I plead with you to believe me when I say that I am not a bit-head. Everywhere I go people make the assumption that because I direct SmallGroups.com, I dream in "HTML" color, drink "JAVA" coffee, and speak in "PERL Scripting Language." Well, it is not true! That is why I have asked our Smallgroups.com webmaster to contribute to this article.
Now that you all feel less like a technophobe around me, like we are on level ground, let me tell you, from one semi-tech-challenged person to another, how I use the eWorld in my everyday life of small group ministry. While I do not do all the technical stuff, there is much technology that you and I can use to further the Kingdom of God! So here is a day in my elife…
Devotions
There is plenty of online tools to help you spend dedicated time with God. Daily devotional readings abound on the Internet. One of the best sites to help me to get into the Word is http://www.biblegateway.com/. There are additional tools available at Crosswalk.com. Bryan checks in daily with Harold Sala's "5-minute commentaries" at Guidelines.org.
Email newsletters
Now for the big confession…I have signed up to receive a lot of them, and I read far fewer than I receive! OK, now I feel better getting that out in the open.
Each day, sometimes first thing in the morning, I browse through email newsletters that I have recently received. I could be described as a "nugget miner." I try to scan through several email newsletters and dig out nuggets that might apply to and help my ministry. The following is certainly not an all-inclusive list, but here are several of the email newsletters, from a variety of sources and a variety of perspectives, that I use for "prospecting."
-Small Group Dynamics-Byte Size
-DJ Online ...