Mavis Moon

Good questions, Phil. I don't personally know any answers, unfortunately. I'd love to hear more about your project and how it turns out. I'm hoping others on the network will have some ideas.

Thank you, Andrea. This was a beautiful posting with wonderful reminders of our shortcomings and God's awesome goodness.

Tim, are there recordings of past events at Synod, or just the livecasts?

My brother led devotions this morning. I was hoping to see it but didn't catch it live.

Mavis

This sounds like our church, too, for sure! I myself am an elder besides being a volunteer for sound booth/Power Point duties, coffee, and so on. Not only do we have people on the schedule every week or nearly so, it's very common for people to be on the schedule for more than one "job" on the same Sunday -- kind of running from one thing to another.

Your idea of having people do more of one thing has merit, BUT, there's a downside, too, especially depending on whether there are others doing that same thing. For example, I enjoy doing Power Point duty and at one point said I'd just go ahead and do it every Sunday. Turns out that was not such a good idea because then when I was out of town or couldn't make it to church, no one else had done it in a long time. It is better to have at least a couple/few who take turns so everyone stays up to date on how to do the task, at least when it's one like this, that requires some technical capabilities.

I don't know a good solution. My mind goes more toward looking closely at all the various volunteer jobs there are, and see whether there's a way to pare back without sacrificing the core services of the church.

That IS great news! Warm & fuzzy feelings for Google again. :)

Tim, I had heard about Google's change and tried to find something official about it. I saw, as you did, the wording on their guidelines. I couldn't find anywhere where they'd made a statement about the change, but I guess that it would make sense they wouldn't do that. It's a shame. I felt kind of betrayed when I heard about it, after thinking how wonderful it was that Google offered the free licenses to churches.

Kyle, I like your idea. I wish Google would come out and say something.

Tim, very cool you were quoted because of the network. Very UN-cool that Google has made this change. Maybe they'll change their mind? I guess that's a slim chance, but we can hope.

Wow, @Tim, you declined your chance at 15 minutes of fame! ;-) Probably a smart move. But, yes, wouldn't it be great if Google would change their minds? Seems to me it'd fit right in with their motto of "Do no evil." (That's them, right?)

Jo, this is a good question -- and a good idea. I have a Facebook friend (also my cousin) who has created a Facebook page for her church's library. (It's at: http://www.facebook.com/DCClibrary.) She posts information about new books that have come in and events such as a summer reading program with a prize. You could certainly link the library's Facebook page to your website.

When we redesigned our website a while ago, our pastor put together a section on books where he listed books he recommended for various categories such as Explore Christianity, Relationships, Grief and so on. In our case we connected it to links to Amazon for purchasing the book, but that kind of concept could work, too, for recommending books in the church library.

I've always thought an online book discussion would be fun but any time I've tried, it really hasn't made it. Not to say it can't be done but I haven't seen the magic formula for it yet. The Facebook page can be used for discussions of a sort, and there are other tools such as a Google group for group discussions.

I did a search of "library" on the network and I see you've posted your question in some other forums and have gotten some responses. Looks like you're doing a thorough job of looking for input and ideas. Please update us in the future on how your library ministry is doing.

Hi Scott,

I'm definitely interested! Maybe we can figure out a way to work through or with the network on this idea.

Mavis

I'd be interested to know how exactly you offer electronic giving? Do you just have a place on your website that allows electronic devotions? Other methods?