THE JOURNEY SO FAR

First of all, no, I didn't pray for an iPhone. (Tempted? Yes.) I may be an Apple addict, but I've still got some self restraint.

The functionality of phones continue to merge with other gadgets for surfing the web, listening to music, watching videos and even making phone calls.

Here's another one. SMS (or short message service) for sending text messages from phone to phone has been around for a while. But one church I know actually has harnessed the little feature in a simple but highly effective way.

Have a prayer coordinator from your group send out one text message or SMS per day as a prayer reminder to other group members sometime in the morning. Receiving the message does several things.

• It reminds you that you're part of a community, even if you're not physically together.
• It helps you keep in touch with each other's needs and concerns.
• It brings everyone together around at the feet of our Father.
• It helps you depend on God for the needs of others.

And all for the price of a text message.

Small groups, accountability partners, youth groups and even entire congregations (small ones anyway) often feel the disruption of summer. This little idea could not only help your community during the summer months, but during the hustle and bustle of your lives all year long.

Thanks to the folks at the Journey in Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland for demonstrating this to me.

Durand

Labels: ideas

Lots of churches host a weekly morning for moms with preschool kids during the school year. But it’s tough to keep something together during the summer.

And now it’s the end of school. Moms are bracing for the invasion of time and space… their time and space. There’s got to be some kind of plan of counter-attack! And hopefully moms want to enjoy their kids during the summer; not just survive them.

One idea is to be proactive by offering a 4-week series of mornings called S.O.S. Moms (Surviving Our Summer!) Invite a balance of mothers from the community and a couple from your church. Small is good (like 5-6 moms.) Set it up with a couple of minders (babysitters) who can care for the children in the back garden with an hour of games followed by an hour of moms and kids together with some snacks.

During the four weeks, focus each time on a different subject. Week one could be “Summer Outings” where someone creative talks about dozens of things in the area you might never have thought of doing together with your children. Then encourage the attendees to make a date with at least one other mom in the room to do an activity together.

The second week, focus on “Summer Rainy Day activities” with a similar approach. The third week, focus on “books for kids” and plan a library outing or a book swap. The last week’s focus is on “really loving your children” where you can look at what the Bible says about the “tough love” of discipline or other biblical principles for helping raise children. Include your personal testimony of the difference knowing Christ has made in your being able to really love your children.

The goal of the activity is to get people acquainted around a common need and encourage friendships to develop between individuals during the week as the summer marches on.

MOPS or Mothers of Preschoolers is a great resource for mothers all year round. It’s a good way to get to know other women in the neighborhood.

NDR

Labels: ideas

Going on a trip with a group from your church this summer? Consider keeping a team blog, complete with photos. It’s a great way to get everyone behind you in prayer. You don’t even need a computer along with you. All you need is a free blog account and a cell phone that does email with a camera built in.

Almost all the free blog services (like Blogger and WordPress) offer you the option to upload text and photos through the email feature on your cellphone. That means you don’t even have to bring your computer to the beach (or the worksite.)

Make it a team effort. Have a team reporter to collect stories, a team photographer to snap the shots, and everyone contributing ideas. You can even start the blog during the prep stage to use as a prayer guide and support development tool if people need to raise funds for the project.

If you’ve promoted the blog you’ll have some devoted readers (and prayers) from your first posting. Who knows? You might even peak someone’s interest who’d never considered a ministry trip before who’ll sign up for the next one.

NDR

Labels: ideas