MinistryHub.com

Test

2010-06-03T21:44:00.001-05:00

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Public Rooms

2008-09-22T22:11:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. Just wanted to bring to your attention that over the past day or so, the public rooms at MinsitryHub.com keep popping in and out. I just wanted everyone to know that we are working on it and should have it fixed shortly.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

The MinistryHub.com Team

It's Alive!

2008-08-03T22:35:00.000-05:00

That's right, it is alive. We have seen some tremendous growth here at MinistryHub.com over the past month. Since our last post on July 14, we've had just shy of 100 churches join in on the fun, and begin using MinistryHub.com. So please continue to spread the word and let's continue to build the largest database of service ideas ever.
For fun we thought we would share just a few MinistryHub.com stats with you.

Current Members: 396 Churches from USA, Canada, Europe and Australia.
Virtual Brainstorming Ideas Submitted: 1,320 Ideas
864 Song Suggestions
384 Video and Movie Suggestions
42 Other or Out Of The Box Suggestions
Of The 1,320 ideas, they have been ranked 2,562 times (This causes the good to rise to the top and the bad to sink lower within the list)

Once again, spread the word! MinistryHub.com is becoming the place where you will want to start your service planning each week.

The MinistryHub.com Team

MinistryHub.com Is Growing!

2008-07-14T11:04:00.002-05:00

Hello all,

The past couple of weeks have been pretty exciting for us here at MinistryHub.com, as we have seen some tremendous growth and participation going on within the site. We are proud to say there are now over 300 churches throughout the world using MinistryHub.com each week to locate ideas for their weekly services. Why just within the past two weeks we have had 64 topics brainstormed (see list below) an have now pushed past over 1,200 suggested ideas. As more and more churches participate, our database will continue to grow, and as the database continues to grow this just means that if your a member of MinistryHub.com in the end, it will save you a tremendous amount of time. Time that you can use for ministry instead of surfing the web.

So keep up the great work and remember TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT MINSTRYHUB.COM!

The MinistryHub.com Team

Brainstormed Topics From The Last Two Weeks:
Abortion, Adultery, Ambition, Anger, Authenticity, Baptism, Basics Of Christianity, Being Salt And Light, The Bible, Bondage To The Past, Calling, Caring For The Poor, Change, The Church, Christian Life, Christmas, Community, Contentment, Control Issues, Discouragement, Disappointment, Divorce, Draining Relationships, Evangelism, Evidence Of Christianity, Evolution VS. Creation, Failure, Faith, Family, Family Conflict, Family Relationships, Father's Day, Fourth Of July, Freedom In Christ, Fulfillment/ God Shaped Void, Generosity, Glorifying, God, God's Anger, God's Love, God's Presence, God's Promises, Gossip/Slander, Grace, Grace vs. Works/Legalism, Guilt, Holy Spirit, Laughter, Lordship Of Christ, Love, Male/Female Differences, Marriage Communication, Money Management, Parenting, Patience, Politics, Power Of The Media, Prayer

The Blank Page

2008-06-30T16:06:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,

One of the funny things about serving in the creative arts ministry of a local church is how fast time goes by. I mean you spend many, many hours preparing for the weekend, making sure everything will go perfectly, and then before you know it, Sunday is here... and then it's over. Time to move on, oh and it never stops. Sunday is now just 6 days away. It is funny though, maybe that's why on Monday I can tell you what we'll be doing three weeks from now, but I can't remember what we did for our offering yesterday?? Well in saying that, it's now Monday, and I'm sure many of you are working through the normal routine of starting once again with the "blank page" and getting ready for the weeks ahead. This is where we at MinistryHub.com hope that we can be a help.

A few weeks ago I sent out an email to the current members of MinistryHub.com and asked what you were going to be doing in the weeks ahead. I then compiled all of the responses and thought I would now share with you the second most requested topics. Once again we would ask that you help out your fellow church workers by logging into the site, joining a public room and then share just two ideas you might have for each topic. I personally have already done this, and would appreciate it if you could take the time to do so as well.

A little while ago I was reminded how even a simple small idea can have a lasting impact on people and their relationship with Christ. A year ago we were brainstorming ideas, trying to come up with something new for our Good Friday service. We already had set in place for our Easter services these three extremely large, but fake, crosses and was trying to find a way to integrate the crosses into the Good Friday service. Well someone suggested the all familiar, putting a nail in the cross to represent sin, except the crosses were props and wouldn't allow us to put nails into them. I then made a suggestion that we ended up going with, that instead of a nail we would hand out black slips of paper and then ask people during the service to write with pencil, something they would like to give up in their life, and then later in the service just lay it at the foot of the cross. Simple right. Well almost a year later I'm programming another service and was searching for salvation testimonies, when this lady shares with me that it was at that moment, the moment she wrote the word "forgiveness" on that simple black sheet of paper, that she was finally able to forgive the many years of hatred she held toward her father and accepted Christ into her life. Because of that one simple idea, God was able to use it and heaven has one more in attendance. Amazing.

The thing is, because it's God, we never know what simple idea he might be able to use to the fullest. So please log in to the site when you can and contribute. As I always say, your one idea may impact someone tomorrow.

So in saying that the Topics we would like you to brainstorm are:
- Evangelism
- Calling
- God's Law

One last thing, we are soon going to be sending out some large marketing pieces and would love to have some quotes from you who use the site. I would love to know what you think about what we're trying to accomplish here at MinistryHub.com. Please send us an email and let us know.

Thank you once again and I hope you have a great fourth of July weekend. Just remember it will go fast! :)

Tim Yates, President
MinistryHub.com

New Tutorial Video

2008-06-28T20:20:00.001-05:00

We have a new tutorial video for MinistryHub.com. This is a great video to learn of some of it's most basic features and what we have to offer you as the creative force behind your church.

The MinistryHub.com Team

Hot Topics and Latest Results

2008-06-17T12:18:00.000-05:00

Good Morning,

Let me ask you, how many times have you come back to the church, after a very busy weekend, to the first work day of the week with the knowledge that you have to start all over again. The blank page. You have the message or at least an idea of what you want to communicate, but now you need everything else. But there are so many songs, dramas, videos, movies out there, just where do you start. If you start with MinistryHub.com, and network with others in your church and other pastors across the world, you can save valuable hours from your work week.
Whether you have a creative team, you know your meetings are only as good as what you bring to them, or if you are by yourself in your planning with MinistryHub.com you don't need to be.

Last week we began to work together and brainstormed the topics Marriage Communication and Prayer and I thank you for all of the ideas that were suggested. (See Below) We even added the topic of "Marriage" from the many of you who suggested we add it alone. So this weeks hot topics we had three that were tied for first place.

- Parenting
- Family
- Relationships

Remember all we ask is that you go to http://www.ministryhub.com log in, join a Public room for each topic and then share any service elements that you have used in the past. I'm always amazed at how sometimes the simplest ideas can impact someone's life. Imagine your one idea has the potential to impact thousands of pastors world wide. Like a ripple in a pond we never know what kind of impact our one little stone throw can make.

