Some of you out there may be avid bible readers, others may casually browse it, and some of you might be so intimidated that you haven’t started because you just don’t know where to begin. If you fall into one of these categories, I want to introduce you today to a really cool new tool to help you, no matter which category you’re in – YouVersion. There are a variety of ways to go about reading the Bible, and YouVersion.com offers 21 plans to choose from in order to help you. You can read the Bible through chronologically, a combination of Old and New Testament readings each day, or a variety of other methods.

I also think YouVersion represents the future of online Bible apps in the sense that it involves and encourages community interaction. As you study, you can make notes and share them with others in a social networking feature they include on the site. But the coolest part of the site is that they have spent a lot of time developing versions to all you to access YouVersion on your iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Java, and/or Mobile Web.

I came across YouVersion recently and here is how simple it is for me to read it on my iPhone:

So I invite you to check out YouVersion.com. I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it.

Related posts:

1. Handle Information Overload: Diigo
2. Connect through Text: Part I

One of the main goals that we would like to accomplish on New Media Ministry is to provide youth ministers with some new tools and resources so that they can in turn get to work in implementing these into their ministry. Chris Faddis wrote two weeks ago about the importance of connecting through text messaging, and I hope that many of you have given a shot at trying text messaging in your ministry. If not, read the post and try out the service for free that we recommended.

I wrote a review of a cool product last week called YooStar. YooStar is basically a video kit that allows you to superimpose yourself in the place of some of your favorite characters in videos. This is a great product for creating hype and promotion in your ministry.

I wanted to take a quick look today at a few ways that you can and need to begin utilizing video in your ministries. You might be a little intimidated to try and get involved in ministry because you think cameras are real expensive and editing takes a lot of knowledge, etc. But times and technologies are changing. We’ll cover this later on down the road.

Getting Started

If you’re in ministry of any kind, one of the things I’m almost certain you struggle with at every event is getting people settled and transitioned from gathering and hanging out to getting your event started. In our church, we begin every youth night with dinner. Transitioning from the kids eating and chatting with their friends to actually getting the night going is one of the hardest parts of the night.

Videos are great for filling in this void and easing the transition. Create a short 5-10 minute video skit of something that is loosely tied to your theme for the night. Make it funny and engaging and you’ll have no trouble grabbing the attention of your teens.

Creating Hype

Last week I wrote about Creating Hype in Your Ministry. Utilizing video in your hype strategies can be very beneficial. Teens are going to watch videos, plain and simple. Post it on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, your website. Get it out there and promote it, and teens will probably come to the event. Read the article to learn more.

This is a video our very own Chris Faddis did for our youth group a few weeks ago to promote our semester event.

Recap

Nick wrote recently about the Youth Group Shirt and the importance of having a tshirt for a retreat or big event that you’re putting on. I think the same is true of a recap video. If you go on a weekend retreat, take a camcorder of some sort along with you and piece together some rough clips of a variety of events from that weekend. It doesn’t have to look like the sequel to Avatar, but presenting the option for a teen to remember the experience they had at that event can be a powerful tool to use in helping to prevent what I like to call the Retreat High – where you come back from a retreat or event feeling better and more committed than ever, but a week later you’re back to your normal ways. Giving teens the ability to watch a quick 5 minute video with some footage from that weekend can be very helpful in their individual journey.

Here is a video from a summer retreat that we put together for our teens:

Teaching Tools

Video is the up and coming medium of communication I think in youth ministry. Ever notice how a handful of teens seem to tune you out while someone might be giving a testimony or delivering a message? It’s inevitable that you’re not going to be able to capture the attention of all your teens. Video gives the audience something different to focus on. After listening to the same person over and over for years, they’re going to get tired and bored of you. Sorry to break the bad news. But video keeps minds engaged because they can tell a story much better than you can sometimes because you can only describe an event, place or a person, but a video can actually show them.

So i encourage you to give video a shot in your ministry. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for some more resources helping you with video including products I think you’ll want to take a look at.

Related posts:

1. Creating Hype for Your Ministry
2. Youth Ministry Fun with Yoostar Entertainment System
3. Introducing: Audio/Video/Production Blogs!

