websites

An idea that worked

I have to give Campus Crusade for Christ credit for this idea first.
The idea:
Website on a business card. For Campus Crusade for Christ, during Halloween in Athens, we passed out business cards of a Crusade website. I am not sure how successful that was…

But this week I passed out business cards with my church’s website on it. I preached the sermon at my church on Sunday….so I wanted my friends to get a chance to listen, so I posted the link on a card and passed it out.

What is funny is that this time, it worked. People who knew me wanted to go to the church website and listen to me.

Alex

AWOL

This week was my “Spring Break,” I took a class that still had me do some work this week though.
Anyways, next week starts 2 more classes so I will be doing three classes online and I am used to only doing 1 or 2, it will be a lot of work!

Anyways, this week I’ve been reading lot of religious articles:

Most religious groups in USA have lost ground, survey finds.
This is the most secular culture of America ever. Most humanistic, relativistic, and post-modern.

 var articleheadline = “Belief and the brain’s ‘God spot'”;

Belief and the brain’s ‘God spot’

This one is an interesting one. One one hand no man is without excuse, but on the other hand, no one is righteous, not one.

One World, Under God

This is true!

God Will Provide — Unless the Government Gets There First

It is sad but true, the Government is America’s “Savior” in a lot of ways.

More Americans say they have no religion

But I have read non-religious articles as well:

Ultra-High-Power Lithium-Ion Batteries – future batteries could charge in ten seconds


Slight Cut in Salt Intake Would Mean Fewer Heart Attacks, Deaths

I need to tell my step-dad this! He eats way too much salt on everything!

NBC Stars Whimper About Jon Stewart’s Skewering of CNBC
This is a funny website, but the discussion continued as Cramer joined Stewart on the Daily Show last night. Go to comedycentral.com and see the full interview. i give Stewart props on this one.

Wolfram Alpha Computes Answers To Factual Questions. This Is Going To Be Big.
This should be intriguing, if it is not very accurate it will still be very funny to see the wrong answers this website may or may not produce.

Websites I check compusevely (Not everyday)

Besides my emails, Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter profiles:

Most of these websites send me email subscriptions (so I don’t access their web page directly very often but I do read the articles in the emails) sometimes I click on a link in the email that leads me to their site.

http://www.preaching.com/ – Culture Connection Updates

http://homeword.com/– Daily Devotions

www.tjosm.com – The Journal of Student Ministries Updates

http://www.SimplyYouthMinistry.com – Simply Youth Newsletter and Podcast reminders

The Boundless Show– Boundless Webzine

Plugged In – Focus on the Family’s Culture Connection

Youth Walk – Walk through the Bible Ministry for Youth leaders, weekly devotionals

Youth Ministry / Group Magazine – Youth Ministry.com Newsletters

CPYU.org – CPYU Newsletter: Youth Culture, articles

http://www.cyfm.net/– Center for Youth and Family Ministry Newsletters

technology at churches

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The Barna Group recently released a new study about the use of technology in Protestant churches nationwide.
New Research Describes Use of Technology in Churches
In general, in the past two years adoption of technology into churches has been a little slow.

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Those tools included in the study were large screens used for showing video imagery; showing movie clips and other video segments during church events; sending email blasts to all or portions of the congregation; operating a church website; offering a blog site or pages for interaction with church leaders; maintaining a page on behalf of the church on one or more social networking sites; providing podcasts for people to listen to; and receiving programming and training via a satellite dish.

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In the past few years at my church, we have started our own church website. We have a large television but not a large screen. In the youth ministry we show clips from movies, and we send out youth group email blasts. The website has sermons that are also edited for podcasting but we do not put on a specific podcast. As a whole, our church is not involved in social network, but the youth ministry uses existing social networks to connect with students. We are not large enough to do satellite training, but our members do go to larger churches occasionally to get such training.
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There is a lot of intersting research from the Barna group, I encourage you to check it out and see the reasons why some churches are embracing and why some churches are holding back.

weird culture ideas


Has anyone heard of the site Akatoo.com ? I am a member. It is a neat website. I am enjoying it so far. On this website, you can ask questions and answer them. It is awful like Yahoo answers, except this is a lot better for several reasons. Primarily because on Akatoo you can win prizes for answering questions and for inviting people to join. Also every time you answer a question, you are donating money to great causes. I have found that Akatoo is a more collegiate community than Y! answers.

