Your church does ministry in your community and across the world, You bring together people from all walks of life and take God’s message of love, justice and forgiveness everywhere you go. Shouldn’t you document the work you’ve done in a way that is quick and easy to share, even across borders and oceans?

Traditional, physical folder-style photo albums are limited in quantity (you usually only have one album, right?), and compact discs take time to ship around, so why not share your photos online with your congregation or ministry group?

There are a number of excellent online photo albums available at little or no cost to you or your church. These tools allow you to share your photos with any number of people almost instantly. In addition, viewers can post comments related to photos, telling the story behind each photo. Many of these tools may also be integrated with social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace, allowing for a broad audience and making it easy to access your church or ministry group.

Some consideration should be given before you post your ministry’s pictures online. It is important to consider the subject and audience of your photos. If you are posting pictures, especially of children, be aware of any sensitive family issues that may cause concern with parents. In fact, it is best to get permission before posting pictures.

Questions to Ask
There is no shortage of web photo album packages that would serve a church or ministry well, but depending on your needs, one may be better suited than other. As you weigh the options, keep in mind what you actually want to do with the album - what purpose will it serve? Some questions to ask are below:

“Who do I want to share my albums with?”
“Do I want my albums to be found by a search engine?”
“Should the album be integrated with an existing site?”
“Will I want to customize my albums?”
“Is geotagging important for my albums?”

These are only a few of the questions that could be asked when considering online photo albums. A couple of the most popular web photo album services are highlighted below.

Flickr
One of the most popular online photo albums available, Flickr uses “tags” to categorize photos. Users may add any number of tags to any or all of their photos, which makes the photos searchable within your own album or across the entire database of photos on Flickr.

Let’s say a church group travels to New Orleans for disaster relief. Upon their return, the photos are uploaded to Flickr and tagged with the following terms: “New Orleans”, “disaster relief” and “ministry”. Another group takes the same trip, but tags their photos with “First Baptist Church” and “ministry”. These two groups are able to find one another’s photos because they are connected with the “ministry” tag. A third group who has pictures tagged with only “New Orleans” is able to find the photos of the first group, but not the second.

An additional features of Flickr allow users to “geotag” photos, which are then placed on a map - a great feature to connect people geographically or to highlight mission trips or other travel. Users who have photos they want to share in print version in addition to digital have the ability to make books, prints, DVDs, cards, stamps and any variety of products for shipping and sharing.

Getting photos published to a Flickr account is made easy with the Flickr Uploadr, but users may also send their photos with any number of third party software, including iPhoto. Even your e-mail account is capable of sending photos to your Flickr account.

Flickr makes the privacy of your photos a priority by adding different levels of control, so that groups of photos may be seen by only you, your friends or family, or by anyone.

Flickr does a fantastic job of serving up your photos easily and efficiently with the reliability you would expect from one of the web’s heavy photo album contenders. And the best part is that anyone can get a Flickr accounts for free with 100 MB of upload per day with no apparent storage limits. That’s a price that will fit any ministry’s budget!

Picasa
Google’s Picasa is perhaps more popular for its desktop software rather than its online photo albums. It is even likely that you already have this software on your computer without even beign aware of it because Picasa often comes pre-installed on Windows computers.

The software itself makes collecting and editing pictures extremely easy, with one-click editing and simple downloading from your digital camera. More advanced users will also find controls and tools that give them a respectable amount of control over the color levels of their pictures. Picasa is designed to integrate with the online photo album, called Picasa Web, so uploading pictures is simple.

Those who use Google products (GMail, Google Reader, Google Calendar, Google Maps), should find Picasa Web to be pleasantly integrated with the other Google products that are available from the web giant. With only a click, users can send a photo or entire album to a friend or family member, then the shared album can be downloaded with a single click.

Tagging works similarly with Picasa Web and photos can be tagged with locations and placed on a Google Map, similar to the geotagging feature of Flickr. Other features include the ability to show a slideshow directly from the web album and a copy/paste method for embedding slideshows into a website.

Picasa Web’s privacy settings allow you to set your albums to either public (searchable by Google) or private, so that you may share albums only with those you choose. A Picasa Web screensaver is also available, enabling a computer to show off the pictures in any or all of your albums.

