MinistryCSS.com - Church Web Design Gallery

Kent Shaffer at ChurchRelevance.com blogged about a CSS Gallery Site for Churches.  Pretty cool stuff.

For those of you who are web designers, this is just a gallery of great church web designs.

It's called MinistryCSS.com.  

Check it out.

Posted via email from joshwillaford's posterous

Provide the Box

A lot of people think that creativity means dismantling the box. The thought is that we need to have no boundaries or inhibitions to be creative. However, I've found something different to be the case.

Creativity creates a new box. This is why many creatives become frustrated in ministry. They are expected to be creative with no boundaries. They're given no clear budget for the event or project, no big idea, no concrete objectives.

It's like telling an artist to paint without being provided a canvas. They can't possibly be creative if they don't know what the size and shape of the canvas is. They'll bring the paint. You have to provide the canvas.

Actions steps for spurring better creativity from your team:

• Set up a budget for the project. Don't worry if it's not huge. A creative person just needs to know what they are dealing with. In fact, some of the best creativity comes from small budgets.
• Explain the what the goal of the project/event/series is. You can creatively miss the mark if your leaders don't know what you want to achieve.
• Provide a deadline for completion. This can even be tentative. Deadlines help to motivate and regulate action.

Provide these items at the beginning of the process. There's nothing worse than dreaming up a $5000 idea and then getting told you have a $100 budget.

What are some other things that help set up boundaries that catalyze creativity?

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Is it Helpful?

I have the opportunity to speak for the next few weeks at a church here in Cincinnati.  While studying for this sunday, I ran across this great thought.

Homer Kent writes, "In Christian conduct and the exercise of love, such factors as one's influence on others and the effect on oneself must be considered.  The question should not only be "Is it harmful?" but "Is it helpful?"

If we don't ask if what we are doing is helpful, then we are severely limiting our potential.  The question "Is it helpful?" is a question of mission.  Are we doing things that matter?  Are we moving the ball down the field?

Yes, we may not be drowning, but we are just treading water.  There is no direction involved. There is no progress.

What are the things you're doing right now that just waste your energy?  Think about how to eliminate it or adjust it to make it helpful.

Posted via email from joshwillaford's posterous

Posterous - The One Stop Shop

Tony Steward posted a note on facebook about blogging and how it's evolving.  While the post was interesting, he referenced a service called Posterous.  Basically, its a very simple blogging format that is updated through email.  This is not a new blogging feature.  However, Posterous fully integrates with other social networking and social media sites.  You can update your facebook, twitter, flickr, wordpress or blogger from one spot.  

In an age where there seems to be a lot of social media irons in the fire, it's kinda nice to have one spot to manage.

Posted via email from joshwillaford's posterous

I remember when...

I am not that old. I can't even say "that old". I am a young 25. But, in my lifetime, church has dramatically changed.

Early in my childhood, I remember the dramatic transition from hymnal to transparencies and an overhead projector. Then, as a teen, we switched from the "overheads" to a remedial computer and a projector that could have be no more than 500 or 600 lumens (in a room that had stained glass windows that lined the walls of the sanctuary).

This was a big change, but it seemed to stall out there. I mean what could a screen and projector be used for other than words on a screen?

Obviously, a lot has changed even in the last few years (check out this old post of Kent Shaffer).

I wonder where it will go from here...

What are some of your funny old school church tech memories?

Church and Technology

The church in America is in the middle of this really big conversation about technology and media. Certainly, media and technology have taken big strides forward in the last few years. It has changed how the country operates.

Like him or not, one of the reasons Barack Obama was able to communicate his message so effectively was because his team leveraged technology and media in way that no candidate had ever done before.

This post is not about explanation; it's about conversation.

What does that mean? Well, I'll put it subtly: Comment.

The question is what is your church doing to leverage technology and media, or what have you heard of other churches doing?

It doesn't have to be anything special or spectacular. Just post your stuff.

I Got a Ticket...

Well, really it was an invitation. But, I like to call it my golden invitation. It sort of felt like a scene from a Willy Wonka movie. I just knew at any second Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp would spring out with some wee oompa loompas.

I digress. I got my invitation to Google Voice. I posted a video about it a few days ago.

My review: It's really cool.

You get a central phone number that people can call or text. It then rings multiple phones (if you have more than one set up). You can choose to answer the call, send it to a Google Voicemail, or send it to Google Voicemail and listen in on the voicemail. The voicemail is transcribed and emailed to you and texted to your mobile phone.

You can also send as many sms texts as you want.

One other cool feature is that you can actually call from your google phone number from any phone you have selected.

I will say its not all roses. When you call the google number, a pre-recorded voice says something like "Please wait as we locate the Google Subscriber you are trying to reach." This is not the end of the world, but I'd like to see that go.

One note: It is by invitation only right now. You can sign up to receive an invite.

All in all, it is cooler than the other side of the pillow.

Next Post: How can google voice be used for ministry?