FREE FREE FREE, do I have your attention

Hey everyone,

I have a few free resources for you, 2 of which I have previously mentioned. The first one was told to me by Scott Lahmann our IT specialist at the District Office. He told me about a great accountability software to use and hey it's FREE!!!!! Many of us use Covenant Eyes and it has been great, the only problem is that there is a fee attached. The is a bare-bones piece of software called x3 watch that you can install on all the computers in your organization and choose up to 3 emails for your accountability partners. I downloaded it on my computer today and entered in my accountability people and they were notified, so it looks as if all is well. There are upgrades available with more options but you have to pay. I will post a review of the software on our Home Missions Page on the district office website, so check it out.

The second piece of software I wrote about a while ago. It is called opensong.org. After spending some time with the software I can say it really works. It isn't the best on the market, but it is leaps and bounds beyond powerpoint. So, if you are still using powerpoint to display your lyrics you really should check this out. It also has a chord chart manager that allows you to enter in chord charts and change the keys. You can print them out, and I think you can report to CCLI as well. For the new church planter starting out and for the church that laughs at the thought of a media budget, I highly recommend this piece of software. In fact, any church that doesn't utilize a lot of video should really think about using it. Great Job all of you over at opensong.org. PS it's FREE!!!!!!

The third piece of software isn't software really it is lifechurch.tv these guys hold a very special place in my heart. They really do good stuff over there and guess what, yep, they give it away. A church after my own heart. You can download there promo materials to use for your church, as well as video loops, roll ins and small group studies. This is the church behind youversion.com and churchmetrics.com, which you should check out as well. If any of you have other opensource software or solutions that you want to share comment on this post. I am still trying to find an opensource worship leader who loves youth ministry and is independently wealthy, but I haven't found them yet, until then, take joy in what God gives you.

Mac

Orange correction

In the last post I gave you a url for the orange conference. You can get information about the conference at that link but you can find out more about the group behind it at rethinkgroup.org

Resources

Many people talked about finding ways to meet the needs in you community here are some things that they mentioned
-Talk to people who are currently involved in meeting the needs and find out how you can partner with them.
-Join community groups
-Join community sports and recreation groups/teams
-Adopt a neighborhood or adopt a school
-Do community events and don't charge.
-Look for ways in doing business to bless your community rather looking for freebies (Doug mentioned this in his talk)
-ruralcompassion.org
-internation team (iteams) you can google them. They work with immigrants in Minneapolis

Books
-Simple Church
-Peptalk
-Fusion and Activate (Searcy) books about assimilation and small groups
-Black Book of Connectionshttp:

Misc
-Use the local paper they are looking for stories
-Start a daycare
-Leverage paying events to pay for other outreach events at the church
-Add a service (provides more options for people)
teer opportunities in the community

Communication
icontact.com
constantcontact.com
blogger.com
twitter.com

More stuff
youversion.com (online bible)
churchmetrics.com(tracking web tool)
epodunk.com

istockphotos.com
lifechurch.tv-website from life church (craig groeschel) they give away everything and they have a very talented team working for them. Great tools for just about anything. FYI they created youversion.com and churchmetrics.com
theorangeconference.org-great youth and kids programs

Leadership Development Grant-let us know at the district office, what we can do to help.

Get someone who isn't a believer to help you design your promo.

That is it for now, we will work on getting these up on our mnaog.org site as well. If there are any more resources that might help your fellow planters let us know.

Talk to you soon but until then

His servant and yours,

mac

CPF meeting recap

What an incredible time we had in Zimmerman. The church is doing very well and we were humbled and honored to be so warmly welcomed and hosted by one of our new church plants. They have done a wonderful job with the build out and are seeing many people from their community finding a place where they can be accepted and surrounded by loving people who demonstrate the love of Christ. Thanks Wendy, Russ, Ron and Becky for all of your hard work!!!

Doug Vagle did an incredible job relating many incredible stories of lives being changed as God connected Doug and his church to the people that they met while they lived out lives of compassion and opened themselves up to God connecting them to people throughout the day. It certainly gave me a new insight into those "divine appointments" that God has arranged for us. I don't know about you, but I get so busy sometimes that I can't see what God has for me to do. My music pastor growing up told me once, "Mac remember to walk slowly through the crowd", take the time to allow God to connect you with the lives of those you serve in the Kingdom. Isn't that an essential part of it anyway? Enough of my commentary. Doug thanks for your insights, passion and challenge to intentionally allow ourselves to be used by God in our everyday lives to impact our communities.

I will post the list of resources on the next post and put them up in the homemissions page on mnaog.org. Until then,

His servant and yours,

mac

CPF meeting in Zimmerman

check out the Twitter updates for the CPF meeting in Zimmerman.