Why your small group is probably not a church: Three red herrings and the real reason
This article has been circulating around conservative-evangelical circles in the last couple of weeks. I’m not sure whether or not there is a serious issue anywhere with anyone really thinking that their home group/life group is a church. So first of all, I would be intrigued as to what prompted the article. It looks like it is linked to a larger book on what a church is, so I presume it fits…
I’m so glad that God created a thing called “next week.” Because last week, there was a glaring omission in our discussion. One that we address in this week’s PODCAST.
And in addressing it, we will once again see and hear the beautiful heart of a gentle Jesus.
Thank you for listening, and for sharing this message!!!
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it…
There is a great need for spiritual awakening. There are many churches and preachers. There are good, healthy churches and preachers. Yet, with all the churches and preachers preaching, the movement of the Holy Spirit seems often lacking.
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Please help us distribute these resources and plant Acts 2 local churches in Southwest Arizona.Make a one-time donationMake a monthly…
John Onwuchekwa’s book of What If I Don’t Desire to Pray? is part of a “Church Questions” series of quick-reads published by 9 Marks and Crossway. Barely 60 pages, this mini-book can easily be finished in one or two sittings.
I’m often convicted that my prayer life is not as strong as it could be. This appears to be a challenge among other Christians who, like me, were strong skeptics before…
30 Quotes from "Church in Hard Places" by Mez McConnell and Mike McKinley
30 Quotes from “Church in Hard Places” by Mez McConnell and Mike McKinley
Church in Hard Places is available on Amazon (here). It is an excellent new book by Mez McConnell and Mike McKinley. Below are 30 quotes from the Church in Hard Places. The one unique thing that a local church has to offer to people mired in poverty is the gospel of Jesus Christ (pg. 28). The gospel word is the message of God to people who are caught in the complex patterns of personal sin and…
Identify and explain three ways in which education may help the process of development (9 marks)
One way it can lead to development is that it ensures there are people will skills to create a higher skilled labour force, which can create higher skilled jobs and ensure more industries are created to cater for the new number of skilled workers. For example, if there are newly trained engineers, they will needs jobs to go into. Because there are now skilled workers the government might create jobs, and people might invest in new industry to provide for these people and the country which they are in with new high tech product.
Another way in which education helps development is that education can stop children going into jobs which are classed as 'child labour'. For instance, large families in developed countries rely on children going to work of an exploitative nature to provide for the family, the children don't get educated and the lack of skills hinders them, resulting in more poverty later on. Education can legally take children out of this exploitative work and give them skills to help the work force and get them out of the cycle of poverty.
Education can also raise aspirations to develop the country they are in because education can teach children about better standards of living, great careers that can help the country and give them the skills to achieve this. For example, if the education system is meritocratic and allows children to believe that if they work hard they can achieve, they will develop the country.
Other ways;
Helps to overcome barriers to promoting economic growth
removes and replaces traditional values
Transmits values of competition, individualism, achievement
Notable & Newsworthy Here are the stories and links for today... Get Wayne Grudem's "Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth: An Analysis of Over 100 Disputed Questions" for 50% OFF at Westminster Bookstore…
My fully redesigned responsive website for Gospel Life Church of Bowie has now gone live. The site replaces their previous Flash-based site. They needed a site which would work well on mobile devices and reach out to people in the community who had not heard of them.
Design Story 1: Home
I presented this wireframe for the homepage, with some colors added to show the color scheme, at the church's annual meeting in February. The low-fidelity prototype included a functional slider with four slides.
This panel section is from the colored-in prototype which guided the development effort and WordPress migration.
The finished, live homepage as it shows at desktop, tablet, and mobile widths. The slider is hidden on smaller mobile widths (below 400 pixels).
Design Story 2: Beliefs and Cross Typography
The design's most interesting challenge was presenting the church's statement of faith in such a way that people would read it, keeping in mind that most people scan webpages instead of fully reading them. After realizing that the 12 sections of the Affirmation of Our Faith page arranged well into a cross layout, I created a wireframe of this.
Prototype details from the cross typography piece. Colors outside the cross shape were later changed to let the cross show through more.
The foundation, goals, and priorities of the church are displayed as three small paragraphs. These arrange in three columns at desktop width and stack into one column on mobile width.
The cross typography piece only displays at desktop width. An abbreviated version of this piece, without Scripture references, shows on tablet and mobile widths. These have a link to the full version with references.
Design Story 3: Leadership
Presenting the mostly-Filipino and -Filipino-American leadership of a church that is seeking to be more diverse and international was another interesting design challenge. Arranging the leaders' bios in a zigzag layout for desktop and tablet and making the pictures small on mobile helped remedy this. I wanted people to be able to see the cultural background of the church here without having it be so front and center as to put up a wall to people from other cultures.
These screenshots are from my high-fidelity HTML and CSS prototype, in two iterations. I created this for all pages in the site.
The elders' and deacons' pictures display in 4 columns in a small layout so as to not overpower the page on mobile devices.
Here is the live site on a tablet, showing the leaders' bios' preserved zigzag layout and the tablet-width navigation menu that I developed for the WordPress theme that we used.
Design Story 4: Pastoral Search and Job Description
When the pastoral search committee completed the job description for the church's next senior pastor, I decided to make it available via the church website. The job description uses icons and headers heavily to display effectively on smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
For consistency, the Pastoral Search section at the bottom of the church's leadership page has several of the same design elements as the job description, including the reverse-type color scheme, headers, and rotated "To Be Considered" panel with call to action.
This screenshot shows the overall layout of the Senior Pastor Job Description page. See it live here.
In the coming weeks and months, I will share more design stories and more details about the design decisions that made many pages of this site what they are. Stay tuned!
I am a user experience designer specializing in the amusement industry. However, I also design websites for non-profits, including churches and ministries. If you are from a like-minded church or ministry and are open to hiring a freelancer to create your website, please contact me. You should also like my company Facebook page and follow me on Twitter.
