With Wordle, you can create really cool word clouds for your ministry like the one above. Since it is a Java Applet, getting it to be an image file (.jpg or .gif) is a bit difficult, but here’s what I did.
Create the Wordle
Print it as a PDF
Open the PDF and use the snapshot tool to copy the area you want to use
Paste the copied area into Publisher or graphics editing program
Save the copied picture as a .jpg or .gif using, right click–>Save As Picture
KidzPlace is a website for children and CM leaders. It is sponsored by the North American Mission Board and contains tools for leaders to teach kids how to be Matthew 28:19-20 Christians as well as interactive gospel presentations for kids and games.
You will definitely want to check out the video presentation, “God’s Special Plan for Children.” You can show it to kids online, embed it into your own website, and if you call NAMB and talk very nicely to them, they will probably send you a high quality version of it on DVD free of charge (at least it worked for me about a year ago!).
You may have read my post early on about K9 internet filtering. K9 is a good resource to use in home computers, but I have recently found out that to put it on your church computers (i.e. business) you need to purchase a license.
You may want to check out OpenDNS. It provides similar internet saftety solutions and is completely free for any setting. I must admit that I have not used this yet. I plan on taking K9 off of one of my church computers and installing OpenDNS on it instead.
Have you had any experience with OpenDNS? Tell us about it.
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.
Well, I’m at camp again this week! Aside from my own camp with Grey Stone Baptist Church, I’ll be doing 3 other church camps this summer. I’m in the second of three right now. Needless to say, I’ll be brief in the next few posts. But that reminds me…if you are looking for a retreat/camp speaker or worship leader, feel free to get in touch!
Here’s a blog similar to Free CM Stuff. It’s called Children’s Minister Blog. He has some ideas and reflections, but also links to free or low cost resources.
I’ve been at camp this week, so not much time to comment. Want some free curriculum and puppet skits? Check out Fishers of Kids.
Note: I’ve found that even if I do not use sites like this to establish my entire scope of curriculum, I can often use it to accentuate other lessons I might be organizing or children’s sermons I am writing.
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!
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.
So you are on Facebook, you have a blog for your own children’s ministry, you twitter and kids in your ministry text you. Why do you need one more tech resource to keep track of? Well, you definitely need CM Connect because it puts the chidren’s ministry community all on one site.
CM Connect was started by Michael Chanley, the Children’s Minister at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY. Michael has a passion for connecting people and developing community so he launched this website as well as several others. Parent Unity is a similar site that gives parents a place to learn from, encorage and grow with one another. SM Connect is a place where Student Pastors can build community and network and PM Connect is a place for pastors, missionaries and evangelists to share ideas and strenghten relationships.
There are currently over 4000 members of the CM Connect community. There are a myriad of ways to connect with others through “friending,” joining groups (click here for the Free CM Stuff group), and participating in discussions about Children’s Ministry topics. It is definitely a must for Children’s Ministry leaders!
If you are already a member of CM Connect, I invite you to respond to this post to let the readers know how you find the community beneficial!
I’d love for you to “friend” me, look forward to meeting you (I’m also on Facebook if you’d like to join up with me there)!
Cornerstone University Radio has a great resource out there for you to pass along to families. It is a place where a good deal of Christian radio progamming for kids comes together. This is a quote from their site:
We’ve gathered the best in children’s Christian programming and put it in one place so you can easily find safe, entertaining, and enriching content just for kids! Our alliance of broadcasters and partners work hard to make HisKids.net a place you and your child want to be.
Kids can listen to shows like “Down Gilead Lane” and “Paws and Tales” on demand. Or you can stream the His Kids Radio station. If you contact them, they will set up a custom logo of your church on a special site of theirs. You can provide a link in your own website to the His Kids Radio site with your logo on it. You can see an example of mine here. This is all free, however, they do offer a paid service where you can stream your sermons, podcasts and trainings if you would like. This particular aspect of their service is charged by how large your church is.
I'm Dr. Andy Johnson. I'm a long time kidmin guy, author, consultant, camp speaker, dad, and husband. I am the children's pastor at Ingleside Baptist, however, any views here are not the expressed views of my church. Browse around and get some free stuff!
Purpose:
Free CM Stuff highlights top notch no cost resources as well as challenging leadership articles for those in children and family ministry.
