DIsciplesNet News from Nelda
We have been at it just over a year, and our ministry at DisciplesNet continues to keep growing at a steady pace. This is exciting to us all, yet has left us busy enough with a mostly volunteer staff that we have done a poor job of keeping our regulars up-to-date on DisciplesNet News.
With this newsletter we welcome Rev. Nelda Seger, a gifted pastor, minister, and chaplain who has come on to help with many of our ministry and office tasks, including sending out a regular newsletter to those on our email list. Hope you will enjoy reading up about what is going on with DisciplesNet. Thanks, Nelda, for sharing your many gifts with DisciplesNet Church! Continue reading
Tending the Nets: Writing yesterday about Tomorrow’s snow pictures
Writing yesterday about a lovely photo of tomorrow’s snow. (August 16, 2012)
The photo on this page was taken by my Facebook friend and sister in serving Christ, Lorraine Jacobs from their home in New Zealand. It is late winter for them there…and Tuesday for them already. I write this at 8PM Monday, August 15, 2011; for Lorraine it is near noon on August 16. Her today is my tomorrow….and my today is her yesterday. Amazing!
From Lorraine I learned that calling folks in Australia and New Zealand as from “down under” is not always taken well–pretty much a sign of seeing the world from a single perspective. Continue reading
Extending the Net: Who is welcome at DisciplesNet Church?
Extending the Net
Lately we’ve had several people ask questions to the effect of, “Who is welcome at DisciplesNet?” These questions have referred to various and specific designations of people they’ve asked if are excluded or included here. In some cases they may be wondering if they are welcome, and in other cases they may be wondering if someone with whom they don’t see eye-to-eye is welcome.
This blog entry is an attempt, imperfect as it is, to answer that question. Continue reading
Who Knows the Hour or the Day?
Several people have asked if I believe that this, May 21, 2011, is the day when Jesus is coming to take home all those who believe in him. One of our values at DisciplesNet is trying to see beyond overly simplified two sides of things. We try hard not to look at people, situations, and issues in either-or, in-out, black-white terms, but full color instead. We believe this makes working together more civil and effective, with less emphasis on who is right and wrong and who wins and who loses. Continue reading
Extending the Nets: The Latest Word from DisciplesNet Church: March 2011
This Wednesday, DisciplesNet Church posted our 19th worship video, an Ash Wednesday worship. Within this new church, without doors and with walls as wide as the world, we continue to experience a whirlwind of activity. Much of this is taking place behind the scenes, including in preparations for expanding our ministry.
In the midst of our growth, however, we are way overdue in filling in our growing DisciplesNet family, friends, supporters, and guests about progress since we went online in November 2010. We’re very sorry about that! We hope that this blog and ones to follow will help to update you on what is going on and what to expect. Continue reading
Missing Church
This week we posted one of DisciplesNet Church’s first worship services here on our Blog page. We were excited and anxious to share more of the spirit and community that we are already building. If you haven’t watched the video blog, I recommend you do so. It will help put some of my remarks in better perspective.
You see, that worship service was one of our earliest, and I was one of the “remote viewers” (no, not one of those military ESP recruits!). Well, actually, I wasn’t “viewing” anything except the faceless grey profile forms for the conference calling accounts of those who were sharing that worship experience. The video-conferencing program we were using would not support a video connection for more than 1 to 1 calling, so we only had voice connections. Needless to say, it was a bit challenging to follow some parts of the service, such as the sharing at the Table, when there were no visual cues. When you view the worship service we have posted, you are also getting the edited version, so you are not experiencing the awkward pauses, dropped internet connections, or the extraneous noises. (Well, you do get to hear some of those – I’m not sure who it was who opened a soda can, but it is a distinctive sound!) We actually had three callers on the connection of which I was a part – Ohio, California, and Ireland. The connection with Pakistan came through a second laptop in the room. Continue reading
Warmest Greetings!
We are so happy to have you travel alongside us on the internet highway! Exciting things are happening as we ‘go live” with our new webchurch. Keep reading to discover more details below. If you’d like to be part of history in the making, please join us as often as you’d like. DisciplesNet is a way for you to put your personal gifts to work in helping us build this new church without walls and with doors that never close.
As you visit www.disciplesnet.org, we invite you to look around and join in any part that you like. Our beginnings are only a small bit of what we will eventually have, but if you keep coming back, you will discover a new feature every few days and weeks. All along the way we will keep listening to your feedback and asking for your help in reaching out in faithfulness to the ways God is calling you and the rest of us to grow and serve. Continue reading
Getting Started
Starting anything new is always hard—at least for me. A blank screen (used to be the blank sheet of paper!) can be so intimidating. Already, with two sentences written, I feel some of the stress leaving my shoulders—yeah! I am doing this!!
I spent most of my adult life trying not to get pigeon-holed in my jobs because I had some savvy about using computers. I always wanted to use them as tools to something bigger, broader, more impactful—whatever. I was asked several times to point my career into working in, analyzing, and/or managing the computer infrastructures for the Human Resources departments of my various employers. I always managed to avoid that path, while still staying deeply connected with the vital group of people who were doing that work. It seems to me no coincidence, then, that as I look to start a new career in ministry my first significant efforts involve technology and pushing the envelope on how technology and people can work together to form something bigger, broader, more impactful. Continue reading
Extending The Nets
“Were not our hearts burning within us?” (Luke 24:30-32)
I can’t ever remember a feeling quite like this. I’ve been in the church my whole life, and yes, I have felt the Spirit move in ways I can’t explain. Sometimes during a prayer, a song, a silence. Sometimes when I am alone talking with God. And sometimes in church as we share in the harmony of a song or prayer. More than any other time I feel God’s Spirit when we come together at the Table. This is where we break bread together, and I believe are given an incredible gift while there, if we take time to receive it: of being able to see each other more clearly there through the eyes of our Host. All of us gathered at the table are God’s children, trembling, hungry, loving; our faces smudged with what we’ve been into. Continue reading