God Bless and have a creative week...someone's life depends on it.

Tim Yates, President
MinistryHub.com

Marriage Communication-
Music- American Dream/Switchfoot, Ellsworth/Rascall Flatts, Good For Me/Amy Grant, Just The Way You Are/Billy Joel, Opposites Attract/Paula Abdul, Roll To The Middle/Sara Groves, Dare You To Move/Switchfoot
Videos and Movies - Die Hard, Everybody Loves Raymond, Invincible, Norm and Ethel/Sermonspice, When Harry Met Sally.
Drama- A Problem Of Perspective
Other - Improv Idea and an Audience Participation idea

Prayer-
Music- Every Day/Joy Williams, First Song That I Sing, Sara Groves, Pray/Rebecca St. James, Silence/Joy Williams, Through The Noise/Truth
Movies and Videos- Bruce Almighty, Meet The Parents, Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby

To All Members Of MinistryHub.com

2008-06-02T22:49:00.000-05:00

Hello,

This is Tim Yates, President of MinistryHub.com. First let me begin by thanking you for signing up and giving MinistryHub.com a try. As I'm sure you've noticed we are a new site, and although we are gaining new members daily, in all honesty, the amount of topic data within the site can be scarce at times. That is why I am writing to you tonight. One of the great benefits of MinistryHub.com is that it allows us to begin to work together in our weekly search for service ideas like never before. I believe that if we network together, we will then see the tremendous advantage that being a member of MinistryHub.com can bring.

In order for us to continue to serve you and your ministry, as well as the many who will follow you in searching for ideas in Ministry Hub, we need your help. If you would, please respond back to this email and let me know what topics you and your church will be researching in the coming weeks or months. I will then compile a list of these HOT topics and then share this list with you, our current membership. Once we send out the list, please take time to review it. We then ask that you help your fellow members by sharing with them what service elements you might have done in the past that has worked for a particular topic. You also need to know that within the past two weeks we have launched new Public rooms that makes the entire process of brainstorming and suggesting ideas even more simple. To gain access to the database of ideas or what we call "The Results" all you need to do is select your topic, enter a Public room and then share two items that have worked for you in the past. We believe that if everyone who participates would share at least two items, the database will continue to grow and we will all benefit from this information.

So please consider what topics you have coming soon and please respond back to this email (tim@ministryhub.com) and let us know the topics you will be needing ideas for.

If you have never heard my story, the idea for MinistryHub.com came from an extremely frustrating week while trying to programming a series for my home church. I remember thinking there has got to be a better way? How could, we as church workers, begin to work together? After many, many months of programming and design I am so excited to see how God has begun to bring this small idea full circle. We, as the body, can make this happen. I say this to encourage you and let you know that I truly believe that you are on the forefront of developing a ministry tool like no other. Just imagine, with every idea that you suggest, you can bless and encourage Pastor's more than you will ever be able to comprehend! What a great age we live in to serve Christ!

I look forward to hearing from all of you as we look for upcoming topics that we can begin to work together on. As always feel free to write and give me any feedback or comments you wish. I pray that God will continue to bless you in your ministry as you bring Christ in a new and real way each and every week.

In Christ,

Tim Yates, President
MinistryHub.com
tim@ministryhub.com

Great Article

2008-05-21T23:20:00.003-05:00

Ran across this article this evening. Creativity vs. our desires. Great read.

Tim Yates

Give And It Will Come Back To You

2008-05-21T22:01:00.004-05:00

The other day I was reminded about the full potential that could be ours within MinistryHub.com if we only allow it time to mature and grow. I was sitting, virtually, in The Hub going over some of the programming changes that we have recently made, when my good friend Jason happen to catch me (via Private Chat) to see how I was doing. He being a new Sr. Pastor had logged into the site to work on an upcoming message. He selected his topic, then entered one of the new public rooms and gave his two suggestions, but commented that after entering The Results he didn't find very many ideas for his topic. As you know we are a relatively new site, so currently, in all honesty there are several topics that haven't been touched/brainstormed yet, so they lack an abundance of ideas within The Results. Jason just happened to choose one of those idea light topics. But here's what makes the difference. Jason gets it, partly because he's a friend, but mainly because he understands that the gathering of information takes time. Even though he, at this time didn't get the amount of results that he wished, he knows that the ideas that he added to the database are now sitting there waiting to be discovered by the next pastor searching for direction or ideas for that same topic. That being the case, it's here is where the full potential of MinistryHub.com lies. You see I apologized to him that he selected a less popular topic but then asked if there was anything that I could do to help him. We then went back into the public room where he explained to me what he was wanting to communicate with his message, what he wanted to express, and more so what he wanted his congregation to walk away with. And then it began, the two of us, in separate cities began to brainstorm ideas together; songs, concepts, video clips, even out of the box ideas, and then my friend Jason, who didn't have anything when he arrived, left MinistryHub.com with a new focus, direction plus a handful of ideas.

I'm a firm believer that if we give MinistryHub.com the time it needs to mature and grow, that it could be become one of the greatest ministry resources ever known to man. But in order for this to happen we each need to realize that the call placed on each of us as ministers of the Gospel calls us to give. To put others first, to give of our ideas, our thoughts and our advice, knowing that each time we add to the database can only help and further the Kingdom, that's Kingdom with a capital K. Then and only then will we reap the full benefits of MinistryHub.com. Give and it will come back to you, pressed down shaken together, running over!

Tim Yates

It Just Got Easier!

2008-05-19T11:59:00.007-05:00

One of the great advantages of MinistryHub.com is it allows people to network together like never before, share ideas, and then find the product they need fast. Well it just got faster!

Over the past several months we've received many comments/suggestions and have taken many of them to heart and really tried our best to implement them into the site. Such as could it be easier? or what if I need ideas and I need them now. Well we think we have found the solution in what we are calling the Public Brainstorming Room. It's now easier than ever before to find the ideas that you need. The process is simple, first select your topic and join a public room.
Then quickly invite anyone else within your network to participate in the brainstorming session.Then all you need to do is share Two ideas, that's right give us your two cents for that topic and you can them move on to the Results and find the ideas and product you need instantly. We believe that if everyone who participates will share at least two ideas that has worked for them in the past then our database of ideas will continue to grow.

FREE PowerPoint Slides

2008-05-19T11:53:00.002-05:00

Hey we now have Free PowerPoint slides located within the "Featured Product" area of The Hub. Just create a Free Account and they are yours to use as you will. Check back often as we will be adding more slides each month.

The MinistryHub.com Team

Tired of being the bad guy?

2008-05-19T11:29:00.003-05:00

One of the necessities of ministry is having to meet with and audition people of varying skill levels. When those you audition are talented it's a joy, but if they are not, there is nothing worse than having to tell someone that they don't have what it takes. The sad look in their face when you have to say I'm sorry, it's really something that I had come to dread over my years of ministry. One Sunday morning I was sharing these feelings with a group of guys in my band, most of which are music teachers, and it was from that conversation that we developed the audition system that I use to this day. No longer will you have to be the bad guy and tell someone that they can't cut it. If you're curious this information sheet can be found within the "Featured Products" tab, located within the Hub at MinistryHub.com. If you haven't created your FREE account yet, you better get to it. Not only can you find great info like how to audition, but you can also find FREE PowerPoint Slides as well.