Picasa Web is well-suited for the web user who wants an integrated solution for sharing pictures with only a few people or everyone. The online slideshow feature makes it a no-brainer for those who will use it. Just like Flickr, Picasa is available for free, but users should be aware of a 1 GB storage limit.

A Quick Look at Gallery
Advanced users who are looking for a more integrated, customizable and full-featured approach to sharing photos should consider Gallery. It’s a PHP-based photo album that is hosted on your church’s website. Gallery can be installed quickly for basic use or fully customized for a look that matches your existing site.

Gallery makes it easy to create albums, enable user comments and add or remove photos. Because Gallery is hosted on your own web server, you set your own bandwidth and storage limits, which can be easily upgraded at your convenience.

Gallery does require some technical know-how and access to a web server to set up. The web designer who put your site together should have access to all the right tools to set up Gallery properly.

More information about Gallery, including a free full download (not a trial or limited version) can be found at their website.

Conclusion
As you can see, the packages mentioned here carry inherent similarities and distinct differences in the ways they handle photo albums. Selecting a service can be a flexible process, as many services are available for free and with no committment, so users can try one and all to decide which works best for them.

For those who are already using photo albums, which are your favorite? Are there others that you use that have not been mentioned here? What do you like about them? What else could be added to this conversation?

I have been involved with an online discussion of Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz.  In the most recent chapter we were discussing, Miller writes,

Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe.  By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder. … At the end of the day, when I am lying in bed and I know the chances of any of our theology being exactly right are a million to one, I need to know that God has things figured out, that if my math is wrong we are still going to be okay.  And wonder is that feeling we get, when we let go of our silly answers, our mapped out rules that we want God to follow.  I don’t think there is any better worship than wonder. (Miller, pp. 205-206)

This got me thinking - am I, is the church, kind of taking the wonder out of God?

So much time and energy is put into programs and events, I wonder if we have turned an encounter with God into something you schedule.  Again and again in Scripture, the pivotal encounters with God come at the unexpected moments in the unexpected places:  Moses at a burning bush while watching sheep, Jacob wrestling with God while sleeping in the middle of nowhere, the woman coming to get water from the well, Elijah suddenly taken up into heaven.  I could go on and on.  In all of these events, I think that the unexpected nature of the encounter created a sense of awe and wonder that often led to praise, worship, and service.  This seems lost when I look at our bulletin every Sunday and see our “Schedule of Events” and our “Order of Service”. 

I agree with Miller:  I need wonder in my life, because that is where some of my truest worship of God comes from.  Is wonder possible in order, or do we need to deprogram a little bit (or a lot) to recapture the unexpected nature of an encounter with God?  Is this solely an issue of the individual believer, or does the church have some kind of role in all this?  As a pastor and fellow traveler, I ask the question and search for answers.

Recently, I had a request from a pastor whose church wanted to know more about “going green.” It seems more and more churches these days are wanting to know how to be better stewards of the environment and their physical plant. I did a little research, and here’s what I came up with:

o http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0123/p11s02-lire.html - resourceful article from Christian Science Monitor

o http://ncgreenpower.org/ - note that this group has a speaker’s bureau that might be of use to you.

o http://ncsustainableenergy.org/

o http://www.peachtreebaptist.net/ministries/faith-environment/ - Peachtree BC in ATL has given this much attention and might be a model.

o http://cbfportal.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/going-green/ - here are some resources on the CBF BLOG that might be of interest.

o http://www.thefellowship.info/News/Archive/061011Boston - and here’s a story that CBF did in 2006 about a partnering congregation going green

o http://www.gipl.org/ - finally, here is the link to Georgia Interfaith Power and Light. Other states have a chapter of this organization that are linked from this website.

Why are you doing this?” she asked. She had just finished rehearsal with the Senior Adult Choir at the church where I serve as Minister of Childhood Education. It was a simple, direct question and one that had crept into my thoughts in the recent weeks since my husband and I decided to accept positions with CBF as Global Service Corps Field Personnel in Marion, Alabama.

