The following article was recommended by Brian Elmer of First Alliance:

Five Myths About Living Together Before Marriage

By Dan Delzell , Special to CP
May 4, 2012|8:13 am

“So you think there are advantages to living together rather than getting married. Before you close your mind any tighter on the issue, check out these five myths:

Myth #1
Living together first will tell us if we are right for one another.

No it won’t. You are comparing apples to oranges. Just because one tastes good or bad to you doesn’t mean the other will taste the same. Marriage is a totally different proposition than simply living together. Marriage is built upon a promise before God to remain faithful to one another. Living together involves no such promise. You could fail at living together with someone you may have succeeded with in marriage. It all depends upon how much both people are relying on God for assistance and love. By the way, the divorce rate of couples who live together first is significantly higher than for those who do not…”

To read the rest of the article click here!

_{Quoted from http://www.christianpost.com/news/five-myths-about-living-together-before-marriage-74355/}

The following article was recommended by Nils Saunders of Monroe Alliance:

3 Common Traits of Youth Who Don’t Leave the Church

By Jon Nielson

“‘What do we do about our kids?’ The group of parents sat together in my office, wiping their eyes. I’m a high school pastor, but for once, they weren’t talking about 16-year-olds drinking and partying. Each had a story to tell about a ‘good Christian’ child, raised in their home and in our church, who had walked away from the faith during the college years. These children had come through our church’s youth program, gone on short-term mission trips, and served in several different ministries during their teenage years. Now they didn’t want anything to do with it anymore. And, somehow, these mothers’ ideas for our church to send college students ‘care packages’ during their freshman year to help them feel connected to the church didn’t strike me as a solution with quite enough depth.

“The daunting statistics about churchgoing youth keep rolling in. Panic ensues. What are we doing wrong in our churches? In our youth ministries?

“It’s hard to sort through the various reports and find the real story. And there is no one easy solution for bringing all of those ‘lost’ kids back into the church, other than continuing to pray for them and speaking the gospel into their lives. However, we can all look at the 20-somethings in our churches who areengaged and involved in ministry. What is it that sets apart the kids who stay in the church? Here are just a few observations I have made about such kids, with a few applications for those of us serving in youth ministry.”

To read the rest of the article click here!

_{Quote taken from http://www.churchleaders.com/youth/youth-leaders-articles/159175-3-common-traits-of-youth-who-don-t-leave-the-church.html}

“Stats are predicting that  mobile internet usage is due to overtake desktop usage in 2014!”

That’s right, in two short years, more people will be visiting your church’s website through their mobile device than through their computer. Is your church ready?

Need more convincing? View some great examples of mobile church websites (such as the one below), by clicking here!

The following article was recommended by Brian Elmer of First Alliance:

The 10 Warning Signs of an Inwardly Obsessed Church

By Thom S. Rainer, Christian Post Guest Columnist
May 3, 2012|8:27 am

“Any healthy church must have some level of inward focus. Those in the church should be discipled. Hurting members need genuine concern and ministry. Healthy fellowship among the members is a good sign for a congregation.

But churches can lose their outward focus and become preoccupied with the perceived needs and desires of the members. The dollars spent and the time expended can quickly become focused on the demands of those inside the congregation. When that takes place the church has become inwardly obsessed. It is no longer a Great Commission congregation.

In my research of churches and consultation with churches, I have kept a checklist of potential signs that a church might be moving toward inward obsession. No church is perfect; indeed most churches will demonstrate one or two of these signs for a season. But the real danger takes place when a church begins to manifest three or more of these warning signs for an extended period of months and even years.”

Click here to read the rest of the article…

_{Quoted from http://www.christianpost.com/news/the-10-warning-signs-of-an-inwardly-obsessed-church-74292/}

I’ve been in the live technical field for enough years to know that if anything can go wrong, it will…. usually at the worst possible moment. So what do you do when things do go belly-up? Panic? Run around like a chicken with its head cut off? Not if you always have a Plan B!

