In this issue…
1. GREAT SITE FOR STREAMED COMMERCIAL-FREE WORSHIP MUSIC
2. LEGAL & TAX INFO FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
3. MEDIA & MISSIONS
4. CHRISTIANS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS GATHERING
5. FRONT RANGE FINISHERS FORUM
6. DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING SCHOOL WITH EMPHASIS ON UNREACHED PEOPLES
7. LEARN ABOUT CREATIVE STORYTELLING
8. BE CHANGED BY THE WORD
9. STAGNANT WATER: THE MBALANTU OF NORTHERN NAMIBIA
10. INTERNET VANDALS SHOW NO SIGN OF LETTING UP
11. HOW WOULD WE LIVE WITHOUT SPONSORS?
12. THE BACKPAGE: FIRE UP YOUR FINISH
13. CLOSING STUFF
1. GREAT SITE FOR STREAMED COMMERCIAL-FREE WORSHIP MUSIC — OK… this is it… This is the site I’ve been looking for. Have you ever needed some background music in your headphones to help mask that noisy street… or those chickens clucking outside your window? … or maybe for you it’s cubicle noise next to you… people on the phone or whatever… Here’s your God-send, no matter where you are in the world — if you can just get Internet connectivity, you can listen to: http://www.allworship.com Completely free, completely commercial-free, and yes… all worship. Try it. You’ll like it. (They do accept donations, by the way.) (Thanks, Thea, for the tip!)
2. LEGAL & TAX INFO FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS — The latest issue of the Nonprofit and Church Legal Trends Memorandum is now online. Here are some of the items covered: US Senate Committee issues report detailing numerous tax law changes that would have a major impact on all charitable organizations. IRS once again has to define a “church.” Court rules that the Family Medical Leave Act does apply to churches and religious organizations. More guidelines from the IRS on who is an employee and who is an independent contractor. Courts rule on when ministers are mandatory reporters of child abuse, when churches can be liable for dismissing members, and the rights of religious organizations to dismiss employees. A part of each paid subscription goes to Brigada. Check out more at http://www.npchurchlaw.com or email info(at)npchurchlaw(dot)com Please let ’em know “Brigada” sent you by typing it in the “How did you hear about us” field. (By the way, there’s no kickback planned or promised here. :-) )
3. MEDIA & MISSIONS — Here’s a new website that offers missionaries the opportunity to share their ministry by video and pictures with supporters and churches – http://www.convergemissions.com. Converge Missions is a company that provides missionaries the opportunity to connect with friends, family, and supporters through the use of interactive media. The video content on this is delivered in flash video. This technology allows most internet users to view and interact with the streaming media in a video on-demand environment. Those that visit this site are given the opportunity to view any video at any time. The company is prepared to receive any kind of media to be edited and delivered online. The founder of this service organization is an MK who has a heart for integrating media and missions. This is a great way to allow supporters to get an eye witness view of your family and ministry. Give it a look.
4. CHRISTIANS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS GATHERING — More factories and IT centers around the world are extending God’s Kingdom in powerful ways. Business owners are seeking ways they can minister to their employees and communities around the world. EC Institute and Grand Rapids Theological Seminary have partnered together to present the Christians in Global Business Gathering on June 9-11. Please view the link below for a packet of information: http://www.topica.com/f/v.html?900055965.900031694
5. FRONT RANGE FINISHERS FORUM — The next Finishers Forum will be held in Colorado Springs, June 10-11. What IS the Finishers Forum, you ask? It is a “mini-Urbana-like” missions conference for post-college adults. It is a safe place to explore missions. It is a partnership of more than eighty North American missions agencies, including Great Europe Mission, HCJB World Radio, The Navigators, JESUS Film Project, OCI, etc. For more information visit http://www.finishers.org/events Individuals registering before May 30 receive a $15 early-bird registration discount.
6. DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING SCHOOL WITH EMPHASIS ON UNREACHED PEOPLES — YWAM Turner Valley Canada offers DTS for you to grow in relationship with Christ. Dates for DTS are September 14th, 2005 – February 10th, 2006. The schools include 12 weeks of teaching and training in Canada. Topics taught include: Character of God, Sin & the Cross & Repentance, Bible Meditation, Frontier Missions, Evangelism, Islamic/Buddhist Worldview and more. DTS includes 8 weeks in Southeast Asia/ North Africa doing mission work with long term missionaries among specific unreached people groups. Outreach activities include evangelism, prayer ministry, community projects, children’s ministry and more. Please call 1-403-933-3754 for information or email to turnervalley(at)ywam(dot)ca. [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .] Check out the website at: http://www.ywamturnervalley.com
7. LEARN ABOUT CREATIVE STORYTELLING — Here’s a conference, June 21- 23rd, 2005, featuring Imago Media, which focuses on how to share the passion and vision of your ministry through story. You will learn how to see the stories in your ministry and then share the heart of those stories through video. This is a hands-on-training with video coaches who are cutting edge professionals, enabling both beginners or advanced workers. Learn more at: http://www.eyesoftheheart.org
8. BE CHANGED BY THE WORD — YWAM Turner Valleys School of Biblical Studies (SBS) is an intense inductive Bible school. Students in this school go through the Bible five times in nine months while learning effective study tools. This is an exciting opportunity for those wanting to study and apply God’s Scripture as a whole. SBS begins September 12, 2005. Please call 1-403-933-3755 for more information or email to turnervalley(at)ywam(dot)ca [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
9. STAGNANT WATER: THE MBALANTU OF NORTHERN NAMIBIA — In the traditional lands of the Mbalantu people, there are many mysterious pools of water called “oshanas.” These are actually fed from the water table below and often times contain fish. Just like the fish in the Oshanas, the Mbalantu people are trapped in their world with little or no evangelical influences. The Mbalantu are fed by the trappings of the sin of this world. Pray for fishers of men to come and share Christ. Pray for the Lord to build prayer support and call missionaries for the Mbalantu, an unengaged people. To adopt the Mbalantu people for prayer or for more information, please visit http://www.forgottenpeoples.info or email swacsc(at)iafrica(dot)com [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
10. INTERNET VANDALS SHOW NO SIGN OF LETTING UP — eWeek reported recently that in the first quarter of 2005, Trend Micro documented about 7,600 worms and viruses propagating during the first quarter of 2005, an increase of 300% over 1st quarter 2004! Some of these were now spreading via IM. More than ever, we need good antivirus, antispam, antisyware, and a good firewall… a four-legged stool that has, in effect, become a more or less a required threshold for safe computing in the new Internet century.
11. HOW WOULD WE LIVE WITHOUT SPONSORS? — Well let’s put it this way: Our brigada-sponsored secretary wouldn’t. She is solely sponsored by the gifts from subscribers like you. :-) Nor would we be able to pay a bit of a share of our web-hosting fees, promote Brigada at conferences and conventions to new areas of growth and to new subscribers, nor travel to speak on Brigada and the importance of networking to finish the task. Our total budget for 2005 is $16,576. How many ministries have you ever heard of that have an annual budget of that size, ministering to 9,534 active members (as well as 2,626 bouncing ones :-) )? So far, we’ve already received $3,949.23 of that. When we make our goal, this item will vanish — and we’ll only make brief mention of any additional gifts that come in, which will then apply toward 2006 — if that glorious situation ever occurs. In the meantime,…
Thanks to anonymous couple who just decided to help, writing, ” Warm greetings. I just sent a $100 gift via PayPal to help with the Brigada costs. There is no need to acknowledge or mention the gift in any way. Every blessing in your ministry and service to many.” Whoa. Sobering. Thank you so much… and may others pick up your torch. Thanks to the other $100 giver and the $25 donor, again anonymously, from this past week. Whoa.
If you’d like to help Brigada, just click “sponsor” in the top menu (to use PayPal or a credit card), or just send a check payable to Team Expansion to: Team Expansion (Brigada secretary), 13711 Willow Reed Dr., Louisville, KY 40299. Thanks! As always, be sure to let us know if you’d like us to promote any particular service or ministry, or if you’d prefer your gift be anonymous.
12. THE BACKPAGE: FIRE UP YOUR FINISH — Last week, we talked about “THE ART OF FINISHING” and the good feeling one gets after finishing something. Today we’re asking the question, “How?” Keep in mind that I’m a fellow-struggler here. But I *would* like to share some “lessons learned”… as long as you consider that they are shared from the perspective of “one beggar telling another where to buy bread.” These are working for me; see how they work for you:
*** For those really big projects, tackle sub-goals one at a time — With my dissertation, I stopped worrying about finishing the whole thing. I’m just trying to get to the next stage. Ch-ching. Three chapters done last week, sent off to the University; now I’m waiting on approval to forge on with the rest.
*** Make appointments with yourself — You’ve got to be ruthless. Realize that saying ‘yes’ to a new request means saying ‘no’ to those that have asked before. So you’re just trading burdens… unless you finish something.
*** Acquire the tools you need to get the job done — One of the tools that helped me was a little bibliography/reference computer program that uses the Internet to look up citations from the Library of Congress, then automatically formats them for my paper. For you, it might be a new power saw or even saving for a new laptop. If it helps you churn out the job, it’ll be worth it.
*** Intentionally delay gratification — In the middle of finishing my final drafts for the 3 chapters, my new laptop arrived from FedEx. I had already decided — I couldn’t open the laptop to even *look* at it until those pages were sealed, ready to send.
*** Map your progress and celebrate each difficult step — When I finished those three chapters, I paged the whole office and announced it over the intercom. I heard applause from every corner. What will *you* look forward to? Go out to eat. Take your spouse or best friend to the movies to celebrate! Hit the beach. Do *something*.
Now once you’ve finished your project or even a major sub-goal, how can you leverage that finish to move on to the next challenge? Come back next week to hear some answers.
In the meantime, be careful… ’cause it’s a jungle out there — for some of you, *literally*! :-)
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