Another great resource for worship leaders that I stumbled upon can be found at Resonate a blog written by Scot Longyear. I found the article to be most helpful!

My Network Is Here

2008-05-12T08:35:00.006-05:00

Over the past several months we have been programming madly to wrap up our vision for a place where those who serve in the local church can come together, share ideas that have worked with one another and find the perfect ideas for their weekend services. One more layer of this vision is for you to be able to;
1. Manage those who are within your church account, reset passwords, as well as resend their welcome email.
2. Discover others in ministry that have a similar role as you, or seek advice from others.
3. Connect with those who use MinistryHub.com, through utilizing buddy lists, email and our message center. Through using "MY NETWORK" at MinistryHub.com you will be able to communicate with others in Ministry, and still be able to keep your information to yourself if you wish. Communication is done within the site, simply by using your screen name, when someone wishes to communicate with you, MinistryHub.com will forward the email to you allowing you to keep your anonymity if you wish. At that time you can reply back to them directly or you can always go back to "MY NETWORK" and send your next email.

MY NETWORK is just one more piece in building the greatest site ever for communication between those who work in Ministry!

The MinistryHub.com Team

Back Up And Running....

2008-03-21T12:48:00.002-05:00

As I'm sure some of you noticed, we went down for a few days. Our hosting company inadvertently un-plugged our servers, and in doing so erased our system configuration data for the servers. So with the help of three individuals and a lot of extra hours, we are now back up and running. We are sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused you though.

We've got some great additions to the site coming soon, see keep your eyes open for them.

The MinistryHub.com Team

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

2008-02-29T11:27:00.004-06:00

Hello every, just wanted to let everyone know that we are in the process of making some changes here at MinistryHub.com. For starters we are extending the BETA trial while we continue to program sections of the site...so this means that you can now try out MinistryHub.com completely FREE. We've also made the entire sign in process much simpler, so all you need to do is enter your email, set your password, and share your church information and boom your in.

As of last night we launched a new Marketing site at MinistryHub.com. We'd love to know what you think about it??

We are also in the process of developing the "My Network" portion of the site and as always while we are in beta, we would appreciate any feedback that you might have.

In the near future look for a new way of brainstorming within the Hub, that will allow you to select your topic, invite others to participate, share your two cents, and then move onto the Results in a timely fashion, allowing you to get on to the Results and find the product you need.

As you can see there's a lot going on here now, so make sure to come back every now as this is where we will be sharing all of the changes going on.

The MinistryHub.com Team

Catalyst...what a blast!

2007-10-07T19:46:00.000-05:00

Well we're back from our action packed week at Catalyst in beautiful Georgia, and what a great time we had. My wife Lori and I were able to make the trip with Lance Thompson, CEO and founder of MinistryWarehouse.com and our other good friend Chris Timmons co-owner of LightThisProductions.com. Right off the bat I thought I was going to be in trouble when I was told by Airport Security that my drivers license had expired, so I had to go through the extra screening and checked for explosives, where I'm proud to say I came up clean. :) Then after a VERY rough flight to Chicago OHare we were all feeling a bit squeamish when we were told that out connecting flight was located at another terminal, so we could either walk, for 20 minutes, or take the shuttle, a 4 minute trip....um...shuttle. So we proceeded to get on the shuttle, all sat down and then realized that we were sitting next to no other than USHER! It was really funny because we didn't really say anything about it, until we all got off the shuttle, and then all said at the same time, "Was that USHER?"
Ok, so our second flight was much better and we arrived in Atlanta ready to go. We then proceeded to the Hyatt Place (this is a new line of Hyatt Hotels and it rocked, all the rooms have 42" plasma's!) where we ran into Linda Davis from REV magazine who was staying there also, then got settled into our room and later set out for a tremendous dinner at our newly found favorite restraraunt, J. Alexanders.
Wednesday was our first full day in Georgia, where we were off to the Gwinnett Center and began to set up our trade show display. Upon arriving we located booth #206, right between Interactive Church and Planning Center Online, and started setting up our booth in record time. In fact we were just wrapping up when Jeff Berg, CEO and Founder of Planning Cetner Online showed up to set up his booth. It was fun seeing friends again and getting everything ready for the conference, but the rest of the day was our opportunity to see Atlanta a bit more. So off we went to The Forum On Peachtree Parkway (why is every street in Atlanta named PeachTree??) , then onto the Buckhead area and then finally to one of my favorite Atlanta eating places, Fellini's Pizza. Several years earlier Chris Timmons and I were in Atlanta for the Technologies For Worship Conference and happened to stumble upon this great place to eat. With great pizza and it's outdoor seating it's a great place to get some of the Atlanta experience. My wife and Lance Thompson agreed and thought it was a great place to relax and enjoy some great food.
Thursday, we had to be there at 7:15 AM eeesh!, as this was the first full day of the Catalyst Conference and what a conference it is. If you haven't had the chance to go I would highly recommend it. The music and guest speakers are awesome and it's just a fun environment to be in. To be in a room with that many "ministers," I believe somewhere around 11,000 were in attendance, all planning in their own way to change the world just creates an electric sort of environment. I couldn't help but wonder what new "thing" God was planting in someones mind that would change the face of ministry in the future. My prayers are with those who he has planted a new thing, because it was just a little over two years ago that I had the idea of MinistryHub.com literally consume me and drive me to begin to change the way pastors plan their services. It was long but great day as we had the opportunity to meet many new people and share with them the concept for MinistryHub.com and see their eyes light up as if saying, "Finally! Someone has done it!" I also had the chance to catch up with some more good friends, Matt Card from Clark Pro Media and Kevin Jones from Portable Church Industries where I needed to catch the follow up story on a bouquet made out of Slim-Jims. (Long Story) By the end of the day we were exhausted, so it was back to J. Alexanders for another tremendous dinner and then retire for the night.
Friday, the second full day of the conference, brought more of the same. We once again were able to meet many new people and handed out a ton of "Gimme A Hub!" t-shirts. I also had the opportunity to meet up with the guys from Wingclips.com, a great new site, in addition to spending a little bit of time with George Temple, who's probably the nicest guy in the world, from Sermonspice.com. At the end of the day we packed up, shipped our booth back home, and then set off for a little more shopping and food. Our first stop was Lenox Square in Buckhead, and we had one of those we're not in Iowa experiences right away. After finding a place to park, near the back entrance of Neiman Marcus, we walked in to find a bit of a party going on. There were models walking around wearing the new clothes line, Royal Underground, that was being introduced by the fashion worlds newest designer, Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue. I tried to snap a photo of him with my cell phone, but the lady he was working with kept blocking my shot, so I moved in closer only to have it blocked by one of his rather large body guards. We then went on for some great food at Maggiano's. (This was something different, they had a piano player that played the piano with his left hand and a flugal horn with his right! Have never seen that before, but it sounded great.)
Saturday was our travel day back home, but our flight didn't leave until 2:30 PM so we didn't have to rush and could take our time to get around and get to the airport. No major delays and both the flights were great. So there you go, that was our trip, probably a little more information than you needed, but we wanted to let you know what it was like for us. One last time we want to thank Chris Timmons and Andrea for all of the help you gave us in Atlanta, it's much appreciated! Overall a great trip, now it's back to work!

