Friday, April 24, 2020

Sowing Seeds of Life


A picture is worth a thousand words!



"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."
Proverbs 3:3-6  English Standard Version (ESV)





                                    Sowing Seeds of Life!

  








What's Your S.H.A.P.E ?

The Shape of things to come!




























A short video: Living for the Line

What's going to matter after we die!

  

 














 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's Happening close to home!

Local Heros!

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

A Prayer of Endurance

"You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised." Hebrews 10:35

"LORD You are my strength, my sanity, my security, my salvation. Your hand upholds me, Your grace sustains me, Your power supports me. Keep my feet moving forward, keep my faith looking upward, keep my hope pointing homeward. Make a roadway through every rugged mountain, make a pathway through every stormy sea, make a highway through every dark valley.

   I do not put my faith in my own  timetable, but in Your perfect plan. LORD, however long it takes, I will trust You I receive Your grace to endure all things with pleasantness of spirit, calmness of soul, and thankfulness  of heart."

Quoted from His Footsteps, My Pathway. A one minute devotional from Christian Art Gifts.
November 22. Christian Art Gifts: Daily Devotionals


Book is out of print.




Tuesday, April 21, 2020

A few ways we can start interacting with our neighbors in this time of the Coronavirus.


 Covid-19: What items from this list can we start now...and or start planning for when we can safely interact with our neighbors?

 I have found that it is often helpful to have practical ideas to start engaging the people around me. Most of the things on this list are normal, everyday things that many people have done in the past. The hope is that we would do these things with Gospel intentionality. This means we do them:
  • In the normal rhythms of life pursuing to meet and engage new people
  • Prayerfully watching and listening to discern where God is working
  • Boldly, humbly, and contextually proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed
Not all of these are for everyone, but hopefully there will be several ideas on the list that God uses to help you engage your neighbors. Would love to hear stories of how you have lived some of these out or other ways you have engaged your neighbors.

So maybe before starting to put into practice any of the 100 projects listed below is to pray about the needs of your neighbors and neighborhood! That you can do right in your home at any time. But not an excuse for not venturing out and actually walking around your neighborhood and praying for them.

  If you need some ideas on how to do a PRAYER WALK! 


