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Two months ago I wrote up a tribute to theologian and noted author Stanley Grenz. It was in response to a call for papers. Knowing that a many theological giants would be submitting their own reflections and tributes, I figured that I didn’t have too much of a chance to get in

Nevertheless, I spent a bit of time on my research and determined that if it didn’t make the cut, I would at least make it available for free to all who are interested in reading an analysis of the impact of Stan Grenz on Christians who blog. The title is: Christian Blogs: Fulfilling Grenz’s Communal Vision for Theology.

As you probably have figured out by now, the article was returned. So, in keeping with my original intention, I have loaded the article below.
You may read it here: Stanley Grenz and Blogs

The season is about to drive into full-swing and I’m rather busy preparing for the volunteers. The chief task I have right now is to prepare a training time and a type of manual for the volunteers.

I am convinced that one of the best ways to care for volunteers is by preparing for volunteers. When you have your facts straight, when answers are at your finger tips, and you have plenty of coffee and tea waiting in the wings, you are in prime position to care for your volunteers.

There is nothing more dreadful than having to rush around and throw a job together for a volunteer. It ups the tension a few notches and makes them feel unwanted. I think of preparation as a preemptive thank you. Having a neat work place or an organized project ready says that you value their time and are on their side.

If volunteers knows that you’re watching out for them, their time will be spent well.

Jeff Dickson, the managing editor of the Manchester Journal came to the most recent Northshire Non-Profit Network meeting to give some pointers on press releases. Though I plan on posting my notes from the meeting at the NNN site, I wanted to share a few that I thought were particularly helpful:

1. Keep the press release to about 300 words.
2. Don’t format it. Just paste the plain text into an e-mail. No bolds, no italics, and never send them something with all caps.
3. Make sure all of the important information comes first. Newspapers edit from the bottom up.

That’s enough to get started. Stay tuned for the full post over at the NNN site.

Technorati Tags: press+release, writing

After five days out of town in West Virginia for a little bit of hiking, we’re back home. In trying to catch up on my favorite blogs, I found a link at Jordon Cooper’s blog to a nice site full of links to open source software and other free downloads. Some of it is junk, some of it is just for fun, but there are some wonderful finds there. By using these products you can put aside, Norton Anti-Virus, Microsoft Office, Adobe pdf Maker, Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and a bunch of other programs that will run up a bill in the $1,000’s.

Check out econsultant’s list.

Technorati Tags: freeware

Writing Exercise: If you could make a bank that would hold anything but money, what kind of bank would it be? What would you put in it? Give yourself 15 minutes.

We’ll be out of town for a few days. Pending on how much it rains and whether or not I can remember my passwords, I may not be blogging too much over the weekend. I’ll be back by Tuesday for sure.

Employee Handbook Section 8.II.D.3.b.iv.

Take It Personal Days

From time to time conflicts may threaten the strategic effectiveness of the staffing resources. Should team members become entangled in such an inconvenient circumstance we offer “Take It Personal Days.” Implementing time away from the source of conflict will sufficiently diffuse all unwanted repurcussions from internal team member dissatisfaction.

Since insults and offenses typically proceed from the top of the strategic leadership paradigm, the following scale will be utilized in distributing “take it personal days”:

Executives: one day
Managers: two days
Engineers: three days
Marketing staff: three days
Accounting staff: four days
Clerks, secretaries, mail room: five days

Such a structure will create a healthy office family and will diffuse all undesired conflict while enabling executives and managers to justify demeaning and unjust treatment of team members. We believe that “Take It Personal Days” are the most efficient way to strategically eliminate employee dissatisfaction while maintaining existing paradigms and practices.

Technorati Tags: personal days