At our District Conference we had a critical and important video that was going to be shown at our public event. Knowing the importance of the video, I had run the entire video earlier in the day to ensure that it worked properly. Now, the video was ripped to a .mpg file on the computer’s hard drive (I know better than to trust running a video from a DVD). The computer was an up-to-date Windows 7 PC, so it was a strong machine. The video ran smoothly with no errors and the computer was left alone until it was time for the video to be played.

We started the video and, lo and behold, there was no sound. We were watching a silent movie! As soon as that happened, I motioned to the pastor that we had a problem and we went into troubleshooting mode. We retried the video again (this computer had EasyWorship 2009) and the same thing happened. We rebooted the PC and tried again—still the same thing. Since I’ve had more than my fair share of embarrassing moments playing video files on a Windows PC, I had taken the precaution of keeping my USB drive that had the original video file. So while the congregation was doing a meet-and-greet, we transferred the file from the USB to the computer and brought it back into EasyWorship. Then we fired it up and this time it worked! Crisis over!

So what’s the takeaway? First, when things go south in a hurry, don’t panic. I know this is tough when everyone’s doing the gopher neck thing and looking back at you. Know that you can fix it. Don’t react without thinking first. Second, have a Plan B. While I’ve never had a video issue using a Mac, I have had a ton of problems with Windows and videos. Regardless, I always have a backup of the video file in at least 2 formats in some other location than the target computer. So, from a troubleshooting angle always suspect that a file could have been corrupted. It goes without saying that you’ve verified that the files on your backup media works. Third, make sure the pastor knows what’s going on. I spent a few trips going up to the podium during opportune moments to keep the pastor updated so he knew what was happening and could plan what to do when we couldn’t get the video working. Fourth, and this is probably the most important, keep a sense of humor about things. Keep the mood in the booth light but professional. Know that acting stressed out and grumpy won’t solve a thing and just makes everyone uncomfortable.

Always have a Plan B. It applies to audio, video, and to some extent, lighting. For some churches, especially those that are broadcasting video live, having the mic go out on the pastor is unacceptable. I’ve seen a lapel mic inconspicuously positioned as a backup to a headset mic. The mics are fed into 2 channels so in the event the primary mic goes out there’s still a backup that can be transitioned without interrupting service. For vocalists, always have a replacement mic on-hand as well as a plan with the worship leader in case a mic/cable/instrument/amp goes out .

For video, if you’re running Windows, plan on something going wrong. Know how to troubleshoot it quickly and know when it will work best to reboot. If your church isn’t huge (your pastor or worship leader can see the booth clearly without binoculars!) keep a white board in the booth along with high-contrast erasable markers. This way you can write a warning comment to the stage in the event of a problem.

Written by Brian Gowing

_{Taken from http://gowingassociates.com/?p=235}

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. ”  —Matthew 28:19-20b

(Click to Enlarge)

Bridge Community Chuch is heading to Gabon in June! They are collecting eyeglasses to bring with them and distribute as a ministry. If you have any eyeglasses that you would be willing to donate, please EITHER mail them to the the church:

Bridge Community Church
5700 Rochester Road
Troy, MI  48085

OR, save on shipping costs and bring them to District Conference on Monday. Randy Vinson will be happy to collect them. Looking for other ways to bless Gabon? Email the church (office@bridgecommunitychurch.com) to find out more ways to give!

A lot of church websites, especially those that are built from a template site, utilize Adobe’s Flash product to create polished, dynamic pages that are rich in visual content. Over the last few years, these website templates have proliferated and have proved an inexpensive way for a church to have a contemporary look and feel for not a whole lot of money. But (and this is a big BUT) there are some hidden dangers with continuing to utilize Flash in your church’s website.

The first danger is in the assumption that everyone in the congregation (or more importantly, first-time visitors to the site) use a high-speed connection to access your site. Flash sites take time to load. While there are ways to pre-load pages and optimize Flash sites, they are still considerably slower than regular HTML pages. Many people (especially those in rural areas) are still on 56k dial-up connections. If your initial page doesn’t completely load within 5-10 seconds, you’re going to lose people.

Here’s the second and more important danger: Over the last year to year-and-a-half, there has been a dramatic shift from desktop/laptop computers to handheld devices such as mobile phones and tablet computers. A major percentage of the smartphones and tablets sold in America are Apple products. The iPhone has over 65% of the smartphone market. The iPad is so ubiquitous that it is becoming the generic term for a tablet.

