Posted: Fri 18 May, 2012 by Miheret from My Generation for Christ
Tags:
none
What might God do if 100’s of millions of his children joined together in praying? And what if you were part of it?
The Global Day of Prayer, held on Pentecost Sunday since 2001, will be on May 27 this year. It is an amazing coming together by believers around the world to beseech God to reach, heal, transform their lands.
Posted: Thu 17 May, 2012 by Sus Schmitt from eQuipping for eMinistry
Tags:
blogging, blogs, eministry, ez tips, photo editing tips, photo tips, photography, prayer letters, recommended, visual communication, websites, written communication, your ministry
Knowing and mastering the rule of thirds is a simple way to push your photography to a higher level. The rule of thirds is one of the basic rules of art design. It is taking our photo frame and mentally placing a tic-tac-toe screen over it. Where the lines intersect are the “sweet spots” in which to place the important elements of a photograph. We should always keep our horizon lines on or above the top third of an image (mountain lake photo, below) or on or below the bottom third of an image (elk photo). The classic vacation sunset shot with the sun smack in the middle of the photograph is not good.
There are some dangers with using this rule. One danger is having the subject on one of the sweet spots in the photo and having the rest of the image filled with dead space. The only time you want empty space in a photo is if it adds to the story, as with the elk photo. The shaded black trees add time (sunrise) and place (a mountain valley) to the photo. The large negative space also gives a feeling...
Posted: Thu 17 May, 2012 by Andrea Buczynski from AB Reflections
Tags:
developing people, development, growth, leader, leadership
“Think of a time when you were most developed. What was true of that situation?” The group was quiet for a few moments, then eyes brightened with the memories, smiles grew, and laughter followed as one by one, they started to tell their stories. This group of leaders were reliving formative moments as we discussed leadership development.
“Someone believed in me.”
“I had a chance to lead something I never thought I could do. I was on my own. The decisions were mine and I felt that.”
“While I had the authority, my leader was also available to me if I needed help.”
“I had no support at all! That’s what made me grow!”
“He kept telling me, ‘you can do it.’”
“I made some big mistakes, but I learned.”
These were the common responses, true in many of the stories. These leaders grew when they were entrusted with responsibility for something they had never done by someone who believed in them. Many leaders tell similar stories.
What prompted this discussion? The lack of leaders! As a leader, it’s e...
Posted: Wed 16 May, 2012 by Joseph Gibbs from Joseph Gibbs
Tags:
easter, egg, outreach, video
Sometimes it's worth getting some egg on your face for the sake of a conversation.
Posted: Mon 14 May, 2012 by Brian Barela from The Necessary Things
Tags:
leading change, social media for ministries
“How much a company spends on innovation doesn’t matter, because what’s important is what the company spends on real breakthroughs rather than sustaining ideas.”–Better, Faster, Cheaper is Not Innovation
This quote referenced Kodak’s (and many other companies) investment in R&D that improves existing technology, rather than disruptive technology.
It also applies to why many efforts of ministries and non-profits to “innovate” on social or digital media fall flat. I’ve seen upwards of 100 iPhone apps designed by ministries or non-profits without a strategy or purpose other than to “be innovative.” I’ve also seen individual fundraisers create short, personal, and powerful YouTube videos for their donors that transform the relationship between them.
For some communication tactics there is a linear relationships where one can be substituted for the other: A text message can replace a phone call, a Facebook update can replace a verbal announcement at a large meeting, etc. The goal behind this is general awarene...
Posted: Mon 14 May, 2012 by Sus Schmitt from eQuipping for eMinistry
Tags:
apps, equipping, etools and technology, ez tips, internet, mobile, money-saving tips, recommended, search engine, travel tips, websites, your ministry
Bing Travel makes searches easier in order to help you for that upcoming trip, including a currency converter, finding the best prices for airlines and hotels, maps, and more. After you go to bing.com, click on Travel in the links across the top. You can choose flights or hotels to quickly find what you’re looking for. The indicators even let you know if the prices are going up or down. (Or, here’s their link for Destinations which also includes flights and hotels for specific cities.)
Check out these recommended travel sites from Bing’s editors:
*Of course, Campus Crusade for Christ also has mission trips to recommend:
What do you use for your trip-planning?
Related Posts:
Posted: Sun 13 May, 2012 by Miheret from My Generation for Christ
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none
Early in May I started a training tour with my colleague Chris Sleath. Our aim was to train staff members and students to start Virtually Led Movements in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia, to reach their countries using the internet and cell phones. We started in Uganda and trained more than 30 people. A highlight was that I met my virtual friend Adams Guscan face-to-face. He has been serving with me online for the last three years. Read his story below.
Adams Guscan
“I became a Christian in 1993. I began to pray to God through the name of Jesus Christ and I could see God answering my prayers. I devoted myself to knowing Jesus Christ more. Fortunately He came closer to me.
