#1 Pray

OK, So it’s not the big huge idea you were expecting maybe. But what better thing to do for the 4th of July then to set aside time as a church to pray for the country, it’s leaders, and citizens. It’s a small thing but it can a be a big one.

G-“The entire family got up early the next morning and went to worship the LORD once more.” 1 Samuel 1:19

R- Not only was worshiping as a family important, but being on time and punctual was important to. i know that many times my family and I will dink around on a Sunday morning and then rush to try and get to service only to end up 5-10 minutes late.

O-Lord help me to understand the importance of family worship. Help me to instill the importance of this into my kids and on down into my entire family.

W-I need to be a little more serious about Sunday mornings and making sure my family is prepared for worship.

Think about it!

This week I am going to be discussing the concept of an Open Source Church. You may have heard this term before when referring to churches like Lifechurch.tv or Seacoast, who are “open source” with their sermon material. This is not what I am going to be focusing on. Instead I want to talk about the benefits of going open source with software and technology packages. I will give some pros and cons and at the end of the week give some links to some software that I feel could be of use to churches.

What is Open Source?
According to the Open Source Initiative website:

So I forgot to add this book to my recap of reading the other day. here are a few quick hits that I took form this book:

• Everything a church does creates an Impression, good and bad. What Impression are you making?
• If you don’t have a plan for guests they will notice and they will have a plan, to not come back.
• Marketing materials are a first impression. From the Web site on down to every printed piece in your building
• The building itself can leave an impression. Is it clean? Dirty? Cluttered? Full? Empty?
• Plan. Plan some more. Then Plan again. Make sure you are thinking of all the ways guests are going to come and plan for them.
• Put yourself in their shoes.

If you want to see why I was reading this book, check out this First Impressions Manual I put together for my church.
All in all if you are trying to do a better job with your guests this is a great read and will get your brain thinking.

So I know I have had a long break from blogging. I know, I KNow.. bad form, and not good blogging technique. Well I am sorry. But I am back now and better then ever. Just to let you all know I have been hard at work putting together two documents and the ministries they are for at my church and that is why there was a break. I had a pretty big work load.

Anyway I am going to kick off my return by posting those two documents for you to see and view.