Unless you have been living in a soundproof cave for the past few weeks, you are probably well aware that Wednesday was what I like to call another “Stevenote,” or an Apple product launch keynote. There has been tons of hype growing in the interwebs over the last month or so about whether or not Apple will be launching a tablet, what the features will be, pricing, availability, etc. Below, we’ve taken a  a closer look at the hype and how the rumors have resonated on Twitter, YouTube and blogs over the last 30 days. According to data provided by Sysomos, for example, Twitter users sent more than half a million messages – with an average of 6,545 tweets per hour – with both words apple and tablet in them.

Blogs

Sysomos also found almost 50,000 blogs posts. The post that resonated the most in the blogosphere, according to Sysomos’ data, was yesterday’s article on the Guardian’s Technology blog about Terry McGraw leaking information about the tablet on CNBC.

YouTube

In the last 30 days, YouTube users also posted over 5,391 YouTube videos that used the words Apple and tablet. The most popular one was a roundup of tablet rumors from TechnoBuffalo that currently has about 700,000 views.

Sentiment

Overall, the blogosphere’s reaction to the Apple tablet rumors has been extremely positive. Over 81% of all the tweets and blog posts in the past 30 days were positive about the tablet.

What Does This Mean?

Whether it’s a trip to see the summer blockbuster at the movie theater, a Super Bowl party, a youth group trip or even just a youth night, people more times than not respond to the hype not only with extreme interest, but also with their checkbooks. Plus, when you take into consideration the ever-stretched under-funded budgets of youth ministry, hype more times than not costs little to nothing, but can often times have a greater return than any type of true marketing.

Hype is a form of buzz marketing. Hyping a product, service, event, etc. pre-launch creates buzz which also creates curiosity and expectations. Hopefully your followers can write things on Facebook, send out Tweets, talk about it to their friends, and even more. Before you know it the word gets out to multiple people all hearing how great this product, service, event, etc. is, or is expected to be. This gets them excited and they can hardly wait to experience it.

With hype can also come backlash, it often over-inflates expectations. For example if you as a youth minister tell your teens about this great breakfast place you found around town. Over time, you keep telling them it was the best place you had ever been to and that you wanted to organize a group to go and experience its deliciousness. You are in effect building hype and a preconceived notion in your teens minds of this wonderful place that was going to be unlike anything they had ever experienced. Well, often more times than not after you take your group, some of them are going to be let down. It’s not that this place wasn’t any good, it just didn’t meet the expectations that they had set in their own mind based on your hype.

Creating Hype in Your Ministry

So how can I create hype in my ministry? Well, luckily for you, new technologies are changing the way that we can hype products, services, events, etc. and how we can connect with those to whom we minister. From running promotions on Facebook, holding a photo contest or something on Flickr, releasing videos on Youtube, to more, the possibilities are endless.

Whatever you do to create hype around your product service or event, remember and utilize these keys:

• Leak small details
• Give sneak-peaks
• Create marketing pieces that are still vague, yet help promote your event such as a logo to be used on downloadable Wallpapers and Icons, etc.

The overall key to generating hype is to give small bits of information over a period of time. You want to “wet their chops” per say and keep them coming back for more. You want them to yearn to know what it is. The emphasis needs to be on releasing details about whatever it is you’re hyping over time.

Related posts:

1. Utilize Video in Your Ministry
2. Connect through Text: Part I
3. Connect Thru Text: Part II

What Is It?

The Yoostar System is a collection of the following pieces:

• A High-Resolution Camera.
• A camera stand and multiple camera clips.
• Green Screen Stand.
• Green Screen
• Remote

Combining all of these great tools allows you to be green-screened into your choice of old movies, to deliver the greatest lines alongside some of the greatest actors. The Yoostar isn’t just a camera, it comes with the necessary editing software and a six by six foot green screen (in its own collapsible nylon bag) that you can put up behind you.  Then, when you film yourself, you can be entered into the picture right alongside the greats.

How Good Is It?

While we weren’t able to get our hands on a test unit to try out ourselves, we’ve spent some time reading a variety of reviews around the Interwebs to get people’s opinions to see if this product is really worth the money. At $169.99, it’s not cheap. However, Amazon.com has a few of them available used from $125 to help save you some money.