You could even do a prayer walk around your neighborhood! More on that later!
Neighbors – Your Immediate Neighborhood
Again, not all of these things can we do at this time. But we can start praying about these items...and when we can start doing them!
  1. Stay outside in the front yard longer while watering the yard
  2. Walk your dog regularly around the same time in your neighborhood
  3. Sit on the front porch and letting kids play in the front yard
  4. Pass out baked goods (fresh bread, cookies, brownies, etc.)
  5. Invite neighbors over for dinner
  6. Attend and participate in HOA functions
  7. Attend the parties invited to by neighbors
  8. Do a food drive or coat drive in winter and get neighbors involved
  9. Host a music share party in your home (everyone brings 5 favorite songs and discusses)
  10. Offer to mow someone’s yard who needs it on your street
  11. Have a garage sale
  12. Organize a tasting tour on your street (everyone sets up food and table on front porch)
  13. Cook Out with gate open, or even in the front yard and let neighbors know they are welcome to join.
  14. Have a game night (yard games outside, or board games inside)
  15. Art swap night – bring out what you’re tired of and trade with neighbors
  16. Grow a garden and give out extra produce to neighbors
  17. Have an Easter egg hunt on your block and invite neighbors use their front yards
  18. Start a weekly open meal night in your home
  19. Do a summer BBQ every Friday night and invite others to contribute
  20. Create a block/ street email and phone contact list for safety
  21. Invite your neighbors to serve along with you for a local cause in your community
  22. Organize a backyard movie night for kids on your block
  23. Prayer walk and talk to people you come across
  24. Jog outside instead of on the treadmill
  25. Pull their trash back in when you notice its out
  26. Cook an extra casserole and give it to a neighbor
  27. Buy an extra dozen donuts and give them to a neighbor
  28. Start a compost pile and allow neighbors to dump their compost and take
  29. Host a sports game watching party
  30. Host a coffee and dessert night
  31. Organize and host a ladies craft night
  32. Organize an effort for neighbors to help take care of elderly in neighborhood
  33. Become a regular at your neighborhood pool/park
  34. If you have a skill, let neighbors know that you can use it to help them for free
  35. Host a movie night and discussion afterwards
  36. Start a walking/running group in the neighborhood
  37. Start hosting a play date weekly for other stay at home parents
  38. Organize a carpool for your neighborhood to help save gas
  39. Collect good will store items and offer to take them to goodwill
  40. Have a front yard ice cream party in the summer
  41. Start a sowing group
  42. Go Christmas caroling in your neighborhood (invite neighbors in on it)
  43. Throw a July 4th block party
  44. Start a neighborhood Facebook/Twitter/Google + group
  45. Ask longtime residents to help you learn about the neighborhood
  46. Offer to babysit neighbors kids so they can have a date night
  47. Find out your neighbors birthdays and take them a card and baked goods on it
  48. Setup a meet your neighbors night with drinks in your driveway/front yard
  49. Ask your HOA or apartment complex if they need help with anything
  50. Host a regular Saturday morning breakfast potluck
Extended Neighborhood – The Regular Spots In Your City
  1. Frequent a local gym or recreation center
  2. Find a park that you consistently spend time with your community at
  3. Pick a few restaurants to frequent getting to know the staff and regulars there
  4. Go to the same coffee shop when you can
  5. Start a regular ultimate Frisbee game in your city
  6. Take the kids to story time at your local library
  7. Let your kids play in the city sports leagues
  8. Attend your city council meetings and get to know what’s going on in your city
  9. Attend your local school board meetings to know what is going on in the schools
  10. Participate in the local festivals, parades and celebrations of your city
  11. Invite a neighbor to a local sporting event
  12. Start a guys night at your local pub/eatery
  13. Get involved in your kids school PTA
  14. Connect with other home school kids through local coop events
  15. Be a part of your local genealogical society
  16. Tip generously at your regular restaurant spots
  17. Participate in local film viewings and discussions
  18. Attend your local High Schools sporting events
  19. Coach a local little league sports team
  20. Offer to teach free computer training sessions at your local library/public venue
  21. Start a Study Group at a local place that needs business
  22. Be a regular with your kids at the same playscape/restaurant during the day
  23. Ask your local college how you can help serve international students
  24. Get involved with your local lions or rotary club to learn about the community.
  25. Find a local tweet-up group to meet with regularly
  26. Frequent a live music night at your local coffee shop or bar
  27. Make a routine of taking the family to a evening recreation spot (pool, jump zone, etc.)
  28. Find a local philosophy/theology discussion group and become a regular participant
  29. Find a baking meet up group and be a part of their activities
  30. Go to the same hair stylist/barber and get to know them
  31. Find your local bank representative and get to know them
  32. Be a regular at your local farmers market
  33. Take a regular stroll at your local park
  34. Take your dog to the dog park in your city
  35. Start a local art collective blog and organize around different themes
  36. Have gospel discussions in public places where others can listen in
  37. Check your areas craig’s list for community service needs
  38. Ask a local restaurant owner how you could bless their employees
  39. Frequent the same gas station and make an effort to get to know the workers there
  40. Watch sporting events at the same local sports bar/restaurant in your city
  41. When you can, support local businesses and get to know the people in that business.
  42. Visit your cities visitors center to learn about the it’s history
  43. Start a storytelling group at your local coffee shop
  44. Organize a kids fun day at your city park
  45. Offer free computer/technology help for elderly citizens in your area
  46. Start a bike repair co-op
  47. Cook out at your local park and invite the people there to eat with you
  48. Start a sowing class at your local community center
  49. Organize a co-working time at your local coffee shop for people who work at home

    50. Join a city softball, soccer, football, basketball league.

 

 

What is the one or two items above that you are praying about for your neighborhood?