Anyways for me, I have been able to practice “being ready” to share and defend my faith online through helping people on Akatoo by sharing Truth/ God’s Word in my answers. On this quest to share the Truth, I have ran into a lot of strange beliefs that people have about God, faith and life.

On this site I am learning a lot about people in general but specifically how strange and weird some world views, values, and beliefs that these “educated” folks have. For example, the belief in a higher power who hit the start button for evolution. The belief that Jesus did not exist AT ALL. Some people who actually think truth is relative….other random junk…

It has been fun posting and soundly like i am smart….I actually won an Ipod shuffle already and am going for a Nano next time.

Alex

Getting online as a parent and letting your kids online


I am not a parent but I have collected some tips and resources that I think would be helpful if I were a parent. I am a youth minister and I want to help parents connect with their teenagers and grow them closer to the Lord.

Stats on how many teenagers are using laptops and spending a lot of wasted time online.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/20laptopsct.html?_r=1&ref=nyregionspecial2&oref=slogin

http://www.commonsense.com/internet-safety-guide/ – Internet Safety Guide for Parents:
“Check site histories, set appropriate age filters, and check out the parental controls on your browser. Teach your kids the basics of safe searching (Google has a safe-search setting), and give them a digital code of conduct. Don’t let them figure it all out by themselves. ” Another helpful page: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/parent_tips/commonsense_view/index.php?id=270

According to CPYU.org – Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, we should:

First, we need to find out why our kids are visiting these sites.
Second, we should make sure we are equipping them properly to deal with the types of information they are confronted with both on these sites and in the world. Third, we must foster an environment of trust.
Fourth, we need to model for them what healthy relationships look like
Fifth, our kids must learn the difference between information and advertising.
Sixth, we need to make sure our kids are safe on the Internet.
(I cut the main principles, go to CPYU.org and read the details under the articles section).

http://www.cnet.com/4520-13384_1-6721000-1.html – CNet shows in this article some physical tools you can actually use and place on or around your computer to monitor and block certain activities.

http://protectkids.com/parentsafety/socialnetworking.htm – “Rules N Tools” is the page title. I really love this website. It has a lot of good ideas for rules and more tools to help you and your kids figure out social networks and the internet.

Internet-Related Safety Tips for Teens from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

1. Don’t give out personal information about yourself, your family situation, your school, your telephone number, or your address.

2. If you become aware of the sharing, use, or viewing of child pornography online, immediately report this to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.

3. When in chatrooms remember that not everyone may be who they say they are. For example a person who says “she” is a 14-year-old girl from New York may really be a 42-year-old man from California.1

4. If someone harasses you online, says anything inappropriate, or does anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, contact your Internet service provider.

5. Know that there are rules many Internet Service Providers (ISP) have about online behavior. If you disobey an ISP’s rules, your ISP may penalize you by disabling your account, and sometimes every account in a household, either temporarily or permanently.

6. Consider volunteering at your local library, school, or Boys & Girls Club to help younger children online. Many schools and nonprofit organizations are in need of people to help set up their computers and Internet capabilities.

7. A friend you meet online may not be the best person to talk to if you are having problems at home, with your friends, or at school – remember the teenage “girl” from New York in Tip number three? If you can’t find an adult in your school, church, club, or neighborhood to talk to, Covenant House is a good place to call at 1-800-999-9999. The people there provide counseling to kids, refer them to local shelters, help them with law enforcement, and can serve as mediators by calling their parents.

8. If you are thinking about running away, a friend from online (remember the 14-year-old girl) may not be the best person to talk to. If there is no adult in your community you can find to talk to, call the National Runaway Switchboard at 1-800-621-4000. Although some of your online friends may seem to really listen to you, the Switchboard will be able to give you honest, useful answers to some of your questions about what to do when you are depressed, abused, or thinking about running away.”