Ok, let’s face it, as youth pastors we face a few stereo types. Among other things people think every youth pastor has to….
- Have a goatee
- Carry an iPhone
- Enjoy practical jokes
- Change churches every 2 years
- Be as organized as a tornado
I hate stereotypes, but I really can use some help in the organization world. Maybe you can too. This is where Google has stepped in. But even though Google has a ton of cool tools and even though they’re ABSOLUTELY free, I run into a ton of people who don’t use them or don’t get why they’d be beneficial. He’s a quick rundown of my 6 favorites (not including youTube which is like its own category).
Picasa
One of the best interfaces for grouping and managing pictures. Picasa makes it all so simple. Plus, they give you some great slideshows you can paste into your own website. It also connects with a lot of other photo tools and you can easily order prints with a few clicks. Pictures are a huge way for you and your students to chronicle the year in your ministry. If done well, these students will look back on these pics for many years.
Alerts
Google alerts allow you to monitor certain phrases and words. You can put out an alert on your name, your church’s name, your local high school, etc. Then, Google will send you a daily list of where these phrases popped up on the web that day (whether in news articles, twitter feeds, web pages, blog postings, etc.)
Maps
I hate going to all the work of preparing an awesome event and then having certain van drivers get lost along the way! With Google maps I can plan out a whole route, multiple destinations, turn by turn directions, notes, and more. Then, I can print that whole puppy out and everyone’s on the same page.
Calendar
With Google calendar, a church youth staff can keep every important date all in one place. Bring together multiple school district schedules, vacation times, church events, youth outings, etc. You can share the whole calendar with your team, your parents, and even your students. You can even publish the whole thing on your website.
Docs
While not as full featured or robust as Office, Google docs goes a long way in promoting collaboration among the youth staff. Our youth staff keeps track of our speaker schedule, announcements, weekly topics, games/icebreakers, prayer requests and more in google docs. This way we can all have the latest copy at our finger tips and never wonder if its out of date. We can keep the docs private and secure and it really helps us all keep in synch.
Wave
One of the new things I’ve been using is Google wave. It takes the idea of collaboration one step further. It allows multiple people to work on one document in real time. You can actually see others typing as they do it. Imagine planning a message or an event this way. People are busy and sometimes a face to face meeting just isn’t possible. This is one tool to help you stay organized.
These tools are easy to use and can be accessed with any computer (and a lot of smartphones). This is just a taste of how these tools can really be leveraged for youth ministry. If you need more info on any of them…. just GOOGLE it 🙂