I received a bachelor’s degree in Foods Science, Nutrition and Technology. When I was exposed to computers and the internet in 2008 at my first job, I quickly began searching for information about faith in Jesus Christ and what the internet tells about God. I fortunately came across a website, w...
Posted: Fri 11 May, 2012 by Walter Nyamangodo from Reaching College Students for Christ
Tags:
updates
Ask Questions about Life and God. Filed under: Updates
Posted: Fri 11 May, 2012 by Andrea Buczynski from AB Reflections
Tags:
attention, authentic, faith, following jesus, growth, leadership, presence
Beth Booram, who has written a really good book called Awaken Your Senses, posted this quote from Irenaeus on Facebook today.
“It is not you who shapes God, it is God who shapes you.
If then you are the work of God, await the hand of the artist
Who does all things in due season.
Offer God your heart, soft and tractable,
And keep the form in which the artist has fashioned you.
Let your clay be moist,
Lest you grow hard and lose the imprint of God’s fingers.”
As I read this, I realized keeping my heart soft is a challenge in the midst of lots to do, and in the midst of leading others. At times, I can shut off my heart in order to plow through things that must be done. By the time I’m ready to let down and respond to Him, I can be too weathered, or hardened to re-capture the moment of need.
How would you finish this post? What steps do you take in order to keep your heart“soft and tractable” in His hands?
Posted: Fri 11 May, 2012 by Sus Schmitt from eQuipping for eMinistry
Tags:
africa, asia, e4e newcomer, eministry, evangelism, evangelistic, ez tips, for women, prayer, skype, your ministry
Have you ever thought of praying for the unreached with others from around the world on Skype?
Check out Unreached Prayer Initiative.
Could be a great way to cast vision for your team and join one of these times.
Do you know any other internet-telephone based prayer groups?
Meet e4e author Russ Martin and read Russ’s posts on e4e.
Posted: Fri 11 May, 2012 by Brian Barela from The Necessary Things
Tags:
leading change, social media for ministries
“Make them love the kingdom, not the king. The best $$ I ever made was when other people thought it was their idea.” @chrisbrogan #MRUshift
— Alexandra Rutley (@AlexandraRutley) May 10, 2012
I discovered this tweet yesterday and it resonated with a key shift that many ministries need to make. Many ministries have a top down structure, and communicate from a “me first, you second” position. The King is the starting and ending point, and communications seek to make him stand out amongst the rest.
I’ve noticed that the most innovative and powerful communications happening on social media between ministries and their audiences are ones that invert this paradigm to “you first, me second.” The kingdom–the staff, volunteers, and the interested but not yet empowered are the focus, and the King releases people and resources in ways that make them more famous than him.
If your ministry is the hero of the story chances the content you are sharing is not resonating as powerfully as it could if the volunteers and n...
Posted: Thu 10 May, 2012 by Brian Barela from The Necessary Things
Tags:
social media for ministries
“Overwhelmed…”
…is the word I hear most when talking to ministry leaders about social media. Many ministries and non-profits have less than one full-time person assigned to leading their social media efforts (by that I mean most do something else besides social media). Or if there is a full-time position, that person often reports to multiple people, making it difficult to see significant progress in any area.
The Non-Profit Life Raft is a weekly email to help you keep your head above water. It’s not everything that’s going on, but the key trends, reports, infographics, and blog posts related to using social media effectively for ministries and non-profits.
My goal is to save you time and provide you with just enough information to be empowered and lead the changes you know need to happen for your ministry to stay relevant.
Click here to sign up.Tweet
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Posted: Wed 9 May, 2012 by Tim Casteel from Leading in Ministry
Tags:
m29, sharing, training
M29 is our weekly Leadership and Training time at the University of Arkansas.
M29 is short for Matthew 29 which is not written in the Bible. As you probably know Matthew 28 ends with Jesus issuing His Great Commission to “Go and make disciples of all the nations”
M29 is our response to the Jesus’ Commission and a desire to write the next chapter of the Great Commission with our lives on the college campus.
M29 is the primary way we equip and train students in evangelism, leading Bible studies, and multiplying their lives
Eventually the M29 material will be on CruPressGreen but I wanted to make it available sooner so you can make use of it in the fall.
We created all of the material and tried to attribute to original sources whenever possible (since very little of this content is original to us).
Feel free to adapt the content for your purposes!
Here are Seven of our Classes:Click the Title to view files for that class (where you can download each file individually if so desired).
Or click on the Z...
Posted: Tue 8 May, 2012 by Brian Barela from The Necessary Things
Tags:
leading change, social media for ministries
“Successful social business leaders recognize that engagement at scale is only realized when the company is able to move beyond mere fan acquisition tactics and actually cultivate a core community of advocates.”–Advocacy, Dachis Group
A social media specialist or community manager are critical to a ministry’s social media strategy, but unleashing staff and volunteers to engage on social media on behalf of your ministry or non-profit will achieve greater results.
