The Blessings of Christianity – Neal Pollard

The Blessings of Christianity – Neal Pollard

Sunday, October 11, 2009 AM. Neal brought an encouraging lesson reminding us of the “Blessings of Christianity.”

Thayer available on Pre-Pub for Logos

The very popular Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament by Thayer is available for pre-pub through the Logos website. This work has long been a favorite of many preachers and Bible students and Logos is going to make it available for their Libronix Library System. You can check it out here – Six Years Later, Thayer’s Lexicon Is Back on Pre-Pub – Logos Bible Software Blog

Bible Passages and Twitter – Ref.ly to the rescue

The social networking tool Twitter (twitter.com) allows users to post short messages to everyone who “follows” them. SInce each “tweet” (that’s what twitter users call their posts) can be no longer than 140 characters long, citing Bible passages can be quite a challenge. Usually there is not enough room to type out the Bible passage and say anything about it. Enter Ref.ly by Logos Bible Software (Logos.com). When you go to http://Ref.ly you are able to enter a Bible reference (James 1:2-3 for example) and then click the “transform” button at the bottom of the screen. The Bible reference is converted into a short web address perfectly suited for your “tweet.” Here is the compact URL for James 1:2-3 ( http://ref.ly/Jm1.2f ). This short web address can be copied and pasted into your tweet or simply click the Tweet button in Ref.ly and you will be redirected to Twitter.com where you can log in and the URL will be added to a post for you. When a users clicks the link in your Tweet, they are redirected to http://Bible.Logos.com to view your specified verse in context.

Another great feature of Ref.ly is that the user can specify the version they want people to see by simply adding the abbreviation to the end of the compact URL provided. To get people to James 1:2-3 in the New King James version just add “;NKJV” to the end of the URL ( http://ref.ly/Jm1.2f;NKJV ). There are 20 translations you can link to overall.

I recently saw a case where a preacher tweets a link to the main passage for his Sunday morning sermon during the week so that members can read it and study it before his lesson. Sunday Bible class teachers could create links to passages they want their class to study during the week in preparation for Sunday mornings discussion. Children’s Bible class teachers could post links to the sections they will be teaching so that parents can review the passages with their kids before Bible class. There are many ways this could be helpful in real ministry situations.

This tool provides us with great opportunities to share Bible passages within our circle of friends. Use it with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or any place where a short link to the Bible text is helpful. Give it a try – it is fast, easy and convenient.

Doing Mission Work in the Sixth Most Populus Country in the World – Facebook!

That’s right – If Facebook was a country, it would be the sixth largest country by population on earth! It seems that as time goes by, the Lord provides more and more ways for His people to “go into all the world and preach the Gospel.” The question is: what are we doing with these opportunities? Are we using these opportunities to take quizzes like “what color Crayola crayon are you” or “what Harry Potter character are you most like”? Do we show that we are more concerned about politics than righteousness? Jesus said:

“But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man” (Matthew 15:18).

I would suggest that the things that proceed out of our fingertips do the same thing. We often times reveal where are hearts are by the things we talk about, text about and post online. We have a great opportunity online to share our faith, encourage our brothers and sisters and reach out show what is really important to us. I would like to suggest a few things we can do as individuals to use these online opportunities to their fullest.

• Practice the presence of the Lord – Whether we are in a physical situation or a ‘cyber” situation, we need to remember that the Lord is there with us. Would he approve of the quizzes we take, the comments we make and the language we use in Facebook?
• Become an encourager – The apostles called a man named Joseph, Barnabas, his name meant “Son of Encouragement” (Acts 4:36). We need to have a heart like Barnabas must have. Facebook gives us all a chance to encourage others when things aren’t going so well for them. Start a prayer group to encourage someone struggling with health issues or just send some electronic smiles and hugs to someone who needs them. You could really make someone’s day and demonstrate the love of Christ in your life.
• Share a Scripture – We all have favorite Scriptures that lift us up, make us think, or just touch us in one way or another. Why not pass them along. Type your favorite verse as your status early in the day and meditate on it as the day goes on. You can help others think spiritually by sharing and remind yourself of them blessings of God at the same time.
• Post about what you are studying – As you do your personal Bible study, share what you are reading. We often see things in our studies that are new and fresh to us – share those things – maybe they will be new ad fresh to others as well.

