Categories
church renewing the church

Church Conference via Skype

As Pastor of Resurrection Online, I hope to help build a Christian community online where non religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians. A key to this purpose is building community. There has been a good deal of conversation about whether there can be authentic Christian community online, so how about a […]

Categories
leadership ministry renewing the church

Non-Negotiables for Church Staff

I was inspired by Alexandra Bornkessel to consider What Are Your Non-Negotiables? I have four non-negotiables for church staff. They are: Commitment – You need to be committed to Christ and to the mission of the church. If this is missing, there is really no use continuing a conversation about possible involvement. Passion – You […]

Categories
communications ministry renewing the church

Social Media and US Catholic Bishops

The US Catholic Bishops are Urged to Embrace Social Media in Order to Effectively Evangelize ‘Digital Continent’ “Although social media has been around for less than 10 years, it doesn’t have the makings of a fad,” said Bishop Herzog. “We’re being told that it is causing as fundamental a shift in communication patterns and behavior […]

Categories
life ministry renewing the church

Trip to Dallas x2

Over the past month, I have had the opportunity to travel to Dallas twice. One of these trips was to share the story of Resurrection Online and what we have learned to a clergy development group of executive pastors from across Texas. It was a great blessing to be with them and share ideas about […]

Categories
church ministry renewing the church

How to Launch Online Worship or an Internet Campus for Your Church

This is a collection of posts from this blog that you might find helpful when considering beginning online worship or an internet campus at your church. These are collected blog posts from my experience as Pastor of Resurrection Online. Before Launch 4 Ways to Consider “Spiritualising the Internet” Four Narratives for Online Spiritual Community Top […]

Categories
ministry renewing the church

My Response to Top 12 Questions before Launching Online Worship

A couple weeks ago I posted the Top 12 Questions before Launching Online Worship and received the request that I share some of our responses to these questions from Resurrection Online. These will be brief responses. For each of these questions there were long conversations that lead to these conclusions. In addition, the answers to […]

Categories
ministry

Resurrection Online Update for 2 Nov 2010

On the last Resurrection Online Update, I asked for you response about guidance for next steps for Resurrection Online. I want to share with you some of the next steps. In the months ahead, I will work to create the highest quality online experience with the best possible connection and follow up with you and […]

Categories
faith life

All Saints Day

Today is All Saints Day. I wanted to share with you a little background from Wikipedia about All Saints: “In terms of Western Christian theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. It is a national holiday in many historically Catholic countries. In the Roman Catholic Church, the next day, All Souls’ Day, specifically […]

Categories
ministry renewing the church

Ministry Expenditures ≠ Outcomes

This week, I read The Importance of Outcomes by Gil Rendle and Susan Beaumont. I commend this article to you from The Alban Institute and want to share a key quote: “The number of hours, visits, calls, reports, and so on is not a measure of what is produced in ministry but rather a measure […]

Categories
communications ministry

Top 12 Questions before Launching Online Worship

Resurrection Online has been streaming worship since November of 2008. If you are considering launching an online worship service at your faith community, you first have clear answers to these questions first: Why are we launching online worship? Why does worshiping online make sense within the culture of our church? Will this effort be supported […]

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Uncategorized

Nothing to Do but Save Souls in the UMC

There is no group, connection, cluster or network of churches that doesn’t have issues. Being connected is part of who we are as Christians. There is no use complaining, but great value in working in God‘s kingdom and renewal within the church. I ran across this advice in a post by Matt Judkins from Tim […]

Categories
church

Online Worship – Is it Church?

Earlier in the summer I read a blog post, Federal Court: Online Worship is Not a Church, that indicated that an organization that primarily holds internet and radio worship services does not meet the IRS criteria for a church. The United Methodist Reporter had a follow up blog post – Church: What’s your definition? I do […]