The Yoostar video camera puts out crisp, high-resolution video. Although the video quality suffers when uploaded online, the original copies left for playback on your computer easily beat what most webcams produce. The camera also has no trouble picking up voices with a built-in microphones. In fact, you may find yourself turning down your mic volume when you speak louder than those who co-star with you. (I’m looking at you John Belushi).

Despite the high quality of the camera, it does have one major downside: The Yoostar camera can only be used with the Yoostar software. It has been tested with Skype on Windows-based machines and on Macs, but Skype apparently refuses to recognize the camera. It may only need additional drivers (which may come in the future), but at this point, I can see it being very frustrating to have a high-resolution webcam that’s not compatible with any other software.

Videos

The YooStar comes with 14 video clips preloaded on it.

• The Godfather
• Field of Dreams
• Some Like It Hot
• Forrest Gump
• Rocky
• Sabrina
• Blues Brothers
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Animal House
• Back to School
• Saw II
• Up in Smoke
• Coming to America
• Sesame Street

Thousands of scenes from new and old videos can be purcahsed additionally from the Yoostar website for roughly $1 per scene.

The Verdict

The price is the breaking point for many, especially for those of us in ministry with tiny budgets. At $169.99 the Yoostar system isn’t exactly cheap, but the hardware is definitely worth the price. The quality green screen, stand and camera alone are worth $169.99. Sadly, since the camera isn’t able to be used with other programs, there’s a lot of wasted potential. If you think you’ll get lots of mileage out of the Yoostar systems capabilities, don’t think twice about purchasing it. On the other hand, if you think your mileage may vary and aren’t sure about making the jump, just keep in mind that it does bring a great green screen set-up that can be used for your own home movies. At $169.99, the Yoostar system isn’t cheap, but it’s still making you an offer that’s tough to refuse. Ask a few parents to see if they’ll throw in $25 to help you purchase it. It sure would make a great piece to help promote your ministry events, or even to get kids to come.

Related posts:

1. Friday Showcase: Catholic Youth Ministry
2. Utilize Video in Your Ministry
3. Lyric Presentation for Worship: The Series!

Today we continue our series on the site called “Where to Start?” Where to Start? is a step by step series that helps you build a website from scratch on your own by giving you a variety of options to choose from.

Follow the Series Step by Step:

1. Picking Your Site’s Backend
2. Why Use Wordpress?
3. Picking a Host
4. Picking the Perfect Theme
5. Publishing Your Website

Now What?

So you’ve spent a few hours working on setting up your new WordPress blog. You’re now (hopefully) more motivated than ever to get your site up and running to help manage your ministry and put some resources online. But there are still some things to do before you’re ready to go.

We’ve put together a quick run through of some things to work on before launching your site. As always, if you have any questions, give us a shout in the comments.

1. Add Categories: Add the categories for your blog. Remember to keep it neat and add not more than 15-20 categories. This helps to organize your site as your amount of content grows over time.
2. Add an About Page: An about page is one of the most important pages of a site because readers need to know about the person who’s site they are reading and what the site is about.
3. Install All In One SEO Pack: Install the latest version of All In One SEO Pack WordPress plugin and optimize your new site from the beginning itself. Remember to visit the plugin’s option page.
4. Customize Permalink Structure: Choose a good Permalink Structure and stick with it. Here are some examples of good Permalinks: /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ /%postname%/ If you change your permalink structure after you have been linked by other sites, those links won’t work anymore. So remember to stick with the Permalink Structure you chose in the beginning. We use the /%postname%/ permastructure here on New Media Ministry, which allows posts to show up as “http://www.newmediaministry.com/nameofthepost”
5. Create a FeedBurner feed for your site: Login to FeedBurner and create a FeedBurner feed for your new site
6. Install the FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin: The FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber
7. Put a RSS button on your blog: Choose an RSS button and put it on your site linking it to your FeedBurner feed
8. Start Writing: What’s a website without content? Start writing content for various pages!
9. Install the Google Sitemaps plugin: This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress site which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. Download the latest version of the plugin from here.
10. Add your Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools: Add your new site to Google Webmaster Tools and then your sitemap too. Once you add your site, you will be able to find when Googlebot last successfully accessed your home page, web crawl errors, etc.
11. Set preferred domain: Select your site from your Google Webmaster Tools dashboard and set your preferred domain (with or without www) by going to Tools>Set preferred domain.
12. Install Akismet plugin: Download and install Akismet plugin to catch comment spam. Akismet has caught 200 spam comments on this site in the last 3 weeks since we launched.
13. Add a Contact form: Install a plugin that adds a contact form to your blog so that your readers can get in touch with you. We use C Forms WordPress Plugin.
14. Install Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a great free way to check your site traffic. Signup for a free Google Analytics account, install this plugin, configure it for your site, and then voila, you’ll be able to track who all comes to your site.

