Bloggin' Together For The Gospel

Wish I'd have been there to see/hear this...
I can only imagine... LOL...

[continued]

[Also visit Together For The Gospel]

[Also visit Challies.com -- live-blogging it all]

One Year Bible Blog

"Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path." Psalm 119:105

[continued at OneYearBibleBlog.com]

CoffeeHouse Ministries

[Thought you'd all be interested in this new site here in Indy... and is operated by a Christian friend of ours....]



"Coffee House Fellowship Ministries is a forum for men to discuss issues relating to life and faith and how these impact our daily lives. We are dedicated to building men into effective leaders, husbands, and fathers through critical thinking and mutual fellowship.
We are based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and meet bi-weekly... [continued at CoffeeHouseMinistries.org]

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[IndyChristian Ed. Note: As more & more such ministries and coffee-house Bible study groups show up on the radar screen here around Indy, we're mapping them and linking you to them at NeighborhoodCafes.com. Know of any others? Email us.]

1000 Mentors?

"A journey of a 1,000 miles begins with one step."

Our journey to help raise up a 1,000 mentors for at-risk kids in Indianapolis schools... took another step this morning. We helped Pastor James Carter start a web-site and procure the domain-name "1000 Mentors .com".

The concept emanated from last year's Transform Indiana discussion series, "Breaking Out of the Jail Cycle". Many among the ministry network are involved in various aspects of prison ministry'... during and after incarceration. And others, like Pastor Carter, concluded that God was calling them to try to help stem the problem as far 'upstream' as possible. Help impressionable youth.

One of the forum panelists, Olgen Williams from the Christamore House, told the crowd... "The number one determinant as to the likelihood of a youth ending up in jail someday... is whether he failed to finished school."

Pastor Carter resolved to do something about that, Lord willing.

So when he heard IPS Superintendent Dr. Eugene White put out a call for mentors to come alongside at-risk IPS students, he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted the (big-C) 'Church' to provide 1,000 such mentors. A tall task, to be sure.

The Transform Indiana ministry network has joined in the effort, and brought in the founder of "Kids Hope USA" to speak at a monthly TI networking meeting. And a number of the TI networkers are helping Pastor Carter get underway.

One 'step' was to help James get a web-site started.

And that's one way we can help.

How to create a hyperlink...

This morning, one of our bloggers said, "Ok, I know how to log in, write something, hit the Publish button... But how do you make those hyperlinks in your blog?"

Ok, fellow bloggers... LOL... Here's a start. Here's how you can create a hyperlink, so you can effectively 'point' folks to other great sites, articles or webpages.

After you've logged in to Blogger.com, and started creating or editing a blog-post...

1. Write something.
2. highlight something you wrote (which you'd like to see turned into a hyperlink.)
3. Click the tiny little 'hyperlink' icon (which is just above the white text-box you're writing in.)
4. When the little dialog box appears, type in the URL of the site you want your hyperlink to go to.
5. Click 'Ok' in the little dialox box.

La Voila! Here's what I decided to link to, to show you MY FAVORITE PIC on the world WIDE web !!!

[More next week. Y'all come.]

How To Get George Bush To Read Your Blog!

We need to soon build a cafe-blogging segment on...

"How To Get George Bush To Read Your Blog!".

(...or anyone else.)

Sure, he COULD accidentally get bored some day while vacationing at the ranch, and just HAPPEN to type in your blog url. [Or so could anyone else.]

But that's not likely.

So the question is... How should we quickly go about getting our blogs seen?

We'll answer that in upcoming blog-posts, probably by going and searching out best-practices that someone else has already compiled for us. Then we'll link you to THEIR best ideas.

[And btw, we know some bloggers that George respects.... so just MAYBE....]

