Forgotten God by Francis Chan is an incredible book. So often we do not honor the Holy Spirit like He should be honored, nor do we allow His power to infiltrate our life and ministry.
You can get this free e-book from Christian Audio. They offer one free audio book per month. Hurry, the offer ends June 30th! Listen to this book and apply how you can better allow the Holy Spirit to work in your children’s ministry!
Have you ever wanted to pull a sound, vocal clip, or sound from a video off of your computer? If so, you need to get one of these two free programs:
Here’s how I used Mp3myMP3 recently. I needed the background sound of a football game. I could not find a long enough effect on any free sound effect sites. I went to the NFL’s website and found some video of a couple of games. I used the program to pull just the sound off and store as an MP3.
Now, you can very easily use this to pull music off of sites like Pandora or Grooveshark. However, that would be stealing licensed music and I can’t say I recommend you do that. Be honest, buy it!
I’ve come across this really awesome band for kids called The Lads. They are from New Zealand and have a great sound. There is a movement in Children’s and Family music to make music more culturally relevant and this is a great thing! On their site, you can download several of their songs. Just look for the brown box with the orange arrow at the top of their site. I can’t link you straight to them because the site is flash based.
Here’s two audio Bible tools for you. Interestingly, they are both called “Pod Bibles.” The first is a Podcast, but you can listen to the Scriptures from their site. Play these during teaching times to add a new dimension to the Scriptures.
The second is a readable Bible for your iPod. It uses the “Notes” portion of the iPod firmware. Read it on the train, in a plane, in the car (while not driving), in the bathroom (don’t drop it in), use with an impromptu devotion at camp…whatever!
Christianaudio.com provides a free book download per month. They are usually pretty good. Check them out and grow your walk!
I guess I’ve been on an audio kick. I promise that the next several posts will not deal with audio! If you would like some Christ-centered audio regarding church leadership, leadership within the home, and a whole host of other leadership topics, you can find them at Leader Source.
Go here to find more info regarding teachings covering a wide variety of topcis. Leader Source is an interesting organization. Check them out.
Recently I posted about the resources available at John Piper’s website for Desiring God. In that post, I made mention of the Advance ’09 Conference which was held in my backyard of Durham, NC. There were some heavy hitters at the conference including Ed Stetzer, John Piper, and Danny Aiken.
As I have been listening through some of the messages from this conference on the Church, I could not withhold sharing with you two messages from Mark Driscoll. One will really challenge your thinking of the church as well as your ministry’s role within Christ’s bride. The other is called Ministry Idolotry. This message will lead you to rethink how spiritual you really perceive yourself to be. I commend both messages to you. Go to the links below to listen or download or watch the embedded videos of these messages. The are two of the best messages on a theology of the church that I have ever heard.
Mark Driscoll–What is the Church? (mp3 download)
Mark Driscoll–Ministry Idolotry (mp3 download)
What is the Church by Mark Driscoll from Vintage21 Church on Vimeo.
Your walk with Christ is the most important leadership aspect of your ministry. I’ve mentioned before that those of us in Children’s Ministry can tend to miss our weekend services. It’s not the best, but sometimes our church schedules do not allow us to worship with the adult body. Aside from my regular Bible study, I spend time in my car and during workouts, listening to various messages from my pastor, from conferences and from regular preaching and teaching ministries.
One site that I have been tuned into for quite some time now is One Place. You can access a host of preaching and teaching programs from this one site. Some notable pastors include:
Although the MP3′s are available for purchase from One Place, you can stream audio and video of these pastors/teachers for free and without registering. It’s a great tool to play as you are doing some of that mindless admin work we all have to tackle on Monday mornings!
Since my church does not have a paid videographer or tech person, I’m the one who edits almost all of my ministry videos and children’s worship slideshows. I’m often looking for interesting sound effects to round off the presentation. I have found a great site for free sound effects called Partners In Rhyme. You can purchase a good deal of effects, but they offer a large number of free ones. You can access all of these off of the main page.
If you are looking for a simple and free sound effects player that will run effects directly from your computer to your soundboard, then V-Sampler Basic from Kidzturn Labs (go to bottom of page) is what you need. You get a limited 20 banks of effects, but it is a nice basic program which should meet most ministry needs.
