If you have not stepped into the world of online registration for your ministries, then JotForm is the site to get you started! Having parents sign up for your camps, VBS or summer events online can really save you a lot of administrative paperwork and headaches. I mean, why should you input all of that computer data? Let the participants do it.

With Jotform’s basic (translated free) edition, you will most likely not push its limitations. With the free version, you obviously get no technical support apart from the forums, but you get 100 submissions per month, 10 MB of uploading, downloading results in various formats and the ability to run secure financial transactions (i.e. PayPal, etc.). Of course if you feel that your needs would exceed the allowances for the free version, you can pay $9/month for the more versatile account. I have been using Survey Monkey for some of these same purposes and paying around $19/month.

Something about JotForm that amazes me is its user-friendliness. All of the form creation is drag and drop. It allows you to email the forms, code them into your website, display real time results of the results on your site (for polls) or link registrants to a web page containing your survey/form.

A tool like this is handy for a variety of functions. You can certainly use it for registrations, but other uses could include:

• Parent/Volunteer feedback survey for various ministry events or programs
• RSVP forms for volunteer banquets or ministry events
• Questionnaire concerning volunteer intentions to renew commitments

Can you think of other uses? Know of any other free tools similar to this one? Let us know by commenting below!

Today’s post comes from a post by Tony Kumner at Ministry To Children.

Tony came across some great free MP3 Bible stories told by a grandmother who wanted to record the Bible for her grandchildren. You can check out Tony’s post here. From his post you can read his take on the MP3′s as well as follow the link to download them.

I’ve listened to a few of them and they are pretty cool. They would be great for car rides. I plan on putting them on a CD and letting my preschool daughters listen to them for quiet times and on trips. There are no copyright issues here, you are free to copy and distribute to parents and kids as you would like.

Last Wednesday, Free CM Stuff gave away one free ministry logo design courtesy of Chris Sykes. You can find that post, as well as more about Chris here. The logo above is from Pastor Andy Robinson, who by the looks of the logo, is in desperate need of a redesign. That logo was either hand drawn in the 70′s or copied out of a clip art book found behind a cart in the resource room! Andy, you desperately need a new logo and Chris can get you rolling. Congrats.

For those of you out there who would like a few resources for creating your own logo, here are some sites that I would tell you to check out (I have not personally used any of these so they do not come with my specific recommendation):

1. Logoease
2. Cool Text
3. Xara 3D
4. Free Logo Maker

Our church is getting geared up for a new children’s building, and while looking around for companies to theme our facility, I came across this very nice VBS Decorator’s Guide from Creative For Kids. I figured this to be the perfect time of year to promo this to you. This guide-book includes some basic VBS forms, a handy 10 step organizational plan to decorate, some snazzy backdrop layouts and other how-to’s. For my VBS, I have one coordinator who gathers a decorating team. This would be a fantastic document to provide to that person upon commissioning them to serve.

Creative For Kids is a company who provides a variety of services in the children’s ministry decor arena. A cursory look at their examples shows that they do very beautiful work. You can also take a look at their free desktop wallpaper (perfect for a computer in your children’s worship room or at check in kiosks) or free ministry forms. I have found the forms to be of good quality.

I wanted to let you know about a very helpful newsletter out there. Occasionally I will recommend free email newsletters to you, however, I only recommend them if they are of high quality and would be worth your time to read. One of those is the Connect with Kids newsletter.

Let me quote their website so you can see a little something about their mission and purpose:

Connect with Kids is a multi-media, education company focused on helping educators and parents teach life skills, prevention, character, health, and wellness.  Our belief is that parents and teachers are the greatest influence in the life of a child.  Our mission is to connect kids with the adults who can help them using the power of real stories on video, television and the Internet.

Essentially, the weekly newsletter links you to short video clips featuring recent research from universities and independent research firms on kid and teen issues in a variety of areas including parent/child relationships, physical care and nutrition, current trends and many more. I have never received any junk emails from them. In the last year that I have subscribed, every email has been a newsletter highlighting current research.

These newsletters can provide rich material you can use to more effectively shape you ministry. You may also find helpful tidbits that can be passed along to parents in your monthly newsletters or emails.

For those who cast aside secular research as an abomination to ministry, let me briefly comment. Though I am extremely committed to the changing Truth of God’s Word, I see secular research as a benefit to our ministry. In the words of Augustine, “All Truth is God’s Truth.” If a secular researcher, or research institution for that matter, discovers something that is validated by the Word of God, then I say “Praise God.” I would never endorse a research conclusion that was not validated by God’s Word. Disagree? Comment below, I welcome some Christ-centered discussion!

