From Sampler to Sower

As you know if you followed this blog before we fell off the map for a month, our youth group is currently running a series called mybrandnewlife.org.  A core component of this series is seeking to get into the Word through daily devotions which we provide on the website.  An essential objective for us, then, is to find a way to bring students back to the site every day.  As a result, we’re running some web-based contests.

To be honest, Water’s Edge’s Funniest Videos didn’t work so well, and we even extended it’s run an extra week to try to get more submissions in.  However, our current contest is a little more fun

We called it Macro-Middletown.

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Building a WordPress Website

Late last week I told you about a new series we will be launching at Water’s Edge in about three weeks called “My Brand New Life.” Now here’s the first post showing the work that’s going on behind the scenes to get this thing off the ground. In this post I’ll walk you through what we’ve been doing to get our website launched for this series.

But before I go any farther I should probably point out that this is primarily about designing the architecture for the site. We’re still developing the artwork, and that will come later. What’s more, for those of you well versed in WordPress, this will proabably be pedantic. But I tried to avoid omitting any of the steps involved for any newcomers to a self-hosted wordpress blog.

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Your Peek Behind the Curtain

Okay, this is a new one for me.  I don’t know how, or even if, this will work, but I’m going to give it a shot.

You, dear reader, are hereby offered a All-Access Backstage Pass to our youth ministry’s creative process.  We’re bringing you backstage, and inviting you to check out what’s going on behind the curtain.

Of course, that means you’re getting a glimpse of a work in progress and not the finished product.  As such, this post, and others like it will probably be rambling and scatterbrained, big on ideas, short -at least at first- on actual implementation.

As you know if you are following my weekly updates, our youth ministry is currently in a teaching series called Mythbusters.  It’s set to conclude on Tuesday, February 17th, following our final three lessons focused on Faith, Hope and Love.  That means we’re just under one month out on our next series – high time to get working on what’s next.

Next on the teaching schedule is a Lenten series, culminating, like most Lenten seasons, with an Easter celebration.  Our teaching will be guided by the Lectionary’s epistle readings.

My goal, every Lent, is to very intentionally challenge students to develop the daily disciplines which will ground their faith in an ever deepening relationship with the God whose name they claim.  That’s not to say that during Epiphany I attempt to help they develop a superficial version of Christianity that only affects their Sunday mornings and Tuesday nights – it’s just that Lent provides an intentional time every year to teach them to focus on the presence of God in every part of their life.

And so, I find myself wondering what we will do this year to help move us toward this goal.

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