21st Century Sheep » umc

Children’s Ministry Forum

Paul — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:50:01 +0000

The Children’s Ministries Group at the General Board of Discipleship for the United Methodist Church is planning a Children’s Ministry Forum in Raleigh NC in February of 2010. The title of the forum is “Fill My Cup Lord.”

I have been invited to present and I am looking forward to being there. I will present two worksessions. The tentative topics are:

Where the Wild Things Are – Online Safety for Children

What are the real risks to children online? We will explore dangers and strategies of for teaching children and parents about online safety. Participants will learn practical strategies that can be put to use immediately.

Keeping up the Joneses (and everyone else online)

The President is on YouTube, Oprah is Skyping, and Lance Armstrong is Tweeting. Are you keeping up? What will the next “big thing” be? We will explore new resources and technologies that you can use in your personal life and in children’s ministries.

On a different topic I came across an interesting performance by Raul Midon playing his original song “All the Answers“. He is explores what it means to have immediate access to all the information on the Internet vs. having understanding. I think you will enjoy it.

Preparing for transition in the Church

Paul — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:33:24 +0000

Today we said goodbye to Scott Wilson-Parsons and his family. Scott has been our pastor for 11 years and is moving on to Seaside UMC. This is an emotional time for everyone. I know many UMC churches and preacher’s families are experiencing the same thing today. My father was a UMC pastor and we had our share of moves. I attended 10 different schools and 3 different high schools. I know it can be a tough time. There are many things a congregation can do to ease the transition but today I want to look at the electronic transition.

If the pastor is deeply involved with the church website, email, computers and network, it is important to make sure all the knowledge doesn’t leave with the pastor.

Here are some things to have in a good transition document.

1. Email – usernames, passwords, account numbers

2. Web Hosting – account numbers, usernames, passwords, procedures for updating, when the bill comes due and who it is paid to

3. Computers – usernames, passwords, file structure organization, warranties, backups (where stored)

4. Networks – switch and router addresses, switch and router configuration backups, passwords, wireless configuration and encryption

5. Misc. – Usernames and passwords for Facebook, blogs, photo hosting sites, and other online sites that are in the church’s name

Having a good record of these things helps ease the transition and avoid those late night calls to the former pastor because no one knows the password to update the church website!

I pray a blessing on all the UMC churches and families who are experiencing transitions this month.

Online with the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church Annual Conference

Paul — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:54:35 +0000

I have never been to the Annual Conference of our Church. It is held early in June and that is a very busy time those of us who work in the public schools.

This year the NCCUMC put much of the Annual Conference online at this site.

You can view video from the general sessions, read proposed amendments, and see how the votes went. You can even follow the NCCUMC on Twitter.

I applaud those folks who made the effort to put this online for those of us who could not attend. This is a great way to increase lay involvement in the workings of the Church.