As a youth pastor in an urban setting, I need to be able to resource my youth group on a budget.  A lot of the guys I  talk too say the very same thing.  I’m going to take the next week or so and talk about some resources and ways to be an Urban Youth Ministry Baller on a Budget!   

My boy Scott Mills from LifeWay was feeling me when he wrote this….

As a student minister, I am sure you have to tighten your belt these days and make more youth ministry happen with fewer dollars. With the economy like it is, everyone has to make the most of what we have – at home, at work, and in our ministry

Did you know that LifeWay has many options for Bible Study? We have options for all budgets, but you will not lose anything when it comes to solid biblical teaching that is built on a strategy for developing students spiritually. All our Bible study resources line up with a solid strategy to help students KNOW God, OWN their faith, and make their faith KNOWN. (www.lifeway.com/studentstrategy)

Here is how these resources compare per week if you have 1 teacher and 20 students:

• KNOWN (www.lifeway.com/known)
• Leader Guide – $6.50
• Student book – $4.50 (3 monthly issues at $1.50)
• Total Quarterly Cost: $96.50
• Per Student Cost each week: $0.40

• Life Focus (www.lifeway.com/lifefocus)
• Leader Guide – $5.25
• Student book – $1.90
• Total Quarterly Cost: $43.25
• Per Student Cost each week: $0.18

• Fuel2 Video Series (www.lifeway.com/fuel)
• DVD/CD Leader Pack (all materials on CD and DVD) – $159.95
• Per Student Cost each week: $0.67

With many of LifeWay Student resources, there are many FREE extras online to give you and your teachers even more tools to help develop your students spiritually. From Podcasts to parent meeting plans, visit the product websites to preview the curriculum products to get more specific information on each option.

Scott Mills is a LifeWay expert in student ministry. As a marketing strategist, Scott knows the practical aspects of ministry that sometimes dictate curriculum choices. Scott seeks to continue to be involved in work that produces quality products at a reasonable price for your students.

I’m always looking for books, materials, and resources to help me minister to my students as well as my leaders.  When I need a fresh idea or I need to be reminded why I’m in the game, I use the following resources from Simply (www.simplyyouthministry.com)

Each week, you look at the girls in your church, and you dream about the opportunity to make a bigger impact in their lives. You envision a team of women coming alongside you, investing their time and talents to help teenage girls discover how beautiful and valuable they truly are. You imagine groups of girls gathering to talk about their life experiences and offering support and encouragement to one another. You picture moms and daughters experiencing healed relationships and new beginnings.

It’s just a dream—for now. But you can turn that dream into reality with the tools, tips, and training you’ll find in Girls Ministry from Start To Finish.

This resource is divided into two parts.

Part 1: The Strategy
Who will lead your girls ministry? How will you structure it? How will it benefit your church? What impact can you have on the girls in your congregation and community? This section takes you from “big picture” thinking all the way to hitting the ground running.

Part 2: The Tools and Resources
This includes stuff that will save you tons of times: event ideas, sample Bible studies, and suggestions for curriculum. Use them as-is or customize them for your ministry. They’re all yours. We’ve also tossed in some extra training resources on the challenges facing girls in today’s culture that you can distribute to your leaders. You’re welcome.

Unlock the passion and potential of your young women by launching a girls ministry committed to spiritual health, personal growth, and biblical definitions of beauty and character. It’s a great way to serve the girls in your church—and an incredible opportunity to have an impact on the girls in your community. And nothing will help you get one started quicker than Girls Ministry from Start To Finish.

Helping develop spiritually mature, ministry-focused student leaders is one of the most effective ways you can spend your leadership energy. There are big payoffs when a youth ministry becomes a place where student leaders are identified, empowered, and released to serve and do ministry. Few aspects of youth ministry are as exciting as seeing students develop a heart to serve and lead.

To help you strengthen student leaders, Doug Fields has put together a series of six audio training lessons to aid teenagers who have a heart for God and ministry. Take these CDs, duplicate them for your students, and use them to help your student leaders grow in their faith, their heart for ministry, and their love for the church.