I have come across a great guy in recent weeks named Chris Sykes. He is a Children’s pastor in Alabama and co-author of a CM Blog called Big Hair/No Hair. Chris has some “meager” (he says) design talents and has agreed to give away some of his talent to one lucky Free CM Stuff reader. Here’s a note from Chris:

This week’s give away comes from Christopher Sykes, a creative children’s pastor who is tired of boring design. He’s finally decided to offer his meager design talents for ridiculously meager prices. And this week, Chris is giving away one custom logo design absolutely FREE ($40 value)! He’ll spend time helping you put your vision into words and then into a graphic that shows what your ministry is all about. Check out his INFUZED Kids Website and his personal design site. Chris loves connecting with other ministries and helping equip children’s pastors with one of a kind custom solutions at a price that any budget can afford.

So here’s what you’ve got to do. Make a comment below about why your ministry logo deserves an overhaul or why you don’t even have one yet. If you have one, submit it here, and then I can have some visible proof regarding how lame your logo is! You have one week. I will select a winner next Wednesday June 24th. Good luck!

**Disclaimer: All logos submitted to Free CM Stuff may be posted, mocked, ridiculed, laughed at or generally made fun of during the week of June 24-July 1st. Failure to be a good sport regarding said ridicule and mockery will result in your disqualification from the contest!

Children’s Ministry University Online is a partnership with Valley Forge Christian College. It is an “online, 30-credit degree program in children’s ministries” that is fully accredited through the College.

They also offer several free training resources on their website. To be honest, every training will not be beneficial to the Children’s Ministry veteran, however, I do see them as being a fruitful part of equipping newbies and potential leaders in your ministry. The professionals out there may find one or two that is helpful. The topics you can choose from are:

Beyond Babysitting

Creative Storytelling

Cultivating a Cutting-edge Children’s Church

Help is on the Way! Recruiting and Keeping Substitute Staff

Learning Disabilities & ADD/ADHD

What is a Children’s Sermon?

I can see these being productive to a variety of people. You may want to send your newly appointed Children’s Church leader to watch the one on Children’s Church and Children’s Sermons. If God has put on your heart to minister to special needs children, be sure to check out the disabilities training.

These trainings come in an online presentation format including the speaker and slides. Some are more “training-oriented” and some are more “classroom-oriented” in their presentation. Hope they can be a tool for you!

Bass Pro Shops is doing free family activities on Saturdays during the summer. Not everyone has the luxury of having a Bass Pro Shops in their area, but if you live in a metropolitan area, you are likely to be near one. Activities include laser shooting, archery clinics, outdoor crafts and a s’mores cookout!

It seems that with our economy, there are a lot of businesses offering free items to get people into their stores to buy from them. This is no doubt a plan of Bass Pro Shops. I recently posted about free kids movies at theaters all around the country as well.These types of things are great to pass on to your families in newsletters or weekly announcement emails.

If you know of any other opportunities for free kids or family activities throughout the summer, drop a comment and let us know!

If you are not caught on to Seeds Family Worship, then you are missing out on something great for your ministry. The music they produce is completely from Scripture and the tunes are modern and catchy. They not only offer a great variety of CD’s, but will also come to your church to help you put on a family worship night. When you purchase one of their CD’s, you actually get two, one to listen to and one to share. This is in an effort to perpetuate their “seeding” mentality concerning the Word of God.

Another way they plant seeds is by making all of the chord charts and words for each song available for a free download on their website. I personally contacted them to ensure that the downloadable chord charts were free for anyone and they assured me that they were. You can even listen to the songs through their site, then get the chord charts to learn them yourself. It’s a great resource for leading worship at your next special event for kids, during AWANA opening ceremonies or for a kids worship service.

Rose Publishing is a company that produces some excellent Bible reference materials. Although their resources are available for a price, they do offer a free “sampling” of some of their materials through a weekly email. By signing up for their email, you can receive free Bible eCharts about every other week. The free charts they make available are pulled from various resources they offer. Some examples include:

• 10 Names of God
• Then and Now Bible Maps
• Christianity and World Religion Comparisons
• Armor of God Diagram

If you know anything about education, you know that graphic organizers (charts, timelines, descriptive illustrations) are exellent ways for people to grasp certain concepts. These emails provide you with a few tools to store in the “Bible Teaching” folder on your computer to pull out for future reference.

Rose sends out about one email per week, so they do not flood your inbox. Each email is obvioulsy a promtion for their material, and every other week, it includes a link to a free eChart. I do not recommend a lot of newsletters to you, only ones that provide a good benefit, so I definitely commend this one to you.