Lots of Ordinary Things, Taken Together…

You Can Make Posts Here Too

You all see and do big things and small things every week such as what I wrote about in this little post about the stained glass windows. When you are doing what you do with Living Table and New Branches, please snap a picture with your phone. Then? Send the picture and a few words about it to Pastor Rachael (for now), so that it can become a blog post like the post about the stained glass windows. That’s it!

Don’t make Pastor Rachael guess what the photo is (unless you’re messing with her – do you). Send the photo and a few sentences, as they should appear. She might edit a bit for website formatting or clarity, but otherwise she’ll make the post and then you will have shared something from the church. Thank you! It will come from The Office account on the website, which is the people’s work.

Your new website is designed for all of you to be sharing the church more publicly. It is ready for you to begin doing this.

If you’ll actually use it, I will make a submission portal for this, probably inside the dashboard, which is what you get to by logging in to the site.

About Photos

For photos that show people’s likeness (i.e. if you can tell who they are in the photo), they will need to sign a photo release. So for now please only include photos of people if you have their express permission to share their photo, because we will need to check in with them about that permission before using your photo. You can always share your own photo, and you can share photos of things like stained glass windows.

Ideas

Here are a few examples of things that would make useful posts for sharing:

• a photo of new door repair, explaining what was fixed and maybe something cute about when God closes a door
• a photo of a snow-cleared walkway, explaining how to walk in Minnesota winters like a penguin but that the New Branches walkways appear to be open to penguins and people today
• a photo of giant letters cut out from foam boards, because they are going to be decorated by a team of people and later hung in the sanctuary for Advent and so this would be the before picture and people can “wait” to see them live in Advent
• a photo of a bulb being planted in the fall, saying what it is and where, so we can look for what will spring forth
• a photo of the coffee you poured at a New Branches meet-up that you attended or helped to host, with a few words about how your time went and whether you’ll be back and want to invite folks next time to join you

Get it?

I know some folks are intimidated by new technology. The new website is a custom project, built for Living Table, with specifically you all in mind. It’s intentionally easy to use. And for this particular thing, you’re invited to email photos and write-ups to the pastor, about the things you are already doing, and she will make them into posts using the easy-to-use, custom-built system behind the scenes. (spoiler alert: Soon she will be looking for one of more volunteers who want to help with this very easy process of making posts, but most of you won’t be doing that so please don’t worry if that thought brings you worry.)

If you have questions about how to take a photo with your phone and email it to the pastor with your sentences, please ask someone to help you, because we want to hear from you.