You are invited to be part of a concerted effort to share our faith by blogging, tweeting, posting and sharing #FallingPlates on various social networks.

#FallingPlates is a simple, relevant and compelling way to share the gospel. In 4 mins, through various visual metaphors it clearly explains our relationship with God as it’s meant to be, and invites the viewer to a true and lasting relationship with Christ.

#FallingPlates has seen more than 390,000 views since it launched on 12/12/12, and continues to draw more than 2000 viewers a day, many expressing how it has powerfully impacted them.

1. Do a drama, musical or short stories acted out that create conversations and shares the message of Christ and His birth.

2. Do a living nativity outside and invite the community to come and see it.

3. Create a Christmas village and sell items that have been made by people from developing areas in the United States or overseas. The money can go back to these communities. Have opportunities for visitors to be invited to your church or future ministry events.

4. Put on a film festival showing Christmas movies and share a film clip on the birth of Christ. Click here to view and download one.

5. Offer a free meal on Christmas Eve before your church service.

6. Share Christmas gifts with others in your community.

7. Have a lunch or dinner for your neighbors and share the Biblical account of Christ’s birth from Luke.  Here are some tips for doing the dinner here.

Image from CreationSwap

Click on the link to watch and download films at http://www.globalshortfilmnetwork.com.

They have made available the sessions from the conference on YouTube.  You can view a listing of the speakers here and view the videos of the sessions here.  We have included the session on “The State of Digital Ministry” below.

Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

Internet Evangelism Day is an annual focus day, scheduled for 29 April 2012. It creates a space for churches, ministries and individual Christians to investigate the many options for sharing the good news online.

The Internet Evangelism Day website is also a year-round online resource guide to help Christians understand these varied opportunities. Topics covered include: how to build a church website that is ‘outsider friendly’, using Facebook and Twitter in evangelism, and the growing options for using your mobile phone.

For many of these opportunities, you need no technical knowledge at all. And there are many opportunities to volunteer to be an email mentor to inquirers who have visited outreach sites operated by several online ministries.

Internet Evangelism Day is an initiative of the Internet Evangelism Coalition, based at the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton. It is supported by a wide range of Christian leaders and groups. “I am glad to commend Internet Evangelism Day,” said the late John Stott.

More information: www.IEDay.net

This powerful story will move you to evaluate what you really have and what really matters.  I was drawn into the story and what the family was going through was well played out on the screen.  “Homeless for the Holidays” is mixed with humor and moments of uncertainties.  Where the film lacks is in budget.   It was done on a very low budget, so the acting and sometimes that visual are not of the highest quality.

The film is family friendly and is awarded five out 0f five seals by the Dove Foundation.  You can find out more about the film and watch a trailer on the “Homeless for the Holidays” website.

When it comes to ministry most individuals, churches or ministries are looking for a ministry tool or strategy to help solve a need.  If you create a tool and strategy that really isn’t needed then it won’t get used.

Once I was part of a team that created  a CD-Rom that was complex, but very postmodern.  The project took a very long time to complete, but it got done.  We created a website and had broad distribution.  In the end only a handful people used it, because it didn’t really meet a need and it was hard to use.  So, first identify the need.   A good way to identify a need is to listen and ask others.

Once you have the need identified, bring people together to pray and brainstorm ideas.  There are a ton of resources on brainstorming. I personally like using the Walt Disney Imagineering process for brainstorming.   This is where you put ideas on sticky notes or note cards.  Then group the ideas together that are similar.  Then you “plus up” the ideas.  This is expanding the original idea presented by writing more details on another sticky note or note card and placing it under the idea.  Once you complete that process you are able to determine which is the best idea.

The next step once you have an idea is to prototype it.  That will be covered next.

I will cover developing the idea, creating the ministry tool, testing it and promoting the ministry tool or strategy.  Are there any other areas or questions you may have that you would like covered?