PastorHacks

Best of 2008: Timebridge

Timebridge

I've been using doodle.ch as a way to cut the hassle of scheduling elder meetings (with 7 elders now, it's a pain in the rear to trade the "I'm available Tuesday at 7!" "Oh, I'm not..." emails among that many).

The person calling the meeting lists their available times and everyone else chimes in on which ones work.

Now here's a new service that seems to do the same, but prettier (doodle.ch is, uh... not flashy, to say the least) and includes Outlook/Google Calendar integration. It also automates the process a bit more, in that if there's a clear winner in everyone's availability, it "schedules" the meeting for you and automatically emails all the participants. I like that.

And if I'm reading it right, it also emails reminders to stragglers who are being pokey about listing their availability. I like that too :) It also gives the option of listing meeting locations (which might change depending on the date), another nice innovation...

It's free, looks nice, cuts a lot of time out of scheduling meetings, iCal integration... What more could you want? 

Check it out!

Technorati Links

I've been using doodle.ch as a way to cut the hassle of scheduling elder meetings (with 7 elders now, it's a pain in the rear to trade the "I'm available Tuesday at 7!" "Oh, I'm not..." emails among that many).

The person calling the meeting lists their available times and everyone else chimes in on which ones work.

Now here's a new service that seems to do the same, but prettier (doodle.ch is, uh... not flashy, to say the least) and includes Outlook/Google Calendar integration. It also automates the process a bit more, in that if there's a clear winner in everyone's availability, it "schedules" the meeting for you and automatically emails all the participants. I like that.

And if I'm reading it right, it also emails reminders to stragglers who are being pokey about listing their availability. I like that too :) It also gives the option of listing meeting locations (which might change depending on the date), another nice innovation...

It's free, looks nice, cuts a lot of time out of scheduling meetings, iCal integration... What more could you want? 

Check it out!

A prayer for today's meetings...

"Prevenience is the conviction that God has been working diligently, redemptively, and strategically before I appeared on the scene, before I was aware there was something for me to do here... Like one who walks in late to a meeting, I am entering a complex situation in which God has already said decisive words and acted in decisive ways. My work is not necessarily to announce that but to discover what He is doing and live appropriately with it." -Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor

God, as I meet with others today, help me to listen. Help me to listen for and hear the threads of Your working in their lives, Your presence, Your grace. Help me to point them to what You have already been doing, and enable us together to discern what the next steps might be. Thank You that You don't wait for me to show up before working in someone's life! And thank You for letting me play a small role in what You are doing in others' lives, and for allowing me to see, on a daily basis, as part of my vocation, redemption in action. 

Highrise

For the last year, I've been using 37 Signals' Highrise. It's an online contact management system that allows me to keep information about contacts and my (and others') interactions with them all in one place.

Basically, I felt the need for this after realizing that 
1. I was forgetting too many vital details in the lives of people in my church community and
2. I was spending too much time spinning my wheels trying to remember "Now, what did we talk about last time???" before meeting with someone.

With Highrise, and simply taking a few minutes to record pertinent info after a significant conversation or meeting, the details are captured and can be reviewed when needed.

Now, clearly, all of this can happen in Address Book/Outlook/whatever. The beauty of Highrise is that it lives online and can be shared among elders and leaders. Now, I don't have to ask my associate pastor to recap every coffee/meeting with people I want to keep current on. I can just check out Highrise and read the notes.

And I don't write EVERYTHING in there. Just stuff that is appropriate/needful for other pastors/elders to see.

Check it out- there's a free plan that allows up to two separate users. You can upgrade as well, though you probably can work around the two-user limit. 

Here's a write-up of how one pastor uses Highrise...

Pastor uses Highrise to keep track of interactions with his congregation

Rev. Andrew Conard, Pastor of Congregational Care at The United Methodist Church, writes in: "I have found Highrise to be an excellent way to keep track of interactions that I have with members and visitors to the congregation both in the hospital, in appointments, at worship and around town. Highrise has become an integral part of my task of providing the best possible care for each person."

Read the rest

Find the Cheapest Gas

Aye carumba... these gas prices are killing me.
I drive all over town for appointments with folks, and with gas nearing $20 a gallon (or something like that), I'm finding I need to sell a piece of furniture on Craigslist nearly every time I want to grab coffee with someone (half the proceeds go to the gas station, the other to Starbucks)...

So- how do I find the absolute lowest gas prices in my area?

Here's how:

For the PC, MSN Local Gas Prices

For the MAC, Gas Prices Widget

And don't you wish gas was anywhere NEAR $2.49 a gallon???

Death by Meetings...

Bill Reichart has a great post here on meetings...

Churches are notorious for meetings.  We actually have meetings in order to plan meetings!

I am sure this can be true in just about every professional setting.  Meetings can be a problematic.  Too many meetings.  Unproductive meetings.  Boring meetings.

People, as busy enough as they are, don't want to go to meetings just for the sake of going to meetings. And since, in the church, most of the people we work with are volunteers, as a leader, you have to work extra hard on making meetings worthwhile when you have them. Because since you don't pay volunteers you can't order them to come to the next meeting you call.

Here are some helpful thoughts and tips that I have discovered to help avoid, "Death by Meetings".

Be judicious with meetings!

I try to only call meetings with my volunteers and leaders only when I have to. And most of the meetings that I do call are well planned and scheduled in advance. Try not to spring too many last minute, emergency meetings on people.

Know why you are meeting.

What do you want to accomplish? What are your anticipated outcomes? If you don't know the answers to those questions, then you don't need to meet! To often we think that if people just meet together than productivity will ignite. Not true! You must plan and prepare before you meet. Review past notes and information before you meet. Don't wing meetings. Have an agenda to guide your time and to forecast for the participants where you are going and what you intend to accomplish.

Infuse value into your meetings.

What you invest into your current meeting opportunities will produce dividends for future meetings. If your meetings are engaging, purposeful and productive then people will see value in them. If your meetings help move the church or organization toward it's greater vision than people will see value in them. And if people see the value of your time together, they are more likely to carve out time and make future investments to meet.

The rest of his points are:

Not all things can be accomplished in meetings.

 
Think through creative alternatives to face-to-face meetings.

What you do after the meeting is just as important.

Check it out here!