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How one youth group uses YouTube to share Christ online

The youth group at Bucyrus Free Will Baptist Church in Ohio creates a lot of decent videos that they post on YouTube to share Christ with others. A lot of these videos could be used to one your Facebook profiles or tweeted during the Online Missions Trip to help spark spiritual conversations with unsaved friends.

Check out their YouTube channel, Youth on the Rock.

[ht to Brian Ford]

16 ideas for the Online Missions Trip

Pamela Huggins submitted this list. She and her husband, Joseph Huggins, are Associate Pastors at Crusaders Church in Chicago, IL. where they serve the 13-18 year olds of their congregation.

1. Change your profile picture daily (for 14 days) with a Christ-centered image.

2. Change your status daily (for 14 days) by donating it to Christ.

3. Post a Christian music video daily.

4. Use the bulletin feature to post graphics with provoking messages, video, questions, Christ-centered surveys, etc.

5. Keep an eye out for interesting articles to that will provoke discussion to post or share on your page.

6. Give Christ-centered Pieces of Flair daily (for 14 days).

7. Find 14 different Christ-centered FunSlide videos and send one daily.

8. Use iLike and dedicate songs that have a Christian message to those you are praying for.

9. Xtreme Bible Study Facebook App. Invite your unsaved friends to add the app and check out the daily short Bible study and the 3-minute Xtreme Bible Study podcast. Use it to spark conversations about Christ and allow them to have learn a bit more about what Christianity is all about.

10. Post a Christ-centered note and tag those you’re praying for.

11. Post Christ-centered blogs/notes.

12. Search Photobucket or other image sites to find Christ-centered graphics to use when leaving messages on your friends pages.

13. Create a YouTube playlist showcasing your favorite inspirational videos.

14. Search out Christian podcasts and share them with your friends.

15. Sign up for Twitter and “tweet” the gospel.

16. Send an e-mail to those you’re praying for encouraging them.

For Youth Leaders: resource to help your kids through the next 2 weeks

The Online Missions Trip has officially started! As you can imagine, this can be an intimidating time, especially for teens who have never started a spiritual conversation with a friend. Shawn Shoup, a youth pastor in Rapid City, South Dakota, is sending a note of encouragement along with some tips and scripture to his youth group kids almost every day throughout the next two weeks. Thankfully, he’s agreed to make his notes available for other youth leaders to send to their kids, too.

Youth leaders, you can download the first message below. Others will be forthcoming on this blog, so keep an eye on it in the near future.

Word DocumentNote #1 for youth leaders to send to their students

Check out this youth group who are doing the Online Missions Trip

Elevate Student Ministries is one of the youth groups joining us on the Online Missions Trip. Their youth pastor, Shawn Shoup, made this video to promote it with their youth group:

(If you’re viewing this message in an email, see the video on their youth group’s Online Missions Trip page.)

They also have a Online Missions Trip registration form that they’re using with their group. Hadn’t really thought of doing that before. Cool idea!

They’re also integrating some cool things with their pre-trip training, like a parent/teen Internet workshop training. Great ideas! You can download their missions trip registration form and see more details of their plans for the Online Missions Trip here.

An idea for sending missions trip support letters

Over on our Facebook group, Hannah Nooshin suggested the idea of sending out support letters just like you would if you were going on a “normal” missions trip, except instead of asking for financial support, ask for prayer support. This is a great idea! In fact, you can even ask people to sign up in our 27/4 Prayer Room and claim a couple time slots to help saturate this missions trip in prayer.

If you haven’t yet joined our Facebook group, be sure to check it out and meet some of the other people joining you on the Online Missions Trip.