Have you ever wondered how youth ministry thrived before Walmart and social media? How did youth pastors get the word out about the 100 cans of shaving cream they purchased for the “Messy War” after youth worship?

Each year the church is creating more resources to help us spread the Gospel of Jesus to our communities. On top of that, we can leverage resources that aren’t intended for the church – resources like podcasts, social medias, and streaming services – to spread the love of Jesus.

Like you, I use a ton of apps and digital resources each day. Below are four digital resources, with one bonus, to help your engagement, creativity, study, and administration. I use these resources each week as I serve our congregation and community.

Looking for 10 must-have apps for youth ministry? Check out this post: https://youthspecialties.com/blog/10-apps-that-every-youth-pastor-needs/

Church Stage Design Ideas (https://www.churchstagedesignideas.com/)

It is time to ditch the old couch from your student center and give your environment new life. Church Stage Design Ideas is the website for creative ideas on how to build some incredible stage designs. Each post comes with specifics on the materials used and steps took to create the design.

Managed Missions (http://www.managedmissions.com/)

Mission trips can become a headache of managing applications, recording how much money each student has paid, and getting trip reminders out to your team. Managed Missions is a website that helps you streamline the administrative side of your mission trip so that you can spend more time preparing your students to serve. Managed Missions allows you to create mission trip applications. It allows those going on the mission trip to fundraise directly from the website and money will be automatically deposited into your church’s account for each participant. This resource has changed the way we organize our short-term mission trips.  

Logos Bible Software (http://logos.com)

Logos is the best Bible study software on the market. It allows you to access commentaries, Bibles, dictionaries, and word study tools from your computer, tablet, or phone. Logos not only changes the way that you study the Bible. It will change the way a pastor travels. The days of taking five bulky commentaries to camp to prepare for your teaching sessions are over. All your books are in one place – your computer. The only negative to Logos is the large price tag. If the price is too much, I would suggest you have a conversation with your supervisor and see how you can purchase the base package of Logos and add some books over the next few years. The base package of Logos is affordable, and you can come up with a plan to add a few books here and there to build your library.

Pro Church Tools (https://prochurchtools.com/)

It is no surprise that your students are constantly on their phones. Brady Shearer and the Pro Church Tools team produce daily content to help you reach your people where they are – online. Pro Church Tools hands out a ton of free content each week. From daily videos, podcasts, free resources, blog posts, and more, you will learn how to engage your students through social media and various platforms.

Bonus: Pexels (http://pexels.com)

Looking for royalty-free stock photos to promote your event? Pexels is a great starting place to find quality images. It is an open-source network so there is no need to pay or attribute credit when you use an image.

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CHASE SNYDER BIO:

Chase Snyder is a high school pastor in Metro Atlanta. His passion is to help people apply the Bible to their everyday lives. Chase has authored six books, creates retreat studies, and founded Ministry Bubble, 228 Publishers, and YouthMinStudies.com. You can find out more at WWW.CHASESNYDER.BLOG or on social medias at @ChaseSnyder12.