Planning Center is a beautiful service to lead and organize your music team and techies.  BUT, only if you have the budget for it. And let’s face it – a church plant youth ministry barely has enough money to get you a microphone cable. You can save a bunch of money by using other sites and services to provide nearly the exact same module for your music & production team. It won’t be as pretty but it will get the job done FOR FREE! Here’s how:

1. Create a website – use one of the many free website creating services online. I’ve used Weebly and Google but there are tons more out there. (Example)

2. Schedule teams with Google Docs – you can publish your team’s schedule for free using Google Docs. Make a spreadsheet, publish it to the web and make the link accessible to your team. (Example)

3. Upload songs and sheets - host all of your music and song sheets on a free file sharing website. Currently, I use MediaFire as our host and it’s working like a charm!

4. Create a Facebook Group – everyone is on Facebook these days AND everyone responds to being “tagged”. Create a group for your music/tech team on Facebook and use it as your main way of communicating. And “tag” each member that is scheduled for the upcoming Sunday in a wall post within the group. This is their reminder that they’re on to serve!

Gary Hale is the Student Ministries Director at High Pointe Church in Puyallup, WA. Check out his blog he created for youth workers in church plants – Student Ministry in a Box.