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FaceBook Group
ItsforMinistry is now also on FaceBook… and you are invited to join the conversations there: www.facebook.com/groups/itsforministry
General
SMARTER Goals
You’ll have heard of SMART goals – but what of SMARTER ones!
S Specific
M Measurable
A Achievable
R Relevant
T Time Bound
E Evaluated
R Reviewed
General
iPad won’t start, after ‘flat battery’
I have just spent ages trying various solutions, restarts, button pressing, and thinking my iPad had died. Then tried charging with the original Apple Charger and cable. All sorted! Other cables and chargers may work well most of the time but just don’t have the oomph to start up from a completely drained battery. Sometimes the simplest solutions are worth trying first!
Android
WordPress
If you are using WordPress to host your website, are you using the WORDPRESS app on your iOS or Android device to simplify updates on the go…?
www.apps.wordpress.com for details and downloads.
Covid-19
Music & Hymns
Music – Audio and Video Files
Various sites from where songs and hymn resources are available – especially during Covid19 restrictions.
Please ensure that appropriate licensing permission is in place when using these resources.
St Chads, York
Evangelical Movement of Wales
https://www.emw.org.uk/what-we-do/resourcing-publications/hymns-for-use-in-church-services
Songs for Sunday
RCL based Suggestions from Trinity College, Glasgow
https://www.trinitycollegeglasgow.co.uk/blog/categories/songs-for-sunday
Craigsbank Parish Church
‘performance permission’ granted, for these to be used alongside CCLi or appropriate Streaming Licence.
www.youtube.com/channel/UCu1xAS2e9Co3uzCOitH8jug
Everingham Music
https://youtube.com/channel/UCjSod1JYIqPRsUakBSsfWQQ
Scottish Psalter, Hymns etc
stevenstonhighkirk.com/praise-resources
🟪 – Advent and Christmas Music
Joyfulnoise.uk 🟪
- Comfort and Joy https://youtu.be/uJsE63PIWjU
Ferryhill Church Virtual Choir 🟪
Engage Worship 🟪
Fischy Music
- youtu.be/LEORRN_3avU – a Song for Christmas 🟪 – can be freely streamed and shared.
Small Church Music
- Public domain music – freely usable
Home for Christmas 🟪
Rev Craig Downes
- YouTube Channel with permission to use.
ChristianBSL 🟪
- Traditional Carols, with BSL
Virtual-Organist.Com 🟪
- Virtual-Organist.com – public domain tunes downloadable as MP3s – favourite hymn tunes from Mike Whitton.
Premier Christian Radio 🟪
- Downloadable Resources inc Carols
Emu Music 🟪
Small Church Music
Public domain mp3s available for download
Carolyn’s Hymns
Carolyn says, “Some pastors and church music leaders have asked for permission to use my hymns in worship services that they are streaming live, or in other ways they are reaching out to their congregations from a distance. During these challenging times, you have my permission to go ahead and use my copyrighted hymns in these ways for free.”
Graham Kendrick
Resound Worship 🟪
During the Covid-19 crisis, we give permission for all churches worldwide to stream Resound Worship songs. This includes our videos, our recordings, our lyrics and your own performances.
If you have a streaming licence (eg CCLI, OneLicense), we’d appreciate it if you would report your usage. If you don’t, we would like you to use our material anyway.
RCL based suggestions
Sunday 24 January
Psalm 62 – Find Rest O My Soul
Mark 1:14-20 – Jesus, You Have Called Us
Sunday 7 February
Psalm 147 – How Good It Is
Isaiah 40:21-31 – Those Who Hope
Sunday 21 February
Genesis 9:8-17 – Where Are You in the Storm
Sunday 28 February
Mark 8:31-38 – Jesus You Have Called Us / O Faithful Lord
Sunday 7 March
Psalm 19 – Look Up to the Skies / Nature Shines With Beauty
New Scottish Hymns
- Video Recordings available for use for a small fee.
Salvation Army 🟪
Worship Lyric Videos 🟪
- Small payment required – good quality videos.
General
Before clicking SEND, think TRACKS!
Earlier today I sent an email to over 30 colleagues and had omitted to attach the attachments! Then came the flurry of phone calls and emails… “I think you forgot the attachments!” Some email apps do clever things and remind you if you have used the word “attached” but not attached any files. I’m usually quite careful and take a moment to check emails, posts, messages and tweets before zapping them out to others… Thinking about how to be more thorough – I came up with the mnemonic TRACKS to remind me to check:
Typos
Always check emails for typos. Autocorrect is very clever but sometimes gets it embarrasingly wrong – and it’s you that will be embarrassed. Take a moment to read over the email, post, tweet before you send it into the ether.
