Each community of believers relies on volunteers from within to keep their ministry running smoothly and as each church grows, the demand for volunteers increases because of additional people and new ministries. Have your recruiting efforts led to over-extending people already involved in other ministries, placing the right people in the wrong areas, or misjudging someone’s understanding and depth of commitment? Here are a few articles about recruiting volunteers that will help you evaluate and tweak your process and help you staff your ministries with the right people.

Do you have your own suggestions about recruiting volunteers? Share them in the tips below.

In the meantime, the topic is: where were you when Wham! broke up? Discuss.

The “sound guys”, as we often refer to them, are important to the success of a worship gathering. In many ways, they can either make the service operate smoothly or crash with one slip of the finger. Following is a list of tips and ideas to help the sound engineers in their ministry of enhancing and supporting the worship experience and ensuring the delivery of biblical teaching.

1. Find out what sound is acceptable to the worship pastor.
2. Be able to take orders and constructive criticism.
3. Know every knob, button, and slider on the sound board. Read the manual twice.
4. Listen to lots and lots of music. Jot down what you hear.
5. If the worship team is provided with a reference CD for rehearsals, take one and listen to it.
6. Listen to the sound of each song and make adjustments to bring out different instruments when the song calls for it.
7. Don’t “blend” and make each instrument the same level making them indistinguishable.
8. Stay one step ahead. Have your finger on the mute button 20 seconds before you need to.
9. Know when the solos are so you can boost the channel at the right time.
10. Use the pan feature for certain instruments or vocalists.
11. Get the monitor mix down during the rehearsals. Make sure the worship team addresses all issues during the rehearsals, preferably at the beginning.
12. Walk around the room during rehearsals to hear how it sounds in different spots.
13. Communicate with each vocalist and instrumentalist individually.
14. Develop hand signals for phrases frequently used so you can communicate during worship services if something goes wrong… and they will.
15. Don’t make huge changes in anything before the service.
16. Eliminate distractions before and after the service. Stay focused on your task.
17. Stay as consistent as possible. Keep the same instruments on the same channels and have vocalists use the same microphones from week to week.
18. Keep an eye on the congregation for body language. Maybe there’s an annoying hum or some feedback that you’re not picking up on.
19. Don’t forget to worship. This is a time for you to connect with God, as well. Learn to worship through your ministry in the sound booth.

Do you have other tips for the sound ministry based on your own experience? Share them in the comments below.

Visualizing One-Year Bible Reading Plans

St. Patrick’s Breastplate

I bind unto myself today
the strong Name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever,
by power of faith, Christ’s Incarnation;
his baptism in the Jordan river;
his death on cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spiced tomb;
his riding up he heavenly way;
his coming at the day of doom:
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
of the great love of cherubim;
the sweet ‘Well done’ in judgement hour;
the service of the seraphim;
confessors’ faith, apostles’ word,
the patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls;
all good deeds done unto the Lord,
and purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
the virtues of the starlit heaven,
the glorious sun’s life-giving ray,
the whiteness of the moon at even,
the flashing of the lightning free,
the whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth, the deep salt sea,
around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
the power of God to hold and lead,
his eye to watch, his might to stay,
his ear to hearken to my need;
the wisdom of my God to teach,
his hand to guide, his shield to ward;
the word of God to give me speech,
his heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
the vice that gives temptation force,
the natural lusts that war within,
the hostile men that mar my course;
of few or many, far or nigh,
in every place, and in all hours
against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
against false words of heresy,
against the knowledge that defiles
against the heart’s idolatry,
against the wizard’s evil craft,
against the death-wound and the burning
the choking wave and poisoned shaft,
protect me, Christ, till thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
the strong Name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three.
Of whom all nature hath creation,
eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Describe your background in politics. How did you become interested and at what age?
I have been interested in politics ever since I watched Ronald Reagan?s final address to the nation in January 1989. I was 12 at the time. During high school I volunteered for the local Republican Party. After graduation I became active as an executive committee member of the Ionia County Republican Committee serving as both treasurer and chairman. In 2002 I was elected to the Ionia County Board of Commissioners where I served for four years. I was elected to the State House of Representatives in 2006.

