I'll be sharing these treasures as I come across them on the Internet.
I hope you find these useful in your ministry. If you find this helpful, when
you're through browsing, please pass this page along to a minister friend.
CHRISTIAN LEGAL ASSISTANCE
==========================
Alliance Defense Fund
www.adflegal.org
Liberty Counsel
lc.org
EVENTS
=====================
Christian Events Bulletin Board
This free service allows you to post announcements on the web if
they are submitted at least 3 weeks prior to the event. To avoid delays,
carefully follow all submission guidelines:
misslink.org/chapel/events.html
FACTS & DATA
============
“A word to the efficient:
Don't dial your local congregation;
they won't answer. Being unreachable by telephone is a
problem plaguing many of the nation's Protestant churches,
according to a new Barna Research Group study.
“Of 3,400 Protestant churches phoned nationwide during
December, a human being could not be reached at 55
percent, and 19 percent had neither a person nor a
machine to answer calls.”
The surveyed churches were called 5 different times,
during business hours.
FINANCES
==============
Clark Howard - Renown Financial Advisor
This site is a gold mine! You cannot put a price tag on the advice
you'll receive here. You can even listen online, at your own
convenience. Many in ministry lack financial skills. Add this site
to your personal development goals:
www.clark.com
Dave Ramsey
Learn from the Christian financial expert.
ramseysolutions.com
LEADERSHIP SKILLS
====================
John Maxwell
Learn from the Christian leadership expert.
johnmaxwell.com
Leadership Journal
Learn how to handle real ministry in a complex world. Read articles
online. Subscribe to helpful, free newsletters. www.christianitytoday.com
Pastors Today—Practical Biblical Solutions for Pastors with Thom S. Rainer
Practical help to build your church, leadership skills, pastoral ministry,
personal life and preaching skills for those in the ministry.
churchanswers.com/blog/author/thomrainer/
READY TO QUIT?
==============
A Fire In My Bones by David Wilkerson - March 14th, 2004 
Are you discouraged,
ready to throw up your hands and quit the
ministry?
Have your secretary hold all your calls. She can tell callers you’re in a
conference. Trust me! You’ll be in a conference with the Lord before
you’re through with this one. Don’t allow anything to interrupt you.
Listen now |
Print and Read
RETREATS
================
Minister Retreats
SOFTWARE
================
Software Deals for Nonprofits & Schools
Many ministries have had to put a freeze on spending
because of the current state of the economy. Here's a
gem of a place where you can find donated and
discounted technology products just for nonprofits and
schools.
For a small administrative fee, nonprofits can order donated
and discounted software and essential technology products.
DiscounTech brings together generous contributions from
leading technology providers for the benefit of the nonprofit
sector. DiscounTech is a service of TechSoup, the
technology Web site for nonprofits.
TechSoup's DiscounTech aims to help resource-strapped
nonprofits save funds while furthering their organizational
missions. DiscounTech helps nonprofits:
* Increase capacity and efficiency through proper use
of technology products.
* Substantially shorten the time it would normally take
to obtain a corporate donation thanks to a web-based
request process and online fulfillment.
* Access multiple product philanthropy programs
through a centralized online service. Over fifteen
technology provider's donated and discounted products
all in one place!
* Make informed decisions about the products
nonprofits need thanks to TechSoup articles, resources,
and community boards.
* Free up funds for direct service. This means more
beds can be purchased for homeless shelters, more
tutors can be hired for after school programs, and more
meals can be prepared in soup kitchens.
www.techsoup.org
SUNDAY SCHOOL HELPS
=====================
Excellent Sunday School Guidelines & Helps for
Teachers, Pastors, Administrators
Wow! Did I ever find a gold mine when I stumbled upon
this extremely helpful web site. You'll find how to start a
Sunday school ministry, ministry descriptions and
guidelines, policies, grouping guidelines, facility evaluation,
recruiting and retention tips, youth helps, legal advice for
churches—an unbelievable list of treasures!
Discipleship Ministries
TECHNOLOGY
====================
MinistryTech
Resources and information for those who are responsible for
keeping your churches updated with the best technology.
Learn more.
Effective Church Communications
Yvon Prehn offers simple, practical training in print and digital
communications to help your church fully fulfill the Great Commission.
www.effectivechurchcom.com
Find timeless strategy, inspiration, and Biblical challenges that work
no matter what tech tools and channels you use, the size of your church,
or age of your audience.
Listen to the podcast.
TOOLS
====================
Format It—Online E-Mail Formatting Tool
The e-mail messages you send to your congregation could be
out of whack -- without your knowing it! Use this handy, online
utility to ensure your e-mail is formatted correctly. No downloads
required. FREE.
www.formatit.com/
Free Password Manager and One-Click Web Form Filler
Having trouble remembering passwords? This easy-to-use tool
will help you keep track of all your passwords and also help you
automatically fill out those online forms. It does NOT pop up ads
in your face or grab information from you. It's an innovative, lean,
useful product with some serious Artificial Intelligence. Highly
recommended by The Wall Street Journal and PC Magazine.
(Works on PCs only.) Enjoy!
www.roboform.com
Free Time-Saving Templates for your Microsoft Office Suite
Need to get a professional-looking publication out in a hurry?
Save loads of time and effort by using these handy, predesigned
software templates which you can easily open and edit in your
Microsoft Office software applications, like Microsoft Word, Excel,
and Powerpoint. Enjoy!
templates.office.com
Newsletter Mailing List Tool
More than 5 million people use MailChimp to design and send
e-mail newsletters.
Learn more.
TRAINING
=========================
Inexpensive Software Training CDs
Want to learn how to use that mysterious software sitting on
your computer or want to improve your user skills? Here are
some excellent, video training CDs you can pop in your CD
drive and watch. This is a quick way to get you over that
learning curve and speed you on your way to preparing
quality documents and presentations.
Try an online demo lesson for free. Then buy one training
CD for $5.99 and get the next level FREE. Better yet, if you
feel comfortable doing it, download the software and burn
your own CD and you'll also get FREE SHIPPING!
www.599cd.com
WARNINGS
=========================
Have You Checked Lately?
Don't lose your church domain name!
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN), is the non-profit corporation responsible for
accrediting domain name service providers. ICANN
requires domain name registration customers to keep their
account information current. Outdated contact information
can be grounds for domain name cancellation.
Be sure to keep your contact information up-to-date at all
times to avoid cancellation of your church domain name. If you lose
your domain name, it could be resold to someone else…even a
pornographer. So please be very careful about this.
Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud
Beware! Don't get sucked into one of these often, very
spiritual-sounding e-mails. Better stop now to read this
warning so you'll be able to recognize this fraud when it
lands in your e-mailbox, and, believe me, it WILL. I receive
several of these each DAY.
Never reply to unsolicited
and the Middle East, although they could be from anywhere
these days, that offer you large amounts of money for you or your
church or mission. They are all well known frauds.
Do NOT respond to official looking e-mails from your bank,
credit card or any bank asking you to confirm account details -
it is 'phishing' - the e-mail is not from your bank, it is a clever
hi-tech scam.
Do NOT reply to unsolicited e-mails that tell you have won a
European Lottery - you have not.
Do NOT ever reply to unsolicited e-mails asking for your help,
your address or your name and bank account to help people
from overseas to obtain visas to your country.
Many Christians and Pastors have lost significant amounts of
money already, please be wise and do not allow yourself to fall
into the hands of international gangs of criminals.
www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/business/nigerian.htm
