Mavis Moon

I actually do contribute to my church using online banking. I just set up my church as a "payee" and then set up a schedule for a monthly contribution. The bank sends my check each month and the church office gives it to the deacons. There are a couple of other households who give this way, too.

Maybe we could just encourage more people to do this?

Just thought I'd let this forum know that last week I set up online giving for our church using PayPal. A member asked about giving using a credit card and wanted to do it before the end of the year. I checked into how difficult it would be with PayPal and it turned out to be pretty easy. I called the tech support number and the person answered my questions quickly. I got the "donate" button set up pretty quickly. I did have to call support again to ask why it didn't let people use a credit card and they had to "verify" my email address, which she did while we were on the phone. Then I needed to fax in a voided check and other info for non-profit status, which gives you a little lower transaction fee. The whole process wasn't too bad.

Now I'm working on making the button prettier. But that's just me being picky. :)

I'd put it under Worship. I like to use the categories listed at the top of the page whenever I can.

Schedules - volunteer schedules for greeters, coffee, nursery, children's church, sound booth, etc., etc.

Wendy, we do post our entire bulletin on the website and have been doing that for several years. Before posting it, we delete all last names (replace with last initial) and all personal contact information except for official church contact info.

I have been creating the bulletin myself for the past year or so and have found it pretty easy to quickly do this "scrubbing" before saving it as a .pdf and posting it to the web. A couple regular items in the bulletin that include last names (such as a listing of our elder-deacon teams) I just copy and paste the scrubbed version in each time. As I create the bulletin, any time I'm putting in contact information, I try to put it at the end of the announcement so it's easy to find. 

It seems to work all right.

I can see where it might sound exclusive even though it's not meant to be. Our bulletins are not in the members only section. Our members only section has links to volunteer schedules and some other parts of our Google Apps pages which would be of no interest to non-members but are a handy way for members to get to places they need to without having to remember another separate website url. We could be more subtle, maybe, with just one "Members" or "Login" link or something.

Mine is "Let All Things Now Living." The first time I heard it was at a funeral of a young man, sung there because it was his favorite. I thought the words and images were beautiful and I memorized the first verse.

I love the comfort of "who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us, who guides us and leads to the end of our days." The image of "a pillar of fire shining forth in the night, 'til shadows have vanished and forward we travel from light into light" fills me with hope. I was afraid of the dark as a kid and liked the image of that pillar of fire the Israelites followed, and I imagine myself going from one lily pad of light to another.

I sang this song to my kids as a lullaby, and now that they're grown, it is often the memory of their little baby selves that comes to my mind as I sing it. When my oldest went to Calvin College, at the orientation service for parents, Chaplain Cooper read a letter from his daughter and then we sang, you guessed it, "Let All Things Now Living." Men & women alike were sobbing. :)

The lilting tune is a joy. When I led evening praise time years ago, I'd go through the hymnal looking for Welsh tunes because I knew I'd like them. And the descant soars above the song "triumphantly," as in the first verse.

I'd love hearing about others' heart songs.

We've used Skype a couple times during a service to communicate with Gil & Joyce Suh from Cambodia. We support their family's work. Here's a photo (not the best photo but the image looks all right in the church): http://sjcrc.smugmug.com/People/our-missionaries/IMG0780/883201663_2zh3g-M.jpg.

We connected our Pastor's Apple to our system in the sound booth, and used the built-in camera. We have DSL at the church and used the wireless in the sanctuary. It worked just fine.

Great idea! I'm always looking for more images and ideas that are available for public use.

Dean, any progress on this idea (a repository of worship visuals)? Is this something you were thinking of trying to make happen or just food for thought or...??

Mavis