But at the very least, we'll start compiling some tips & tricks in the meantime. Like... go try to get your blog-url added at the following blog-searching sites:

• UBbloggin.com -- Ask them (oh, I mean us) to add your url in the 'Begats' section.
• IndyChristian.com -- If you're a Christian blogger, maybe you'd qualify for the Who's Who of Indy Bloggers. Email Neil.
• IndyBloggers.com -- Aggregator associated with IndyChristian.com. If you get aggregated there, you'd automatically also be seen wherever THEIR site is aggregated. Eg... ChristianHeadlines.com's Indiana News & Blogs page.
• Email IndyChristian's listed Who's Who of Indy Bloggers... and maybe they'add add you.
• BlogIndiana.com -- a secular list of Indiana blogs.
• Ask your church to add your link. LOL -- Yeah right **rollingeyes**. Maybe not yet, but sooner or later you'll see an openness by churches to reflect the nature of the Church... as the PEOPLE... not the centralized meeting place... or the staff... or just the leaders. So hang in there in the meantime, encourage them to start thinking that way. If we're ever to totally impact our neighborhoods and culture, it'll be by WORKING TOGETHER as a networked tapestry of driven Christians. They'll add you one of these days. Trust me. Btw, though... here's a start... here are some progress IndyChurches(.com) at least doing some blogging.
• Go join a 'blog alliance'. There are a number of Christian alliances shown at IndyChristian.com. And there are many more.
• Consider your favorite activities, ministries, hobbies, etc.... Chances are, they considering a blogsite, and might soon even be aggregating blog-feeds like YOURS. Ask them to add your link to their site.
• Other ideas or search-engine links for bloggers?

Now in the meantime, take some time and consider... "If not George Bush, who WOULD I like to read my blog?" [That is... what's the purpose of my blog anyway? How could I change the world a little, or a lot, if I published my best stuff here? Or how could I change the world by networking people to other people who are working to change the world for Christ?]

SimDesk Saturday, March 18th... 12:30pm

We're welcoming a returning friend this week, as she represents SimDesk, and will be talking with several of our geekier friends (**LOL**) about helping us sponsor a Tech Awareness Day in the inner-city this year.

So y'all come, if you're interested in how we can work together to help folks cross the digital divide, in neighborhoods across the city.

Say hi to Donny...

Welcome our newest blogger...

Donny G. Jackson, Sr.

The Kings Kids....

Remember us talking about our new friend Rachel? She likes being called 'Antoinette'... especially now that she's starting a cleaning business blog.

This morning at the cafe...

[Hey, what's this? A WEDDING reception is taking place this afternoon... for our friend Beverly. Wishing you the very best!]

We'll try to blog some more a little later, but here's one link we wanted to put up today... ReformU.com is an addictions program with a couple of locations right here in Indy.

• Soul Harbors Church, 317-638-0533
• Eagledale Baptist Church

We'll try to get some more info on them and perhaps include them at WhenYouNeedSomeone.com -- the needs-based Christian site for the city. Stay tuned.

*******************
Later... Ok, we're back... blogging another key piece of Saturday morning's 'connection & internet-training'... We added a link to a new friend who just arrived in Indy... Eric's bivocational pastor... Floyd Miles, who is... get this... an eminently qualified addictions counselor among other things. Welcome, Floyd! Hope you like Indy as much as we do.

Why do we do what we do?

Why? Because we enjoy making friends at the cafe. And because some of us are kind of geeky. LOL. So we enjoy helping our friends get a little geeky too. Well, at least enough to learn some of the basic internet skills together. Learn to find stuff you want. And importantly, learn to find WHO you want to find... ie, friends that love you too and will help find stuff, etc. And the list goes on.

But even if we helped people acquire great computers skills, or find great jobs, or learned to surf for answers about how to fix their homes so they could be warm, dry and well-fed all their life... til they died... and fell off into an eternity in hell... THAT WOULDN'T BE VERY NICE OF US !

So a big part of the answer to 'Why do we do what we do?' is....

...because many of us have received the most valuable gift known to mankind, and we're willing to 'love our neighbors as ourselves'... that is... share it with you too.

Jesus has done sooooo much for us, it wouldn't be right not to share it.

If we ourselves enjoy peace with God Almighty, now and forever.... then surely we're not REALLY loving our neighbors as ourselves if we don't pass along that 'good news'... of how you too could have eternal life.

So let me ask you... [click to continue if interested]

Far-flung Friend of the cafe... Ken Bussell

Remember Ken? [see his comment] He's now out in Oregon ministry... worshipping, administrating... and blogging.

