The results are in for the Scattergories T-shirt Giveaway over on TimSchmoyer.com

We had 79 entries (which can all be seen here)

We had a tie between 2 people… Andrew Jones & Mark Brownley who each had 8 unique words.  We used random.org to determine the winner of 6 free 1 color front t-shirts.

The winner is Mark Brownley

We hope everyone had fun playing our giant game of Scattergories.  A special thanks goes out to Tim Schmoyer for all his hard work setting the game up! (We just supplied the prize.)

Ministry Monkey would love to partner with you this summer as you create custom shirts for all your camps, mission trips, & events.  With Free Shipping, No Screen Charges, & No Set-up Fees we like to keep things simple.  You can hop right over to our site and get a quote right now.  Our art guys will create custom art just for your group or you can use some of our existing art and we can customize it just for you!

Check out a some of our most recent artwork…

We just wanted to share a recent order over @ www.MinistryMonkey.com

This design was done by Leesburg, Va graphic designer

Michael Cunsolo

We’ve been advertising on Tim Schmoyer’s blog “Life in Student Ministy” for just over a month now.  So far we’ve just have a small box with our logo (like the one on the right sidebar)

We’re going to be stepping up our game by placing a short 10 sec video ad before his Youth Ministry training videos!  We wanted to preview the ad here…

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!  Got a better idea?  Let’s have it!

I was recently interviewed by Tim Schmoyer from “Life in Student Ministry” about advice on ordering youth group t-shirts!

Here’s a bit of the interview…

Tim: How are youth group t-shirts worth the financial investment for ministry?

Ryan: As a former Youth Pastor, I witnessed first hand how a simple order of t-shirts helped us form community! It was really cool to watch students get excited about wearing our shirts to school and to hang out with friends. Getting Youth Group t-shirts was also a huge help in building our Leadership Team. Our leaders would wear their shirts weekly to help students recognize the leaders. (As if the 50 year-old bald guy didn’t already scream I’M A LEADER!!!!)

Tim: What are some things to look for or keep in mind when ordering shirts from someone?

Ryan:

• Not all t-shirts are created equal! Always take note of the brand & weight of the t-shirt quotes you get.
• Watch out for extra fees! Often times the price per shirt will be low, but then you have a $20 charge for each screen or location on the shirt you want to print. So, if you want 3 locations that’s an extra $60! Plus, find out about shipping costs!
• If you’re planning on using shirts for giveaways, always remember that white shirts are cheaper than colors. Don’t blow your budget on black t-shirts with 4 colors on the front & back if you are just giving them away.

You can check out the full interview here…. Ordering Youth Group T-shirts!

We’d like to congratulate our 5 winners of a free Ministry Monkey t-shirt!

• Mike Cunsolo – www.mikecunsolo.com
• Emory Dively – www.ddhcmn.org
• Todd Erickson – areyoudestinized.blogspot.com
• Matt Couch – rethinkyouthministry.blogspot.com
• Josh Carter – hokiejosh.blogspot.com

Thanks for entering the contest.  We’ll be sure to do this again!

I got to spend some time today with Matt Couch he’s a Student Ministries Pastor at a great church in Avon, Indiana!  I was helping him design some simple slides that he could use for his youth group announcements.  We had a lot of fun coming up with goofy sayings & titles for the slides.

Most of the background images for the announcements were from Simply Youth Ministry.  A while back I had bought their Premier Background Images vol. 1 & 2 They actually have them right now for $14.99.  They’re loaded with great pictures and images for both announcements & sermon slide backgrounds!  We also got some of the images off of stock.xchng (a great side for photography)  And of course we grabbed a few with the great tool Google Images.

We were having fun sharing a few of them with our friends on twitter, but we decided to share all of them!  We’ve uploaded them to our Facebook Fan Page.  You can see all the slides here!

Disclaimer:  I am not a graphic designer, so don’t make fun of me!  I just used Apple Keynote to make the slides and to export them as JPEGS!

Here is a sample of what we did today…

And remember… “It’s a jungle out there… trust the monkey!”

We’re the new guys in town.  Probably not your town, but we’re new.
(um…you get the point!)

Since we’re so stinking new Google doesn’t really know us yet.

They don’t know that we are like THE PLACE
to print t-shirts for your youth groups, churches, & ministries!!!
Free Shipping. No Screen Fees. No Set-up Charges

So, we need your help to introduce us to Google with a little SEO work!

We’re not expecting you all to do it out of the kindness of your heart,
but we wouldn’t complain if you did!

We’re gonna give away a free Ministry Monkey t-shirt to 5 different people!

Here’s how you can be entered to win…

Write a blog post w/ a link to our website www.MinistryMonkey.com

To help with the SEO, we’re asking that your text in the link be something like this…
Check out www.MinistryMonkey.com for your Youth Group T-shirts!!!
(see how Youth Group T-shirts links to www.MinistryMonkey.com???)
That’s like Google SEO GOLD!!!!

So, publish your post with the link to us and then pop back over here and leave a link to your post in the comments below.  At the end of the week we’ll use the random integer generator
to select the 5 winners from the comment fields!

We know, it’s a lot of work for the chance to win a measly t-shirt!
But, atleast we’ll let ya pick the color!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to drop me an email Ryan(at)MinistryMonkey(dot)com

And remember… “It’s a jungle out there… trust the monkey!”

Keeping parents updated while on a Missions Trip or Youth Group Event can be difficult.

We’ve recently found a tool that could be a huge help. You’ve got to check out Scribble Live.
Scribble Live is a live blogging platform. So, you can post updates & pictures extremely easily.
Plus, parents can comment back and be part of the conversation!

There is a ton of different ways to utilize this free technology.
Here’s just one way to use it.

1.  Set-up a Scribble Live acct.
2. Embed it onto your Youth Blog or Site.
3. Communicate to Parents that they can get updates while on the trip at your site.
4. Consistently update the live stream with updates. (i.e. Stopping for lunch, serving at shelter…)
5. If possible post pictures & videos.
6. You can even pull in Twitter updates with certain #hashtags! – So, you & students can twitter in updates!

Scribble Live looks to be a very promising service for Churches & Ministries!

You can see a full list of the features here!

Do you think you could put this to good use in your ministry?