The “Why” Question hovered when I watched the real estate agent place a “for sale” sign in the yard of our Roanoke, VA home. I love this 86 year old home and its familiar creaky wood floors and the “Norman Rockwell” neighborhood we live in. The “Why” Question pierced when the first of the children I minister to hugged me and said they would miss me. The “Why” Question nagged when I announced to the local school principals that I would not be around to continue helping to lead the new Pack-A-Snack program for children in need. The “Why” Question pursued me as I mourned the thought of saying goodbyes to neighbors, best friends, and church members who love me. “I’ll just say ‘See you later,’” I joke with friends.

All of these thoughts and more came to mind as I looked at my serious friend who had so earnestly demanded an answer to her personal “Why” question. She, like me, is a North Carolina transplant to Virginia. We often talked about missing good BBQ and shared experiences in our home state. I took a deep breath and gave a direct answer to her direct question.

“God has called us.”

She nodded in complete understanding. Accepting the answer. “You’re moving farther away from good BBQ,” she warned seriously.

“Do they even have BBQ in Alabama?” I wondered out loud.

“I am sure they barbeque some sort of slop,” and finally my friend smiled. “We will miss you, you know?”

“I know,” I smiled back and accepted her blessing.

Leaving a place I love for a new place of service is certainly bittersweet. Whenever I feel anxious and the “Why” Question sneaks up on me, I remember my calling. I meditate on the nature of the One who has called me. I think of the adventure ahead, the new friends and place we will fall in love with, and how God is paving the path already. I am gifted with peace - far better than good BBQ…

You’ve seen it at your local grocery store.  Putting milk in your cereal is weighing a little more heavily on your pocketbook these days, and eggs for your morning omelete are beginning to feel like luxury items.  So it makes you wonder - if I am noticing these subtle but significant food price increases, how are they affecting the 26 million Americans who use food stamps to put food on the table, who already use up almost all of those benefits by the 3rd week of the month?  And then you think about the people in developing countries who spend 80% of their disposable income on food.  With prices spiraling sharply upward, how are they to survive?

Each day brings more news of the plight of millions of hungry and malnourished people around the world, telling us that the global food crisis is just that - a crisis.  Especially in developing countries.  The World Food Programme (WFP) says this ”silent tsunami” is becoming the greatest challenge it has ever faced and could drive 100 million more poor people into deeper poverty, threatening to stall or reverse progress we’ve already achieved toward the Millennium Development Goals.  From Senegal to Egypt to Uzbekistan, people are losing their livelihoods as prices continue to rise and food becomes scarce. 

In the face of such an emergency, what are we called to do?  Well, to be sheep, of course. 

Remember that passage in Matthew where Jesus talks about the final judgment and the separation of the sheep from the goats?  He tells the disciples that the sheep, the righteous ones, will inherit the Kingdom of God because they fed him and gave him drink, among other things.  And though they will not recall seeing Jesus hungry or thirsty, he explains that “when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!” (Matt. 25:40).

We are certainly called to pray and lift this crisis and these people to the Almighty God, who holds all things in control.  We are also called by this passage to live out our faith in the One who embodies love, compassion and justice.  This passage calls the righteous to take action and care for “the least of these” - to be sheep.  Here are a few ideas on how you and your church can be sheep:

1. Use your voice - Large scale interventions are needed to tackle this crisis.  Increases in food stamps and other such programs are needed here in the States, and the WFP needs $755 million to fund emergency food aid efforts.  You can begin to use your voice by calling or writing to your members of Congress, asking them to provide $600 million to meet global food needs.  Click here to see other ways Bread for the World can help you respond to this crisis.  And keep your eye on Bread’s website (www.bread.org) to join a weekly action campaign, beginning next week. 
2. Eat Dirt So They Don’t Have To - Join Bright Hope International’s Dirt Cookie Campaign to provide Haitians with immediate food supplies and micro loans to enable families to plant their own vegetable gardens.
3. Help Fill the Cup - Make a donation to the WFP here to provide food for hungry children.  Also, see why Doctors Without Borders is saying that food is not enough.
4. Don’t Plant Flowers, Plant Vegetables - Begin a community garden at your church where families in need in your own community can come to get fresh vegetables at little or no cost.

