Friday, January 25, 2008

Youth ministries

The Source for Youth Ministry
TheSource4YM.com (hundreds of free resources and ideas, icebreakers, games, outreach event ideas, curriculum and jumpstarters, team builders, fun events and activity ideas, talks and sermons, articles and how to’s, parent resources)

“Teen Sex Escalation: Parents Have Ammo to Reverse the Trend” (a Youth Culture Window article from David R. Smith at TheSource4YM.com)

According to The Center for Disease Control’s latest report on the subject:


  • more teenagers are having unprotected sex, sparking an increase in teen births in 2006 and 2007, the last years for which data is available.

  • almost three quarters of a million teenage pregnancies occurred among American females in 2004.

  • the number of HIV/AIDS cases has doubled over the past decade.

These unsettling findings are coming on the heels of last year’s study in which The Center for Disease Control claimed that one in four teenage girls (age 14-19) are infected with a sexually transmitted disease. (Read the complete article)

UthLeader.com (0ver 300 free, KJV and Baptistic youth ministry resources, articles, forms, power point presentations, lessons, etc)

Young Fundamentalists (devotionals, great sermons, and funny yet appropriate media for Independent Fundamental Baptist young people)

The mission of Al Menconi Ministries is to educate and equip Christian parents, leaders and youth to consider the values communicated in their entertainment—especially today’s music—and encourage choices consistent with God’s Word.

Ask Me My Story

Why is it that so many of us are truly passionate about Jesus, but are so reserved when it comes to sharing our faith? Is it a fear of rejection? Feelings of inadequacy? Unfamiliarity with the Scripture? Regardless of the reasons you have for not sharing your faith, the people at Ask Me My Story are here to help. This website helps young people boldly share their faith. You can easily use the tools they offer to begin sharing your faith in Christ-like ways. Plus they have tons of resources that offer everything from encouragement to tips on practicality when sharing your faith. Hey, we've got a story to tell, so let's get to it.

Creative Youth Ideas

After 20 years in youth ministry, Ken Sapp has quite a few ideas and he’s sharing them for free with children’s and youth workers on his web site. A little bit of everything: icebreakers, evangelism ideas, drama ideas, over 40 object lessons, more than 100 creative teaching ideas, and 50 teaching illustrations.

Dare2Share Ministries

Energizing and equipping teenagers to know, live, share, and own their faith in Jesus is Dare2Share’s bottom line. Dare 2 Share is convinced that the answer to this crisis in Christianity lies in an aggressive initiative to transform youth ministry from reactive and entertainment based to Great Commission driven and Scripture based. They understand the power of giving students something to do and something to believe. With over 1,400 FREE evangelism and discipleship resource pieces.

Deeper Devotion

A free web site for encouraging students to know God more intimately through a daily text devotional that’s short, Biblical, and available as a podcast. Students can sign up and choose to receive their daily devotional via email, RSS feed, or iTunes.

Door of Hope 4 Teens

For teenagers and young adult women who struggle with cutting and similar forms of self injury, Door of Hope 4 Teens not only provides free and confidential phone and email support, but good basic info on the issue for teens and those who want to help them, scriptural encouragement, a great web links page and multiple book recommendations by respected authors.

EGAD! Youth group ideas

One of the best game and activity sites on the Internet. It has large lists of games and activities that you don’t have to click on individually to find the description.

Fun and Games

Kit from the UK and his website have a respectable amount of games, arranged by type. He also has mind benders, dramas and more.

Icebreakers.ws

This site features instructions to several playtested, high quality free icebreakers, fun games, and team building activities - perfect for group facilitation, the first day of class (teaching), training, and meetings of all kinds. To achieve good group dynamics or just for fun, these free icebreaker games can be useful as youth group activities, party games, business and corporate training activities, college group activities, activities for kids, or simply good icebreaker games for family or friends on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Pastor 2 Youth
Plenty of free resources you can use like games divided by “where you play them” and a database of over 2,000 illustrations.

Real Teens, Real Faith

T. Suzanne Eller’s web site talks about tough issues facing today’s generation and how to live a life of faith in an R-rated world. With real-life advice about sex, relationships, and self image in light of faith, Suzanne shares Biblical answers to questions sent in by teens. Teenagers also share their original poetry, stories and testimonies. Tons of links and helps for the seeking teen.

Teen Sunday School Place

Whether you need Sunday school lessons, Bible study ideas, activities, object lessons, skits, games, or tips for leading, this site has it. Titles with a green dot are free, items with a red dot are available to registered members. To their credit, TSSP supplies plenty of green dots, and while not comprehensive, resources are quality. ¿Querría usted esto en español? Everything has been translated to Spanish so that you can click the Spanish link button at the top right of any page to toggle back and forth from English to Spanish. ¡Super fresco!

Youth Group Games


You don’t need to spend hours searching for a great game any longer. This website has plenty of games listed on it that are perfect for youth ministries. The games are broken down by number of players, and also by age of players so you can click straight to what you need. Also, each game has a helpful materials list at the top so you will know what you need up front.

Youth Group Games Directory

Features a custom game search which allows the user to search by game type, keywords, duration, messy-rating, number of teams needed and others. It also provides categories like Relaxing Rainy Day, Outdoor Action, Olympian Style, Team Challenge, and more.

YouthMinistry.com

Group Publishing, Inc. added this site summer of 2000 and features articles on current youth trends and ministry ideas and a free resource section with games, discussion starters and ideas. Hundreds of free articles and ideas are available from Group Publishing’s archive of resources. They also list more than links to 700 other web sites.

YouthPastor.com

Great search engines and resources for all types of youth ministry, with games, curriculum, events, etc.

Youth Specialties

This is the hub of youth ministry resources with games page and Youth Ministry Forum’s message board on games and crowdbreakers.

Youth Work Practice

German youth ministry veteran Hans Hirling (with 30 years experience) has converted his massive youth work resource site into English. For both children’s and youth workers, there are tons of games, ideas for both kids’ and teen camps, complete meeting programs and theme nights, devotional discussion starters with graphics, and a youth leader training page with insightful articles.

All 4 Teens (Christian website all 4 teens to enjoy, with message boards, chat room, game room, poetry place, greeting cards, get advice, scenic picture gallery, cool polls, surf 4 cool links or add your own link, and a lot more.

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