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.
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.
If you are like me, you spend a ton of time with children, preparing lessons, working with your volunteers and running around looking for last minute subs. Unfortunately, the position of Children’s Pastor often does not lend itself to regular time in corporate worship. I listen to my pastor’s messages weekly, but also get spiritual growth through other pastor’s messages. John Piper’s website is full of incredible resources I wanted to be sure you knew about. I love the spirit of sharing, which is why I love John Piper’s work so much.
On Pipers site, you can download messages of his from 3 decades ago, articles he has written as well as conference messages of which he has been a part (like the recent Advance ’09 Conference in my town of Durham, NC). You can also download Scripture study guides and virtually every book which Piper has written in PDF. Yes, the books are all free. I have to say that the Desiring God site is one of the most comprehensive of any ministry I have seen. It is definitely worth bookmarking and using as an occasional resource for your own spiritual growth or for study materials as you prepare to teach children.
**Please, no comments about Piper’s Calvanism or my affinity for him. I am not a follower, I just think he has some great resources!
If you have not stumbled upon Max 7 yet, you are really missing out. They have forms, curriculum, audio and videos. You must take a look at the video: Aim Lower. If your pastor would let you show it in “Big Church” during recruitment time, you should take him up on it!
Several months ago, I came across a ministry called Visionary Parenting. You can go to their website to see all that they offer, but I wanted to highlight the free MP3′s on parenting that they offer. I have not listened to all of them, but the ones I have listened to are very biblical and filled with some great advice. Check them out.
You may could even contact the founder to see if he would be okay letting you distribute several of them on CD’s as follow up for new families. They are a great resources not only to get you excited about discipling your parents, but to pass along to parents as well.
I’ll leave you with a short 2 minute clip of the founder’s vision for Visionary Parenting:
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.
One thing that I try to give away to my families and in guest bags at every event is a Kids MP3 Bible. Faith Comes By Hearing is a powerful ministry that seeks to spread God’s Word all over the world. Aside from their regular products, they offer a special program for pastors and churches that allows members to receive free MP3′s of the New Testament as well as Kids Bibles with major stories and Bible songs.
What they ask in return is for your church to promote their ministry in some way and take up a special collection for their missions work. The two Bibles mentioned above are both dramatized and are an excellent tool. We have probably gotten close to 1000 discs from them. Seriously, no one in their right mind would pass this up!
Free CM Stuff highlights top notch no cost resources for Children's Ministry leaders and offers a site for CM leaders to share resources they have developed themselves.