Catalyst and Win An iPod Touch

2007-10-01T08:51:00.000-05:00

WIN A FREE 1 YEAR MEMBERSHIP!
This next week at the Catalyst Conference we're going to have some great giveaways! If you come by booth #206 you can register to win a FREE ONE YEAR full membership to MinistryHub.com!

GET A FREE T-SHIRT AND BE ENTERED TO WIN AN IPOD TOUCH!
In addition, everyone who comes by our booth and signs up to try the 30 DAY FREE TRIAL of MinistryHub.com, not only gets to join the MinistryHub.com community for FREE, but will also receive a FREE "Gimmee A Hub!" t-shirt, as well as be entered into the drawing for Apples latest addition to the iPod family the iPOD TOUCH!

At the risk of sounding like a used car salesman though, let me say this.... BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!
We don't want to exclude all of you who may not be able to come to Atlanta this October so we're going to open up the doors for the iPOD TOUCH drawing to EVERYONE who signs up for the 30 DAY FREE TRIAL between the dates of September 29 and October 12, 2007 will be entered into the iPOD TOUCH drawing. That's right EVERYONE who signs up for the FREE 30 DAY FREE TRIAL will be eligible to win!

So if you are able to come to Catalyst, make sure to stop by our booth (#206) and say hello and get some great giveaways!

The MinistryHub.com Team

Catalyst

2007-09-17T21:59:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that we will be at the Catalyst conference this year. If you're not familiar with Catalyst you will definately want to check it out. It should be a great time and we can't wait to meet everyone, so make a point to come by our booth! Are you going to be able to make it? Leave a comment and let us know.

More Ministry. Less Google.

2007-09-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

Where do you find your service ideas?

We've asked that question a lot over the past couple of months, and it seems that we're developing sort of a pattern when it comes to the answers we've been giving.

Basically we hear;

First I go the sites that I know of and see if they have posted anything new. Sometimes I find something, but most of the time not. (Notice this is done alone and who knows how long it takes?)

Then if I still haven't found what I'm looking for, I'm on to Google and the surfing begins. (This is definitely alone and you can spend hours!)

The reason I've served, over 17 years in the Ministry now (wow I'm getting old!) is because I truly felt, like I know all of you have, a calling on my life. I believed God was calling me to use the gifts and abilities that He had given me, to reach people with the love of Christ. It's funny, but nowhere in that statement, did I think that would include many many hours on the internet searching for service ideas. Well it did, many many frustrating hours!

What an age we live in for Ministry! Just the other day I sat in my office working on an upcoming service with three websites open when it struck me, with these three sites, I now have everything I need to effectively do my job. First, of course, MinistryHub.com, a way to network with other pastors and those within my home church, to find the ideas that I need. Second, Planning Center Online, a great web tool to help you effectively communicate and schedule your ministry volunteers. And then finally, Song Select, the largest site of song data I've seen when it comes to Worship music. Because of sites like these, we can now, find the ideas we need and plan our services more effectively, and in a shorter amount of time than ever, giving us more time to actually be with people and minister, instead of sitting in an office or coffee shop surfing the web. More ministry, less google!

What do you think?

Ministry Hub Replaces Google!

2007-08-23T16:50:00.000-05:00

Our first press release!

Ministry Hub Replaces Google

Contact: Tim Yates, President, Ministry Hub, 515-770-6013, tim@ministryhub.com

DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 23 /Christian Newswire/ -- Ministry Hub, LLC., announced today the launch of Ministryhub.com, an online community of pastors dedicated to finding and sharing the most relevant ministry ideas.

Ministry Hub is a bold new approach to finding the most relevant programming elements for churches today. It combines the power of social networking with cutting edge technology that facilitates and captures ideas in a centralized and ever-growing database. "MinistryHub.com will allow those who serve in Ministry the ability to network together on a greater scale than ever before" said Tim Yates, President of Ministry Hub, LLC. "Through peer recommendation they will be able to find the product they need, when they need it."

In addition to the "Virtual Brainstorming Sessions" (VBS), the Ministry Hub platform features a central meeting place (the Hub), where pastors can network with others in ministry and select current topics for discussion. It also provides the results of the session in a customizable viewing format that allows them to preview and purchase products with ease. "Ministry Hub allows me the opportunity to create meaningful services with not only my own team members but also other creative people around the country. I can see Ministry Hub becoming a very valuable tool to any church no matter the size" said Jeff Poole, Creative Arts Director of The Crossing Community Church. "It saves me from endlessly searching for ideas."

Hundreds of thousands of pastors all over the world scour the Internet each week in search of songs, dramas, and media clips to better illustrate their weekend sermons. With no place to collaborate together and the lack of a cumulative database of service ideas, ministers may spend hours 'Googling' for relevant content, until now. MinistryHub.com enables those who serve in ministry to create a more effective message in less time. "Pastors have been waiting for a service like Ministry Hub. In addition to saving time and money searching for service ideas, we need a way to collaborate together to find out what's working in other churches and what's not working" said Jason Stark, Lead Pastor of Re-Church. When you're the one facing a blank page every Monday morning and need service ideas that you know will work, there is no better place to start than Ministryhub.com.

About Ministry Hub
MinistryHub.com is a community driven site where pastors and creative team members can network together through the use of our Virtual Brainstorming Sessions to find the perfect idea for their service or series.

With MinistryHub, you can:
- Find out the most current and relevant programming ideas...What's working in other churches and what's not!
- Network with your peers
- Participate in live Topical Brainstorming sessions
- Build your online creative team
- Download products online...save time searching
- Gain access to the largest and most relevant database of programming ideas online

To learn more, please visit http://www.ministryhub.com.

Ministry Hub, the Ministry Hub logo, and Virtual Brainstorming are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Ministry Hub, LLC in the United States. Other marks belong to their respective owners.

Media:

Tim Yates
Ministry Hub, LLC
515-770-6013
tim@ministryhub.com

Latest Updates

2007-08-16T23:26:00.000-05:00

Well a lot has been happening as always at MinistryHub.com. First of all, we've added a few additional programmers to our team, so everyone say hello to McClain Looney, Wes Beary, and Chris Stearns. Between these three guys and our lead programmer Luke Amdor, we should be able to finish up, tighten up and fix almost anything we desire.

So in saying that here's what we have been up to lately.