If you work at it, I imagine you can add to this list easily. The trick is to think about it – pray about it – practice it! We have an opportunity through tools like Facebook and Twitter to teach people about Jesus, to share our faith in a new and exciting way. Let’s use the opportunity well.

Evernote…where have you been all my life?

I have to admit right from the jump here that I am not a particularly well organized kind of guy. My desk is usually messy (as is the rest of my office). I have tried to get organized – I have read Getting Things Done three times now – but have only had marginal success. But that all changed last week when I found Evernote. I heard about Evernote about 6 months ago, but didn’t give it much attention. I am paying attention now. This product is simply incredible and each day it is reducing the clutter in my office and getting me more and more organized all the time.

What is Evernote?
If you watch some of the videos on the Evernote website or YouTube, the head of the company describes Evernote as an “external brain.” It is a place to store all of the bits and pieces of information you collect throughout the day, knowing that you will always be able to find it again easily. There website say it this way:

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

Whether the information is in text format, PDF or even an image, Evernote can keep track of it for you. The “killer app” functionality of it to me however is how it deals with images. Images added to Evernote are automatically run through a character recognition online and any text that appears in the image becomes searchable! Now I have to admit I was a bit unimpressed by this feature when I first heard about it, but I get it now! Here is an example – someone hands you a business card, you immediately snap a photo of it with Evernote on your phone. It is synchronized online in a couple of minutes and not if you search for any of the information (say the person’s name) that appears on the card, Evernote will find it for you! The system looks at the image and any text it finds becomes searchable information – EVEN HAND WRITTEN TEXT! Now as I said, I didn’t get how great this feature was until I started using it.

Here is a real ministry example from my system. I have a small newspaper article that listed religious struggles that people say they deal with. I thought the list would make good topics for Bible class someday so I wanted to keep track of it. Rather than put it in a file in my desk (that I will never be able to find again or would only have access to when I was in my office) – I hand wrote “Bible Class Idea – Topical” next to the article and took a picture of it with my iPhone in Evernote (I could have scanned it too). Once it was uploaded and processed (a couple of minutes total) when I search my notes for the word “topical”, Evernote shows me the image of this article! That to me is amazing. The best part is that I can get to this note – from my laptop, online, or on my phone – literally anytime, anywhere! Now when I am talking to a Bible class teacher about a possible class I can pull this exact article up on my phone and share the idea with them. I can even email then a copy of the article right from my phone while we are talking!!

How do you get information into Evernote?
One of the great features of the product for me is how easy it is to get information into it. You can enter information into Evernote through a desktop client (MAC or PC). Simply create a new “note” and type or drag and drop text into the note. You can also drag and drop PDF files into the system with ease. Scan a printed document into the system and once it has been uploaded it becomes completely searchable. There are components you can add to your web browser for making capturing information from websites a breeze too. Just click the icon in the menu bar of your favorite broswer and the text is added to Evernote. You can shift-click the icon and Evernote will create a PDF of the webpage as a note too. In addition to text or document based information, you can also add create audio notes from your phone and even video notes from your built-in iSight camera if you own a MAC. Another interesting feature is that you can email information into Evernote. When you sign up for your free online account, Evernote assigns you a unique email address. Use this email address to send PDFs, text, or images into your note library.

Once the note is in your system you can add “tags” which work like keywords to keep track of the note. In addition to your tags, any text in the note or image is searchable. PDF files need to be created as “searchable” PDFs before they are added to Evernote if you want to be able to search the body of the document. You can even create separate and distinct “notebooks” to help you sort your notes if you like.

Perfect for preachers and/or students
The uses for ministry and students are unlimited. Her are a few suggested uses, but I am finding more and more everyday!

Students

• 1. Never lose you class notes again! At the end of the day, copy all of your class notes into your note library to create a permanent, searchable back-up that becomes accessible from your laptop, phone or any online computer.
• 2. Take a photo of assignments and notes the instructor writes on the whiteboard and they will become searchable and indexed in your note library for later review.
• 3. Clip information from a website for research for a paper you are writing. Tag the new note with the subject of your paper and you will be able to find all your notes on that subject in seconds – from anywhere!
• 4. Type (or take a photo) of the assignment page in your course syllabus so you always have access to your assignments specs and due dates.

