Baptisms & Rally Sunday!

Last week, we celebrated a big day at St. Nicholas. We welcomed Grace and Kathryn Metsinger into the household of God through the sacrament of baptism. We also kicked off our 2011 Stewardship Campaign with our “rally-themed” Ministry Fair.

We were reminded that baptism is the ultimate act of stewardship, as Grace and Kathryn’s parents, Jackie and Chris Lintner, who were given these children to care for, offered up them to the glory of God. All things come from God and as such, we are called to give a portion back to God in gratitude and generosity, including our money, our time, and our talents.

New pledge cards were given out to the congregation, which included commitments for time, talent, and treasure. If you missed that Sunday, we are mailing out remaining pledge cards to those on our contact list this week. If you haven’t received a pledge card by Sunday, be sure to pick one up in the narthex while you’re there. You can return your pledge card any time between now and November 21, when we will give thanks for all that we have received. You can put your pledge card in the offering basket or you can mail it to the church. Please say your prayers and decide how you will commit to St. Nicholas in the next year. If you have any questions or are struggling with stewardship in any way, including your finances, your time, or your talents, please contact Fr. Jeff. You can also donate through PayPal at any time at the top of this page.

Here are pictures of the day, thanks to Lynn Hall.

Contemplating Children & the Shepherd

Last weekend, a group of us from St. Nicholas went up to Atlanta for the annual Ministry Fair. The Ministry Fair is a wonderful resource to all of us in the Diocese of Atlanta. There are a host of workshops ranging from spirituality to finances, from adult education to children’s curricula.

One of the workshops I went to was on a program called Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. I went primarily as a parent more than a priest, but found this program stimulated both natures. I tried to get a program like this going at my last parish, but was not successful in getting people around the vision. At the time, I also didn’t have children, so my interest level might not have been at it’s highest. Read more

Facebook, Twitter, & Blogs, Oh My! Podcast

Today, the Rev. Alicia Shuster-Weltner, Canon for Congregational Development, and I taught a workshop on using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs at the 2010 Ministry Fair of the Diocese of Atlanta at the Cathedral of St. Philip. To my delight, the workshop was well-attended. But there were many who couldn’t come, so I promised I would record the session and put it on our website. Many thanks to all who attended and contributed!

You can listen to the workshop in it’s entirety (almost an hour and a half) to the right of this page in the Podomatic window.

This podcast also marks my first exploration into souping up the recording with an introduction and conclusion. It took me a little while to figure everything out with a program on my Mac called Garageband, but once I got it, it should be much easier. It takes a little more work to do this kind of thing, but I think it adds a nice touch. Hope you like it.

Happy Birthday Website!

Our website has just had it’s very first birthday!

Today, I updated many of the Pages to reflect what’s going on currently. The website has two functioning parts, the Posts and the Pages. The Posts are the articles (like this one) that we “post” to give you up-to-date info on what’s coming up. Posts are what you see when you receive an e-mail from the website. Pages are the more “static” pages, that you see in the toolbar above. These are mostly pages that have information that is more constant. Every year, this information gets a bit of tweaking, unless something major needs to be updated.

If you haven’t strolled through the Pages in a while, you really should do so! Among the updates:

Leaders pages, especially the Vestry & Staff page
Worship page, with updated service times
Marriage, Funerals, and Other Forms of Worship, with update information on Confirmation
Parish Life Events, with more pictures of our events in the last year

If you are interested in learning more about how to contribute to our website, or learning more about websites in general, I will be teaching two different workshops. First, at the Diocesan Ministry Fair at the Cathedral on March 6, I will be co-leading a workshop called Blogs and Facebook & Twitter, Oh My! Here’s the description of the workshop: “Social media” are new tools for mainline churches, but part of the everyday lives of many of our parishioners and most of our neighbors (of all ages). Come learn how the new social media are impacting Christianity in and out of the church, and how we can be a positive force in those changes. Come learn more about Facebook, Tweeting, and other social networks and how they can work for you and your church in an effective way, most all of them at little or no cost.   The Rev. Jeff Jackson, rector of St. Nicholas in Hamilton, will use an example of how his parish is using social networking tools to build community and enhance evangelism.

Second, on March 13 at 1:00pm at the church, I will be teaching specifically how to be a contributor to our website. I will teach participants how the site works, how to post Posts and Pages, with pictures, text, and more! It would be helpful to have a laptop with wireless capabilities so you can interact with the website while I’m teaching. It’s not mandatory, though, but you’ll want to take notes.

We’ve made a lot of headway with our website in the last year. I hope you have found it an effective tool for communication. As always, your feedback is important. Help me by continuing to let me know what you’d like to see on the website in the future.

Check Us Out!

St. Nicholas made the cover story on the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta’s weekly e-newsletter Connecting, in regards to our new organ donation from St. Benedict’s, Symrna.

If you’d like to subscribe to Connecting, click here and get all your latest diocesan news! Our diocese does a fantastic job with communications, this weekly newsletter being one great example. Nan Ross is the Director of Communication and does a splendid job of getting news out and using up-to-date media to do so. Read more