I love supporting you and your ministry! With the on-going work of the free missions trip, Freebie Fridays, LIVE YM Talks, weekly youth ministry training videos, and more, they all require funds. Most organizations reimburse themselves by charging you to access their resources, materials and ideas, but since I want to keep everything free, I need to find alternative ways to fund these projects.

Extending youth ministry advice and mentoring online

One of the largest undertakings is the Youth Ministry Mentorship Program, where new youth workers have one-on-one mentoring with a youth ministry veteran for 10 weeks straight, plus they get a slew of books and resources, all for FREE! The demand for the mentorship has been overwhelming. Hundreds of new youth workers apply for each round from all over the world, seeking one-on-one advice, training and input into their ministry to teenagers. Unfortunately, only 13 of them can be accepted into the program for each 10-week round.

I have an idea of how to extend this mentoring, advice, and help to youth workers all over the world online for free, but it will take some initial start-up funds to purchase the scripts, pay designers, and set it all up.

Asking for your support

I’ve never done this before, but people on Twitter encouraged me to do it, so here you go: Since everything else at Life In Student Ministry is completely free, I’m asking that if this is something you believe in, would you mind contributing toward this project of providing youth ministry advice online? My goal is to launch it in mid-January along side of the next YM Mentorship round. The cost of $700 is the bare-minimum to get it launched, so anything above and beyond that is greatly appreciated to compensate my time and server resources. (Monthly costs thereafter will only be the server fees that I already pay anyway.)

Other ways to support Life In Student Ministry

Here’s how I currently support the expenses and the various Life In Student Ministry projects. Any way you can help is greatly appreciated!

1. Link to me.
I know it doesn’t seem like much, but it really helps. Incoming links increase my Google rankings, which means more traffic, a larger audience, and thus higher value for the site’s one (small) advertising space, more Google ad clicks, and higher revenue.

2. Complete a freebie site.
Sign up under one of my referral links for a free iPod Touch, Xbox 360, Wii, Laptop, or whatever and complete two trial offers. Once you’ve done so, I get $50. Plus, after you refer a couple people, you get a free iPod Touch or another prize out of the deal!

3. Donate via PayPal.
Obviously, the easiest and simplest way for both of us is to just donate via PayPal.

4. Buy a ministry website.
In October I started MinistryWebsites.biz, a small business that provides websites for ministries as a way to support the ongoing efforts of Life In Student Ministry. MinistryWebsites.biz gives you a state-of-the-art system for building and maintaining a website that is so simple, intuitive and easy to use. Check it out and sign up for your FREE 3-page website to check it out.

5. Sign-up for a year of service at Animoto.com
In case you’re not familiar with Animoto.com, they make it easy to create very professional videos from your digital photos. For an example, check out the Christmas greetings video I made for me and Dana this year. The guys at Animoto.com have been gracious enough to toss me a couple bucks whenever someone signs up for their $30/year All Access Pass using this link.

Thank you for your investment into teenagers and youth workers around the world!

Posted on December 29, 2008