Strategy and tactics to capture fans and followers often come before training and educating staff. Sandy Carter, IBM’s VP of Social, notes that Germany is the global leader in deploying social media effectively. Their secret? Deploy a program for encouraging social media use internally among employees.
Although a dedicated team or community manager can set the strategy, provide the guidelines, and share best practices, the staff and volunteers have the potential to absorb the increasing demand to communicate personally with donors and constituents...
Posted: Tue 8 May, 2012 by Tim Casteel from Leading in Ministry
Tags:
fellowship dinner, fund raising, money, sharing
We do one thing all year to raise money for our ministry – a Fellowship Dinner. And every year we see God provide abundantly ($50-$75k).
It is a lot of work but I am a firm believer that it is THE best way to fund your ministry (read how one ministry raises over $400k/year).
My hope is that more and more Cru movements around the country begin to have Fellowship Dinners so that they are abundantly funded.
Cru Staff: for more info on how to put on a Dinner email Jim Dempsey who is THE expert (or for details on what we do, leave a comment).
We’ve been blessed by professional Graphic Designers who have produced high quality materials for our last few Dinners and I wanted to share those with anyone that wants to use them:
Designs are by an Arkansas Cru alum- Kelsea Walkley of petit4prints.com
@petit4prints on Twitter
Kelsea has generously donated her talents and design for our Fellowship Dinner and allowed me to share them with you!
From Kelsea:
“If a CRU movement interested in using these designs, th...
Posted: Tue 8 May, 2012 by Brian Barela from The Necessary Things
Tags:
social media for ministries
You want 5 quick things to make your blogging better?
- Brevity. Cut posts to sub-500 words.
- Structure. Write something others can USE.
- Simplicity. Big words are pretty. Help people understand the point, instead.
- Positivity. Writing angrily only works if you want to attract angry people.
- Outward-facing. Write more about others than you ever do about yourself.
–via Chris Brogan
Posted: Tue 8 May, 2012 by Miheret from My Generation for Christ
Tags:
focus
Posted: Tue 8 May, 2012 by Kristen Bader from Keynote Connection
Tags:
ministry update
It’s an actor’s worst nightmare: he stands before a live audience, blanks out and can’t remember a single line. Only this wasn’t a nightmare; it was real. And soon it will be a short film titled (appropriately) “Blank.”
Producer/Director John Gaither drew from his own nerve-wracking experience to write the film’s script. Intended to stimulate discussion on the fears and rewards of taking healthy risks, “Blank” is a joint venture of Keynote and the Global Short Film Network. “Blank” is currently in post-production.
Be sure to check out these other short films from Keynote:
“The Audition” Makes Its Debut
Posted: Mon 7 May, 2012 by Andrea Buczynski from AB Reflections
Tags:
faith, focus, following jesus, grace, prayer
Today I’m on overload– too much to do, not enough time to do it.
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Albert Bridge [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Thoughts of unfinished tasks, decisions to be made, come rushing through my head like a flash flood- unstoppable. Capturing them on paper only seems to aggravate the feelings. As I”m pausing to write this down, I’m reminded of two things.
A number of years ago,I watched a skit at a retreat. It started out with a woman sitting across the table from someone representing Jesus. They were having a conversation about her day when the phone rang. Immediately you could tell that there was some crisis that she needed to address. As she stood up and began pacing around the room, you could see a bag tied to her ankle. Every step she took the bag just dragged along behind her. At the same time, the Jesus character walked alongside her, trying to get her attention, tapping her shoulder. “Not now!” she exclaimed. “Can’t you see I have so...
Posted: Mon 7 May, 2012 by Sus Schmitt from eQuipping for eMinistry
Tags:
networking, e4e collector, eministry, following, for women, internet, pinterest, social media, social networking, visual communication, your ministry
I personally have not yet taken the plunge into Pinterest, but I know many who have. Perhaps busyness keeps me from jumping in head first, or maybe laziness keeps me from having one more log in screen to add to my daily regime. So I admire the ladies who have not only made time to pin, but who also take time to pin with purpose. Let’s take a look at three women in particular whose daily walk with Christ reflects in their online activities.
Amanda just completed her internship with CRU at USF. As a local fellow staff, I had the opportunity to get to know her a little better during her time in Tampa. When asked to describe how she pins with purpose, she explained it this way, “I would think the most ministry would be on my quotes board…I pin a lot of scripture, C.S. Lewis, etc. and then my followers see it.” In addition to posting positive Christian messages to her personal site, Amanda has used ideas from Pinterest for party planning with CRU. She also blesses the students she disciple...