Preachers/ministers

• Place a PDF or your sermon outline in your note library, add the date and location you last preached it as a text note with it and keep track of where and when each sermon has been preached.
• Collect illustration ideas as text, audio or photo images into you library – tag the note with subject ideas and you have a fully searchable illustrations database.
• Forward important emails into your library to create a permanent, searchable copy.
• Take a quick photo of the list of elders at a church you are visiting to keep a record of who works where.
• Copy Bible study notes into your library to make them searchable from your phone.
• Scan or photo receipts for expenses
• Forward you final travel itinerary email received from your travel agent or airline to have it accessible on your phone or any online computer to check dates, times and flight numbers.
• Type memorable quotes in as text notes for easy retrieval when you need them.
• Keep lists of possible Bible class topics
• Collect bulletin articles with the subject, date, and Scriptures verses to create a searchable index

The list goes on and on and on and on….I have to say that I am just beginning to scratch the surface of how this product can be used. It is certainly flexible enough for you to customize it to your way of doing things.

What does Evernote cost?
The best part of Evernote is the price – it is FREE! You can upload 40MB per month for no charge at all. You can get a Premium membership for $45 per year that allows you up to 500MB per month. This really does make this product a no-brainer from the start. Try it – you will love it I am sure!

I may always be somewhat organizationally challenged, but Evernote has helped me come a very long way in a very short time. The amount of information that was previous locked in my office drawers, or worse hidden in a stack of papers I hadn’t process yet, is now all indexed and searchable anywhere I need it – even on my phone! I will be blogging more and more about how I am using Evernote and I ask you to let me know how you are using it too.

If you haven’t seen this…you need to

OK – This isn’t about ministry, but it is about technology. The video below demonstrates a new projection technology. The images are being projected live onto the side of these buildings! This is not done post-production. You can check out the website here – Amazing!

Using images in presentations – 11 ways to use them poorly

The way you use images in your presentations can either make it, by reinforcing those things you want people to remember, or break it by being such a distraction that few people hear what you are saying. Garr Reynolds over at Presentation Zen has an excellent blog post about how NOT to use images in your presentations. I have blogged about Garr’s blog before and his book Presentation Zen which I STRONGLY recommend! If you regularly use PowerPoint of Keynote for sermons or Bible class presentations – you need to check this out – PLEASE, if not for yourself, then for your audience =)

Presentation Zen: 11 ways to use images poorly in slides

Check out Audio Boo for short podcasted audio from your iPhone

I just got back from meeting with Mike Green, an evangelist living outside Tachoma, WA. He and a few other families are involved in planting a new congregation in DuPont, WA (www.dupontchurchofchrist.org). My family and I actually had the pleasure of attending the very first worship service of this newly formed congregation and it was exciting to be there knowing that the Lord’s church is active for maybe the first time in that city. Please pray for this new congregation as they reach out to the community with the Gospel.

The next morning Mike and a fellow worker of his met with me to discuss how they might use technology to reach out into the area. We talked about a number of things, but at one point Mike said he liked the idea of recording very short (2 or 3 minute) audio files that he could then use for evangelism issues. Providentially, as I went about looking at new tools and techniques during the week I discovered Audio Boo. Audio Boo does exactly what Mike was asking me about – you can record very short (3 minute maximum) audio clips and post them to the web. The service is very much like Twitter (a little like Facebook) in that you can “follow” certain peoples “boos” and they can follow yours. The downside of this service is that it is for the iPhone only at this point. (I realize that leaves a great many people out of the loop, but it isn’t my product.) You simply download the app to your iPhone and set up your free account online and you are ready to Boo! One of the great feature of this service is that you can have AudioBoo automatically “tweet” your posts on your Twitter account and/or post it to your Facebook profile status for others to hear. You will also be able to subscribe to the podcasted Boos through iTunes on any computer. This is certainly a niche product that may not appeal to everyone, but it seems like the potential is there to deliver your message in a new a interesting form.

