Archive | July, 2009

Jesus All About Life

July 23, 2009 by hayleyneal 0 Comments

If you turn on your TV this September you will be sure to see an advertisment with a difference… its all about Jesus! During prime time TV there will be a advertising campaign going to air called  “Jesus All About Life” – backed by all the major Christian denominations and the Bible Society. This will be the church’s biggest and sharpest media campaign perhaps since Billy Graham or ever.

How will it work? There will be approximately 40 days on our televisions where professional and high quality advertisements will be screened. Different ads will be aimed at different demographics, but each will promote the person of Jesus, the one who “came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10) and invite people to consider his claims found in Luke’s Gospel.

A Freecall number will be attached to the advertisements, and those who respond will receive a booklet with info about what it means to know Jesus and also be given a Luke’s Gospel. They will also be given details of their nearest church that has registered with ‘Jesus All About Life’.

Are you a ‘Jesus All About Life’ church?
What plans are you making for September?

‘Jesus All About Life’ have lots of resources for churches, but what about resources personally are going to need to make the most of conversational opportunities during the run of the ads?
Are the people at your church ready to have the conversation with the person at work who knows you are Christian?

Don’t ignore the opportunities that lay ahead during this media campaign. We need to be ready to make the most of this incredible opening for the gospel.

IDEAS

Posters out the front of church…

Events

  • Why not make September the time you try getting your church known a little more in the community with some visual activity amongst the community?
  • Put on a Fair Trade Markets this September? or a Spring Fair?
  • Purchase lots of bottled water and stand out the front of your church handing them out for free – everyone loves a free bottle of water… attached your church postcard or advertising flyer to it with an elastic band?

Be Prepared:

  • If your welcoming at church stinks… clean it up! ‘Jesus All About Life’ should act as a incentive to get this vital ministry going at your church. People who have never stepped inside church or are scared or been hurt by church in the past may enter your doors this September – are you ready for them?
  • Got a 2 minute testimony? Sit down and take time to write out your testimony of how God has worked in your life… be ready and prepared to share the hope you have and why Jesus really is all about life.

PRAY…

  • for the TV campaign,
  • those who watch the ads,
  • that God would work powerfully so many would respond,
  • may the Holy Spirit convict people of their sin and grant them repentance and forgiveness.

There are many, many more ideas I am sure… Please feel free to share your ‘Jesus All About Life’ ideas… so together we may better share the good news!

Evangelism, Ideas, Jesus

and I quote…

July 18, 2009 by hayleyneal 0 Comments

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Quotes

Review :: Gospel Websites & Applications

July 16, 2009 by hayleyneal 5 Comments

There are plenty more sites and applications but these are the best I found. If you are a Christian and a web developer… consider this a prompting to design a website for non-Christians that is engaging, modern, relevant and true. Jesus is worthy of a good website to explain who he is and the life he has on offer to all.  If you have the technical know-how, I’d be happy to consider putting a team together to develop the content…

Let’s be like Jesus go hang where the sinners are: in our generation its on on the web!

……………………………………………………………….

Christianity.net.au
Website for those trying to make sense of God by Anglican Media Sydney

This website has helpful information to help you Make Sense of God. This bit of the site is good.
Yet other pages become a mouse click maze on the Does This Make Sense to You page… I found I had to keep clicking on numerous link to get to the answer. I kept clicking Who is Jesus? and just got a list of more questions… then realised that the question was further down the another list of questions and all I needed to do was scroll down. Still not the cleanest navigation.

There are some old links on the page to Christians you might like to meet (Fiona, Matt & Sam) – all of which are out of date and seem unattended by the page owners. This is pretty poor form I think for a website that has such old content on it, epecially when it is specifically targeted for use by non-Christians.

Good reminder to us bloggers that we should keep our sites up to date, redirect traffic from your old sites or make sure it is stated on your old blog that you have moved on and provide the link.

Two Ways to Live
Online Gospel Tract by Matthias Media

Simple and Clean site. Good presentation of the gospel. With six languages to choose from, including children’s presentation. ‘Investigate Thoroughly’ page has a list to books you can purchase and some free pdf’s. The end of the presentation could link again to this page, as once you’ve read all the content you end up on a contact page but no links to other web content. You have to click back through the presentation to see the ‘Investigate Thoroughly’ page again if you want some more online resources. This could do with some tidying for easier navigation.

Steps To Peace
Online Gospel Tract by Billy Graham

Simple and Clean gospel presentation in four steps… bit American cheese (especially graphics) but it is neat enough and up to date. You can even pray with Billy Graham at the end of the presentation.

Graffiti – Bridge to Life
Video Gospel Presentation by Billy Graham

Good quality & funky gospel presentation (targeted at youth)
Would be fun to embed this on your own church or youth group website.
Billy Graham do some other great videos check them out here.

