simplyinsider.com

Episode 122: Doug?s Distracted

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Only Doug and Matt make it to the table today.

simplykurt.com

Merry Christmas

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas. I hope you find time to slow down, enjoy family and friends and celebrate our savior.

No blogging for me until the new year.

See ya in 2010.

youthministrygeek.com

My Favorites from 2009

Well 2009 is officially over, and I was thinking about some of the tech that made it’s way into my world during the year. Here’s some of my favorites:

Software: Mozy – I committed to online backup this year having deciding that my time machine wasn’t enough. Mostly because if something happened at my house the chances of losing both were pretty high. I went with Mozy, and after having a harddrive crash while on a trip and I was still able to access my data, I’m sold. It’s definitely worth the 5 a month it costs.

Dropbox – This has become a tool I use daily. Great for online storage and sharing. And it’s FREE!

Teleport – This little bit of software allows you to share one keyboard and mouse between 2 macs without any extra hardware. It’s really cleaned up my desk and I love the way it works. Price: FREE

Hardware: iPhone 3gs – This is so much more than a phone to me. It allows me to be away from the office but still take care of quite a bit of my daily tasks. I love it.

MacBook Pro Uni-body – My old Macbook Pro was great for almost 3 years, but my recent upgrade to one of the new Uni-body models has been a great one. The power is awesome. To compare, my old machine took 90 minutes to export the SYM podcast that [...]

simplyurbanministry.com

Soul Food! If you love yourself, feed yourself!!!

collegeministrythoughts.com

Year End Evaluation

It’s at the end of the year when we can really evaluate our lives, ministry, and direction. The turn of a year is a sort of God-caused-pause in our lives. We all have things we’d like to have done different in ‘09, those things we’re thankful for (possibly even the mistakes we made), and we can look to a new year of vision and direction. But before we can look to were we’re going in the next year, it really helps to evaluate where we’ve been. What I’d like to do, very briefly, is list out some questions that can help you evaluate your year in college ministry so far. These certainly aren’t the end all of questions to ask, but I hope they can catapult some thought for you…

First for some personal one’s I’ve asked myself:

1. Did I study for the purpose of “doing ministry” more than operate out of the overflow of what God was already teaching me?
2. What is one aspect of life (ministry, personal time, wife, kids, family as a whole, etc.) I need to give more attention in 2010?
3. Does my spouse agree with my answer to #2?
4. How has my character grown to be more like Christ this year?
5. What are two mistakes I made this past year that I’d like to avoid making again in 2010?
6. What character issues do I feel like God wants to continue working on in the new year?
7. What are some really cool things that happened that I want to remember and continue to celebrate?

Now for some ministry questions for evaluation:

1. Are people growing spiritually? If so, how do we measure that? Do our measurements really help us see spiritual growth? What are some possible measurements that we can begin using in 2010?
2. Am I keeping the long-term spiritual maturity process of college age people in mind as I plan and move forward in ministry? In other words, am I preparing them for what’s after our college ministry – and if so, how? If not, then why?
3. How have we helped them think through the normal age-stage issues they face on a daily basis? How can we be more effective in that in 2010?
4. What are the true needs of college age people and are we focusing on meeting those?
5. What are some things we did that worked and would like to try again?
6. What are some things that didn’t work and what caused that “failure?” Are there little things we can tweak to make them be more effective, or do we throw that one out?

I’d recommend not thinking through these in a vacuum. Include your spouse and close friends on the personal questions and include ministry leaders in the ministry questions.

marriedtoayouthpastor.com

Using church to stay away from God