Topics covered are:

1. Servant oriented leadership – meeting needs without being asked.
2. Maintaining a vibrant and growing faith…on your own.
3. Developing a ministry that “fits” you.
4. How to develop ownership within your youth ministry.
5. Being a student leader away from the church – with family and friends.
6. How to invest in and influence others.

What’s included:

• 6 audio CDs, one for each topic
• 1 CD including all 6 audio trainings in MP3 format (for your digital students), and an MP3 overview from Doug on how he uses this resource and his recommendations

People always ask me how do I minister to hurting kids and what resources I use for them.  Well here is what I love to use:

LIFE HURTS GOD HEALS
Life Hurts God Heals is a completely comprehensive resource you can use to launch and run a ministry specifically to bring healing to these students. It includes all the curriculum you will need for leaders and participants, as well as all the behind the scenes stuff to help with everything from recognizing danger signs in teens to how to get this program up and running in your church.

Included are:

• 16 practical resources on starting a Life Hurts God Heals ministry
• DVD with student testimonies about the Life Hurts God Heals program
• Leader Guides in PDF and Word formats
• Student Workbooks (13 lessons) in PDF and Word formats
• Eight 30-minute sermons by Doug Fields in MP3 format
• Teaching transcripts of each sermon
• Student devotionals and journals
• Follow-up support group study
• Promotional materials, including sample parent letters, brochures, calendars, and more
• Administrative materials, including welcome signs, consent forms, graduation certificates, and more

Every element of this resource with the exception of the student testimonies is completely open for you to reproduce and edit for use in your ministry. We want you to be completely empowered and as effective as possible as you reach out to your students in need.

LIFE HURTS GOD HEALS LEADER’S VIDEO TRAINING KIT
Packed inside this DVD is a comprehensive training program on how to implement Life Hurts God Heals within your ministry. With over two hours of video training from Megan Hutchinson (Life Hurts God Heals champion), you’ll learn how to start your program, support your participants, and work with leaders.

Also included is a PowerPoint presentation to help you teach this same material to leaders in your group along with a bunch of reproducible handouts and forms. From day one to long-term health–it’s all in here. Grab a copy and get started on your Life Hurts God Heals ministry today!

SCARRED SUPER-SERIES
The challenge of life isn’t avoiding pain (since that’s impossible), the real challenge is how to deal with pain when it happens. How to manage and heal from the wounds life inflicts on us. With this powerful three-week super-series by Doug Fields and Megan Hutchinson, you’ll be able to help students recognize and deal with the most painful experiences in their life. And most importantly, they’ll see how God can take their pain and use it to make beauty.

Lessons include:

• Hurt Happens
• Risking to Deal with Life’s Hurts
• Share Your Story—Student Testimony Sharing

SECRET SURVIVORS Everyone has secrets. Some you might whisper into a friend s ear, while others may stay locked inside you for years… maybe even forever. It’s those secrets that you tuck away that eventually control you. You may think you’re okay, but really, your secrets can be tearing you apart from the inside out.

Secret Survivors tells the compelling, true stories of people who have lived through painful secrets – things that they kept to themselves until they could no longer bear the pain alone. As you read their stories, you’ll be drawn into their journeys towards healing, and you’ll understand why it’s so important to share your secret with someone else in order to start your own healing process.

I WANT TO TALK WITH MY TEEN ABOUT ADDICTIONS
From addictive behaviors including drinking and smoking to gambling, disfigurement, and hard-core drugs, I Want to Talk With My Teen About Addictions offers clear, concise information about the impact of addictive behaviors and how addiction affects teens’ faith-filled lives. Powerful pointers, checklists, charts, discussion starters, colorful diagrams, and practical, interactive suggestions help you and your teen…

• EXAMINE why people become addicted and feel hopeless.
• DISCOVER how alcohol and drugs poison the body, mind, and spirit.
• DEVELOP healthy coping strategies for resisting unhealthy behaviors.
• REALIZE that addiction is a choice teens make – but can be overcome.
• EMBRACE God’s power, good friends, and love in breaking addictions.

We at SimplyUrban want to make sure you are on the up and up of any new music or videos that would assist you in your ministry. I found another hot one on Youtube by LeCrae.

