I hereby declare the end of poor communications within your youth ministry. I’m here to confirm what you already suspect: kids don’t check their Email. To them, Email is old technology, only good for formal communications with teachers, bosses, and other adults.

For high schoolers, it’s all about texting and Facebook. Generally, kids prefer a text message to a phone call because rather than having to drop everything to answer it, they can reply when it’s convenient. Kids prefer this for their personal communications, as opposed to the formal communications I alluded to earlier. Consider which category allows for more effective ministry, and then add a texting package to you cell phone account.

The real communications goldmine is Facebook–not just because all your kids are on it, but because all the other kids in town are on it too. Some people have a real hang up about Facebook, and I think it’s because they don’t understand how it differs from chat rooms. Facebook isn’t about anonymity. You set up a profile which includes your name and your picture, and then you seek out your friends to share in an online experience. Most kids who get into trouble online are interacting with an anonymous somebody pretending to be somebody else in a chat room, but not on Facebook.

That’s not to say there isn’t a certain amount of drama and other pitfalls involving Facebook. You get that in whatever forum teenagers are communicating. But how do you shepherd them through all that without being familiar with the medium? So, get yourself a Facebook profile, and then use it to the benefit of your ministry. If you need help setting it up, ask one of the kids in your group.

Now, here is an important tip: do not send friend requests to your kids. It backs them into a corner because they have to either accept or deny the request. Instead, you can send them a message–maybe just a reminder about the next meeting. Then, they know you’re on Facebook and they can send you a friend request if they want to.

Set up a Facebook group for your ministry. Your kids can attach their profiles to the group and then you can take advantage of the “message all members” button on the group page. It’s like sending a bulk Email, but on a more effective platform. And remember how I mentioned all the other kids in town? Leverage Facebook to tap into them. The next time you have an event, create an event page on Facebook and encourage your kids to invite their friends via Facebook. We had a concert last year that more than 1200 kids knew about via Facebook.

Don’t disable your Email account, though. You’ll still need that to communicate with their parents.

BONUS:

If you’re working with middle schoolers, you’ll probably find that they aren’t quite as into Facebook as the high school kids are. Their thing is instant messenger. You can sign up for a free IM account at www.aim.com. Don’t download their software, though–you don’t need it.

Check out www.meebo.com. Register for an account and install their free Meebo Notifier software. Meebo runs in the background of your computer and can automatically log you into your IM account whenever your computer is turned on. (I’m guilty of forgetting to log in most of the time.)

Meebo is pretty sweet because you can also set it to log into your Facebook account, so you can use AIM and Facebook Chat all from one application.