Whom do you admire in the area of politics and government?
Abraham Lincoln & Ronald Reagan top my list.

How have churches and believers supported you throughout your campaign?
I visited with about a dozen pastors of conservative churches (mostly Baptist or Bible churches). These contacts typically resulted in an invitation to share my testimony with their congregation. I also provided special music in most places that I visited. I view this as one of the main advantages in my primary campaign because other believers were very receptive to my agenda. I would talk to more people on a Sunday than I could reach in a week going door-to-door. The army of prayer warriors was also key. I know hundreds of people were regularly praying for me and my family during the campaign because I could feel it.

What is your role in your upcoming term as State Representative? What do you generally hope to accomplish and what issues are important to you?
There are so many issues, it is difficult to know where to start. The Michigan economy and healthcare would top the list. I will look to God for wisdom and courage. Lansing politics are broken and many have failed in these areas in the past. The responsibilities of a state representative generally fit into three main categories: Setting the state budget; law making; and constituent services.

How have your Christian worldview and biblical beliefs shaped your thoughts on public policy?
The biggest difference is that I lack the fear of loss that controls so many others in politics. My life verses are found in Philippians 1:20-21. If ?to die is gain? then what do I have to fear? So many things are relative in politics today ? I look at God?s truth as absolute and timeless.

What influence does what is going on in the government have on the Christian community and the furtherance of the Gospel?
We are so afraid to speak up. The current misinterpretation of the ?Separation of Church and State? causes so many Christians to keep quiet when we should make our views known. The other side is so loud and it seems to have made us so quiet. This worldview is slowly making the Christian church less and less relevant and consequently, government is becoming more and more secular.

What can churches do to affect change or make a statement without jeopardizing their tax exempt status?
The rules are very clear in this area. Basically, the only thing you can?t do is formally endorse a candidate. For example, the deacon board cannot vote to endorse a candidate. That also means that political candidate signs should not be erected on church property as that technically is considered an endorsement. The church pulpit can be made available to candidates for discussions of how Christianity is relevant to their service. You can also tell the congregation which politicians have what beliefs. At all times, the church can make the biblical position on issues clear, even when they are current political issues. Sadly, I believe that the lack of action from the pulpit typically has more to do with not wanting to offend members than tax exempt status.

What can the Christian individual do to support politicians and the political process?
Pray for them and their families. It really, really works. They need wisdom to see God?s will and the courage to follow it. In addition to that, there are the other regular political things such as donation of money, yard sign locations, letters to the editor, etc.

Learn more about Brian Calley and follow the highlights of his upcoming term at www.briancalley.com.

This is the first time I’ve introduced the term GTD on this site but it was bound to happen sooner or later. If you’ve never tasted GTD, Getting Things Done, put your bibs on because you’re in for a messy, filling course of productivity delight that you pastors will dive into like a potluck dinner after a 30 hour fast. In the meantime, learn how the system of Getting Things Done works with an administrative assistant so you can free up your time for people ministry and worship.

Best Practices for GTD and Administrative Assistants

However, this had me stumped. I spent 4-5 hours over a period of two days trying to find a church for us to attend. My various searches revealed several churches but none of them met our criteria. What was more perplexing than being unable to find a church that would fit us was that the search in itself was so difficult. A simple search for churches in our area didn’t provide us with any useful results. Finally, after throwing my hands in the air in frustration and shaking my fists at the heavens, I discovered a church listed in a small advertisement in our free, weekly newspaper… the most unlikely place to search for a church.

I concluded that either the Internet isn’t set up well for churches to be listed, the web is so populated with junk that it is crowding out legitimate sites relevant to your search, or churches aren’t using the Internet and its capabilities to their advantage. Since there is very little I can do to restructure the entire Internet, I decided to help churches by instructing them on how to use the web and their church web site to help church shoppers to find their church with minimal effort.

If you don’t have a church web site, much of this isn’t going to help you. The first step for you is to make haste and purchase a domain name and get a web site for your church. For those of you who do have a site, get with your resident web geek and consider making some of the following suggestions happen.