Today at the cafe...

The place was buzzin' today again... a meeting going on in the back room, and doing internet training out in the front of the cafe. Another new young lady joined our networking group this morning. [Welcome Rachel!] And James & Thomas were back with us again this morning, and the normal crowd. So the group continues growing...

And that's the essence of the theme here... the more the merrier. 'Teams' and 'networks' can help people success more often than 'Lone-Rangers'.

Example: Today Rachel asked... "How could I use the internet for job-hunting... or starting a cleaning business?" A perfect question. And something that a network can help with. Thus the need to keep networking further & further.

[continue discussion at CEO Indy.com -- a jobs blog]

Video-bloggin'

Hey the cafe's new video is now available via the web !

A special thanks goes out to Dave Streit, at Tabernacle Presbyterian Church. We praise God for you, Dave, and for all the fine folks at Tab who are actively involved at the cafe and other urban ministries throughout the city.

Each One, Teach One

By Neil Cox
"I may not be a poet, but I understand math."

I teach You.
You teach Somebody.
Somebody teaches Him.
Him teaches Her.
Her teaches Them.
Them teaches Who.
Who teaches Y'all.

"Y'all can teach Everybody."

TechMission Jobs Postings

Hey here are some Job-openings at TechMission (Boston). These are the great folks that are helping Christians run urban tech centers all over the country, and they're apparently growing like crazy. Neat guys & gals. We had several of them here in Indy, running the CyberCafe at CCDA Indy 2005 -- remember?

[continued]

**********************
[And don't forget WhenYouNeedSomeone.com -- where we're trying to help a number of folks with various different types of needs... connect to the Christian ministries that will try to help. A couple of the ministries seen there help with JOBS-related issues... such as... CEOindy.com.]

DAVID IVEY, A MAN AFTER GOD'S OWN HEART!

Just had to let you all know that there is a true Psalmist on the scene of today's music -
he is an Anointed man of God,
he sings of God, he sings to God --
his words & music are given by God,
and he, in turn, gives them right back to Our Heavenly Father
in Worship, Praise, and Thanksgiving!

Don't take my word for it - go out and buy these CD's:
Your Today & the Bottom Line, by David Ivey.

You will not regret it --
you will not be disappointed --
in fact, your life will be changed --
your heart will be mended --
you will be set free & made whole --
your relationship with Your Heavenly Father will be renewed and made stronger!!

Now, please -- go buy the music - then come back and thank me!
Love in Christ always!

Cafe bloggers... and CEO blog

This morning we had fun practicing together on CEO blog.

There's no better way to understand what a blog is... than jumping right in and start 'bloggin'.

So each person took a turn bloggin' an entry there as a fun way to practice together.

And ultimately, we want to help build this particular blogsite to help direct folks to great employment-focused resources, opportunities and to start networking with each other for jobs.

[continued at CEO blog]

And here's one of our new bloggers already putting up a site...


[Shazodan]

*********************
[And after we finished at the cafe, several of these folks proceeded on to Crossroads Bible College for a meeting of young folks who intend to be involved in a citywide renewal event called 'Really Big City'.]

Baloney Bloggin'

Here is a picture of Gerald.
Know why he's so wiiiiiide?

Cuz he's full of baloney!




Hi everyone. Forgive us for having a little extra fun today. Gerald had it coming. He suckered us all in with a long-winded yarn... ending in a 'sackful of baloney'.

Every week it's different, but we have a lot of fun here building relationships across various cultures. In fact, we say that we're not only trying to cross the 'divide divide', but we're also crossing the racial divide, and ultimately helping our friends cross God's eternal divide.

And yeah, we have fun doing it. So we used Gerald's baloney tale to also teach folks how to search for pictures out on the web, and how to easily put 'em into their websites.

Hope to see some of you on Saturday -- come join us. It's free and easy, and holds eternal rewards.

When You Need Someone... for Jobs...

One of our objectives at IndyChristian.com is to link pastors/leaders to best-in-class partnering ministries... particularly 'care ministries'... such as Jobs Partnership here in the heart of the inner-city, when Minister Doug Hairston is the Executive Director.... [continued at WhenYouNeedSomeone.com]