We ran our first real advertisement in the Worship Leader e-blast and look forward to working more with Worship Leader in the future. They have been a great place for us to get started with our advertising.
We have also built our first tutorial video giving a brief overview of the site and some of it's functionality. It's a great place to begin if your new to the concept of MinistryHub.com. We'll be adding new tutorials each week, to try and make it as clear and easy as possible to use the site.

Here are some of the new things we've added:
- There is now an online users count. You can now view from the Hub, how many are online at any given time, as well as send them a private message.
- Pre-populate the Media Clip Tab in the Virtual Brainstorming Area- When in the Virtual Brainstorming Area and you select the Media Clip tab, we now pre-populate that area with all of the videos that Sermonspice.com has regarding your selected topic. You can still suggest any other title you wish, but we thought this would give you a head start.
- We've added the "Loading" box in between the Results and The Store letting you know that we are searching multiple product providers for the product available to you, for the title you selected.
- Open Idea Rooms are now displayed as Private Rooms in the Active Room Listing located in The Hub.

There is still more great news coming...can't divulge as of yet, but soon and once again you're gonna like it!

The MinistryHub.com Team

All Systems Are Go!

2007-07-17T16:52:00.001-05:00

Ok, so for the past few weeks we have been doing some "controlled growth" within the site by giving access to only those armed with the much coveted BETA CODE, in order to confirm that everything was going to act the way that it was supposed to. We're now a few weeks later and I'm proud to say, that so far, we have received the big THUMBS UP from our programming team to move on to the next step! This is not to say that we didn't run across a few snags here and there, and believe it or not there were actually a couple of things that we hadn't even thought about, after all we're only human, but in saying that the basic structure of the site, The Hub, The Virtual Brainstorming Areas, The Results and The Store, are up and fully functional.

So in order to take it to the next level, we have fully removed the BETA CODE barrier needed to access the site. From this day forward anyone who comes to MinistryHub.com can create an account, enter the site, and begin to take their life back from google. (You know what I mean. :) Another one of the changes that we've made is that we want everyone to have plenty of time to evaluate and begin to use the tools we've created to locate service ideas for their services, so we have now extended the FREE Trial to 30 Days, or if your like most in ministry you think of your weeks as Sundays, so 4 free Sundays to try MinistryHub.com out to the fullest. Brainstorm with your team, create an online creative team, and fully begin to use the ease of the Open Idea Room to gather as many ideas as possible for your next service.

You will also want to check back here over the next few weeks as we continue to add more functionality to the site and share more great news about product partnerships that are in the works. (Pretty exciting stuff!!)

For now here are a few of the things we have worked on:

FREE Trial is now 30 DAYS!
Creation of World Wide Accounts (We've had people, and actually been surprised by the amount of people, from all over the world that are excited to give MinistryHub.com a try.)
Further refined the iTunes database that feeds the Specials Tab in the Virtual Brainstorming Rooms.
The Worship Tab in the Virtual Brainstorming Rooms is now powered by PraiseCharts.com!
Other various bug fixes that have popped up here and there.

Things To Look For:

Tutorial video showing how to fully use all of the features found within the site.
The creation of Virtual Members that will participate and make suggestions in all Brainstorming meetings, aiding to seed group meetings and also allow you to brainstorm alone if you wish.
Opening MinistryHub.com publishing giving you greater access to even more product, such as graphics, drama's and music charts, for each idea possible.

Once again we're excited about all that's happening here at MinistryHub.com, but we also want to know what you think, so make sure to go to the BETA Forum and share your thoughts!

The MinistryHub.com Team.

Open For Business

2007-07-11T15:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I know it's been a while since the last post, but WOW a lot has happened. First of all, what a great time we had at the Saddleback Worship Conference. Thank you to all who dropped by the MinistryHub.com booth and participated in our little giveaways. While at the conference we had two contests to give away a couple of iPods as well as handing out our first batch of "Gimmee a hub!" t-shirts. So congratulations to Kim Hewitt of Caledonia, Michigan and Matthew Whelchel of Plancentia, California for participating and we hope you enjoy your new iPods!

So what else has happened? How about we are FINALLY open for business that's what! That's right, on June 26th we pushed our first public release to our production servers and FINALLY opened the doors to our BETA release. Shortly thereafter we sent out our first batch of invites from those who had been on the waiting list, as well as extend an invitation to those who came to the Saddleback Worship conference, for a chance to kick the tires within the site. So to all the BETA users of MinistryHub.com we say welcome and we hope that you begin to utilize the site in your search for service ideas and begin to "Take back your week!"

Make sure to check back here to see the latest news and updates to the site.

The MinistryHub.com Team

Saddleback Worship Conference

2007-06-18T19:53:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to announce that MinistryHub.com will be at the Saddleback Worship Conference this June 26-28. If you are planning on coming to the conference make a point to come on by and say hello. We would love to meet you!

MinistryHub.com Publishing Presents: Ann Marie Deace

2007-06-12T09:55:00.000-05:00

We at MinistryHub.com are committed to bringing you only the best in product for you to use in the communication of your weekly message. It's for that reason that we are proud to announce the we have now signed Ann Marie Deace, not only to make her fantastic scripts available to you, but also to welcome her to the MinistryHub.com team as our official drama "expert." Ann Marie resides in Naperville, Illinois with her husband Mark and three children Eric, Grant, and Matthew, where she attends Crossroads Community Church in Naperville, and is currently a volunteer drama leader for the writing/directing team. She has written countless original sketches and full-length productions, both for churches and community events that will now be made available to you.
"I have been a theater enthusiast for as far back as I can remember. Using live theater to touch the hearts of an audience has been a life long passion. Bringing an honest and unfiltered slice of life to the forefront of peoples consciousness and then using that impact to set up a message is such an amazing thing to witness. Having served on staff as Drama Director over the span of 15 years at three various churches both in Chicago and Michigan brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise on what makes for an impactful sketch. The process of taking a sketch concept and then bringing in all the elements needed to perform a piece with excellence can be a real challenge. I hope that I can serve you in making your drama efforts successful."
Ann Marie Dean

Final Preview: The Store At MinistryHub.com

2007-06-12T09:54:00.000-05:00

For our last and final preview, before we launch MinistryHub.com BETA, we will be looking at what we have called, The Store. (Pretty original title huh?) Although an online store by itself is not unique, The Store here at MinistryHub.com does have something unique about it, in that it's more like several stores combined into one. For the past few months we have been diligently pursuing other content providers to compile and make as much product available to you as possible. So it's with great joy that we are able to tell you that MinistryHub.com has partnered with Sermonspice.com , Praisecharts.com , iTunes , Amazon , Musicnotes.com , and MinistryWarehouse.com as well as launch MinistryHub.com Publishing, signing music arrangers, drama writers, and graphic artists.
So how does this all work to benefit you? Let's say you have just brainstormed your selected topic for ideas, say Marriage, and you are now in the The Results area looking at the list of ideas that have been suggested. You know you need a special, so you select "Fly" by Sara Groves. (A great song for Marriage by the way) from the music list located in The Results. So your now inside The Store for the title "Fly" and it's here you see that you can now download the mp3 from iTunes, as well as purchase a music chart from MusicNotes.com. Through this system we will basically be doing the searching of product for you, music and charts, downloadable videos, dvd's, graphics will all be brought to you inside The Store at MinistryHub.com.