Find out about your site

The first thing you need to do is determine how your church and church?s web site is listed on the Internet. Do many searches using every word combination you can think of to find out if it?s possible to find your church using language common people would use. Try to find where your church is listed on directories, search engines, and other sites. For example, using Google, search for link:yoursitename.org. The result will give sites that link to your church web site.

Also, check http://www.google.com/webmasters/ and http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/ to see if and how Google and Yahoo are listing your site.

List your church on Google Maps

Google, the veritable backbone of the Internet, allows you to add your local business to their maps service. If your church is not already listed, stick your virtual thumb tack on the Google Map and add your church’s information so people can find you while they’re looking for local businesses in their area. Go to google.com, click on “Business Solutions”, then click “Get Listed on Google Maps.”

Make your site search engine friendly

The search engine rankings game is like deriving a system to win the lottery or beating slot machines. It’s a difficult game to play and you’re rarely successful at it when you’re going up against big businesses and other sites vying for traffic. Fret not, young padawan learner. Here are some methods and practices you can implement that will help people find your site. Before your eyes gloss over, realize that this information will be most useful for your web site team or the aforementioned resident geek.

Use appropriate meta tags
Your meta keywords should be chocked full of juicy, relevant goodness. Keywords are going to help the middle man, the search engine, match up the person behind the keyboard searching for a church and your site. Help the process by using keywords that church shoppers would use during their search. For example, besides using the name of your church, use every combination of names your church is referred to, including acronyms. Include your town, the towns around you, and the nearest big city. When searching for a church, people will not type in the names of every small town in a given area but will look in the bigger cities. Related to that, include your region in the keywords, such as, Northwest Ohio or Southwest Arkansas. Your keywords should also include your denomination, any denominational affiliations, churchy related words such as church and Christian, and any other words that describe your church (contemporary worship, biblical preaching, etc).

The meta description should be a concise description of your church in 250 characters or less. Make it exceptional because many search engines will list this description in the results listing of the search. In many cases, this will be the first chance you have to make an impression so make it good.

Use descriptive content on your home page
Your main page, or home page, of your web site should offer a lengthier description of your church than what the meta description provides. The content mixed with your meta keywords and description will help boost your rank in the search engine listings. If there is continuity among those three items, you’ll have a better chance of getting listed higher when those keywords are used in the search. Also, some search engines use home page content in the results listing instead of or in absence of a meta description.

Ask administrators of other sites to link to your site

Links are the bread and butter of the Internet. Links are what make the Internet operate like a web because you can get from here to anywhere, theoretically, because every site is connected indirectly to each other site through links. Kevin Bacon, anyone? By getting other sites to link to yours, you’re connecting your site to the web’s vast highway of traffic. In fact, search engines use bots to crawl the web to find new and updated pages and web sites and report the results back to the search engine. They go from link to link and site to site and if your web site is connected through a link on someone else’s page, you’ll be automagically added to Google’s and others’ databases. Here are some ideas for appropriate sites that could link to your church web site.

• Personal sites and blogs of people in your church
• Local community web sites
• Your town’s chamber of commerce site
• Localized link directories
• Your area’s newspaper web site
• Christian radio station’s site
• Denominational/affiliation directories

Some of you, myself included, probably ran out to every search engine you could think of the minute you created your first web site to get your site listed. Years ago, that worked. Don’t waste your time. If you’ve done the suggestions listed above, your site will be crawled and cataloged with the popular, most-used search engines and, more importantly, those searching for a church to attend in your area will find your site and have the opportunity to visit your church.

Do you have other suggestions or tricks up your sleeve for publicizing your church via the web? Share them in the comments below.

When people read out a phone number, they use “phone rhythm.” No one has to explain “phone rhythm,” we all just seem to do it automatically, “?713…555…12?34″. Similarly, when we answer a phone call we all say, “Hello.” No one taught us to do that, but somehow we all seemed to pick it up.

So why is it that when it comes to emails, there are no accepted standards? Even though 6 billion emails are sent every day, almost no one agrees about simple things like email etiquette, how to organize a note, or whether emails are considered private or not.

The 99 tips in this article make up the best in email practices. From how to ethically use the ?BCC:’ to what attachments will make your mobile emailing compatible with everyone else’s, this list covers everything you need to know about emailing.

Hack your email 99 different ways (via Lifehacker)