" as I want without the fear of running out or having to shell out $20 just to print my maunscript.
   

I have had the privilege to preach from a Kindle, Kindle Fire, and an iPad. All have their benefits, but I think the best option is the iPad. The screen is bigger and it is much easier to flip to the next page just by swiping. The Kindle Fire is also a good option, but the screen is a bit smaller.