 

 

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Church Website in the Covid-19 season

At this time when people cannot physically be in your church...they may be looking for an online church service.

When most people look at a website...you have 5 seconds to get their attention or they are off! And they are viewing on their cell phone!

What a great opportunity to share the gospel!

You probably already have a great website, but what is most important now is to make your ONLINE church service visible on your Home page...and easy to connect with. It needs to jump out at the viewer.

Some highlights from a previous post of  mine:

You know your vision, mission and strategy to reach your goal!


How are you communicating this to your audience?

Who is  your audience?

Who do you want to reach with your website?

Why?


When anyone looks at your website they want to see the following items clearly!



1.  Your Vision Statement


2.  Your Mission Statement


3.  Your Strategy for reaching your Mission


These need to be clear and to the point!

ON your HOME page!

When most young people look at a website...you have 5 seconds to get their attention or they are off! And they are viewing on their cell phone! 

When viewing a blog or a website for the first time, if you don't get their attention with the first 5 words in your first sentence of your first paragraph...they are off!  

Check your analytics ...Are they going to another page? 

What is your Bounce Rate?

Are they landing on your HOME page?

Most viewers do NOT come to your HOME page first!


Your site must be easy to navigate.

Did you have a focus group try to find your site? 

Do you know why people are coming to your website?

How did they find it?

What did you learn from that?


A previous post. How to get viewers attention! 

Friday, April 17, 2020

7 Steps on How to Find a Good Online Church Service during the Covid-19 Crisis


I am a Boomer and Beyond...alittle technology challenged. So churches, make it easy for us to find you and connect!

With all this free time many of us have at this time of the Covid19 virus.what an opportunity for us to see what churches are doing to serve their members and the community and get the attention of people searching for meaning in life!

Something for churches to remember!

People who search for info on the internet, do not read. They Scan for info they are looking for!

So they don't care about how great the Home page looks.
Most people do NOT go to the churches Home page.
They go to the page they are looking for.
Make it easy for us to find info we desire and need.

Church as we know it or have known it are in a period of transition!

Ok, so churches, make it easy for us to find your Online Sunday Service.

1.  We are looking for a church online service.

2..   To begin the search, we can put a search term in Google like: "Online Sunday church service in (our city) or anywhere in the world and see what comes up. Alot depends on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how the content is optimized by the Content writer of the site.
  
3  We want to immediately see the link to the online service! It should be big and bold...pop out immediately. Even with all our free time...we want to see what we want to see and now! We don't want to see the church Home page at this time. We can look at that later! If we are a current member of a local church...we probably already know where to find the link on the church website. Maybe not. If it is more than 2 clicks to find it...it is too hard.to find. We don't want to have to look at various pages on the site and click several times to find what we want.

5.  If we don't immediately see the link for the online Sunday service, we want to see the SEARCH feature. It should stand out big and bold. When we do put in "online service", we should be immediately directed to that page! If we don't find it then, we can continue searching the site, but like other people...will or may go to another church website.

6.  It may be a Live service or a Y tube service which we can view at any time.

7.  If this is a new church service for us..we can then look at their HOME page later.
 Is the site easy to navigate?
 What are they doing for people to "connect" now that we cannot meet at the church building?
 Are they making it easy to connect? Zoom or some other service?

8. IF we are members of a church and are connected, and view the online service...Great! But what else is the church doing at this time of isolation of it's members? Anyone calling and checking in to see how we are doing?

With online church services, we can worship everyday online.
Good way to see what other churches are doing at this time.
I don't think things will go back to the old "normal"
We have reached a "tipping point".


Enough said. Hope this helps.

Zoom meetings are great, but do not take the place of face to face meetings.
We need to get creative and find ways to safely meet.
As the weather gets warmer...how about meeting somewhere and everyone bringing their lawn chairs and refreshments and sit 10 feet apart. Great idea for Life groups..

Maybe you could forward this on to friends and your church leadership!
Blessings
Richard


covid19

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Covid-19 and Easter Hope



 Thanks Lauri for the great article.

