SEC Podcasts
SEC Podcast Themes |
|
| Evangelism | Stewardship |
| Funding | Youth Ministry |
| Leadership | |
| Marketing | |
| New Church Development | |
You can also download our podcasts from iTunes by subscribing to
"Southeast Conference UCC Leadership Podcasts."
Evangelism
Rev. Martha Grace Reese
On March 23-24, 2007, Rev. Martha Grace Reese led a Spiritual Leadership seminar for the Southeast Conference. The author of "Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism," Rev. Reese offered great insight into the challenges and benefits of modern evangelism and faith sharing.
Rev. Cameron Trimble sat down with Rev. Reese and they talked about some of these issues.
Funding
Grant Writing 101 with Susan Anderson
Writing a grant can often feel overwhelming and intimidating. Where do you start? How is a grant different from a loan? Who do you ask for money? What does a good grant look like? Click below to listen to Rev. Cameron Trimble talk with professional grant-writer, Susan Anderson, as she shares her wisdom of how to write strong grants and find potential funding organizations. Posted on February 27, 2008.
Leadership
The Culture of Non-Profit Organizations
Nancy Chorpenning is a seasoned business executive who supports business owners and entrepreneurs with her experience and sound guidance. She is an active volunteer and leader in her business and faith communities, with a passion for lending a hand that continues from her recent experience as a midlife Peace Corps Volunteer just a few years ago. Most recently, she has assembled a group of fellow management consultants into a collaborative organization in Atlanta to focus on bringing their unique skills and perspectives to mid size businesses.
Marketing
Jacquline Gordon has been the executive director of advertising and marketing strategies for a host of industries, more specifically, independents; insurance, mortgages, and real estate agents as well as construction contractors. She has taken the knowledge and skills learned serving these industries and expanded traditional marketing disciplines into new, highly-effective marketing strategies. Gordon's in-depth knowledge of all phases of business activity, along with specialized abilities that set her performance apart enables her to offer a genuinely unique talent.
New Church Development
Overview of Comma Connections
Comma Connections are spiritual communities focused on creating opportunities and environments for authentic, intimate, meaningful spiritual connections to God and fellow sojourners through worship, discipleship and community service. Listen as Rev. Cameron Trimble reflects on this Conference program in the Southeast Conference Church Development podcast for the week of April 16th, 2007.
Stewardship
Inspiring Generosity
As the head of Stewardship in her local congregation, Nancy Chorpenning discovered that stewardship was the word synonymous with money. Every year, ministers and lay leaders would rally the congregations for the financial dollars needed to maintain the church budget. But we have learned over the years that stewardship is about so much more than this narrow understanding. Stewardship is about care and concern for the environment; it is about giving of our time and treasures; it is about gratitude and generosity.
Youth Ministry
New Ideas in Youth Ministry
A vital church gives special care and attention to how they care for
and teach their young people. Youth are not the future of the church -
they are the present. Associate Pastor of Children and
Youth at Pilgrimage UCC in Marietta, GA, Rev. Kristin Gerner Vaughn,
discusses some of the basics of developing a vital youth
program. Rev. Gerner Vaughn has served churches both in Southern
Conference and in Southeast and brings a delightful spirit to this work.
Five reasons your congregation should consider podcasting
By Bridget Starr
Almost exactly three years ago, a Google search for “podcasts” returned 24 results. Today there are 134 million. The technology has arrived and it’s time for more congregations to join the pioneers who are already involved.
Podcasting is a made-up word combining “broadcasting” with the world’s best known mp3 player, the iPod. Podcasting is merely a simple means of distributing digital content. You can distribute any kind of digital content – such as documents and photos, for example – but podcasting is known primarily for its role in distributing audio and video files, especially audio.
Here are five reasons your congregation should consider using podcasts;
1. It really is easy. There is no expensive equipment to buy and only a modest learning curve. You create the digital resource, upload it to the Internet, make it available through an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed and you’re done. (We’ll grant you, if you have no prior experience these steps could sound daunting; but there are numerous web-based tutorials that will walk you through the process step by step.)
2. Despite being simple to use, it’s enormously powerful. It makes your audio content accessible anywhere, any time. Podcasting is a logical extension of time-honored practices like making worship services available on audio cassettes or CDs, but it’s much more convenient for everybody. For you, there’s no hassle producing multiple copies of cassettes and then bicycling them around. For members, there’s no need to get physical access to the tape, or worry about returning it. They can download the audio file any time they want, from any computer with Internet access. Another benefit is the portability of podcasts. They’re designed to be easily transferred from the member’s computer to a portable player, such as an iPod or other mp3 players. This makes them ideal for use by commuters, for example, or as exercise for the mind and spirit to accompany a workout in the gym.
3. Podcasting can make it easy for you to add depth to your online resources. Chances are you have quite an archive of audio content filling several shelves in your House of Worship and mostly gathering dust. Okay – maybe some of it deserves to gather dust. But a lot of it probably has significant value – if only there were some way to make use of it. Transferring your older audio material into a digital format and making it available through podcasts has several benefits. For one thing, it’s much easier to catalogue, search and retrieve digital media such as podcasts based on a theme, a scripture, a date, or other criteria, than it is to find the right cassette, CD or document in a stack. This means you can develop an impressive array of audio resources on your web site, making it an added enhancement to your ministry.
4. Connect with your members. Many congregations produce a weekly email newsletter. Some of your members would prefer to receive that newsletter as an audio file, just because they have more time (while driving, for example) to listen than to read. These folks will benefit even if you do nothing more than find a volunteer to read the newsletter text into a microphone. Others, especially younger members, are more attuned to an audio culture. They will like the convenience of a podcast subscription because that’s how they already relate to many other resources. They may also expect somewhat more from you than just the written word. As you gain experience with podcasting, recruit some of them to help boost your production values. Don’t be afraid to get creative with podcast elements like daily meditations, mission updates, opportunities for service, or other aspects of congregational life.
5. Reach out to others. Beyond, placing your audio resources on your own web site, make use of podcast aggregators (iTunes, from Apple, being perhaps the best known of these) to make your audio resources available to others. Again, many people, especially younger people, are now attuned to the podcast culture and – when they seek spiritual resources – will look there first. Of those 134 million Google results for “podcasts” less than 2 percent also include the word “faith.” There’s room for your congregation to change that percentage.
Bridget Starr, of Lightworks New Media, is Senior Client Relationship Manager for the FaithStreams Network, which offers online service to enhance congregational communication, build online communities and fund ministries. Contact Bridget at bstarr@faithstreams.com or visit www.webmedley.com for more information.
Listen