We’ll have to see if this service really takes off or not, but it certainly fits the need that Mike was talking about. I have recorded my first Boo and you can listen to it here. It should also appear in my Twitter posts (@jmhite) and in my Facebook profile. As you can see you can also embed the player into your website or blog.

Listen!
NON-IPHONE USERS – AudioBoo does provide a service for those without an iPhone (it is called PhoneBoo), but the catch is you have to call a phone number in the UK to make your recording. Obviously not very practical for those of us in the U.S. You can use Skype to call the number and save some coin, but that does cause another link in the chain to keep up with. One of the advantages of the iPhone app is being able to create your audio anywhere, anytime.

Five Ideas for Using Twitter for Church Communication

I ran across this article online today and thought I would pass it along. I agree with the comment regarding the details we should provide regarding prayer requests, but overall I like the content that he suggests we drive with Twitter.

Here are five great Twitter ideas you can use for your church communication efforts:

• Celebrations: Every time a person dedicates their life to Jesus, gets married in the church, or does something awesome you can tell the world and you church members about it!
• Prayer: While you may want to be careful on what details you provide, you can ask your Twitter followers to pray for a specific need or person — or just offer a short daily prayer people can read and feel energized by.
• Events: You can easily keep your congregation or church members informed of planned gatherings (or even spontaneous get together’s) by sending Twitter updates — or why not use it to invite people to church in a non-threatening way?
• Sermons or Message: Why not drop a link into your conversation and let people know you have a new sermon or message uploaded so they can listen or watch if they missed it?
• Community Dialogue: People in your community will probably be on Twitter and you can begin conversations on pressing needs in your town, schools, or other churches. You can discuss social issues to religion to sports…all great things for building trust and building your church “brand”.

link: 5 Great Twitter Ideas for Church Communications :: Church Communications Pro | Church Marketing | Church Web Design

Better presentations using index cards

Here is a quick idea to help you create better PowerPoint presentation to support your sermons or Bible classes – start with index cards. Too often people start straight into a blank PowerPoint file without a plan. They go point by point through their sermon outline and type in the bullet points and stop occasionally to search Google images for a small rectangular image they can place on the slide. This approach just doesn’t work well. The result is often a static “sermon outline” on screen rather than an attempt to communicate their message visually.

But there is hope. Those 3×5 index cards you can buy at any office supply store are roughly the same shape as the slides you project for your presentation. Armed with your sermon outline and a stack of index cards begin to plan how best to visually present your material BEFORE you ever even open PowerPoint on your computer. As you pour through your outline look for elements you want to emphasize visually and go through the process here:

• Take a blank card and draw (yes, you can!) what words and images you want on the slide. You don’t have to be a Van Gogh here, even simple stick figures can say a great deal about what you are trying to visualize for your audience. (The book The Back of a Napkin by Dan Roam is a great example of what can be communicated with simple stick figures and diagrams.) You just want to get a sense of what kind of image you need to search for later – two people shaking hands, a image of the cross, an empty tomb, etc…
• Be specific. Write the exact words or phrases you want to put on the slide on the index card. If you have to write too small for the words to fit easily they will probably be too small and crowded on your final slide to be effective. If you aren’t sure about readability, set the card 8 to 10 feet away and see if you can read it easily. If not, your audience will struggle when it is projected on the walls. Reduce the number of words to as few as possible.
• Lay the cards out in order and look at the flow from slide to slide. Does it make sense? Is it connected? Are the major sections well defined? At this point you can rearrange and reorder the cards any way you want. Create a stack and flip through them one card at a time to see how the ideas will play out on screen. Note that any changes in order may need to be reflected in your sermon outline as well.
• Once you are satisfied with the flow, open PowerPoint and lay out your slides one at a time based on what you put on each card. Google search (or visit a stock photo site like iStockphoto) for the images you ALREADY determined you wanted to make your point visually. You know what you are looking for – the problem will be finding it. THIS IS THE KEY! Often times people start looking for images before they really know what they want. They have an abstract idea and begin the search and far too quickly settle for what they find. Determine before you ever go to Google exactly what you want. You may not find it exactly, but you will be much closer to your mark.

This approach will help you be more intentional about the flow of your presentation and the images you choose to put on the screen. It will help keep you focused. Try it – you may be surprised at how much it helps.