Those are just a few of the ways you and your church can be sheep.  Do you have other ideas on how to faithfully care for the least of these?  How might your church respond?

This past Sunday, we had a representative of Trans World Radio visiting with us in worship.  He took a few minutes to share with us about the ministry of Trans World Radio.  Their mission statement is simple:  to reach the world for Christ by mass media so that lasting fruit is produced.  TWR broadcasts Christian programming several hours a day into parts of the world where there are few Christian churches or believers are unable to gather together for fear of persecution.  Their programming includes Bible reading, Bible studies, and evangelistic programs.  As a way of making this programming accessible, they are striving to get special solar-powered radios into parts of the world where access to radios might be limited.  The representative shared stories and letters of people requesting their own Bibles or telling how Christ had used TWR to share His love with them.  One letter talked of how listening to the radio programs helped him battle physical and spiritual loneliness.

As I have thought about this ministry in the last couple of days, I am reminded of a seminar I went to a couple of years ago about using PowerPoint in worship.  The leader of the seminar encouraged us to remember that the technology many churches use today is a powerful tool, but the tool should never replace the message.  As the church today, we have so much technology that is becoming more and more accessible to us.  We should, like TWR, seek to find ways to put this technology to use in a way that helps produce good fruit for the kingdom.  This blog that CBF has put together is another example of putting today’s technology to good use for the kingdom.  However, we must always be cautious to insure that the tool does not become more important than the message.  A radio or a projector cannot change the hearts and souls of humanity; Christ can.

Baptists have traditionally been a dissenting people. They have come to faith with a hermeneutic of suspicion. This is a hermeneutic where questions are asked, not asked to be cynical, but asked to further ones faith. To quote Anselm “a faith that seeks understanding.” Do we still carry this hermeneutic of suspicion or are we on a quest for answers? When we search for answers, we typically search for something that will please us, or fit into our preconceived notions. When searching for answers, we are usually searching for validation of what we already believe. We come to conclusions by saying/thinking something like, “That’s it!” without further questioning or looking for what other possibilities might be possible. Bringing a hermeneutic of suspicion takes you down a different path though. When one is on a quest for this “faith seeking understanding” they might start out in a particular direction, but through inquiry and question might end up on a completely different path; or what one might see as a different path, but really it is the same path, the path towards truth. When we search for truth, we might find answers, but these answers typically only lead to more questions, not conclusions. So be open to where your faith might take you.

First Baptist Church in Nashville, like many other churches, has a time of corporate prayer as part of their worship each Sunday.  During this time of prayer, the church remembers those who grieving, those who are ill, and they pray for individuals who represent various groups (i.e. active military, seminary students, and missionaries).  Recently they added to this list members of the congregation that are in various ministry positions.  A couple of Sundays ago, I was the first of these ministers to be remembered in the morning prayer.  I had not been prepared for that and was surprised by the calling of my name and the description of my ministry in Pastoral Counseling.  It was quite humbling to have the church body pray for me in my work.  It made me realize that I do not do that often enough in my own prayer time.

I know many who serve in various ministry and non-ministry positions have difficulties unique to their position, but I think the work of Pastoral Care that Chaplains and Pastoral Counselors do is particularly isolating and lonely.  Day in and day out, Pastoral Care givers are meeting with families, patients, clients, staff, and others in private and intimate conversations.  They do this for the benefit of the person with wich they meet.  These kinds of conversations can be emotionally draining.  Many who do this kind of work often work in small departments if they have peers at all.  The support of others through professional orgainizations and personal connections is vital for renewal.

One way to assist those in these types of ministry is to remember them in prayer.  Perhaps send them a note of encouragement and let them know they are being prayed for.  The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship publishes a calendar of all Chaplains and Pastoral Counselors endorsed by them.  The endorsed persons are listed by their birthdays so any day of the year, you can identify someone to pray for that day.  This publication is also available online at http://www.thefellowship.info/Pray/Chaplains.   There are also other prayer calendars for other ministries and missions available on the CBF website.  It is a great resource for remembering others in prayer.  I hope you will take a look at these and remember those who are involved in ministry in your prayers.

