Everyday Lutherans

Reaching this milestone within blogging has had me thinking.  Why am I doing this?  Am I doing a good job at this? I started blogging so that I could have a place to share some of my thoughts, sermons, and think through concepts that will help me in life and in my job.  I also wanted to improve my writing skills and means of communication.  Therefore most of the reason that I began this blog was personal. As I think and wonder if I am doing a good job at this, I have wondered, how shall I measure success?  I could go through the number of posts, the number of readers, how much I feel that I have grown through this blog.  I have not had a lot of posts, most are sermons and a few personal thoughts about theology.  If I look only at the number of readers, it is not very good record.  I average about twenty eight readers per post and in the whole life of my blog, I have had seven thousand separate views upon all of my posts.  Above all, I started...

It is very important for a church to have a website, something simple and basic for guests and visitors who are new to the area and are not familiar with how the church functions. In order to do this, you don't need to spend a lot of money, in fact, you really don't need to spend any but you do need to spend some time on it.  Before you do anything, you will need to decide what you want on the webiste.  Do you want times of service? Contact information?  Directions to the building?  Perhaps some of the things that are going on that the person could get involved in.  Now that you have an idea of what you want to have on your website, you will need to figure out what is going to be the best means of being able to update the information.  There is nothing worse than a website that has out of date information.  With these two factors in mind, you can then figure out what is going to be your best way of creating the website. Weebly - This is a great option...

Online dating is one of the new ways people are meeting someone to date. It is a way for people to meet people who are actually single.  No guessing within the bar if a person is single or even interested in getting to know people for a relationship.  Yet on these sites there are people who you will want to get to know and things won't work out.  There are other times that you will meet someone and you find that you wish you had not given out your number to a person.  While there are some great safety features within online dating websites, there is also a time in which you want to get to know someone between the website and meeting in person. (And perhaps even a few dates after meeting a person.)  That you wish your personal information had not been given out to people. Thus the reason that I write this article. For most people they want a way to get to know someone through email, text messages, or web chat before meeting them in person.  Other people...

Social Media is all around us.  It is the way we connect with friends or family.  We can share photos, videos, and even what we enjoy.  There are a variety of social media platforms and each one offers a means in which the person can present themselves or even what they want to share.  Facebook, Twitter, and wikipedia are all places in which people can share ideas and information.  Instagram and Tumblr allow you to share images with a caption.  (This feature is also on facebook.) Regardless of what interface you or other use.  It has a profound impact upon a person's life.  A person will engage their device which allows them to share with others around them or at a distant who are following them.  When Christ came to his disciples he told them to "Follow Him".  Christ engaged these men and brought them into relationship with himself and one another.  Yet that is what the church is, the very body of Christ.  Allowing people to g...

Growing up, I had always seen corn and soybeans.  While I spent the year in Wisconsin, I got to see the tobacco being harvested.  Well this year came another treat. I got to see the Beet Harvest.  These beets would be picked, piled and then taken to the factory so that they can be processed into sugar. So here is my experience.  I talked with one of the farmers in the congregation and he said I could see it.  I arrived out in the field when they had just loaded a semi.  That's right the semi drove right next to the tractor and was loaded up with the beets.  Since the tractor was at a stand still, I hopped into the cab of the semi and road along to see where the beets go after they are done in the field. Getting in to the cab, I started to talking to the driver.  He is also a member at the congregation.  So after catching up on what's new at his place, he started telling me about the process.  He takes his load over to a big pile.  E...

Yes I am that guy who will take this wonderful cartoon and turn it into an article for my blog because I think that both are needed.  This is truly a great cartoon and one that speaks volumes.  (I often enjoy the work from www.reverendfun.com if you have not done so you should definitely check them out.) They are right, there is an app for everything that you could ever want.  Although this is not necessarily what they had in mind.  Technology as a whole is moving so quickly and the church is not really catching up. In fact, I have seen some church that have not changed a thing and actually they are fairing better than some of the congregations that have tried to put together various ministries within the web.  I recently went to a conference and they told us that we should all have webpages for our church.  It should be simple and clean cut and most important of all accurate with current information.  One of the biggest things that I have seen is tha...