Youth leaders know well that curriculum resources frequently have a short shelf life. Sometimes this is due to graphics or pictures that no longer look "fresh" or because stories, examples, and statistics are dated. Increasingly, the longevity of a resource is influenced by changing technologies.
When I wrote a book called How to Use Music with Youth ... Even if You're Musically Challenged (Abingdon Press), almost ten years ago, I had only the vaguest inklings of how digital technologies would change how youth would buy, share, use, make, and listen to music. After all, the Internet was just beginning to explode, and many electronic technologies (such as the iPodTM) would not hit the market for a few years.
While the majority of the ideas in that book are still ones I'd recommend for integrating music more deeply into youth ministry, here are some suggestions I would add to a version 2.0 of the book.
What's on Your iPodTM?
Just as dance clubs allow patrons to bring in their iPodTM to plug into their sound systems, you can do the same thing in your youth group. During your gathering times, lock-ins, and other down times, allow the youth to bring in their portable digital music players. Let the youth set the rules, which might include such things as no music with profanity or only three songs per person.
A Different Kind of Garage Band
It used to be a challenge to create a youth group video without breaking music copyright laws. Today, though, a program called GarageBand comes standard on every new Apple computer. With very little effort--and surprisingly good results--youth can create their own background music using electronic "loops." They can even plug in their electric guitars, microphones, and so forth and record their own original songs. These songs can easily be imported into video creation tools on both PC and Mac platforms.
Blog It
Even if you aren't yet blogging, the odds are high that many of your youth blog and read others' blogs regularly. Encourage them to review new music from a Christian perspective or to list a favorite Christian song along with a link to where the tune can be purchased online. Likewise, you can use a blog to direct youth to the hottest new groups that you've read about in youth ministry or Christian music magazines.
Budget for Digital Downloads
Be sure to add funds to your youth budget for digital downloads of songs. You can use these as discussion starters, background music, worship settings, and when your praise band is learning new songs. Have the youth help you select the songs to buy each year.
Play "Moral/Legal/Neither/ Both"
Spend a few hours familiarizing yourself with current laws related to downloading, burning, sharing, and using digital music, or ask a music buff or lawyer in your church to do that for you. Create scenario cards with ways youth can acquire and use digital music. For each scenario, have the youth vote on whether it is legal, moral, both, or neither.
Use the cards to get youth talking about issues such as theft, how artists make their living, our "on-demand" world, and the difference between technological feasibility (whether or not one can do something) and moral significance (whether or not one should do something).
No matter the setting, music is a great tool for getting youth to open up and talk about important matters. The huge advantage you now have with sites like iTunes (www.itunes.com) is that there's almost no reason not to do so, since it's far more cost effective to download the one or two songs you really want than to rely on a few CDs you own.
A digital revolution is taking place. Has it reached your youth ministry yet?