Everyday Lutherans

A great article that gives insight into the lives of young people between 18-33.  Although a little scary too to think that God has everything laid out and we are simply going through the motions.  http://www.livinglutheran.com/blog/2013/04/gods-plans-and-gps.html

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  There is nothing worse than a website that has out of date information.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...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP5MiAEDysg Alright so if you know the tune for Gangnam Style, this is a parody.  However, I am not gonna use words with this.  I just wanted to give you a visual. I thought about using  this dance for the children's sermon for two reasons.  At one church we are talking about Palm Sunday and the other both David entering Jerusalem and Palm Sunday.  Both celebrations. I will explain each of the moves to the youth and congregation. Ride the pony - riding the horse of Jesus as he entered into Jerusalem. Lasso - Cheering and trying to get Jesus to notice you Sasshay - Someone stands in front of you but you can't stop dancing cause you are so excited. I would only do this for a minute.  I thought it would be fun but also would be something modern in the church.  I think that the people would enjoy it.  But what do you think?

The hymnal is something that you find in nearly every church.  As one enters into the worship area of the sanctuary, a person finds the hymnal that contains liturgy, hymns (songs) and even important teachings of what the congregation believes in their understanding of the church, God and the individuals.  Within these books, people are able to learn the songs that shape their faith, begin to wrestle with important questions of God and their relationship, but also having a connection between the church and their home. For hundreds of years, people would memorize the parts of the service that were repeated over and over again, it was these parts that shaped their faith and understanding of God.  For they were on their minds and they were able to reference them as they worked, talked with others, and reflected upon their life. For hundreds of years this was the foundation of faith formation.  Then came the arrival of the printing press and also the Reformation.  On...

Comics are one those powerful things that often can convey a thought, idea, a full story and even render a complex situation seem simple.  Yet it is also through just a picture that a person can bring in to a story elements that were never even included but have been brought into the understanding of the reader because of the society in which the story or event is taking place.   Here is an example within the first comic.  There is no real truth to each one of us having a devil or evil figure or an angel or good figure attempting to influence within our lives.  By the way, if you do see these, please let me know.  However, this understanding does draw us into the understanding that within the world, we face choices and decisions that are good and bad. They can help us, harm others, or anything in between the two or combination.  This understanding has since been a part of people's reading because it makes logical sense.  They may even follow into the w...

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...