Tim Postuma
I serve the CRC in two operational roles - co-director of Ministry Support Services, and Operations Team Leader for Thrive. Both roles are dedicated to supporting CRC staff as they equip you and your church!
I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba - go, Jets - but now live in Grand Rapids, MI (much to my surprise). My wife is a CRC chaplain and we have three grown kids. We spend most of our vacations visiting family members spread across the continent - Calgary, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, St Catharines, Montreal, and Washington DC.
Posted in: Am I Subscribed? [Feature]
[quote=Chester]
Where do I find the 'marks' , etc.
[/quote]
Here's that picture of what appear on the right side of the page:
The green checkmarks indicate active subscriptions.
Notice there is no checkmark next to "This Author". This indicates that the person has not yet activated that particular subscription. To do so, they could click the blue text which is a hyperlink.
You're right about the fact that we don't underline our hyperlinks. This was common in the early days of the web, but now most websites just make them a different color and avoid the underline.
I hope this additional explanation is helpful.
Posted in: Am I Subscribed? [Feature]
Ken - Wow, you noticed that profile meter right away! I just finished writing an introduction to what it is and how it works.
Posted in: How to Start Using Google Apps
About a year ago, the CRCNA switched to Google Apps for all of our staff (in North America and around the world). It's been a great move!
Posted in: Finding Youth Ministry Resources With a Reformed Perspective
Dana - Have you tried Faith Alive's other course, "HC and Me"? If not, here's the link. Tim
Posted in: The HC is on the Cutting Edge of Youth Ministry!
To amplify your point, Marcel, I saw this posted today:
Interview with Kevin DeYoung on The Good News We Almost Forgot in the Heidelberg Catechism
(Kevin DeYoung is the pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI, co-author of several books (Why We Love the Church and Why We’re Not Emergent), and author of Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will. Kevin kindly agreed to be interviewed about his new book, The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism, which is on the Heidelberg Catechism.)
Posted in: How to Podcast Sermons
WordPress and other blog/CMS tools also have podcast plugins. I was just looking into that for a friend's podcast, but haven't implemented.
On a related note...I've wondered whether we try to encourage all the CRC pastors/churches to post to a central repository like SermonCentral, SermonCloud, etc Not only does that provide a nice feature set, I think our pastors have something good to offer people who cruise those sites. I haven't researched them enough to be able to promote one vs. another. Has anyone done some head-to-head comparisons?
Posted in: Livestreaming Sunday Service on WordPress?
Hi Rita. What streaming service are you using? It should be possible to embed their player into one of your website pages.
Posted in: Livestreaming Sunday Service on WordPress?
Ah, I see. I haven't used AWS Media Services. It looks pretty technical. My experience is limited to Livestream.com and similar services, where the streaming service comes with its own player that you can embed on any web page.
Posted in: When to Reopen Church? (And When to Re-Close)
Two more resources:
When Your Church Reopens, Here’s How to Meet Safely (from Christianity Today)
24 Questions Your Church Should Answer Before People Return (from Ken Braddy, Lifeway/SBC)
Posted in: When to Reopen Church? (And When to Re-Close)
This was shared with a group of pastors last week. I particularly like the first section of 'values that will guide our decision-making'. Seems wise to name and agree on some values first.
Reopening Questions, Considerations, and Strategies (from Harbor Churches)
Posted in: When to Reopen Church? (And When to Re-Close)
Thanks for sharing that helpful perspective, Ken. For many like you, at-home is the way they normally experience worship. So important for us to remember that!
I've really enjoyed my church's new way of at-home worship, and have found it to be enriching in different ways. Sure, I look forward to worshipping in person again. But I certainly don't feel the need to push the envelope or take any unnecessary risks to do it soon.
Posted in: When to Reopen Church? (And When to Re-Close)
I can imagine a lot of issues with that approach, and real potential for hurt relationships and harm to health. Do we pass the offering plate? Do we invite the kids up for the blessing? Will nursery be offered? What happens if someone is wanting to keep distance and someone else sits right behind them and sings down their neck? What if one person is wearing a mask and keeping distance and another church member comes right up to them to chat without a mask? Do we have coffee time after the service, and will the servers take any precautions? Etc.
Even assuming all members are trying to stay fully informed, it may be from different sources and some of it might conflict. The church in the article linked above agreed upon significant precautions, and still ended up with more than half the people attending their event getting the virus and two church members dying.
Communal worship is, well, communal. And like any community, we rely on many social norms that we typically take for granted. Right now, those norms are upended. Before opening for worship, it seems wise for church leaders to help establish what the new norms will be and communicate those so people know what to expect and can decide, for themselves, whether to participate. That's the topic of this thread.