This summer, a group of 13 students will be making a once in a lifetime journey.  They will be visiting 6 countries where they will both see and participate in projects with CBF field personnel that directly address the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)  www.endpoverty2015.org .  They will begin their trip in DC where they will meet with representatives from the ONE campaign, Bread for the World, Baptist World Aid, CBF and others.  These sessions will help to inform the students about the MDGs and prepare them for what they will experience.  They will then travel to Romania, Ethiopia, Uganda, New York City, Haiti and Mexico City, spending between 5 and 13 days in each location experiencing first hand the needs that the MDGs address as well as the efforts that are underway to achieve these goals. 

After returning home - the students will each make a proposal of what they will do in their community or on their campus to help raise awareness and advocacy for the MDGs, as well as how individuals, groups and churchs can partner with CBF to help address these issues globally.  This project’s purpose is to create 13 passionate advocates for the MDGs who then will exponentially increase awareness and action all over the country through the projects they start when they return to their homes and campuses.

We are very excited about this unique project and the students who have commited to take this 50 day trip ~ which will only be the beginning of a lifelong journey.  They will be able to see first hand how they can act on behalf of the poor, the voiceless, the oppressed - just as God has commanded us to do.  They will experience how the body of Christ can and should be at the forefront of addressing these great needs that our world has identified. And they can spread that truth to others when they return. 

Please pray for these students and those who will lead them.  They are each currently seeking to raise money to support this project.  Also keep your eyes on this blog site, as the team will be blogging about their travels and experiences all summer.  You will be able to read about what they are experiencing as it happens!

Student.Go MDG Special Project Team 2008

Carson Foushee – McAfee School of Divinity - Fall 2008

Mary Beth Gilbert – Samford University

Jacob Kendall – Huntingdon University

Emily Morrow – Trinity University fall 2008

Nina Peppers – Judson College

Caitlin Sandley – Auburn University

Jacob Smith – Auburn University

Fran Stafford – Univ. of AL – Birmingham Medical School

Rosie Stafford – Auburn University

Caleb Tankersly – SE Missouri University

Karen Taylor –Christopher White Divinity School, Gardner-Webb University

Meredith Wilkinson – Gordon College

Jennifer Wilmore – Samford University 2007 grad – Bread for the World intern 07-08

Below is a reflection by Angel Pittman, who serves with her husband, Jason, as CBF field personnel in Miami. The Pittmans serve at Touching Miami With Love, a ministry center in the Overtown community.

I went to the post office today to double check that our mail was being forwarded to our new address, having recently moved in the last month. We were expecting a letter and I didn’t get it at our new address yet. The clerk went to get our mail carrier to speak with me. I explained my concerns and she went to look for the letter. When she returned she stopped for a minute to chat, “Your new neighborhood sure is different from your old neighborhood.” She was referring to the fact that even though we moved just a few blocks away our old neighborhood had “historic status” and didn’t represent the demographics of the larger community of Overtown.

Our intent was always to live as close to the neighborhood where we ministered and our recent move provided just that putting us closer to the heart of Overtown. “You’re in a different place now” she went on to say. I commented back that our new home was where we wanted to be and that we used to live in inner-city Detroit to add validity to our choice of home.

Her next comments surprised me as she said that she knew that we worked at “that Touching Miami with Love place” knowing right where it was on 7th Street and what the surrounding neighborhood was like. She went on to say, “If you guys work over there, you know what you’re getting into. When I first saw you I thought, ‘they don’t know what they’re doing’ then I remembered that you guys worked at the Touching Miami with Love and I thought, ‘Yeah, they know what they’re doing.’”

We went on to chat about our afterschool programs for children and youth and how she could sign up her 1st grade daughter for our summer camp and even where to go to the development corporation about buying a home in the complex we live in. As I walked away she said, “What number are you? Next time I come by I’m going knock on your door.”

No one knows a neighborhood like a postal worker who walks the streets everyday, especially a postal worker who calls the neighborhood home as well. I can’t think of better affirmation of our move than a validation like the one she gave us today at our neighborhood post office.