Archive - January, 2009

Challenging the church shoppers

January 29, 2009 in for Churches, Pastors

Two things happen in churches at this time of year.

  1. People start signing up for Bible study groups (I’ve written tips on this recently)
  2. New people move into the area looking for a church, and others start ‘shopping’ for a hundred other reasons.

Igniter Media have a video resource that challenges some of the reasons we choose a church. The video explores the idea that people can think of church as either a cruise-ship or a battleship. Whilst some of the analogies (I find) are a bit of a stretch, it’s funny, and true. Would you play this video during a service at your church?


Cruise Ship vs. Battleship from Igniter Media on Vimeo.

If the President’s doing it…

January 27, 2009 in Books

The web is abuzz this week with news of the technology revolution President Obama is ushering in to the White House (including a new website for the White House and even a White House blog). Check out How Obama will use web technology in the Washington Post. In particular, I liked the Citizen’s Briefing Book website – “Over 125,000 users submitted over 44,000 ideas and cast over 1.4 million votes. The best rated ideas will be gathered into a Citizen’s Briefing Book to be delivered to President Obama after he is sworn in.” It reminded me of the Ask Anything campaign that took place at Mars Hill church in late 2007 – parishioners could suggest and then vote for the topics of sermons they wanted Mark Driscoll to preach on.

God lives in cyberspace

January 26, 2009 in for Churches, Outreach, Pastors

An article published on sydneyanglicans.net today shares the story of Graeme, who was sitting at his desk at work, visited a website, and shortly after decided to follow Jesus. Exciting, isn’t it? In God lives in cyberspace, David Horne says that the internet “doesn’t make evangelism any easier. Christians still have to get out there and interact with the world. It simply gives new and more far-reaching opportunities to do this.” The article also discusses the soon to be launched Connect 09 website – we’ll take a look at the features of this new site soon.

Poll: Where do you buy books?

January 25, 2009 in Christian Living, Pastors

Generally speaking, Christians love to read. And why wouldn’t we?

God has revealed himself to us through his Word. Scripture is an inexhaustible mine of resources for teaching, rebuking, training and equipping. God has equipped Christians with his Spirit to teach and encourage others. God has worked in the lives of saints to inspire future generations in godliness (this new book about Jonathan Edwards looks like a cracker).

So it’s not surprising that Christians also seem to have substantial libraries. I do wonder however, how many of us would be embarrassed to admit how many of the books in our libraries we’ve actually read!

The latest poll on Communicate Jesus concerns books, and where you buy them. I’m curious to see how many Christians use online bookshops, and how many head down to the local Koorong/Bible Society/ to get their books. You might also like to share some of the books you’ve bought recently – and if you’ve actually read them! You can do this by adding a comment in the space below. (If you are reading this in an email, you may need to click on “Poll: Where do you buy…” at the top of your email to view this online and participate in the poll).

Where do you buy Christian books?

  • Local Christian bookstore (71%, 12 Votes)
  • Online Christian bookstore (e.g. Monergism) (35%, 6 Votes)
  • Online general bookstore (e.g. Amazon) (35%, 6 Votes)
  • I don't often buy Christian books (24%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 17

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Coming soon to Communicate Jesus, Steve Boxwell shares a tip for managing our ever-expanding collections of Christian books.

Coming soon to Communicate Jesus

January 24, 2009 in Christian Living

Just to whet your appetite, here’s five posts you can look forward to on Communicate Jesus in the coming weeks:

  • Illustrating God’s sovereignty in suffering – I share a powerful video that communicates God’s goodness during difficult times.
  • Death by PowerPoint – Cameron Blair provides tips on how churches can effectively use PowerPoint during church services.
  • A Delicious solution to managing your library – Steve Boxwell reviews software that will help you manage your ever-expanding book collection.
  • PR stands for what? – Merran Kryger explains how churches can use basic public relations techniques to improve their visibility and promote themselves in the local community.
  • 10 ways to help search engines find your website – Nathan Swift shares ideas for making your website more ‘findable’.

Got a suggestion for what you would like discussed on Communicate Jesus? Send us an email or comment in the space below – we’d love to hear your suggestions.

Top 60 church blogs (plus my top 7)

January 23, 2009 in Christian Living, for Churches, Outreach, Pastors

Church Relevance has just published a post with a list of the top 60 church and ministry blogs. The author (Kent) has used a fairly complex process for ranking each of the blogs – read the full list plus details of the ranking system here. I enjoy reading a variety of church-related blogs, and at various times I’ve subscribed to a number of the blogs on this list. The following blogs are my favourites from the list – what church blogs do you like to read?

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