Category: faith

The church as a community hot-spot

An interesting question was posed today… Is there a way a church could take advantage of Wi-Fi being made available during a Sunday morning?
Some ideas that were mentioned are for encouraging people to bring their own laptop so they could:

    * send instant emails of comments, questions about the message that we could be responded to later by staff
    * search the web-site for community group info
    * search the web-site for info about all ministries
    * go to the blog to respond to the message or other ideas
    * link up to a Bible program with different translations to follow along with the text

Here are some of my initial thoughts…
I dunno. It’s an interesting idea. And three things come to mind:

    * power plug access is limited
    * will it be more of a distraction than a help?
    * will is separate more than unite?

I find that I can be easily distracted myself sometimes just with my cell phone or other people’s cell phones via text messages or random phone calls.
Also, I thought about this last night during our community group meeting and wondered about it. I used an e-mail survey that members of our group had forwarded and answered earlier in the week as an ice breaker (one of those answer these questions and forward to your friends to see their answers e-mails).
I thought it would be fun to see what people remembered about each other and knew about each other. Yet as we discussed the questions and answers I felt bad for those who didn’t have e-mail or who hadn’t accessed their e-mail during the week.
It was like we had some sort of “exclusive” that they were left out of.
Same thing for Valentines Day – I felt a little bad asking, “What was your favorite V-Day gift” and having two single guys in our group not really answer.
Several people with “mates” didn’t mention a gift from their mate but I felt like the single guys were left out because they were single – and most singles tend to be anti-Valentine.
What if instead of everyone bringing their own computer we set up free e-mail accounts for members with the church’s domain?
I think that can be done pretty easily (if not free) with Google handling the mail.
Then we could set up several computers with limited access so people can search the blog, respond to email etc., before and after church.
Computers could be set up in the lobby or our meeting room and let people take 5-10 minutes to check their e-mails.
It would also give us away to communicate announcements with folks who don’t have Internet access at work or home.
I can’t find specific numbers for America but I would guess that around 25-percent of our regulars don’t have Internet access or e-mail.
We don’t want to leave them out or make them feel left out. But if we could provide a service to them then maybe they would feel even more included.
Also, the numbers with laptops may even be less.
I don’t know if we should discourage people from bringing their laptops, but I don’t know that we’d want to encourage it.
So what are your thoughts? Is your church taking advantage of Wi-Fi technology? Has your church become a community hot-spot? Why or why not?

Free day

Well despite several phone calls this morning suggesting otherwise, I’m off today. I’m taking a break between ending my old job (yesterday) and starting my new job (tomorrow). And what a nice day to do it. Granted it’s cloudy outside but I’m sitting in my downtown loft with the windows open, using my new Wi-Fi signal (thanks Martha and Dan) and enjoying some tunes (thanks OrangeNoiseRadio). I’ve got to run some errands later today but after our men’s breakfast at Whataburger (Thomas that’s the Texas equivalent to your gathering places like pubs and coffee houses — only they focus on beef :-)) it’s nice to sit and reflect on Smiley’s devotional.
Smiley talked about Demas, a very little known individual mentioned by The Apostle Paul only three times.

Luke, good friend and physician, and Demas both send greetings. (Col 4:14)
Epaphras, my cellmate in the cause of Christ, says hello. Also my coworkers Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke. All the best to you from the Master, Jesus Christ! (Philemon 1:23)
Get here as fast as you can. Demas, chasing fads, went off to Thessalonica and left me here. (2 Tim 4:9)

Smiley pointed out that the first two references were likely within a year of each other and the last was likely six years later.
So a man came and worked with Paul and Luke. He became active and became a coworker in the ministry and then just a short time later (six years) he’s deserted the work and started chasing the fads of this world.
How many times do we fight that temptation in our lives?
We don’t know anything else about Demas. We don’t know if he found his way back to the ministry or if he simply went his own path.
Maybe he was burned our bored with the ministry. I can’t imagine that since he was working with and following Paul. But then again, even great Christian leaders can fail.
Even pastors can fail. I’m sure Paul’s heart ached to know that someone who worked closely with him was following the ways of the world. But Paul seems to give the issue up to God.
Whatever happened we don’t know but I pray that we can each grow stronger in our walk and don’t “Demas Out” as Smiley put it.

Re: James Cameron has found Jesus

This story keeps coming to mind as well as a topic of discussion in the office today. But this passage in Mark 16 leads me to believe that Cameron and no one else will find Jesus among the dead.

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could embalm him. Very early on Sunday morning, as the sun rose, they went to the tomb. They worried out loud to each other, “Who will roll back the stone from the tomb for us?”
Then they looked up, saw that it had been rolled back—it was a huge stone—and walked right in. They saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed all in white. They were completely taken aback, astonished.
He said, “Don’t be afraid. I know you’re looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the One they nailed on the cross. He’s been raised up; he’s here no longer. You can see for yourselves that the place is empty. Now—on your way. Tell his disciples and Peter that he is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You’ll see him there, exactly as he said.”

James Cameron has found Jesus

Well, he’s found a Jesus — his remains at least.
Titanic director James Cameron said at a press conference yesterday that he has found the remains of Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene and a son named Judah.
Scholars and Christian’s everywhere are skeptical.
A documentary, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”, will debut March 4 on the Discovery Channel.
According to NPR:

Cameron said he had never doubted the historical reality of Jesus:
“But the simple fact is there has never been a shred of physical, archeological evidence to support that fact until right now,” he said.
The tomb was discovered in 1980, in Jerusalem, several miles outside the Old City. There were scholarly articles about it in the late ’90s. Six of the ossuaries had inscriptions recorded and catalogued. The inscriptions included “Jesus, son of Joseph,” two different Marys, and “Judah, son of Jesus.”

I guess I’m missing the logic when Cameron said he never doubted the historical reality of Jesus and still thinks he can find his remains in a tomb. My view of history is that there would be no remains. Apparently Cameron is taking a more secular viewpoint of history.
But I guess that’s why they call it faith.
Listen to the full story from NPR

Reaching out to the lost

I love this…

80-90% of deaf American’s do not attend church.
Here’s a real practical way to reach out to them.

Brian Sims of Brentwood Baptist Church (Brentwood, TN) is making church special for the deaf. In fact, Brian has created a church service exclusively designed for deaf people. It is called Brentwood Baptist Deaf Church.
Here are a few ways the church is reaching out to the hearing impared in their community:

  • Installed 30 speakers in the floor so that the congregation can literally feel the music.
  • The entire room is on a loop system which allows a deaf person with a hearing aid to tie into the sound system with the flip of a switch.
  • Each seat has a direct line of sight to the stage.
  • The seats are 30″ wide instead of the standard 18″ wide which gives congregants more space to communicate with sign language.
    Awesome! Maybe we can get my sister Kara to come and start a sign language ministry at encounter.

    Via: Churchrelevance.com