MinistryHub.com Partners With Sermonspice.com!

2007-06-12T09:45:00.000-05:00

Sermonspice.com, the leading provider in downloadable ministry videos, has now partnered with MinistryHub.com. "We have been working so hard to bring together the best in products within our unique Virtual Brainstorming system and today we have some great news; MinistryHub.com has now partnered with Sermonspice.com and will now have all of their great downloadable content available to our customers. Not only will you now be able to suggest Sermonspice videos to your peers in our Virtual Brainstorming areas, but we will also be able to suggest more videos that will work for your weekend message to you." Tim Yates, MinistryHub.com

Preview 4: The Results

2007-05-14T22:34:00.000-05:00

In our last newsletter we discovered The Virtual Brainstorming how it will allow you to begin to network with others in ministry like never before. But if I may for a moment, I would like to begin this preview of The Results area with a quick thought about what it means to program a weekly service in a contemporary church. If you play a role in the planning of the weekly services at your church, you understand the pressures we experience each week. Here at MinistryHub.com we state the obvious; Sunday Comes Every Seven Days. At Willow Creek Community Church they call it Getting Beyond The 52, meaning that once your Sunday service is finished, and you've taken time off to rest, eat, sleep and see your families, we each have roughly 52 hours to do it all over again before Sunday comes once more. As I stated in the last newsletter, when we started MinistryHub.com we took a survey to see how churches were spending their time, and what we found was that many of those churches were spending 20+ of those 52 hours searching for the right idea. I, obviously, am all for using the arts to create compelling services, but I believe the effect of this weekly time crunch and the pressures that it brings has created a consumer mentality out of all of us. After all, we need those ideas to keep the ball rolling, right? So to accommodate this need, many, if not the majority of websites in existence, help us consume more and more product, to meet our needs, our individual needs. I believe though that we have all been called foremost into ministry, not only to be consumers, we do have to do our job after all, but more so to be ministers to help others. Although we work to build and strengthen our individual churches, we should also be able to build and strengthen The Church. I say all of this to reinforce the thought that when you participate in a Virtual Brainstorming Session and make suggestions, you are not only helping yourself and your team, but you are helping many others in ministry as well. For when you submit ideas, and those ideas then get stored for that topic and they continue to grow, it's here, in The Results area, that we can all experience the full force of MinistryHub.com!

If you have entered The Results area of MinistryHub.com, then you have selected your topic in The Hub, participated in a Virtual Brainstorming Session where you suggested ideas, ranked those suggestions and then paired elements together that you believe would work well together, closed out your session and have now moved on to The Results. For each of the 4 categories; Music, Videos, Drama, Other Ideas, you can set the display settings to My Groups Ideas, showing the ideas you and your group just brainstormed, or you can select All Ideas For Topic, where you can view every idea that has ever been selected for that topic. This display of ideas can then be sorted by; Ranked, this is a cumulative average of the overall rankings of each element. Popularity; is the ranking average in addition to how many times each element has been suggested, and last is a simple alphabetical sorting.

Towards the bottom of The Results is an area for other product related to your selected topic. It's here you will find graphics, books and other products, as well as a Print Friendly Option that allows you to select what categories and how you want the printed document to be displayed. This way you can print every idea you find and then bring that list into your own team brainstorming sessions, because we all know that those meetings are usually only as good as what you bring into them.

Once you have found the right idea, just select and click the title and you will then be taken into The Store, where you will then have several option that you can then make, but we'll dig into that in our next newsletter.

I'm curious what are your thoughts, about what was said earlier, about us being a consumer vs. a minister? Let us know your thoughts.

Tim Yates, MinistryHub.com

Preview 3: Virtual Brainstorming

2007-05-14T22:33:00.001-05:00

All right, so far we have given an overview of MinsitryHub.com, and in the last newsletter we dug into The Hub. So up next is The Virtual Brainstorming Area.

First, why brainstorming? When we first began to develop MinistryHub.com, we knew we needed a format that would allow those in ministry to communicate with one another, as well as, begin to develop a continually growing database of service ideas. So in the early stages we sent a survey to over 15,000 churches throughout the United States. From that survey, we discovered that an amazing 95% of those churches utilize brainstorming in some form during their weekly creative process. So, we thought why not use this format as the main focus of the site. Brainstorming is a process that churches already use and understand.

So how does it work?

The Virtual Brainstorming Area of MinistryHub.com has been broken into two parts. First is the Suggest area where you Brainstorm for ideas. Its here that you suggest, just like a typical brainstorming session, specials, worship choruses, movie clips, media clips, dramas and even out of the box ideas, that are then displayed in the Suggested Items area. When your team decides that enough ideas has been submitted, just select the Go To button and move on to Rank And Pair. In Rank and Pair there are two simple questions that need to be answered for each suggested element. First: Would you use it? Yes, No, Maybe or does the element not really apply to the selected topic? Then second: Are there any two items that work well together? You know, a song that perfectly sets up a drama, or a movie clip that leads into a song. If you see two that will work, simply link them together. That's it, in just minutes you've contributed and ranked your ideas, that are then collectively gathered and sorted among all of the ideas collected throughout Ministryhub.com for that topic.

Two Different Rooms, Two Purposes.

There are two types of brainstorming rooms found within MinistryHub.com. First: The Virtual Brainstorming Room. This room was designed to create an online replication of an actual brainstorming session that you might experience with your own creative team. Enter a room and you will see up to 8 people can sit around a chat based table and begin to search for ideas for their services. Join a public room from within The Hub and begin brainstorming with others in ministry from throughout the country, or create a private room for your own creative team. As you know, one of the biggest challenges of an all-volunteer creative team is finding a meeting time that works for everyone. Through the Create A Room feature found in The Hub you can create a brainstorming time that works for you and your team, such as, later in the evening when kids are in bed, or over a lunch break. All they need is a computer with an Internet connection to join in anytime, anywhere.

The second type of room is called The Open Idea Room. This room has been designed so you can draw as many people as you wish, to gather as many ideas as possible. Create this room to remain open for 24, 48 or 72 hours, and then send an invitation to anyone with an email address. Either directly from within The Hub or when the room has been created, a link will be sent to you that you can then forward to whomever you wish to participate. Think about it, how many time have you been stopped in the hall, before or after a service, for someone to tell you about a great song that you just have to do! With the use of the Open Idea Room you can begin to capture those ideas and many more while involving many people from within your church. When the room time has finally expired you can then go to the Rank and Pair area and answer the two questions for each element.

Room Features

One of the first things you will see when you enter the Virtual Brainstorming Area is the chat based table. Its here you can communicate to your friends or make new ones with the use of this chat area. Next select the tab for Suggest A New Item and begin making suggestions. In this area select the tab you wish to contribute to, enter in the search field what you are trying to locate, select your element from the items listed and then make a comment or description and then select suggest. We've added some fun things also, like emoticons, the Umbrella of Grace and if someone bags on your idea, hit them with a Splat Ball! Just select their table icon a pop-up will appear and fire away!

