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Showing posts from March, 2011

The Art of Online Ministry by Dana Byers

This morning I just finished reading the pre-released copy of the free ebook "The Art of Online Ministry" by Dana Byers . Dana is the president of Blue Door Ministries and passionate about church online and using modern technology to reach people with the message of Jesus all around the world. This short ebook serves as an EXCELLENT guide to the world of church online ministry. I've always considered myself somewhat a tech expert. Working in the computer industry for 13 years before becoming a pastor kind of brings that tech experience with me. But to be honest, online church was a bit of a challenge for me... not so much as to "why" churches should do it (after all, I became a Christian thanks to an online ministry in 1998 and believe that every church should have a strong internet presence!) but the issue for me was "how" could churches do it. Was this a ministry just for the big, mega, America churches... did this require people with tech skill

Time to Play?

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I've been praying and thinking a lot about play time. That may sound a little weird coming from a 39 year old... but I do. Play time is on my mind a lot because it's definitely something that I don't seem to have a lot of time for these days. I'm a big believer in the Sabbath - the spiritual discipline of taking time off and resting and just enjoying God and life. But lately my Sabbath keeping has seemed to be either spent getting work done around the house or school work or catching up on stuff to do at the church. Now that I'm reflecting on it... I don't think I've honestly taken a Sabbath rest since our vacation in January. Not cool! Now... I hear all about these pastors who have great play time. I hear about it in the conferences they speak at and in the books they write... and I can't help but wonder - is it just the big church guys who are able to pull this off? Is it when you finally have a huge staff that more play time becomes available?

The Jealous Pastor

I was away for a seminary course recently. On my long drive home I had a bunch of Andy Stanley leadership talks from Catalyst . I figured I'd listen to have 5 or 6 of them on my 6 hour car ride. Well... the first one I put in just gripped me... and I listened to it 6 times straight! In fact, I'm still praying and trying to process everything that I heard from Andy on the CD and what God was saying to my heart. His talk was called " State of the Heart Leadership: Four Habits of a Healthy Leader ". He based this message around what Jesus told the religious Pharisees in Mark 7 "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'" Andy then talks about how four types of leaders come out of our hearts: The Guilty Leader, The Angry Leader, The Jealous Leader, and The Greedy Leader. These really hit me and challenged me... and made