By Lauri Lemke Thompson
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” 

So Thomas Paine wrote in 1776, but his words fit the pandemic of 2020. The sacrifices you are personally making by following the stay-at-home guidelines may not be as great as some who fought the American Revolution, but we are at war against an invisible enemy – and you may truly save many lives. So, first – thank you. 

That said, many of us are feeling some anxiety. Little wonder.  According to Dr. Frank Minirth and Dr. Paul Meier in their book Worry Free Living, “Anxiety is linked more to the future, while depression is linked to the past. Depression is the past superimposed on the present, and anxiety is the future superimposed on the present.” Not knowing what will happen in the coming weeks and months with this seemingly runaway virus quite naturally can bring anxiety.

Matthew 6:34 says “So do not be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.” (The Living Bible) This is sound wisdom and an utterly reliable promise, but conquering our anxieties can be tough.

But What Will Happen?
Linda Dillow wrote a book called Calm My Anxious Heart. In it she points out “Certainly we are to pray, plan and prepare for tomorrow, but we are not to worry about what might happen….Walking with God through today’s twenty-four hours is difficult enough.”

“It is tomorrow,” said F. B. Meyer, “that fills men with dread. [But] God is there already. All the tomorrows of our life have to pass Him before they can get to us.”
What a comfort to know that God wants us to toss our worries onto His incredibly broad shoulders. In I Peter 5:6-7 we are told “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him for He cares for you.” (New International Version).

Matthew 24:6 addresses our current situation and is meaningful in a couple Bible versions. “See to it that you are not alarmed” is the New International Version. In The Message it is stated thus: “Keep your head and don’t panic.” But even more clear (or blunt?) is well-known Christian Author Max Lucado’s unofficial interpretation in his book Fearless: “Don’t freak out when bad stuff happens.”

Pollyanna and Chicken Little
Further, Lucado advises: “Life stinks, but it won’t forever….Avoid Pollyanna optimism. We gain nothing by glossing over the brutality of human existence. This is a toxic world. But neither do we join the Chicken Little chorus of gloom and doom. ‘The sky is falling! The sky is falling!’ 

“Somewhere between Pollyanna and Chicken Little, between blind denial and blatant panic, stands the level-headed, clear-thinking, still-believing follower of Christ. Wide-eyed yet unafraid. Unterrified by the terrifying. The calmest kid on the block, not for lack of bullies, but for faith in his older Brother.”

Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse (the ministry that set up the 68-bed emergency field hospital in New York’s Central Park for Covid-19 patients) stated in several TV interviews “We want people to know God still loves them. He’s not mad at them, and He wants to help them through this.” 

His beloved father, “America’s Pastor,” Billy Graham, said it well in his booklet called “Victory: Preparing for Resurrection Sunday” when he declared “God never abandons us when life becomes difficult. He is always with us and wants to help us, even when things seem to be going wrong. 

“He does not guarantee to reverse every misfortune, but if Christ lives in our hearts, we have His promise that nothing ‘in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:39).”

“What a guarantee!” Reverend Graham went on. “Instead of being fearful about the future, at Easter we can trust and believe that God is working a purpose in our lives. We can have hope!”

Easter and Promises
Speaking of Easter, consider the words of Lee Strobel in his book The Case for Easter: “If Jesus overcame the grave, He’s still alive and available for me to personally encounter. If Jesus conquered death, He can open the door of eternal life to me too.” (Strobel, a journalist who was a confirmed skeptic about Christianity, doggedly researched the matter and finally concluded its claims were true).

God’s Word, the Bible, offers so many great promises to us in this extremely challenging time. Healthy fear keeps us washing our hands and keeps us out of public places unnecessarily. Unhealthy fear, though, may make us forget or doubt those great promises.

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message, boldface mine).

So stand strong. We need faith-filled courage for these days. Not feeling courageous, you say? “Courage is simply fear that has said its prayers,” according to Dorothy Bernard.