Tim Postuma

That's a great topic, Jan. In my own church, we've often remarked on the same phenomenon. What are the similarities between those groups and what we more typically think of as a small group? And what are the important differences? And what can each type learn from the other?

We also use Psalms for Young Children with our three little ones and it's great. The kids browse through and each pick a Psalm to read (usually based on how the artwork fits their mood that day - which is itself illuminating). I've even used it for council meeting devotions - just for something less wordy and more visually rich. It's beautiful and helps the Psalms come alive in a new way.

Thanks, Angela. It's so great to read comments like this. And it's people like you that help make this online community what it is. Keep reading, commenting, and helping us spread the word!

Michael -

I checked with our CRCNA IT department, and here's what I found...

First of all, some of the big-name vendors that most churches are interested in (e.g. Adobe, Microsoft) can't be purchased at a non-profit discount through TechSoup's purchasing program (see their list for religious organizations). So it may be better to use TechSoup for information, but then check on the vendor's website or through a local reseller to see if you qualify. Or, just check some of the big-box stores to see what the pricing is like there.

If you do want to purchase through TechSoup AND you have your own 501c3, go for it. But, as you point out, many churches don't have their own 501c3 because they can all fall under the CRCNA's umbrella (as I understand it at least). While it would be technically possible to associate the CRCNA's TechSoup account with that of individual churches, the benefits are mediocre at best. Not only because of the issue above, but because many of the vendors further restrict purchasing to organizations below a certain $ threshold (e.g. Sage is under $500,000 so the CRCNA account doesn't qualify). And other vendors restrict the number of licenses an organization can get (one license among all the CRCs won't go far!). And we'd need to think about how the payments would be handled (does payment/invoice info get saved with the organization profile?). Our IT department is on the lookout for deals they can extend to churches, but they've judged that this one has too many limitations to make the benefits worthwhile.

Having said all that, if there's a specific software that, after doing your research, you find fully qualifies for purchasing under the CRCNA TechSoup account and is not limited to a single license and can save your church big bucks...send me a direct message through The Network and we can see if we can make it happen for you.

Even without using their purchasing program, the TechSoup website is a valuable source of information for churches. So check it out even if you don't use the purchasing side of it.

Hope this helps!

We've done all of the above. Each church has received multiple emails about The Network (to pastor, then to clerk of council, to chair of deacons, etc). Enough that we worry a bit about ticking them off. We also sent all churches (twice since The Network launched) an email suitable for forwarding to their entire congregation. Most didn't, but a few did and it had a big impact.

We've also sent regular bulletin announcements and run stories in the CRC newsroom and the Church@Work section of The Banner. And all the latest posts are featured in each week's CRC News email. In May we began a weekly email for CRC Pastors that lists every Network post as well (including all the synod ones).

But the most effective thing is when one person has that 'aha moment' and helps spread the word in their church. We've seen big impact when that happens. Nothing like someone in a church advocating for something.

Overall, we've seen annual growth rate of nearly 100% (i.e. doubling) so there's no doubt that more people are jumping on board. But I think the growth could be even higher. More Banner ads would be good, but those are over $3,000 per page. We've recommitted to doing more frequent bulletin announcements - we haven't been doing as much of that as we should be. Other ideas?