Great Lakes District | The Christian Missionary Alliance

Have you started to group LinkedIn with the other social networking sites out there like Facebook and Twitter? Are you beginning to get confused as to why everyone says you “must” have a profile on these sites? Its OK if you do, most people feel the same way; but the thing to remember is that LinkedIn is actually much different then both of those other community sites and it can be used much differently for your organization.

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn was built for professionals who wanted to use their existing and future social networks to build a career. It was also built for organizations looking to find qualified employees for their business and for job-hunters to find the right people.

I’m sure you are thinking “Gee that sounds great and all”, but “What is LinkedIn and why should my organization be on it?” “Why should I pay one of my employees to post updates, build our profile and network?” We plan to answer those questions for you! For starters, as defined by the LinkedIn website:

“LinkedIn is a networking tool that helps you discover inside connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and business partners. It strengthens and extends your existing network of trusted contacts.”

I think the most important part of that definition is the term “tool.” LinkedIn is a tool that assists in growing your organizational relationships and creating an online awareness of your business. Again, is it NOT Facebook or Twitter because it’s not a place where people play games. It’s a professional space to communicate and learn on the internet.

Top Ten Reasons to use LinkedIn:

1. LinkedIn is way to stay in touch with professional people and organizations that you have done business with in the past.
2. You can use LinkedIn Events to find conferences, workshops and event promote your own event.
3. LinkedIn is great SEO for your Blog or Website. LinkedIn profiles tend to rank well in Google.
4. Use LinkedIn to search for References of Potential Employees.
5. Use LinkedIn to discover and learn the facts about a potential employee before interviewing or hiring them.
6. Use LinkedIn to learn about potential clients before doing business with them.
7. Use LinkedIn to find someone needing your services.
8. Use LinkedIn to keep an eye on what like people in organizations like yours are doing.
9. Use LinkedIn to get publicity in articles, blog posts and reviews.
10. Establish yourself as an expert by answering questions within LinkedIn Answers.

The bottom line is that it’s very important to maintain a LinkedIn profile for your organization.  Without LinkedIn you would be missing out on many opportunities and brand recognition by not having a profile. Sometimes all it takes is a few extra minutes a day updating your LinkedIn profile and responding to people. Those few extra minutes will help you and your organization greatly.

To learn more about LinkedIn simply watch this video:

Each year, 3 million under-five children die because they are undernourished.  Far more children live with undernutrition than die from it. For infants and young children, the effects of chronic malnutrition in the early years of life are largely irreversible.

In the United States, over 49 million people—including 16.7 million children—live in households that struggle to put food on the table. That means one in seven households in the U.S. are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger.

Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. By changing policies, programs and conditions that allow hunger and poverty to persist, they provide help and opportunity far beyond the communities in which we live.

Bread For The World

God’s grace in Jesus Christ moves us to help our neighbors, whether they live in the next house, the next state or the next continent.

Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. Their partners represent a broad spectrum of church organizations and faith communities—Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox.

Working with Bread for the World—and using the educational resources they provide—will encourage members of your church to address the root causes of hunger. By changing policies, programs and conditions that allow hunger and poverty. 

To learn more about how Bread for the World might be able to partner with your ministry click here.

Church Mutual Insurance

They are a great resource to check out and see if your insurance is up to par.  However, even if you do not use them for insurance, they offer a tremendous list of free resources for you and your organization.  Some of their offerings include:

• Activity Safety
• Background Screening
• Building and Grounds
• Crime Prevention
• Electrical Safety
• Fire Prevention
• Mission Trips
• Transportation

And so much more.  Now more then ever is a great time to make sure that your organization has the coverage it needs and the resources in place to know you are always protected.  Take a look at all the Church Mutual has to offer and if anything take advantage of their free resources for your organization.

ChurchSafety.com, is  a website dedicated to bringing churches valuable information and tools to help you operate safely.

Churchsafety.com

How it Works

ChurchSafety.com offers free articles and safety assessments in eight different categories of safety: Kids, Staff, Ministries, Money, Law, Property, Transportation, and Emergencies. Just select a category to get started, then choose a topic.

