Internet Resources for Ministry

For weekly updates, send a blank email message to xa-leader-subscribe@egroups.com . Prepared by Glen Davis, AGTS alumnus and Chi Alpha minister at Stanford.

The Internet is an extraordinarily potent tool that can enhance your ministry in remarkable ways. There are two basic ways the Internet can make you a more effective minister: by exposing you to information and resources and by allowing you to communicate efficiently.

Email Lists Worth Joining

Who has time to spend hours searching for info? A better strategy is to have info delivered to you, so sign up for these lists pronto!

• The Prez Release (monthly). Thoughts from Byron Klaus, president of AGTS.
• FutureMapping (frequently). This is a great guide to new ministry stuff online. There's a pretty heavy emphasis on articles in good magazines.
• The Pastor's Toolbox (monthly). A great newsletter from Rick Warren at Saddleback Church.
• Internet for Christians Newsletter (monthly) This excellent list will keep you up-to-date on what Christians are putting online. This list is a must!
• Leadership Wired (monthly) This list from John Maxwell is hit & miss. But it is free, and it hits often enough to justify subscribing to it.
• Youth Culture Update (monthly) Sponsored by Youth Specialties, this list will keep you current on what's happening in America's youth culture.
• The Campus Ministry Update (monthly) Sponsored by The Ivy Jungle Network. This list will keep you up-to-date on the college scene.
• The Barna Update (twice a month) Sponsored by George Barna, this list will get you the results of his latest study. Pretty neat.

Quality Search Engines and Directories

These are the primary tools for finding general information on the internet.

• Google! Google is one of the most accurate search engines around.
• AltaVista If I can't find it at Google, I always back up to AltaVista. I almost always find what I'm looking for.
• The Open Directory What makes this directory so great is that it is built by volunteers who have expertise in each field indexed. It is far larger than Yahoo and much more current.

Bible Study Sites

Online Bible reference works & translations

• Bible Study Tools Online High-quality stuff, it deals with the original languages.
• The Biblical Studies Foundation Excellent stuff, it also deals with the original languages.

Cultural Relevance

These are sites with a lot of information & links to other relevant sites.

• Outreach Marketing and The Church Ad Project. These two vendors sell quality Christian marketing resources such as posters and postcards. While their products are worth buying, their primary benefit is that you can browse their products online to get ideas for your own homemade stuff.
• WindWords Communication Gene & Lynn Breitenbach host this site which features campus-ministry specific resources such as dorm talks and booktable ideas.
• Next Wave An excellent magazine focusing on reaching our culture.
• Hollywood Jesus. The movies from a Christian perspective.

Gateway Sites

These are sites with a lot of information & links to other relevant sites.

• The OmniList of Christian Links GOLD This site is a tremendous resource! It is a directory that features the best of Christian sites out there, categorized and reviewed.
• Leadership University Leadership University is slightly misnamed. It is not a repository of leadership information, but it is a high-quality collection of apologetic information on very current issues. Many of their resources are available in PDF format for ready distribution to students.
• Britannica Online This is the full set of Encyclopedia Britannica's famous articles plus a collection of links similar to Yahoo, but different in that these are carefully screened and rated by quality. You can be assured you are finding reliable information.

Ministry-Specific Resources

• Jordon Cooper Some really great links!
• Leadership Network This site has some good information, and some of it is even free.
• Christianity Online This is an outstanding site from Christianity Today. The texts of their periodicals (Christianity Today, Leadership, Books & Culture, etc. are available here.
• YouthPastor.com Has a really neat games database÷useful for retreats and parties.
• Discipleship Journal
• Church Resources
• Internet Theology Resources This site has everything, including links to online journals and scholarly societies! Maintained by the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University.
• Christian Classics Ethereal Library Just about every significant public-domain piece of Christian literature you can imagine.
• Guide to Early Church Documents This is much like the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, except smaller and better annotated.

Facts and Primary Materials

• Internet FAQ Consortium FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. It is a standard document collected on newsgroups to help bring novices up to speed in a discipline. The information in these should be taken with a grain of salt, but you can find stuff here you can't find anywhere else. As a rule of thumb, the more technical the subject, the more reliable the information.
• RefDesk If you need to know or verify some obscure bit of trivia.

Updated: Thursday, July 8, 2010 5:34 PM