Here are my recommended books for a good read.
Feel free to send me your best book recommendations as well.
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Talk for those serving God creatively.
You can do it too! Do you believe the ministry you are doing is important? Obviously, Vince Antonucci believes what he is doing is valuable and he's raising money quite uniquely. How? He's put out a blog challenge - for 500 people x $100 donation - to rent a space.
It's going to work.
I noticed a comment on one article and I thought: "Nah, it couldn't be that easy!"
It is THAT easy.
Here's the comment:
5. jimbabwe says January 15th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
A far easier solution is to use fireworks.
Open your image with a transparency in fireworks. In the top right corner with the color wheel choose PNG 8. Then choose alpha transparency(as opposed to no transparency). Then file->export the image as a png file.
What will happen is browsers that don’t support that alpha transparency will operate like index transparency while browsers that do will render the image with the alpha transparency giving you a nice soft edge.
Two of the sites i’ve done it for work are santashotline.com and santaclaus.net. In both examples check out the logos on ie6 or older and on an alpha mask supporting browser.
Enjoy! -- From Cross Browser Transparency
It's what I used to get the transparency on images at timboone.com.
We're excited! We get to see old friends and find out what's going on in life for people we knew way back in college. One of our friends, Mike, we haven't seen or heard from - since forever! Can't wait to catch up.
Reunions! There's a sermon there somewhere about the way we'll experience heaven.
What if we created worship like a reunion of college buddies?
The back story: My husband started in earnest to search for a new job this week. In haste, I created a website for him - straight html and css - no frills. You can see it at timboone.com and if you'd like to talk with him about a job ... LOL!
Issue: All of the .png files I used to get the transparency looks great in anything other than IE6! Why do people still use IE6?? Read: frustration.
IE6 displays the png with a background arbitrary blue. What the heck? IE6 has a mind of it's own and doesn't play with .png.
So, going to the mat with IE6 involves searching the internet for solutions. There are two trains of thought:
Here are workarounds I've begun to play with and I'll report on what I finally used later. Which workaround is best depends upon your particular issue and needs.
Starbucks made huge money and reputation by getting their name onto Ice Cream in your local grocery store freezer. Wouldn't you like your movement for Christ to be that noticeable?
Seth Godin shows how Starbucks landed that goldmine. They "developed" their business, i.e. found ways to leverage what they were particularly good at in partnership with another equally good business to get more of their brand into consumer's hands (read profit).
Starbucks partnered with a company, Unilever. Here's why.
"Unilever is the No. 1 ice cream manufacturer globally and they have strong experience with super premium brands," said Mary Theisen, director of business development for Starbucks' global consumer products. -- From "Starbucks new ice cream hits stories in SeattlePI.
How could we leverage the idea of Business Development to deploy our mission (see the big picture in Part 1 of this series)?
We're not about making profit quite the way Seth has imagined. We are, however, all about meeting and sharing Jesus with others. Let's make that VIRAL with a business development plan!
How?
I call it "get more out of your church!" Seth Godin calls it "business development." Wouldn't you like great partnerships for ministry? Wouldn't you like more impact in your community? Wouldn't you like enthusiasm?
So, I'm reading along in Seth's blog this morning - and I realize, "Oh my God, this is what we 'say' in church but don't very often actually do." Let me paint the bigger picture for a moment.
Our goal is to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ. Without the church lingo, that means we want others to truly experience the real Jesus who transforms purpose, life, maturing processes, and relationships forever. And we want people to experience the real Jesus who leads the world into being all about goodness for one another. It requires our obedience in faith - because we're so not used to the world or our relationships being perfect - and we don't really know how to stay on an even keel with being perfect 100% of the time. (Well, maybe you do, but I don't.) So, we need a straight arrow leader who will tell us how it is and keep us sticking to the game plan.
Very generally, " the church" has packaged Jesus in a certain way. The ways Jesus has been packaged up is under scrutiny currently - a reformation is underfoot equally climatic as Luther banging questions onto the church door beginning the Protestant Reformation.
One way Jesus has been packaged is that you need to come into church to experience Jesus. And by saying that we limit His activity in the world. Wait! Didn't the disciples walk around in the world with Jesus before ever going to church? (Jesus is present in church. I would say Jesus is also present in the world and in culture. We need to discern where Jesus is present in the Church and where Jesus is present in the world and culture to join Him in those places.)
Another way Jesus has been packaged is that our strategy as a Christian is to know as much about the Bible, and then when you finally know enough, to begin teaching it to others. It's a very teaching and mind centric strategy - built around our educational system's approach. I would be the last to say that we don't absolutely need to know the Bible. But I'd also be slow to say that Christianity or following Christ is all about an inward journey. It's also an outward and relationship with others journey. It's not simply what we know - but a journey of experiences and relationships too.
Many Christians have "checked out from life" in order to check into Jesus. The reformation to remember Jesus was human as well has been a watershed opportunity for us to embrace the intersections of both everyday life and interests with Jesus's life and interests.
The bigger picture?
Do you ever have this thought? "My blog isn't moving from my world to other people's worlds." If only I could figure out how to impact others with great ideas and thoughts!
You could.
Follow the genius of Chris Brogan. I'm one of those gals who does better if I can see it in action. And Chris puts his words into action so you can see real life examples.
It all comes down to this: Unique Relationship's The Thing Design. Here's where Chris's genius comes in. His writing (style and content) invite you to a friendly one on one conversation where he gently leads you to sharing this with others. It's powerful - and also kind of like Jesus would do it.
So, let's look at some of how he does it in one of his articles! Ready for some how-to's?
Patrick Swayze died yesterday after a battle with pancreatic cancer which should have killed him long ago. I loved his honesty about the battle and his choice to live through it.
Words. Here are some random words of Swayze's. Enjoy.
Swayze in The New York Times, Sept. 14, 2009: Positive attitudes in the face of death.
“How do you nurture a positive attitude when all the statistics say you’re a dead man?” he told The New York Times last October. “You go to work.”
“I keep my heart and my soul and my spirit open to miracles”
You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Nor do you need 3 hours a day. Yep, and you also don't need to be the coolest person on planet earth! But you do need to get the "why to blog" right.
You should feel a call from God to plant some new thoughts, give away some help, and jump in on some conversations with people you might not know right now. You should view it as an adventure -- not as "one more thing I've got to do to be 'successful.'" In other words, the source of your desire should be more than "I should do it because everyone else is doing it."
It should be all about what you can add value for others. "The others" may be a group of friends who want to stay connected about their personal lives, or it could be a group of musicians who play together on Sunday mornings and want to have a feedback place to write music together.
