Considering that most of the things I do in ministry are with little or no budget I’ve had to become very resourceful over the years. I’ve utilized lots of resources and services and when I come across something that I believe others can benefit from I never hesitate to make them aware. In this day and age there are two areas that I feel are vital to every ministry’s success and in many ways they go hand in hand. I’m talking about marketing and media. Much of what I do centers around these two areas. I’m going to share with you nine of my favorite FREE or almost free resources that if properly used can help take your ministry to the next level without blowing your budget. In fact, they can actually help you free up some time and money that you can use to impact the Kingdom. Not a bad idea, huh? Here they are in no particular order:

1. Facebook- Back in the day (last year..actually) I used to be all about myspace and made several good connections as a result. Then one day Pastor Blake Porter told me that facebook was the way to go if I wanted to make solid ministry connections. I created a profile, let it sit for about a month, and then finally started to get active. After I got the hang of facebook I pretty much kicked myspace to the curb. I like to call facebook, “myspace for grown ups”. I have made several great new connections, reconnected with lots of old friends, and have been able to minister to people I never would have had it not been for them reading my postings on facebook. Also it’s super easy to create an event listing complete with details on facebook and send it out to everybody on your friends list or to just select friends. It gives them the option of saying “yes, no, or maybe” they’ll attend. They can even leave comments regarding the event. In my opinion there’s not a better free way to network.

2. Twitter- I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know half of what there is to know when it comes to Twitter but I do know that it’s another great way to keep your name and your message in front of lots of people. There’s a mobile app that allows you to post a “tweet” in only seconds without logging in and keep everybody informed about what is going on in your world. Erwin McManus uses it to make people aware of who he’s meeting with and what exciting things are in the works. You also have the option to link your Twitter account to your facebook account and whenever you post a tweet it automatically updates your status.

3. SocialOomph (formerly Tweet later)- Another free service that allows you to write your tweets in advance and schedule them to post at various times. This really comes in handy when promoting an event or something exciting that’s coming up. For an event I just hosted recently I scheduled tweets to go out every two hours promoting one of the bands or speakers that was appearing at my event. I included a link to a video or audio clip as well. You can schedule tweets to go out about upcoming sermon series and again if your twitter account is linked to you facebook account, it will automatically update your status too.

4. bit.ly- When posting links to other sites, videos or anything, I always use bit.ly. Bit.ly is an url shortener which comes in very handy when posting tweets where you are limited to 140 characters. When you have a long web address such as www.midwestconferenceline.com just copy and paste it into the toolbar on bit.ly and click “shorten” and it becomes “http://bit.ly/11Q9NQ” taking up less characters and giving you more room to tweet. It’s 100% free and easy to use.

5. Elance- Using Elance is free to use and will save you tons of money. Here’s how it works. You need your church website rebuilt (or logo created, or book cover designed, or whatever) but don’t have $2,000 to drop on it right now (not in the budget, right?). Log onto Elance and just like selling something on ebay, you post your project and within minutes you will have designers and web developers all over the world (I mean ALL over the world. The header on my blog was designed by a guy in Kolkata, India for $50 and he had it completed within 24 hours) bidding on your project. Don’t worry, you have access to feedback from past customers along with their portfolio to see what you’re getting yourself into and all money is put into escrow with payments not being made until you release them. I have used elance for tons of stuff from designing my book covers, creating my websites and logos, and even for powerpoint creation. For example I paid $250 to have www.lifecanchange.com designed and built from scratch. Elance is one resource I can’t live without.

6. Zamzar- Ever saw a video on youtube or tangle and wished you could show it on Sunday morning but couldn’t find the video in a downloadable format? (All videos on youtube and tangle are flv files or flash files and you can’t download them). Well, Zamzar to the rescue! Again all you do is take the link to the video and drop it into the toolbar on Zamzar, select the desired format you’d like the file, .mov, .wma, etc., and within minutes Zamzar converts the flash file into a format you can use and sends you an email with a link to download the file. As long as the original video quality is good the conversion should be too. We run a triple screen with three HD projectors on Sunday’s and nine times out of ten the videos play great. You can also convert word docs into pdf’s as well.

7. Yousendit- Don’t you hate it when you need to email somebody something and it’s a huge file? Even in this day and age of high-speed internet it can still take what seems like forever. That’s where yousendit.com makes your life easier. Yousendit is really a free ftp service that allows you to upload your huge file to their server and then send a link to download the file to the person (or people) of your choice. The link stays active for seven days and the file can be downloaded multiple times. I believe the file limit with the free service is 100Mb but it should meet most of your daily needs.

8. Podomatic- I’ve been using Podomatic for about three years now and love it. Podmatic is easy to use podcast service. Sign up for a free account and within minutes you can have your first podcast posted. Using Podomatic is no harder than sending an email with an attachment. It provides you with some simple code that allows you to embed the player on your website and whenever you post an episode it automatically updates. You can upload most audio files along with an image and description of the podcast. It also allows you to import your contact list and notify them whenever a new episode is posted. I use it on a personal level and my church uses it to post our weekly messages. You can also track the number of downloads each week and where they come from. I’m a big fan of Podomatic.

9. Midwest Conference Line- Last but not least we have Midwest Conference Line.
MCL is a free conference call provider that will give you your very own conference line (with exclusive PIN) to host up to 250 people on a call. You can have as many calls as you want for as long as you want. As long as you have free long distance on your home phone or cell phone you don’t have anything to worry about (other than going over your minutes depending on your cell plan). At Waves of Faith we have a weekly leadership call (a phone version of a staff meeting) that allows us to go over what needs to be talked about without all of us physically having to be in the same location (on our call last night I was actually at Barnes and Noble). When we were preparing for SurgeForward we had a weekly vision team call for our 13-person team that made it so much easier for us all since we didn’t have to all be at the same place at the same time. I’m not saying to never have face-to-face team meetings or that they are bad, but anytime you can take advantage of something like this it makes life easier for everyone. Another added benefit is you can record the call (by pressing *2) and download an mp3 of the recording or access it by calling the callback number (also free). This is great when for some reason somebody can’t be on the call but still needs to hear what was talked about. Another way to use this service is to set up a prayer call (daily or weekly) that is simply a prayer meeting over the phone.

These are just a few of the free resources I use on a regular basis that I am a big fan of. I hope any or all of them will help you as well. If there’s a free resource out there that you use I’d love to hear about it. Remember, none of us is as smart as all of us.