Father Daughter 2011

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If you missed the fun at our Father daughter dance, here is a video to see all the fun and plan for next year.

Bible Resources

“What are some of your favorite internet Bible Study resources?”

This is a question in here occasionally, and one that I ask just about as often.  The web is full of resources for everything you can imagine, the real issue is finding the tools that you need.  I thought I would start a listing here of some of my favorite resources, and if you have any that you really find beneficial, please add your suggestions via comments.  I will update the list as I receive more info.

• Bible Reading
  • http://www.biblegateway.com/ – probably one of the easiest and most broad Bible resource sites, includes:
    • great search tools
    • 2 commentaries
    • 3 Bible dictionaries
    • audio bible
    • several reading plans
  • http://www.bible.com/ – A simple Bible reading, search, and devotional page.  It also has some good resources for basic faith questions.
  • Free Recovery Bible – If you or someone you knows needs a Bible to read and hold, here is an option for a New Testament

• Bible Study (Commentaries Concordances)
  • Bible Study Tools – This site has an abundance of study tools.
    • 12 commentaries
    • 5 dictionaries
    • 20 English Bibles versions plus many other languages
    • 6 versions of the Apocrypha
    • 4 concordances
    • 1 Encyclopedia
    • 5 book collections of Church history – including the 38 volume series of early church fathers
    • *** Online Greek and Hebrew lexicons – for those of you who really want to know the exact translation of a word.
  • Group Bible Study Resources – some free download-able
  • Discipleship Journal – A great online archived magazine with article and studies for the Christian who desires to grow in discipleship.
• Bible Context / Culture
  • Christianity Today – A magazine with online archived articles and research along with recommendations for books.
  • Historical and Cultural context of Scripture
• United Methodist Resources
  • GBOD -Global Board of Discipleship – Way to connect with everything United Methodist; find a local church, conference, district, hospital, mission, or find resources for lectionary, leading your congregation, or worship.
  • New Church Initiative (Path One)
  • Iowa Annual Conference
  • Christian Educators Fellowship – If you work with Christian Education in the United Methodist Church, here is a web page to connect you with others who are doing the same thing.
• Christian Multimedia
  • Audio Bible – a simple King James audio Bible that plays through Real Player
  • Blue Fish – Great videos and backgrounds for use in worship
  • sermon central – Powerpoint presentations, sermon illustrations, videos, and even searchable sermons
  • sermonspice – illustrations, backgrounds, countdowns,
  • shiftworship – motion, still and video backgrounds

Well, I hope this gets you started and helps you find the resources you need to dig a little deeper in your faith.  As I mentioned, if you have a resource that you want to share, please add it in the comments so I can add it to the list above.

Praying for the Community.

iMapMyRun+: Oct 30, 2010 09:58 AM

Do you like to exercise?   Is it nice to know how far you went, how long it took, how much you worked off, and keep it all logged in a journal that you can share with your friends if you want to?  Well, I am trying something new again.  Check out the link above to my prayer map for this morning.  All this technology makes possible things that I didn’t even imagine.

As most of you know one of my commitments as the outreach pastor in Johnston is to pray for our community.  I have been doing this through prayer walking and driving.  Today however I tried bike riding with a twist.  I found this app for my phone that will help me log my “workouts” or in my case my prayer travels.  It is called “imapmyrun” or a variation of run, walk, ride, workout.  By turning on my phone app and hitting start it will track my travels and where I am so that I can upload it to their website.  What a great way to keep people in the loop of how I am praying, and what a great way for me to keep track of where I have been.

I am just getting started so I can’t give an in depth review yet, but I enjoyed the first outing and the map that it printed up for me.  I would encourage you to share with me if you use this app and what you think of it.  If you are just interested in keeping up with my praying, do you think this is something you would like to see continued updates on?

Blessings to everyone, and keep praying for the people that God has put in your circle of influence.  Find radical ways to share your faith and get into the community.

Techno Church VS. NoTech Church

I met Yesterday with a tech savy education focused Dr. Scott Mcleod.  (Thank You again) I learned more than I could process, but I learned first and foremost that technology and using the resources of the web is an absolute must for our churches.  And a simple church web page is not enough, we need to expand our internet outreach by creating multiple connecting points in the world of social media.  I located this webinar which has a great overview of the use of internet as a way to be on mission, disciple, and create community.  Give it a look and share your thoughts.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/4415857

Technology is effecting every area of life.  We live in a world where information on every subject is available at the touch of a button.  I carry 40 versions of the Bible with me, commentaries, and concordances everywhere I go, and that is only one app out of 50 thousand on the Droid.  We are dependent upon this internet world and some people even attend a weekly worship service sitting in front of their computer screen.  (Offering donation and all)  While I do believe that there needs to be a balance of real life relationships where we are surrounded by real people who care about us, it emphasizes the reality that the social world has a huge audience that would go untouched with the gospel unless we actively pursue ways to share the gospel in their social media setting.

Some churches, pastors, and laity are avoiding this technology transition.