Transformational Small Churches webinar recap

I thoroughly enjoyed the “Transformational Small Churches” webinar that Ed Stetzer‘s team at LifeWay put on today.

Very thankful for web-streaming technology and the ability to tune into the broadcast with hundreds of others to be encouraged and challenged.

I took some notes during the 7-hour event and posted them here.

Sunday Review | 2010.09.05

Ever had difficulty with the Gospel-account of Jesus turning over the tables in the temple and driving out the money-changers? This story didn’t usually get illustrated in flannel-graph as I was growing up – the pictures of Jesus I see haven’t portrayed an ‘angry’ Jesus – ever.

This Sunday we dove into the subject of Anger in our “Holy & Human” series and discussed our human responses to anger versus what a holy response should be.

It was our first Sunday without our pianist (she was on vacation) and we used some .mov files of iWorship Tracks. While I would much rather have LIVE music over canned, I am thankful for the technology and availability of iWorship and similar media.

Audio from “Challenging Anger” is available here.

Paragliding over Shippensburg

I read in the paper just last week about an event at the Shippensburg airport called Slugfest. Apparently this is the second-year paragliders have converged in Ship for this event.

This morning on my way to the office I pulled over and took a few photos of the early-flyers and then this afternoon I took Ella with me back to the airport for some more flight-enjoyment! This event will definitely go on my calendar for next year, too!

New Church Website

I’ve been working some late-nights over the last few days on our new church website. I am thankful for help from one of my tech-friendly and knowledgeable church guys, Tom, who has put the same – if not more – hours into making it happen!

The site is built on the Joomla CMS (content management system). I am very proud of what we’ve come up with and where the site is headed in the future days and weeks.

Check out the full site at http://www.firstwesleyanship.org

BOOK: Funded and Free

A new book that just released TODAY has a lot of pastors and ministries talking. It’s called “Funded and Free” and was written by Casey Graham and Joseph Sangl. It’s available for purchase on their site here or from Amazon here. I haven’t yet read it, but am looking forward to doing just that!

Church finances seems to be THE ‘hot topic’ in ministry circles today as I’m sure it’s been an area of discussion since the New Testament era, too. I have heard numerous “stewardship” messages in my 30+ years in church and am excited to begin working on a series to deliver here in Shippensburg in the future. I am attempting to surround myself with numerous resources and ideas to begin building that series, too.

I’d love YOUR input (in the comments section) of resources, people, and ideas that you have heard or even used in the past on the area of stewardship and finances in the local church.