XEE
Online Gospel Tract by Christianity Explosion

In seven easy steps the gospel is presented. Its clean, modern and up to date. However it is teamed with sharing your faith training video, so makes me wonder who the targeted audience for this site is really for. Perhaps it really is just for Christians to use with their friends?

Also, the organisation seems pretty anonymous… if you are not in the know it would be hard to detect who XEE is and where you could find more information about them from the website. You can give them feedback but still seems unclear as to who you are giving your information to.

Steps2Peace with God
iPhone Gospel Presentation Application by Billy Graham

At the start of this iPhone tract you get the choice of the presentation being in English or Spanish.
Graphics are modern and look quite good and seems to use the iPhone technology well – you can be followed up by getting in contact with them by phone call or website contact form, with a link at the end of the presentation.

Wordless Book
Colour Presentation of the Gospel Application by Planetshakers International Ministries Inc.

If you know the wordless book and know how to use it this is just a iPhone version so you have the colours handy. (Green – creation, black – sin, red – Christ’s death, white – forgiveness, yellow – heaven)

Jesus, Media, Technology

Internal Churning

July 16, 2009 by hayleyneal 5 Comments

If you have been around me much and had the pleasure of hearing my pet-hates about Christian Community, you would perhaps have heard me complain about our tendency to be so preoccupied with ourselves… something I like to call “internal churning”.

We give the appearance that we are making great leaps forward for the gospel but all we are doing is sitting around whinging about things that shouldn’t take the priority of our thoughts, energy and actions. I confess… I complain too but I really want to set myself and you a challenge that instead of the internal churning lets look out beyond ourselves, look for opportunities to serve others… perhaps even the lost!

This quote  by C. T. Studd seems to sum up my sentiment of internal churning:

“Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell,
I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell”

Where I see internal churning:

  • Compare the vast majority of products and resources in our Christian bookshops… majority of products are ‘pep talk’ material for Christians. How good would it be if more people put increased energy into truly evangelistic and accessible products for the unchurched / unbeliever?
  • Christian Websites are mainly for the Christian too… The amount of quality websites or blogs dedicated to the sharing the gospel is low compared to the tech-savvy, clean and funky sites for Christian leadership, outreach, ideas, church planting etc.  It’s rare for Christian blogs to address the non–Christian who may stumble across their site. (Bloggers take note from DMDC who regularly addresses: Not Christian? Read this.)
  • Our churches’ budgets and their support of mission and evangelism.
  • Complaints about sermons, lack on inter-congregational events, or just the pure lack of social events at church.

Don’t get me wrong… I think we need to encourage each other all the more as the day approaches (Hebrews 10:25) and Christian friendship is vital for survival but sometimes encouragement comes when we serve alongside each other and focus on something else than ourselves.
START today… instead of having just socialising with church friends this week, why not invite some one on the fringe of church along or some mates from work… cross pollinate your social circles. You get to kill two birds with one stone: social activity with church people and bring near some light to the yard of hell.

Not Christian: CHECK THIS OUT!

Church, Evangelism, Jesus, Media, Technology

and I quote…

July 6, 2009 by hayleyneal 1 Comment

Slide1

Evangelism, Jesus, Quotes

from the web…

July 2, 2009 by hayleyneal 0 Comments

I remember the worst words my friends have ever said to me. We were sitting in some restaurant somewhere, and I had finished my usual dribbling about What Christianity Means to Me. “The thing we like about your faith, Craig …” Vincent paused for a drink while I sat back ready to take the compliment. What would it be? Was he about to praise the freshness of my insight? Could it be the way in which I was so rooted in both contemporary culture and ancient Scripture? Or was it simply the fact that I was such an example of purity and—yes, I could say it—humility? “The thing we like about your faith,” Vincent repeated, “is that it actually doesn’t seem to make any significant difference to your life at all.”

Is that true of your life?

Does your faith inform all of your life?

Read the full story | Service or Evangelism | by Craig Borlase @ Neue - Join the Conversation

Evangelism, Jesus, People

REVIEW :: The Welcome Wagon

July 1, 2009 by hayleyneal 1 Comment

The Welcome Wagon have released an album of modest folk music. Their songs are beautiful melodic takes on a vast history of hymns and songs of traditions, with lyrics that express a simple desire to know their Creator and express their faith through a beautifully modern and quirky sound.

With no musical background and after becoming Christians, this husband and wife duet set out to learn instruments so they could enjoy singing hymns with their family. You get a sense of this intimacy in the album, with its simplicity, the complimentary voices singing about their shared faith.

Their sweet and unassuming sound has been influenced and helped along by Sufjan Stevens, who produced and arranged the album.

It is a refreshing album helpful for quite reflection or perfect accompanying your Saturday coffee, toast and newspaper reading in the sunroom.

Without a Shepherd rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Review – Click here

Record Label – Click here

Arts, Music

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