Experience WordPress users: Have I missed anything? If so, give me a shout below and let me know!

Related posts:

1. Where Do I Start? – Why Use Wordpress
2. Where Do I Start? – Picking the Perfect Theme
3. Where Do I Start? – Picking a Host

Click here to read previous Friday Showcase Posts

This week, we’re going to change up the way we’ve been typically doing things in the hopes of highlighting multiple sites that are doing things well in terms of their interactive ministry. We’d love to know what you think of the sites below in the comments:

Stonebriar Community Church

Kingsfield Church

City Central

Edmond’s First Baptist Church

Church of the Open Door

Do you have a ministry website that you’ve come across that you like and want to recommend to us? Let us know below. Seriously, we want to hear from you.

Related posts:

1. Friday Showcase: Catholic Youth Ministry
2. Friday Showcase: College Park Church – January 1st, 2010
3. Friday Showcase: The City Church – January 8th, 2010

If you’ve been following our new site for the last few weeks, you’re well aware that we’ve shared some great articles and resources with you (at least we think we have!). But, being in that we’ve all been involved in ministry in some way shape or form, we are all well aware of what you’re first reaction is – It sounds great, but I would rather spend my small budget in a better way.

Well, I’m here to tell you today why New Media needs to be one of the top items in your budget.

It’s Not Just a Fad

The biggest hesitation that I’ve run into both socially and professionally with my own clients’ hesitation to invest time or money is that they see things like Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Youtube, etc. as a fad. In their minds, as soon as they finally spend the money and finally get around to launching, everyone will have moved on to the next greatest thing. If you’re one of these people, I invite you to check out the following video. This video is put together with facts and data from Summer of 2009, but the numbers are astonishing. Simply put, you can probably be safe just doubling each number to find current data.

So Why Invest?

Hopefully, this video will help you realize that some of the social media facts and figures that are presented in here are hard to ignore. But you still might be asking yourself a few questions, especially given the current economic climate. Even though things are looking a little less gloomy, many of you are operating on budgets that are still crunched from the past year.

The folks over at MinistryBestPractices.com have come up with 3 ROI Quality Goals and Objectives for churches and ministries investing in Social Media. They identified three main reasons for you to invest in Social Media which we’ll expand upon.

Communication

One of the two main foundations of Social Media s the fact that it allows people to communicate. It provides simple foundations and tools for you to use to get your message out as well as the message of your ministry.

If you’re one of those people that says, “my church already has communication methods – we communicate via Sunday morning platform, bulletins, mailings, phone calls, emails, face-to-face conversations, television, radio etc…” I would challenge your argument with these few reasons due to the fact that Social Media has some unique benefits all it’s own in effectively communicating:

• It’s Easy and Effortless – it doesn’t take much money or manpower to implement or use it.
• It’s Ubiquitous – since it is so available and pervasive it isn’t hard for people to miss the message.
• It’s Variety – social media takes many different forms, words, audio and image.
• It’s Viral – the beauty of social media is that your message can expand well beyond it’s intended audience – therefore exposing and introducing new people to your cause and community.

Connection

I would venture to say that the biggest reason to use Social Media is connection: connecting with other people, other resources, etc. Social Media is all about sharing and connecting. In the same way you try to create a community-like environment in your own ministry, Social Media is another tool to use in your effort to connect your community.

Unlike some methods of communication, like bulletins, mailings, emails, etc, which most often pushes information in a “one-way” direction, connecting must create a conversation. Will Social Media create conversation within the community? Are people able to talk to you the minister/ministry team leader? Can they talk to one another? I think if you’re involved with ministry, then you will be able to answer yes to every one of these questions. Also, these are other key elements that play a major role in connecting in your ministry via Social Media:

• Contribute – can others contribute in helpful and meaningful ways to the conversation? Are they even able to shape the conversation?
• Collaborate -  does your social media allow the benefits from the collective hive of experience, skills and knowledge from your community?