We  found a great comparison list created by: Chris Dawson (aka) Jeremaya. Jeremaya created a urban alternative list a few years back and it has become popular within his church.  He states, “He saw many list out there but none were marketed towards gospel or rap”. He wanted to expose kids to different type of rap music besides the harmful things they are being exposed to.

 Check out Chris’s list and LeCrae’s new video.

Click here to view file 

Don’t forget to tell us what you think.

Today’s female students need to be challenged to be radicals for the cause of Christ. As more pressure and more unrealistic cultural expectations are placed on these young women, the church must step in to give these young women a godly focus that reinforces their value and worth in God’s kingdom. The hope for these young girls is ultimately found in the hands and hearts of God’s church – in the middle of your student ministry plan. Here are some suggestions from one leading out in girls’ ministry to get your ministry plan off the ground.

Harness Your Passion
Passion is often hard to find in a society that is raising a generation too apathetic to vote in the presidential race but aggressive enough to cast 63 million votes in the last American Idol contest. Our society has a skewed perspective on what really matters and the effects have trickled down to our teenagers.

Passion is the only thing to set you apart from the programmed apathy that has become so prevalent. Girls are sensitive and can sense when someone is serving out of passion rather than obligation. Take your passion to reach girls for Christ and share that with others. Passion is contagious. God has given other people the same heart, and they are looking for a leader to follow.

Outline Your Purpose
Many ministry teams fail due to lack of purpose – not lack of passion. Passion without purpose is as useless as talk without action. You can lead your team need to ask questions such as: what is our ultimate goal of our ministry and what do we want girls to gain from this ministry?

Here is an example of a purpose statement from our team after we worked through such questions: Our purpose is to reach, teach, and train young women to impact their communities and the world.

1.      To reach girls (Evangelism) – We carry the hope of the world in our hearts, and it’s imperative that we reach out to others with the truth of the gospel. Girls’ ministries have to be more than just a haven for those who are already heaven-bound.

2.      To teach girls (Discipleship) – Matthew 28:19-20 calls us to make disciples, not just converts. Beyond reaching girls with the gospel, we have to teach girls what it looks like to be godly.

3.      To train girls (Equipping for ministry) – No one is more uniquely gifted to minister to girls than other girls. We want to seize the opportunity to show them how to leverage their spiritual gifts and abilities for the cause of Christ.

Develop a Philosophy
A purpose outlines what you hope to accomplish but is often fuzzy on how you plan to do so. This is why developing a ministry philosophy is so vital. At a planning retreat, we prayerfully poured over out philosophy. We then agreed on the following words: personal, biblical, and relevant. These three concepts became our ministry’s core values.

·         Personal. Girls want people to be real. Sharing personal testimonies became a central piece of our conference. We intentionally programmed our conferences to include breakout sessions. When we were genuine and accessible, the girls were responded.

·         Biblical. We realized that we had a tendency to sugarcoat the Word of God instead of speaking the truth in love. We made a fresh commitment to open the girls’ eyes to the glory of God by sharing the power of His Word.

·         Relevant. Some people sacrifice biblical integrity for the sake of “being relevant,” but it’s possible for the two to coexist. Jesus was both biblical and engaging. We are committed to tackle issues such as sex, immodesty, and self-image in a candid way, and the girls respect our honesty.

Implement a Plan
Once you’ve done all the preparation, it’s time to take action. After you have harnessed your passion, outlined your purpose, and developed your philosophy, you are ready to implement your plan. Start looking at the specifics such as event calendaring and curriculum. Assemble a key group of girls who are willing to serve as your sounding board. Run your ideas by them and empower them to help you accomplish your purpose.

Passion, purpose, philosophies, and plans are meaningless without the pursuit of God and His glory. Sadly, He is often the missing link to successful ministry. Let the greatest aim of your girls’ ministry be to know God and bring Him glory.

Check out Mary Mary’s video “I Worship You”. Thank God for YouTube, Tangle and others that have made videos more readily available.  

Do you incorporate videos into your praise and worship experiences? There are few venues for Christian videos to be displayed on a national level. In our ministry we try to expose our students to what they don’t see on BET or MTV. Students need to see positive videos and hear positive music, so they know they have a choice. YouTube has become a major venue for Christian artist to promote and display their music. Stay turned for more hot Urban finds from YouTube!