Last year was our first e4e blog tour.  Thirty Campus Crusade for Christ staff members submitted their best posts for an opportunity to showcase their blogs.  This idea was very popular, so I’m getting ready for the next tour.

Last year, I added a new post to the eQuipping for eMinistry tour every few days.  However, I think a lot of people missed the new posts.  This year will be easier for you to know about new “tour stops” by subscribing to an eMail that will alert you every week to the new articles added to the tour.  Click here and subscribe at the bottom of the form for the “Blog Tour eMail Alert”.  (The default on this form will also subscribe you to a weekly eMail of e4e posts, so look over the different options to determine which eMail subscriptions and alerts fit your interests.)

This year’s tour will have an international theme.  “International” for my definition is non-USA, because the majority of our readers at this time are Americans, however, if you think your post would qualify, subm...

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Our hearts hunger for something we can sink our teeth into – a good story, the latest relationship status, or the most recently posted pictures.  Our hearts hunger so much that we become like wandering nomads drifting across Facebook seeking fulfillment.

But what if Facebook offered a different kind of status to update each time we logged in?  Instead of posing the question, What’s on your mind? What if Facebook asked, What’s in your heart? Would we type discontentment, idolatry, satisfaction, joy?

Since we all search for significant connection and community in this life, Facebook seems like a natural tool to satisfy this need.  So whether that search involves a tiny little box at the top of our home page or in a tiny little corner of our hearts, the search probably takes place more frequently than we are aware.

Let’s make our profiles something worth finding.  Let’s adorn them with a timely word, a famous Christian quote, or better yet, a piece of Scripture.

I recently challenged a group of at...

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Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, offers good advice in a blog post titled “Email Etiquette 101.” I’ve listed his points here, but I recommend the entire post.

1.   Understand the difference between “To” and “CC.”
2.   Keep messages brief and to the point.
3.   Don’t discuss multiple subjects in a single message.
4.   Reply in a timely manner.
5.   Be mindful of your tone.
6.   Don’t use e-mail to criticize others.
7.   Don’t reply in anger.
8.   Don’t overuse “reply to all.”
9.   Don’t forward chain letters.
10. Don’t “copy up” as a means of coercion.
11. Don’t overuse the “high priority” flag.
12. Don’t write in ALL CAPS.
13. Don’t send or forward emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks.
14. Remember that company e-mail isn’t private.
15. Use a signature with your contact information.
16. Provide “if-then” options.
17. Use your spell-checker.
18. Re-read your e-mail before you send it.

NOTE:...

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Surrounded by shelves of books, three children were sitting quietly on chairs in the children’s section of our branch library, watching two others play a game on a computer. That grieved me because our family enjoyed reading a lot of library books (and we still do).

When Ben, Josh, and Jenn were little, my main concern was whether they were getting outside enough, or reading more, instead of spending too much time playing computer games. We didn’t have to address issues about the internet until their teen years.

Chuck Colson published a review in September, This is My Father’s Digital World, of a short video: God’s Technology: Training Our Children to Use Technology to God’s Glory by seminary professor Dr. David Murray. He writes:

“… twenty-eight percent of young social network users admit to sharing information online that they would never have shared in public if they were face-to-face.

“… because technology is created by God and has good uses, we should want our children to enjoy technology’...

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I’ll admit it.  I resisted for a while.

We had a system for keeping track of reimbursements.  We wrote our ministry and medical mileage in a notebook we kept in the glove compartment and I put all our reimbursement receipts in a folder.  My husband would then use the folder every few months or so to submit a reimbursement.  We’d occasionally miss something that was older than the ninety-day limit.

Then, Mike started using the online reimbursement function on the staff web after it came out.  A year or so later, he asked if I would submit our reimbursements online.  Well, I didn’t want to change what we were doing and thought it would be “one more thing to do.”

Now, it’s my preferred way to submit reimbursements.   I’m all for doing things more simply!   I’m actually the one who incurs most of the expenses and knows what needs reimbursing, so it was logical to enter our expenses and mileage online “immediately” after it occured instead of trying to remember everything later.  ...

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