Call to Action

The final goal of Social Media activity must prompt people to do something; it can’t be passive. You have to connect with someone or something, initiate some sort of conversation, and then have some result come out of those efforts Some of these calls to action might include:

• Go -  are you asking someone to go and serve others in some way?
• Give -  are you asking someone to give either of their time or financially to the cause?
• Pray – are you calling people to act in concerted and persevering prayer?
• Mobilize – are you asking people to spread the message of the cause to their friends and networks?

Conclusion

Hopefully some of you that are sitting on the fence about whether or not to start are helped by this article. If you’re one of those people that say “Hey, I want to start but have no idea where?”, I would recommend getting onto Facebook right now. If you want to get a little ambitious, get on Twitter. Run your ministry efforts there first while following our Where Do I Start? series to learn how to get your ministry website off the ground and up and running. Once we show you how to get a website, we’ll continue that series with a lot of cool other tools to intergrate to help you grow your online ministry.

As always, if you have any questions or hesitations, give us a shout – leave a comment below, contact us individually, send us a message on Facebook or send us a Tweet. We’re here to help you grow your ministry.

Related posts:

1. Raise Money via Texting
2. Learning How to Communicate Your Message In a Very Loud World
3. Becoming a “Digital Evangelist”

Today we continue our series on the site called “Where to Start?” Where to Start? is a step by step series that helps you build a website from scratch on your own by giving you a variety of options to choose from.

Follow the Series Step by Step:

1. Picking Your Site’s Backend
2. Why Use Wordpress?
3. Picking a Host
4. Picking the Perfect Theme

Free Theme vs. Premium Theme

There are literally tens of thousands of WordPress themes out there that have been developed for distribution. Some WordPress themes are available for free while others, Premium Themes, are available for purchase. Obviously, most ministries have tight budgets and may opt for the free themes. However, if you’re one that plans on customizing the theme even in a little bit to make it fit your style, I would recommend going with the Premium themes. They all have support forums and message boards to help you in every step of the way, and can even help you fix something if you mess up.

Premium Theme Vendors

There are literally hundreds of Premium Vendors out there. These are a few sites that I have used in my own business and have seen really great results from. Note that for budget-constrained ministries, ThemeForest sells the cheapest of the Premium Themes, starting at around $20.

Free Theme Vendors

Here is a list of a variety of free WordPress themes to hopefully get you started. If you happen to find one not listed here, please let us know in the comments.

• WordPress.org
• WordPress Themes Base
• Smashing Magazine
• WP Skins
• Theme Splice
• Top WP Themes
• ThemeLab
• Fresheezy

Installing a Theme

Once you’ve acquired your WordPress theme, you have to install it in the WordPress Backend. Installing a theme is very easy in WordPress. Just follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Appearance

Considering the tips that we gave you above, download the theme files. In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to the Appearance tab, and then the Add New Themes page under that.

2. Browse for the Theme

At the top of the Add New Themes page, you will see a link to an Upload page. Click and you will be taken to this page.

3. Upload the Theme

To upload your theme, all you have to do is click browse, and then navigate to the .zip file of the theme that you want to use. Click Install Now.

4. Activate the Theme

The next page you will see is the progress of the theme uploading. Once it is finish, click Activate Theme, and voila, you are done!

If you run into any troubles or have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments below or to get in touch with me directly via the Contact Page.

Related posts:

1. Where Do I Start? – Why Use Wordpress
2. Where Do I Start? – Picking a Host
3. Where Do I Start? – Publishing Your Website

Click here to read previous Friday Showcase Posts

Introduction

In this week’s collection, we are going to take a look at a new resource website that was just launched last week by the folks over at LifeTeen: CatholicYouthMinistry.com.  Their website, http://www.CatholicYouthMinistry.com, is the new home for numerous tools and resources provided by LifeTeen. Matt Smith, Director of Internet Ministries for Life Teen, explains in this video that in ministry, “you can’t give what you don’t have.” The goal for CatholicYouthMinistry.com is to provide a variety of resources to people involved in ministry so that they are always prepared to minister.

Form and Function

The new launch of CatholicYouthMinistry.com is a complete redesign as well as a complete renovation and addition to what was previously known as ym.lifeteen.com. The site listed many of the same great resources included in the new version, but they were hard to find and access. The new design of content and the organization structure really permits much simpler use of the website.