A significant portion of the population now uses their iPhones and/or iPads as their main way to communicate and view the web. People between the ages of 18 – 30 view these devices as their primary web device. They connect either through a WI-FI connection or through a 3G cellular network. While WI-FI connections are relatively speedy, the cellular 3G networks aren’t as fast. And data limits come into play when the cellular network is used. ALSO, the iPhone and iPad do not use Flash. There’s just no way to get around that. Apple is adamant that their devices will not incorporate or allow Flash to be installed.

Re-read the last two paragraphs and take a moment to let it sink in. If 65% of the population uses an Apple product to connect to the web and your church’s website uses Flash, then you are losing 65% of the potential population that might visit your church if they could view it. That means out of every 100 people that visit your site, 65 people won’t be able to view the content because they can’t install Flash on their device.

The web is constantly changing and adapting to new hardware and software technology. Instead of Flash, HTML5 (which iPhones and iPads prefer to use) provides the new way to generate content-rich sites. But since it is relatively new, it is not widely available yet. One option for existing websites is to add a “mobile site module” to your site. Several template sites have this as an option build in. Even if your site doesn’t use Flash, it would be worth considering adding the mobile site option to your site. This option allows for  your site to be automatically reformatted to a mobile-friendly version, if a mobile device is detected. Usually it’s a stripped-down version of the full church website, but that’s okay. Just make sure you have pertinent information on the mobile site. You’ll want contact information, church location, church hours as well as your church’s doctrine and staff information.

Websites need to stay organic and constantly change to keep up with advances in the way people access information. Churches need to keep a budget for maintenance and updates that need to happen to stay current with these changes. Don’t make the assumption that once your website is created you won’t need to spend any more money on development.

Written by Brian Gowing

Engaging a Mobile Culture with the Latest Technology, The Alliance Launches iPhone App

Colorado Springs, Colo.—The Alliance (C&MA) family has increased its ability to stay connected with the launch of its new iPhone app. Designed for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, the app has several features, including access to the latest C&MA news and stories, A. W. Tozer devotionals (a new one each day), and updated prayer requests. An “About” tab provides a snapshot of the C&MA’s vision and history; it also has a direct link to the full mobile Web site.

“The Alliance is always seeking new ways to use technology to help our people stay connected,” says U.S. C&MA President Gary Benedict. “This app offers everything Alliance people need to get plugged in and up to speed.”

“The app shows what’s happening on our twitter page with a real time feed,” adds Sarah Butler, C&MA marketing coordinator. “Contact us through our ‘Contact’ tab. With one push of a button, you can e-mail or call Alliance Life, the C&MA Webmaster, or the front desk.

The app is compatible with iPhone 3gs, 4, 4s iPod touch (3rd and 4th generations) and the iPad. The app requires iOS 5.0 or later.

The Christian and Missionary Alliance is a worldwide family of Christians mobilized to fulfill the Great Commission by living out the fullness of Jesus Christ in personal experience and building His Church worldwide. Alliance people are united by an unquenchable passion to reach their communities for Christ and provide access to the gospel where no access yet exists.

View the app by clicking here!

“At some point your church was planted . . . whether that was 30 months ago or 30 years… some group of people got together with a shared vision and started the church you now serve in.   Those where the the good ‘ole days . . . and the bad ‘ole days!  Somewhere along the line your church leadership settled into the routine it’s currently in and stopped acting like a start up.  You moved beyond the “are we going to survive beyond this weekend?” fire that burns in an early church start up.

But what if the exact thing you need as a leadership team is to regain some of that energy in your midst?

Here are a few ways that you can start acting like a Church Plant this spring . . . and potentially regain some of that focus and drive…”

The above quote is from a fantastic article at killerchurch.wordpress.com, a blog created by Rich Birch, who serves as the Operations Pastor at Liquid Church in the Manhattan facing suburbs of New Jersey.

>>>>>Click here to read the rest of the article!<<<<<

KillerChurch offers a bunch of free articles and ideas that serve to benefit the local church. You can get emails about these “killer” resources by signing up through this link.