Safety information is presented in three easy parts:

• Simple. Free articles that give you a quick overview and provide a basic understanding of the topic.
• Smart. Free resources, including in-depth articles and online assessments, help you determine how well your church addresses the topic.
• Step-by-Step. Premium content—safety downloads with 25-40 pages of how-to articles, assessments, discussion starters, and more. Downloads can be purchased individually ($14.95) or you can purchase an annual membership ($99.95) for unlimited access.

You choose how ChurchSafety.com works best for your church.

Sermon Spice was started in 2004 by a father and son. Sermon Spice was the first of it’s kind and today its mission is still the same as it was in the beginning: to further the Kingdom of God through media. Their products help you visually engage your audience and add a new dimension to your sermon, study or discussion.  Sermon Spice understands that you don’t need just any video, but the right video at the right time.

Sermon Spice

Sermon Spice is focused on providing you with:

• The Largest Library of Sermon Illustration Media
• The Fastest Site in the Industry
• The Highest Number of New Products Added Weekly
• The Most Accurate Search Engine in the Industry

Need a little spice in your sermon?  Go ahead and check out Sermon Spice.

Life Bible Study provides biblically-based, adult curricula that is simple to use and available in different study lengths. Life Bible Study offers real, applicable life lessons and explorations into God’s Word that will make discovering God’s promises a reality. Each study enables groups, large or small, to uncover a genuine understanding of God’s Word and how we all fit into God’s masterful plan.

Life Bible Study

What’s so great about Life Bible Study? They offer the following:

IN-DEPTH STUDIES

• Research-based studies
  After reviewing research on adults and issues they face, they thoughtfully developed studies to meet their needs.

• Relevant and engaging lessons
  Lessons connect with students, lead learners to study Scripture, and challenge them to live differently.

• Flexible teaching plans
  Customizable plans account for any age, group number, and learning style.

• Thorough study into the Word
  They have brought a magnifying glass to Scripture, helping learners dig into God’s Truths.

• Affirmation of the Eight Essential Truths
  From Scripture, they have drawn eight Truths about God, which are applicable to daily living.

DELIVERED ONLINE

• Access anytime, anywhere
  Whether at home, work, or on the road, teachers have access 24/7.

• Flexible scheduling
  Set your own start date because our online system works around your schedule. Choose which lessons to skip, postpone, or delete.

• Built-in communication
  Communicate at once with one or all teachers in one simple step. Post upcoming events, announcements, or encouragement notes (only for 48-week or All Access participants.)

• Class management
  Update teacher info and communicate with substitute teachers.

• Printable resources
  They have resources such as maps, teaching plans, and activities to make planning a lesson even easier.

To check out more about Life Bible Study click here!

Many of you may be wondering what the button at the bottom of our home page that looks like this is all about?  This is called an RSS feed and it is another great way to stay connect with what is happening in the district.

Is RSS really simply simple?

RSS is an acronym that many people don’t understand the meaning of.  To answer everyone’s question, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is an XML-based format for content distribution. Basically, webmasters create an RSS file containing headlines and descriptions of specific information. RSS feeds make obtaining information for news headlines, blogs, or breaking information extremely simple!  In other words it makes it easy for you to follow along.

 What does an RSS feed do? 

RSS feeds bring automatically updated information right to your desktop. Once you subscribe to an RSS feed, you can check your RSS reader at any time to find recent updates.  You can monitor news, blogs, job listings, personals, and classifieds. More and more sites offer feeds, which you can identify by a small button that says either RSS or XML. However, if you click one of these links, you will most likely get a page full of code in your browser unless you have an RSS reader.  Most search engines come equipped with a reader; therefore, most people have access to RSS feeds free of complication. 

 What should my you or we subscribe to an RSS Feed? 

RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. Looking for great resources right now? Sign up for a Great Lakes District RSS feed  and get updates right to your desktop. See, that’s pretty simple! 

Another great thing is that you ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site’s email newsletter. Instead of plugging in all your info, you can simply click on a few buttons and have instant access to that contents updates.  The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News.