Once again it's our desire that The Virtual Brainstorming Area will be a fun place where you can connect with your team, or others in ministry, and enjoy yourself as you work towards building compelling services that can clearly communicate the Gospel.

Next up is The Results area, the real rewards of MinsitryHub.com!

The MinistryHub.com Team

Preview 2: The Hub

2007-05-14T20:04:00.000-05:00

In its simplest form The Hub was designed to assist you in the building of an online creative team, existing from those of your home church, friends and then others in ministry. No longer will you need to search for ideas alone, either as an individual or alone as a church. Sign in and connect instantly with others through the use of the features found in The Hub, such as; The Buddy List, The Hub Chat, Featured Topics, Featured Products, and the 5 main directory tabs; Brainstorm Your Topic, My Queue, My History, My Network and Featured Product.

The Hub Chat

This simple chat area is just a quick way to speak to anyone who has signed into The Hub. Chat with others to join you in a Virtual Brainstorming Room or just to say hello. Using the Hub Chat you can begin to develop relationships instantly.

Buddy List

The Buddy List is similar to a typical buddy system that you are probably already used too. It's a quick way to access your friends and see who is currently online. Find your friends, see their profile, send them a message, begin a private chat, or find what room they are in and join them instantly.

Featured Topic

This area is designed for quick access to Virtual Brainstorming Sessions that are on demand, such as seasonal holidays like Easter or Christmas, as well as current ministry trends, such as The DaVinci Code. With the Featured Topic area you can sign in and begin brainstorming immediately.

Featured Product
The Featured Product area is connected to the topic list. Just select the topic you wish to brainstorm and the Featured Product area will display the most popular product for that topic.

The next section you will notice are the 5 easy tabs that direct you to the full benefits of MinistryHub.com.

Brainstorm Your Topic

The first of the 5 tabs allows you to select the topic you wish to explore. As the instructions state, it really is easy with our two step process; first make your selection from over 214 topics to brainstorm, and then second, either join a room currently in progress or create a room that works at a time for you and your team.

Creating a room is simple, you only need to answer three easy questions. First Which type of room do you want? You have two options here, a traditional Virtual Brainstorming Room that holds up to eight people, or an Open Idea Room, where you can invite as many as you wish to participate. All they need is an Internet connection and an active email to send the invitation. The second question is When do you want to room to begin? Here you can create a room for a time that works for you, or begin brainstorming instantly. And then last, Who do you want to brainstorm with? It's here you can invite those from your buddy list or enter any number of emails and they will be sent an invitation to join. Once you've answered these three questions, just select Go and depending on your settings, if you have selected now, you will join your room instantly, or if you created a room for a later time you will be directed to the area titled, My Queue.

My Queue

The My Queue area of MinistryHub.com allows you to interact and connect, with those invited to the Virtual Brainstorming Rooms, that either you have created or rooms that you have been invited to participate. For the rooms that you have created, you can edit the time, what type of room it is, as well as who has been invited. Verify if they have received their invitation, and if they have accepted or declined to join in, as well as send them a message, or a reminder once again about your scheduled meeting time.

The second section is for meetings that you have been invited to. It's here you can accept or decline the invitation as well as send messages to the other participants.

My History

The My History tab gives you access to The Results area for all of the topics that you have previously brainstored, as well as access to those products that you have tagged as Save This Idea For Later.

My Network
It's our desire for the customers of MinistryHub.com to be able to connect with others in ministry, without having to share their email address if they choose to do so. We make that possible through My Network and it's two main areas. First is People Search, where you can locate like-minded individuals with the same background, church size or location as you. Second you can connect with them through, the Message Center, by sending them a message, adding them to your Buddy List or by inviting them to a private chat.

Featured Items

The last tab we will look at is the Featured Items tab. Just as the name implies it's here you will find articles, advice, surveys as well as product that we would like to bring to your attention.

Preview 1: The First Peek Inside

2007-03-05T13:10:00.001-06:00

As the launch date for MinistryHub.com BETA get closer we thought that we would reveal a bit more of what you will experience once inside, with screenshots and descriptions of how we think this site could really change the way you find your creative ideas for your services. This first preview is going to be a brief overview of the site and then in later posts we'll dig in to each section and begin to realize all of the possibilities.

First, why the name MinistryHub?

hub [huhb] noun

a center around which other things revolve or from which they radiate; a focus of activity

It's this definition where the name MinistryHub.com originated, we want this site to be a gathering place for those serving in ministry, where ideas, advice and insight radiate from one to another.

So how does it work?

In it's simplest form MinistryHub.com consists of 4 key areas:

The Hub
The Virtual Brainstorming Area
The Results
The Store.

Within the mainframe of these four areas there are a ton of possibilities and features that will be available to you. Over the next few weeks we'll be describing in more detail how you will be able to use MinistryHub.com to the fullest as soon as we BETA launch.

The Hub

As it's name implies this is the center of activity within MinistryHub.com. It's here you will be able to have small talk with those inside, select your topic to brainstorm, join a room already in progress or create a room that works best for you and add it to your topic queue. Go to "My Network" and leave a message for a friend, add them to your buddy list and catch them live when their online, or go to "People Search" and find others who have similar interest or backgrounds. Also within "The Hub" you will also be able to find featured products, community discussions, blogs and articles from real people about the real joy and problems that exist in ministry.

The Virtual Brainstorming Area

Once your topic has been selected and you enter a Virtual Brainstorming Room you will be able to brainstorm with either the team that you have selected or join a public room and begin networking with others in Ministry. This fun and interactive room is just like a live brainstorming session you would have at your home church, except when finished, the ideas you discover leads you to product and you can have a printed list of your ideas as well as a written transcript of all that was said. The brainstorming sessions are split into two parts, first is the discovery of ideas for Specials, Worship, Movie Clips, Media Clips, Drama and then those Out Of The Box ideas, and then next is the "Rand And Pair." Once ideas have bee submitted we want to know if you think they are good, or would you use them in your church and well as if there are any two items that work well with one another. You know a song that sets up a drama or a movie clip that sets up a song. When you feel enough ideas have been captured you can then move on to "The Results."

The Results

"The Results" is the caveat of MinistryHub.com. Once you finish a brainstorming session for your selected topic, you will not only see the brainstorming results that your team has discovered, but also the results for every idea, good and bad, that has been submitted for your selected topic. You see, every idea that has been submitted in a brainstorming sessions has been captured in the MinistryHub.com database and is available to you here in "The Results" for that topic. You will also find other featured product available for your topic, such as artwork and graphics.

The Store

Once you have found the perfect idea for your service, you can then select it in "The Results" and enter the store for that idea. It's here you will be able to find what product are available, such as charts, mp3's, media clips, dvd's and cd's. To help in finding the best product we have partnered with iTunes, Christianbooks.com, Musicnotes.com, Amazon and continue to develop new partnerships to be named later. Your going to like them though... :)

Tell A Friend!

