Youth Ministry and Me

Here are some statistics about the digital world we now live in to blow your mind!!



HT to Michael Hyatt

This is a good blog. It's about productivity. It's written by Matt Perman who works for Desiring God. It's called What's Best Next. What's it about? In his own words:

"This blog is about two things: (1) how to best manage our lives and work, and (2) how to best think about the way that the businesses and non-profits that we work for — and communities that we live in — should be led."

The online mission trip is truly an great idea.

Only thing is it is on at such a bad time. End of summer holidays and then the very start of term 1. Especially for me this year as I'll be getting married and honeymooning!

I wonder if I can steal lots of the ideas and training and do it myself at a more convenient time. Although then I lose the whole, Christians all round the world are doing this vibe.

Hmmm... If it's a good time for you and your youth ministry, then I'd definitely recommend looking at it. I'm thinking a whole set of training sessions on using Facebook appropriately as a Christian might be needed for youth and leaders in general.

So a lot of people laugh at me when I talk about or tell people that I use and enjoy Twitter.

The biggest criticism I hear of Twitter goes something like this, "I don't want to know what you had for breakfast". First of all, this shows a major misunderstanding of Twitter - Twitter is more about conversations and passing on interesting websites and ideas - and second, for some famous people or Christians who we look up to it can actually be interesting to get an insight into what their lives look like. I know a whole lot more about people like Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, Michael Hyatt, Max Lucado, Don Miller and Doug Fields, because they tell me about their lives on Twitter. This is actually both interesting and refreshing to see lots of what they do is just like me, hang out with their family, friends etc.


Putting this aside there are three other great reasons I like Twitter. First, I've been able to interact with people I would never have if it wasn't for Twitter. I've had conversations on Twitter with John Piper (or the guy who twitters for him at least), David Allen, Alan Hirsch, Lifeway Student Ministry, Rick Smith, Guy Mason, Communicate Jesus (aka Steve Kryger), the Youth Ministry Blog people, to name a few.

The second great reason for my love of Twitter is that I've had consumer problems fixed because of Twitter. Back in March, I was seriously annoyed with The Commonwealth Bank for something they did. I wrote this on Twitter, and then they rang me to sort it out! (I have blogged about that before). Then just last week I tried to reformat my first computer hard-drive. This was going very badly and I tweeted that I needed to find the Drivers for the Medion computer I was playing with. Medion UK replied to that tweet and told me where to get the drivers from. And now that computer works fine!

The third reason is because I have also won a CD through Twitter. It was from Lifeway Student Ministry when I entered a competition on the pastor ran on Twitter only for Youth Pastors.

So I would encourage you to stop bagging twitter, or stop wondering about it and make a commitment to try it out for a month (aiming for 2 tweets a day). And see what happens.

Twitter is all about followers, so at the end of this post I'll give you a great list of people or organisations who are worth following on Twitter. Start interacting with them. You will enjoy it. It's also fine in Twitter land to follow and unfollow (stop following) people. So follow someone, and if they are boring or annoying, simply unfollow them. I have done this several times.

The other thing that most people who use Twitter do is use a 3rd party program. This makes Twitter better. I use TweetDeck. It's the best one I've found. You can download it here

If you want to learn more about Twitter, check out the Mashable Twitter Guide book. It lays out everything you need to know to get started!

So why not head on over to twitter and sign up now?

