The December poster from Outreach Media. Read more about the poster and download the explanatory notes at the Outreach Media website. You can also follow @outreachmedia on Twitter.
Archive - for Churches
RSS Feed
Loading ...Book of Common Prayer for iphone
I had never been much of a fan of liturgy but two years of working in an Anglican church has slowly changed my opinion. There are good reasons to use liturgy, including:
- it’s a way of preserving and communicating doctrinal truth,
- the wording is clear, elegant (for want of a better word!) and memorable,
- it encourages systematic Bible reading,
- it helps people lead services who are less articulate (or even doctrinally unclear).
I’ve come across an iphone app that delivers a version of the Book of Common Prayer. Check out the iBCP iphone app.
The big issue working against this app is its cost – AU$5.99. Considering the Book of Common Prayer is available in printed form (e.g. the Australian version) and online, and because the app is basically (from what I can work out) an e-book, $5.99 seems a bit steep.
On a related note – I’m still on the lookout for a good app for people to record prayer points and answers to prayer!
30 web apps to do ministry on the cheap
Thanks to all who attended my seminar at the recent Create Conference ‘I’m not cheap, I’m entrepreneurial!’. As promised, below are the links to the applications I mentioned, most of which are free (or very cheap) and web apps (meaning if you have an internet connection you can access them). If you can recommend other apps, I’d love to hear from you.
Also, before the conference I also asked readers of Communicate Jesus ‘What web apps for ministry do you use?‘. This post includes their responses.
Surveys, polls & sign-up forms
- Wufoo (personal favourite! I’ve also written about its applications for ministry several times here.)
- PollDaddy (great Twitter integration available)
- Micropoll (untested but recommended here)
Organising meetings
- When is Good (its beauty is in its simplicity!)
- TimeBridge
- Doodle (I haven’t tried it, but it looks promising)
I’ve also written about these tools and others in ‘Find a time that suits everyone‘.
Reputation management
- Google Alerts (personal favourite)
- BrandsEye
- SocialMention
- YackTrack
To read a guide to using Google Alerts, check out ‘What’s your community saying about you?‘
To learn more about SocialMention and YackTrack, check out ‘A new type of search engine emerges‘.
Mass communication
- CoTweet (great for team tweeting)
- MailChimp
- Campaign Monitor
- Toodle
- Breeze
Asset management
Website analytics
- Clicky (personal favourite)
- Google Analytics
- CrazyEgg
Collaboration
- Google Docs
- Google Calendar
- Zoho (personal favourite)
You might also be interested in ‘10 reasons to throw out your paper diary‘, ‘Will your church join LA city council?‘ and ‘Planning the year ahead with Google Calendar‘.
Password management
- Passpack (untried, but recommended)
- Pastor (not a web app, and for Mac only, but my personal favourite)
- Clipperz (untried, but recommended)
- KeePass (again, untried, but recommended. This is for Windows only)
Task management
- Things (not a web app, and for Mac only, but my personal favourite)
- Remember the Milk
Collecting and organising notes
- Evernote (personal favourite)
- Shovebox
- Google Notebook
People management
This is still a work in progress! My trialling of church databases has gone on the backburner recently (my apologies), but I do intend to finish this series by the end of the year. To see what’s been said so far, check out ‘Search for the ideal church database – Part 1‘, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. Also see ‘The list: 32 church database solutions‘.
Is there anything I’ve left off this list that you think should be included?
5 videos for Christmas services
As you prepare your Christmas services, keep in mind these great videos. They could be played in the lead-up to Christmas, or at one of your Christmas Day/Eve services.
Christmas Mystery
As always with Dan Stevers, this video is well produced, and ties in particularly well with the theme my church is running with this year – “Celebrate Jesus: Tiny baby. Total Saviour”.
The Christmas Story
Another great video from Dan, this video simply presents verses that explain the Christmas story. The ‘snow’ concept might not work quite so well in summery Australia…
Worthless Christmas
A great spoof of the Mastercard advertisements, with a pointed conclusion.
Retooning the Nativity
A light-hearted video, challenging some of the common misconceptions about the Christmas story.
Jesus and Santa
Another light-hearted video that deals with the confusion that exists about Jesus and Santa. Refreshing (for Australian audiences familiar with US accents) to have a British accent in a video too! Next step – well produced videos with Australian accents!
Plot Bible locations with BibleMap
I’m in the middle of preaching two sermon on Amos, and I’ve never studied Amos before. As with most (if not all) of the Old Testament, there are many names of people and places that are unfamiliar to 21st century readers. For example, in Amos 1 alone we read about: Amos, Uzziah, Jeroboam II, Tekoa, Israel, Jerusalem, Carmel, Damascus, Gilead, Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Tyre, Teman, Bozra, Ammon and Rabbah! This is confusing for many readers, yet, we know that we need to understand the context into which Amos spoke then, in order for us to understand how God continues to speak to us through Amos today. So, in my search to learn about these people and places I discovered BibleMap. Here’s how it works:
Visit BibleMap and enter the passage you would like to learn about (e.g. Amos 1). An interface similar to Google Maps appears, plotting each of the locations mentioned in the passage:
A colour code explains what each of the coloured markers mean – e.g. cities, locations inside cities, regions, etc.
Clicking on the coloured marker that plots each location will display details of that place, and other mentions of that location in the Bible.
You also benefit from some of the other Google Map features, such as viewing the map as a map, or as a satellite image, or as a combination of both. It’s a simple tool, serving a simple but useful purpose. It served me well in my sermon preparation, and may prove useful for you too.
Are you aware of similar tools for getting a better understanding of Old Testament contexts?
