human sandpaper

if i ever plant a church i think i'll fit in one mindset right behind "loving GOD" and "loving others". it will be "no church people." that might go against the "loving others" mindset but i think JESUS will understand.

fighting fair

i saw this on problogger via lifehacker and i wanted to keep it around somewhere. this seemed like as good of a spot as any to archive this thing.

here are 15 rules for fighting fair:

1. Know what you’re fighting about
2. Stick to one subject only
3. Be direct - say how you feel, say what you require
4. Choose the time of your battles carefully
5. Keep quarrels private
6. Don’t read your partner’s mind
7. Don’t expect your partner to read your mind
8. Don’t Blame
9. Own your own feelings - this means starting sentences with ‘I feel’, not ‘you make me feel’
10. Don’t talk each other down
11. Don’t hit below the belt
12. Don’t wear the belt too high
13. Don’t bring up past fights and use them as ammunition for the present one
14. Actively listen
15. No physical Violence

church advertising network

i'm not much for "marketing the church." i don't really like the idea of trying to sell the church. that doesn't mean that i don't appreciate good marketing or graphic design when it comes to the church. it's more than i don't want it as a primary focus of the church or a pillar of bringing people into the church. i basically believe that church marketing probably just brings in "church people" and i'm not very interested in getting "church people" to move from one church to another. i'd rather see the unchurched enter our doors. i believe that purpose, meaning, and love are what will bring the unchurched to be involved with us (please notice i did not say "bring the unchurched to our doors').

with all the above said i do like the site church marketing sucks and i enjoyed their link to the british church advertising network. their past campaigns are incredible.

forms

i'm not the world's greatest on html and web design. i know enough to be dangerous but not enough to do what i actually want to do. this year for our fall retreat i wanted to have sometime of online registration (i'm not comfortable with allowing credit card payment yet because i can't do that through the church and i don't want the money coming through my hands). i tried a few different ways of creating forms (manners that work for the stupid people like me). none of them really worked for me until i accidentally ran into formsite. it's pretty much dummy proof. if anyone knows of a better form building site i'm still open to changing things. i appreciate the collective wisdom of the two people who read this blog.

worshipping the CREATOR

i've done the path of prayer labyrinth with amazing results within our youth ministry. awhile back grace (a worship community in england and the creators of the "path of prayer laburinth") developed a new prayer experience on the CREATOR. i wrote jonny baker and asked him about the resources and he said they would be coming out soon. well they came out awhile back and we're going to use it for our fall retreat. i haven't used "worshipping the CREATOR" yet but i have a great deal of faith in what comes out of grace.

do any of y'all have any experience with "worshipping the CREATOR?"

reading

i finished organic church by neil cole yesterday and i found it very challenging. i have to admit that the thought of a house church is very compelling. I don't have any experience with churches that only operate out of homes. i do however have some experience with churches that operate often out of homes. they regularly incorporate homes into their times together. i would be interested to find out how well house churches age. it seems to me that they would work very well with younger ages but i don't have any idea how they would do with older individuals. this is my lack of experience speaking here.

i'm now reading shane claiborne's irresistible revolution. last year i went and spent a week with shane and his friends at the simple way. many of the stories within the book i heard then. i'll write more concerning the book when i finish it. it's enough to say at this point that it is very powerful ... just like shane.

sermon cloud

i've decided to test out sermon cloud as a means of syndicating the messages from the view, our weekly youth oriented worship service. i'll write back later and discuss my feelings on sermon cloud after i use it for awhile.

Content Management System by Ekklesia360