If you’ve been following our Where Do I Start? series, you’ll know that last week, I wrote an article about why I think you should use WordPress in building websites. Apparently I’m not the only who thinks this way as LifeTeen built the new CatholicYouthMinistry.com website using the WordPress platform. I think they did this for a few reasons. The first being that it’s free, which anyone in ministry loves. Another few reasons goes along with reasons they highlighted on their site when they announced their launch:

1. Easier Access to Resources
2. Better Blogs
3. Better Jobs
4. More Interaction

This list in a nutshell describes WordPress exactly. I think it was a great move on LifeTeen’s part choosing WordPress to power their new website. It allows for content to be published very easily and efficiently, but it also provides a much easier way for end users to come to the site and find exactly what they are looking for quickly without getting lost.

New Media

One of the things I like about the new CatholicYouthMinistry.com website is what I think they will be utilizing a lot, and that is video. LifeTeen recently joined Vimeo, and they have slowly but surely been using that to handle their video content for the last few months. I am a big supporter of Vimeo, and am glad to see LifeTeen using them as well.

Another thing I really like is that the new CatholicYouthMinistry.com is placing a huge emphasis on blogging. LifeTeen has assembled a strong list of about 35 contributing authors that they feature on their site. Blogs are beginning to become published regularly, and cover a variety of topics. I think this will really serve them well, along with readers of the website. It will allow people involved in different aspects of ministry to come together and voice their opinions and experiences in the hopes of helping others. This is relational ministry at it’s finest.

Conclusion

If you are involved in Catholic Youth Ministry, I think it would serve you well to check out the site that LifeTeen has just published. It already has a tremendous amount of resources, and will continue to grow in the future as more and more content is provided.

If you’re interested in learning more about LifeTeen and their approach to Catholic Youth Ministry, head on over to Lifeteen.com and read through their resources. It is a great program. I grew up in it, and still serve as a Core Team member today to help others experience the same that I did.

Related posts:

1. Friday Showcase: Sites of the Week
2. Friday Showcase: College Park Church – January 1st, 2010
3. Friday Showcase: The City Church – January 8th, 2010

Text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross relief efforts in #haiti.

Well, I was immediately intrigued seeing this. The outpouring of support over the last 48 hours has been tremendous. According to the American Red Cross, $5 Million has been donated to Haitian Relief Efforts. This is an incredible use of New Media tools. I would be curious to see the statistical breakdown of the people who supported, whether they were mostly adults or teens, male or female, etc. My hunch, is that the majority of donaters tended to age from 13-30.

If for some reason you haven’t seen these messages going around and want to get involved, here are two main efforts that you can support:

1.  Text “haiti” to 90999

This will send a $10 donation to the Red Cross, through an effort backed by the U.S. State Department. Funds will go to support American Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.

2. Text “Yele” to 501501

This will automatically donate $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund. Yele is “a grassroots movement that builds global awareness for Haiti while helping to transform the country through programs in education, sports, the arts and environment.”

Utilize in Your Ministries

After seeing this phenomenon, I was curious to find out what types of services are out there that allow you to fundraise via texting. The guys over at MediaSalt sent a Tweet out earlier today to a post they wrote highlighting what they claimed to be the best company, mGive. mGive is also the company that the Red Cross is utilizing to handle their fundraising.

Fundraising Ideas

Earlier today, Chris wrote a post about the importance and need to connect through texting. One of the main roles that you play as a minister is finding a way to fund all of the ideas and activities that you would like to do to help teens grow in their faith. mGive is a wonderful tool to help you in this daily struggle.

I encourage you to give fundraising though texting a try. Use it to raise money for your next retreat or to help buy things for your youth group. Encourage people to make a small $5 donation via their cell phones. Donations are made by using your mobile phone’s text messaging service and the charge is automatically added to their monthly phone bill. Not only will you build a nice list of supporters phone numbers, but you can potentially raise a lot of money. There are a lot of people out there who would be happy to donate something so small as $5 or $10.

If you do give it a shot, come back and let us know how you did. Did it work for you? If not, why not?

Related posts:

1. Why Should I Invest Time and Money?
2. Connect through Text: Part I