Google Docs & Youth Ministry

By Chris · Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

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Chances are pretty good that you have heard of Google Docs and know that you can do a lot of the stuff that you can do in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, plus more. Have you stopped to think of the possibilities for your ministry though?

Here are just a few ways that I use Google Docs in the youth ministry that I lead:

Student Info

I have found that a pretty easy way to make sure that my staff is able to contact new students and to stay in contact with the regulars, to not miss birthdays, and to work with parents, is to keep the youth min data updated in a Google Spreadsheet. Since it is possible to keep the info private and not open for the whole world to see while adding individuals with Google accounts to be either “viewers” of the data or “collaborators.”

Ministry Stats

I have found that a great way to see which direction a ministry is going isn’t to look at the total attendance numbers, but to look at the break downs within grade levels & between sexes. Once you have these breakdowns you can track which way the trends are moving. Is your jr. high ministry getting too “old?” Is the mix of male/female way out of whack? When you see the trends then you can act to move closer to the vision that God has given you for the ministry. Here are a couple quick charts from our jr. high evangelistic program that I am tracking:

9th graders are not part of our jr. high ministry but we give them the option of attending the evangelistic program as part of a transition between jr. high & sr. high.

Surveys

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I am actually not using this one right now, but I am super excited about the possibilities. Check out this little survey and then let me know what you are thinking you might use some of this stuff for.

Are there better options out there for what I am doing?

Topics: Youth Ministry · Tags: google, ministry tools

Viewing 2 Comments

Ben 2 months ago 1 point
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I did not know about form creator feature in Google Docs, that holds so many possibilities. I'm going to have to spend some time looking at all the features of Google Docs again. Thanks for the post!

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http://www.fusionlife.org

TIm Schmoyer 2 months ago 1 point
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I use Google Docs to easily share files between my MacBook Pro (mostly church use) and my iMac at home (mostly home use). I'll start using it share some files with my administrative assistant, too, since right now I have to print out new copies for her everytime I update.

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http://timschmoyer.com