 How to subscribe to an RSS Feed:

In order to subscribe to an RSS feed or newsfeed you will need two things, an RSS reader (also known as a news aggregator) and url (web address) of the RSS feed that you wish to subscribe. One way to subscribe would be to click on the small orange RSS icon located in your tool bar after you have landed on the URL you wish to feed.  If the site you are on has an RSS feed, the icon will be orange.  The other way is listed below:

• Download an RSS Reader. i.e. Google Reader
• Locate the web address (url) of the RSS feed (XML file) that you wish to subscribe.  i.e. http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/topstories
• Install the feed reader or news aggregator on your computer.
• Insert the url of the news feed (look for the “add feed” button or “subscribe to feed”)
• Many of the news readers will allow you to set the time interval for a feed update, others simply update daily.
• The information in the feed will be updated when the feed contains new content.

 This is just another great way to stay connected with all that is happening in the Great Lakes District.  If you have questions feel free to drop us a line at  office@greatlakesdistrict.com

The Great Lakes District would like to thank Matt Harner for submitting a couple of great resources for the entire team to share.  One that you might want to consider checking out is called the Christian Classics Ethereal Library or the (CCEL).

The Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) seeks to build up the church by making classic Christian literature widely available and promoting its use for edification and study by interested Christians, seekers and scholars. The CCEL accomplishes this by selecting, collecting, distributing, and promoting valuable literature through the World Wide Web and other media.

The values guiding the collection and activities of the CCEL include:

Selectivity—Writings included in the library are considered valuable in some way to build up the church. In addition to Christian classics, there may be secondary literature on the classics and other works valuable for the mission.

Orthodoxy—Writings in the library for the most part represent orthodox Christianity as understood by mainstream Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians, with greater emphases on Reformed and Protestant writings.

Ecumenicity—The CCEL strives to expose readers to a variety of Christian perspectives.

Community—The CCEL builds community through promotion to and engagement with and among Christians, seekers and scholars worldwide.

Efficacy—The CCEL seeks to provide effective resources and tools for edification, worship, leadership, ministry training, Christian scholarship, and education. The CCEL also seeks to provide educational and scholarly opportunities for interested faculty members and students of Calvin College.

Efficiency—All choices including literature, media, technologies, languages, partners, etc., will be made strategically with the goal of good stewardship of resources and competencies to build up the church worldwide.

Sustainability—The CCEL seeks to create a sustainable model for building up the church through its activities.

Have you ever wanted to get great ideas from your teams?  Tired of simply making phone calls or sending out random emails?  Not sure of when feedback may or may not come in? 

Wufoo might just be the thing you need!   Wufoo strives to be the easiest way to collect information over the Internet.  Wufoo’s form builder  helps you create contact forms, online surveys, and invitations so you can collect the data, registrations and online payments you need for your organization, and the best part is that it is FREE!!!

WUFOO

At the GLD we think this is a pretty cool little resource for you to use.  So cool in fact we decided to put it into practice and created our own survey.  We want to know what you think about  how we are communicating and how we can interact with you.  So if you don’t mind take a minute, click on the link below and give us your thoughts!

Take Our Survey!

It is hard to watch the news and not be drawn into the ongoing political debate that seemingly swarms all around us each and every day.  As believers, despite our different political views, we are admonished to be praying for our leaders.  “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness, I Timothy 2:1-2.  At times thinking about how we as individuals might actually make a difference in what is happening in our world may seem daunting.  Yet the best place for us to start might be in simply holding our leadership up in prayer.

Presidential Prayer Team

If you feel that praying for our leadership might be something you would consider doing, you might want to consider taking a look at the Presidential Prayer Team as a daily resource to help support you.  The Presidentail Prayer Team is a national ministry of half-a-million people dedicated to a focused mission of encouraging, inspiring and practicing prayer on behalf of our President, nation’s leaders and our troops. The Presidential Payer Team also seeks to be a catalyst in the development of a robust prayer lifestyle. They do this by finding and providing tools to encourage prayer – through email, web, mobile phones and other communication tools. Ultimately, they believe that prayer will transform our nation, one heart at a time.