This article is from Mike Stevens who is the State Youth and Young Adult Facilitator for Baptist Churches in South Australia. (Thanks Mike for giving us a plug here!!) You can check out Mike’s blog on Youth Ministry Leadership.
In my role serving churches across SA and NT I often get asked for help and direction in terms of resources, games, blogs, leadership material and so on. Below are my go to 6 websites for youth ministry resources – starting with the free ones and then ones where you will need to pay:
1. Youth Alpha (Free) http://www.alphayouthfilmseries.com/
This Youth Alpha is a great short film series introducing young people to Jesus and helping young people understand what they believe. The two lead characters are from Canada and their humour and manner relates well to Australians. It also has to be mentioned that this course is FREE!
2. My Youth Leader – Australian (Free) https://myyouthleader.com.au/
My Youth Leader is a new Australian website that would be worth looking at – it has games, lessons, upcoming events and lots of leadership material on it. We don’t have many people writing and posting online in Australia in terms of youth ministry, so my youth leader is worth checking out and staying connected to.
3. Download Youth Ministry ($$) http://www.downloadyouthministry.com/
Download Youth Ministry (DYM) is my favourite – easy to navigate and heaps of resources. From fun games to leadership articles to small group material, DYM has it all. It’s the brainchild of long term youth Pastors (Doug Fields and Josh Griffin) and they have basically created a website that is great because it has everything you want!
4. Fuller Youth Institute – Sticky Faith ($$) http://stickyfaith.org/ https://fulleryouthinstitute.org/sticky-faith/what-is-sticky-faith
The Fuller Youth Institute has some excellent curriculum on how to build faith into teenagers and how to set young people up for a ‘faith win’ post school. Their material on vocational pathways, dealing with money, etc is well worth a look for your Senior High students.
5. Think Orange – XP3 ($$) http://thinkorange.com/xp3s
Orange has some excellent curriculum options and they package it up well. It comes at a price but is worth it. They have great partnering with parents material that usually accompanies the curriculum. One of the benefits of Orange is its strong children’s curriculum (first look for pre school, 252 Basics for Primary School), so if you are going for alignment and continuity across the generations (birth to 30), then XP3 could be a great option for your teenagers
6. Youth Ministry Specialities ($$) http://youthspecialties.com/
Youth Ministry Specialities is always worth a look when it comes to resources. Mark Matlock is a great thinker and I rate his work. Curriculum and resources come at a price, but you are sure to find gold! At the very least, signing up to the email list is a must.
Why don’t you comment below with what websites and resources you are accessing right now, as it would be great to share this information across Australia.
