This post from the Homeless Blogger was hosted by my good friend and conference roommate, Matt McKee. Matt and I first met close to 10 years ago when he was at Fellowship Church in Dallas and I was in IN coming to Texas for a C3 conference. We’ve become good friends since then. So, it’s only natural that he would host the next installment of the Homeless Blogger.

This post was fun to write because I feel that it touches on a sensitive topic. With digital resources and crowd sourcing projects, we’ve kind of come to expect certain products and services to be free. Honestly, I love free stuff just like anyone else. However, I think it’s dangerous when we expect everything to be free… because in reality, everything costs something. Read the full article here.

Curriculum can be expensive, so this free trial comes as a huge gift. Obviously, Orange would love for you to use their curriculum. They believe it will help your church in your strategy to reach the whole family, something few curriculums do. Over and over again you’ll hear Reggie Joiner say, “It’s not a curriculum, it’s a strategy.” However, even if you end up not sticking with Orange, isn’t it at least worth a shot? At the very least you’ll save money for three months as you won’t have the curriculum expense that quarter.

This offer applies to My First Look, 252 Basics and XP3 curriculum. Even if you’re already a subscriber, they have other gifts to give away. Jump over and check out Orange, it could be the best thing you can do for the ministry you lead.

Now free is everywhere. A year ago I got the Dish. I got a free DVR which I can’t imagine life without. Sure I pay $4 a month for DVR service, but that beats shelling out $250 for the box. My first 2 cell phones I got were free as long as I signed a contract for phone service. Last summer Prince placed 2.8 million copies of his new CD in the Sunday edition of London’s Daily Mail. There’s even an airline (Ryanair) that offers flight from London to Barcelona for just $20 (they hope to make it free soon). It’s a completely new model and way of doing business. The offer of making it free attracts customers like crazy and the hope is that you’ll like it enough to pay for some premium features. These businesses also hope to make some money from advertising to you as well. It’s a cool concept that’s event crept it’s way into the ministry.

At one time you could find all kinds of ministry resources by subscribing to magazines, monthly newsletters or other “paid” resources. Now, many of the very same people are producing free resources and articles through blogs, podcasts and web sites. Those that continue to charge will eventually have to modify their business plan or fall to the wayside. Change is inevitable and competition is only growing. There is always something bigger and better right around the corner. I remember 10 years ago when the only resources I had as a CP was denominational curriculum, a few independent curriculum like Willie George stuff and Children’s Ministry Magazine. Shoot, Church on the Move was the only “national” children’s ministry I had ever heard of. Now there are several magazines, dozens of blogs and several “national” children’s ministries with many new ones on the horizon. It’s a good time to be in Children’s Ministry and I would imagine that in another 10 years it will be even better.

There’s a great article on the concept for “Free” in the March 2008 issue of WIRED magazine right here.

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