Recipients
Think about who will read your post. If it’s an email use the To, CC and BCC carefully. If your email is to more than one person a good style is to use ‘To’ for the people from whom you expect action, CC is for information. BCC use carefully! Remember GDPR and dont share email addresses without permission.
Attachments
Have you included all attachments referred to?Is there a better way to share the info – perhaps a link, or sharing to DROPBOX, TEAMS, SLACK or another collaboration tool?
Complete info
If you refer to a meeting on Wednesday, have you also mentioned the time and venue… think ‘complete information’ – even if it’s repeated and was in an earlier communication?
Kind of Conversation
Emails should be kind! Also think of the kind of conversation. A letter, phone call or face to face talk might be a better approach for that difficult conversation.
Subject Line
The subject line is so important. How many emails do you delete on the basis of the subject line? Simply being there is a good start as many spam filters will make assumptions about emails without a subject. It should be clear and concise and relate to the actual subject matter rather than an earlier thread! It’s okay to change the Subject line when replying to an email if the subject has changed!
Remember TRACKS
Before sending an email, post, message or tweet, think TRACKS – Typos, Recipients, Attachments, Complete, Kind, Subject – and then click SEND.
Fun
What day of the week? The Doomsday Rule
I write this on Doomsday! The 6th day of the 6th month! Sounds ominous! Actually quite fun! Did you know that the 4th day of the 4th month, the 6th day of the 6th month, the 8th day of the 8th month, the 10th day of the 10th month, and the 12th day of the 12th month always fall on the same day of the week?
- In 2020 these dates are all Saturdays.
- In 2019 they were Thursdays (we leaped over Friday)
- In 2021 they are all Sundays
- In 2022 they are Mondays
- get the idea… move forward a day each year – skip a day going into a leap year!
But what of February and all the odd numbered months?
In January, doomsday is the 3rd, or 4th in a leap year
In February – the last day of the month 28th/29th is always doomsday!
In March – following from Feb’s rule we can say that the 0th day is doomsday (or remember that 7,14,21,28 are always March’s doomsdays)
May & September are easily remembered together – the 9th of the 5th month, and 5th of the 9th always fall on Doomdsay!
July & November are remembered together as the 11th day of the 7th month and the 7th day of 11th month are always doomsday
Armed with this information it makes it easy to work out what day of the week any date falls on.
If you know which day of the week is doomsday for the current year and the next two years, and perhaps the previous year you will be well on your way to impressing others, and simplifying some routine tasks. If you are forward planning Sunday Services – you will know the dates without having to keep referring to the calendar!
You may notice some key dates are always doomsday! American Independence Day 4th July, Halloween 31st October. Perhaps a birthday or anniversary falls on doomsday! Any date not on a doomsday must be with 3 days of one. Christmas Day is always D-1, St Andrew’s Day is D+2.
If you want to know how to develop this to work out any date and tell people what day of the week they were born or which day the battle of Hastings took place you can learn more at: https://www.timeanddate.com/date/doomsday-rule.html
Happy Doomsday!
Change
OnLine Reports & Papers
A wee video from a few years ago with Bryan Kerr and Donald McCorkindale in the context of the Church of Scotland General Assembly – about going paperless and making the most of electronic versions rather than printing off oddles of paper!
Yes you can scribble notes in the margins, stick in a post-it note! Yes, you can flick between several documents. Take time to become familiar with reading and using digital documents.
Change
The most important meeting of the day!
All Zoomed out! Lots of online meetings on various platforms filling our days. But the most important meeting is a low tech offline one!
Are you making time for a meeting with yourself? Have you put it in your calendar and blocked off time to review, plan and priorise your day?
Below is my ‘Agenda’ for Morning and Evening meeting with self – and God.
I’m a big fan of AYOA and have used it for years to keep track of my projects and tasks – it may work well for you – it’s very visual, actually quite fun, and integrates with mind-mapping. The important thing is to have a trusted system – somewhere beyond your head to capture and process all the things that you have to do
Meeting with self – Morning
Agenda
Prayer
Previous meeting notes
Matters arising – any loose threads..?
Correspondence (Incoming External stuff)
- Check Church of Scotland News
- Tue: Schedule half an hour to process emails/ Evernote Inbox
- Wed: Check Presbytery Website
- Thu: Check Ascend Website
Review AYOA/ To Do List
- Review Projects & Tasks
- Is there anything that anyone else is waiting for?
- Who is on my mind that I will phone or message today?
Personal Development
At least half an hour now or scheduled for later today.
- Watch/ Read a MindTools article
- Watch a TED Talk
- Read
- Sharpen a saw! Schedule time to hone a skill
- Listen to a podcast
Meeting with self – Evening
- What am I grateful for?
- How have I made a difference for others today?
- What 6 Things will I prioritise tomorrow?
- Time to pray