People worth following:
Me (Chris Bowditch)
HTD Youth (The Youth Ministry I run)
Michael Hyatt (CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers)
Mashable (The latest info in the world of social media)
Communicate Jesus (Steve Kryger talks Web 2.0, social media and harnessing it for the church)
Rick Warren (Senior Pastor and Founder of Saddleback church, Author of Purpose Driven Life)
Tim Schmoyer (Youth Pastor in USA. Great websites - www.studentministry.org)
Jetstar Airways (Find out when there are cheap flights)
Virgin Blue (Find out when there are cheap flights)
Wayne Schuller (Assistant Minister at Holy Trinity Anglican Church)
Jono Smith (Assistant Minister at Holy Trinity Anglican Church)
Louie Giglio (Founder of the Passion Conference)
Desiring God (John Piper's ministry)
ESV Daily Bible (The Bible is good)
Ed Stetzer (Christian researcher in the USA. Into church planting)
John Piper (Needs no introduction, dead set legend)
Mark Driscoll (Howdy Mars Hill, Pastor of Mars Hill Church Seattle)
Matt Chandler (Pastor of Church in Dallas TX)
Don Miller (Author of many books, eg. Blue Like Jazz, Searching for God Knows What)
Max Lucado (Christian Author)
Rick Smith (American speaker to youth, and theology student)
Google (search engine)
Google Books (cool part of the web, they tweet cool quotes)
VictoriaPolice (Find out all the crazy things that people do in Melbourne)
Victorian Premier (Doesn't really know how to use this, but he might one day)
Kevin Rudd (Australia's Prime Minister, actually really interesting, writes his own tweets too)
Bob Kauflin (American worship pastor)
David Allen (Getting Things Done guy)
Alan Hirsch (Australian Missiologist, founder of FORGE)
Will Briggs (Tasmanian church planter)
Doug Fields (American Youth Pastor, Author of many Youth Ministry books)
Creative Youth Ideas (Tweets ideas about Youth Ministry)
Guy Mason (Melbourne Church planter)
Youth Ministry Blog (A good American youth ministry blog - multi-authored)

You can also go to the Twitter Suggestions section and look for some people there.

Hyatt is CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing and writes and interesting blog and is worth following on Twitter. Check out his blog post on the potential twitter has for leaders to extend their influence.

EXAMEN.me is a great site that lets you read the bible and pray and enjoy the gift of communing with God, that God gives us as Christians. I wouldn't recommend making this the number one way you read and pray, but I think it makes a good addition to your devotional life. Especially if you get to work at your computer and haven't had time to pray yet! (It can take anywhere between 5mins and 1hr, but that's totally up to you and God!)

Ps. Someone in the blogging world linked to this first, but I can't remember who. So HT to them!

That's what wolfram tells me.

I don't think this is the new google as some have claimed. But it's pretty cool.

So, earlier on today I put on twitter that I was unhappy with the service I had got from the Commonwealth Bank.

Anyhow, I then started getting followed by someone who sent me a message asking me what happened? Turns out he was in Customer Relations at the bank. Anyway, I sent him back a few direct twitter messages telling him of my frustration and he obviously pulled my details up on his computer and gave me a call and lodged a complaint form!

How cool is that!?

I am no longer pissed with the Commonwealth Bank either (even though the original problem hasn't gone away!)

I've been on twitter for just over a month now, but am only now just starting to use it more.

So if you read this blog and have a twitter account, why not follow me?

http://twitter.com/casperchris

My phone died, and so I had to get a new one. It's a Nokia E71

It is great. It sync's with my computer. Has a calendar in it that works (bye, bye paper diary) which i'm using to increase my efficiency. It can go online, check my email on the run, and has GPS built in so that I can navigate around this big city that is Melbourne. I'm actually using my phone a lot more since I've upgraded to a phone that doesn't frustrate me. NEVER EVER GO NEAR ANY PHONE MADE BY ZTE. I had a ZTE 850 and it was the worst phone that has ever been made. (It is reviewed here too) I'm very happy to have a Nokia again. They are just very smart phones. See the Nokia website for more details.

I also ditched Telstra and moved to Three (3). Essentially Telstra just kept lying to me about a whole range of things. When I signed up nearly two years ago they lied about what was included in their cap. Then when I went to sign up for their internet they lied about how cheap I could get connected for in my new house. Then they lied about how much it would cost me to cancel my contract early. I have never dealt with a more inept company in my life. Avoid Telstra at all costs is my advice.

That's me doing my bit for consumer fightback against the big companies!