If you are involved in the planning of services at your home church and have friends that are just like you, it's time to begin telling your friends that MinistryHub.com will soon be open. Just select the "Tell A Friend" button and email away! You will also want to sign up for our newsletter and to be part of our BETA launch team. Make sure to check back for our next preview where we will get in detail about all of the possibilities of "The Hub."

The MinistryHub.com Team

Web 2 Point Oh?

2007-03-05T13:09:00.001-06:00

In 1995 I was in college full-time and working part-time as a worship pastor in Minnesota. My wife and I had just come home from Best Buy where I had just convinced her that we absolutely "needed" a brand new Hewlett Packard Desktop Computer. We rushed home, unpacked the boxes, set it up and familiarized ourselves with the latest release of Windows 3.0 and I remember I was terribly excited as I tied up our phone line and connected my blazing fast 14.4 modem to the AOL call center to establish my first internet account. ( I think our plan was like 300 minutes for $19.95 a month.) Getting past the loud screeching noise of the modem, I then heard that soon to be familiar sound of, "Welcome" from the AOL guy and my life has never been the same since. Although there wasn't that much content out there on the internet...I'm sorry I mean the "World Wide Web" as it was referred to then, I could see the value and potential that I believed it would someday have. Seeing the ease of connecting with others through email I began trying to find ways of emailing music charts to my band members instead of handing out music packets or driving across town to deliver charts. (Unsucsessfully I might add. This was before the .pdf file remember.)

Ok, now jump forward to 1998, I'm now out of College and the Creative Arts Pastor at a church in the Chicago area. I had just returned back to the office from the Fed-Ex drop box, At that time I was hiring an arranger on a weekly basis to create charts for me, but he lived on the other side of the Chicago area. It's a big city you know, so I would make a cassette of the songs needed, then fed-ex him the cassette, so he could arrange the songs and then either fed-ex or fax me back the needed charts. Usually a week long process. As I got back to the office I was met by the former Creative Arts Pastor, back in town visiting friends, and we began talking music, ministry and the latest advances. My good friend Kirk then began to tell me about this brand new thing called an "MP3." He told me how it could take a huge CD song file and condense it down to a tiny file that you could even possibly email. (You could just see the little light bulb go off over my head right about then.) It was a short time later I put my idea into action..I could rip the songs I needed for our services, email then to an arranger, then as long as I had the same notation software, they could then email me the charts I needed and then all I had to do was print. It was a lot quicker and definately cheaper. Fed-Ex was costing me 17 bucks each week to deliver cassettes.

So why do I share this, other than it being kind of humorous, just think of the advances we've seen in the past 10 years when it comes to the internet. The .PDF, .MP3's, iTunes, their annoying counterpart the .MP4's, Google, instant chat, buddy lists...and the list goes on. What an exciting age we live in as Ministers in the local church. Never before have churches been able to communicate information and resources throughout the world with such ease. And now I believe we're on the doorstep of the next level of information sharing. Some have labled this next generation as "Web 2.0." So what is Web 2.0? Just like software releases, that are released as version 1.0 then 2.0 then 3.0, all that has taken place on the internet in the past 10 years, mostly static html pages, have been classified as Web 1.0. So what is Web 2.0 all about, one definition is that it refers to "a perceived or proposed second generation of Internet-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users." (This definition actually came from a Web 2.0 site, the wikipedia) In addition to using the latest programming code, such as AJAX, that can create a site that responds similar to downloaded software, but eliminating the need to download anything making it fully accessible simply through your internet connection and web browser.

MinistryHub.com is considered a Web 2.0 site. As more and more users begin to use it, through the gathering of information, it's value to you will continue to grow as time goes by. For your techies, it's being programmed using AJAX and structured around the "Ruby On Rails" platform. If those are new terms to you, basically it means it's going to be easy and fun to use. To get an ideas of some other Web 2.0 sites out there make a point to check out www.ebible .com and www.mychurch.org .

I'm excited about the next 10 years and how the internet is going to impact ministry of the future!

Tim Yates

President, MinistryHub.com

So What's Up?

2007-03-05T13:08:00.001-06:00

A little time has passed since our latest update, so we thought we would let you in on the latest progress. As you know we had the opportunity to spend some valuable time with you at the NOC 2006 in San Diego, and two incredible things came out of that conference. First of all, we not only had an incredible time meeting and talking with many of you, but it also allowed us to just listen to your thoughts and concerns regarding ministry and what your needs are each week. Second it allowed us to begin some great partnerships with other businesses that will bring just a ton of products available to you each week.

So since our return, we've taken what we've learned and have completely redesigned the site making it incredibly easy to use. Not only have we been making MinistryHub.com more intuitive but we have also made space for a lot more product into the Virtual Brainstorming Rooms. More videos, dramas, specials, worship, and movie clips. We just wanted you to know that our programmers are working furiously to get ready for our beta launch coming soon!

The MinistryHub.com Team

It's Official!

2007-03-05T13:07:00.001-06:00

Well it's official, the first trade show of MinistryHub.com is officially a success. It was so great to make many new friends this past week in San Diego at NOC 06. We had a blast talking with all of you and thanks to you for allowing us to share our vision for MinistryHub.com. We're already planning great things for next years show.

Congratulations to our two iPod winners, Herb Long of Florida and Melody Dunne of Texas, we hope you enjoy using your cool new, blue (MinistryHub's color ya know) iPod.

Guess How Many iPods Are In The Jar?

2007-03-05T13:06:00.001-06:00

Day 2 of the tradeshow at the NOC 2006. We have met a ton of great people and once again everyone we have talked to are excited about being able to BETA test MinistryHub.com.

Some things overheard at the trade show about MinistryHub.com:

"You are an answer to my prayers!"

"This is incredible."

"What an awesome idea!"

"Wow! I can't wait to begin to use it."

The response to the iPod giveaways have been great too. There have been some exciting developments that have taken place here also, but that will have to be told at a later date. Killing you isn't it!

Tomorrow will be the drawing, stay tuned!

National Outreach 2006 Day 1

2007-03-05T13:05:00.001-06:00

Writing here from beautiful San Diego. What an awesome day it's been here at the Pre-Conference day at NOC 2006. This afternoon MinistryHub.com partnered with Dr. Tom Clegg as he presented "Lost In America." If you haven't had a chance to participate in this workshop at a conference or have Dr. Clegg come to your home church, you really should. It will absolutely challenge and inspire you to reach those surrounding you for Christ.

Later this evening they opened the tradeshow for the early registars. It was only supposed to last 2 hours but they couldn't get them to leave, so it went considerably longer. This was our first opportunty to show what we hope to accomplish through MinistryHub.com and the response was amazing. Everyone we shared the vision of the company with was as excited about it as we are! We've got some great giveaways this conference and even had a little fun with it. We'll announce the winners of the two iPods on Friday. More to come...

It Just Keeps Getting Better!

2007-03-05T13:04:00.000-06:00

Have we mentioned that MinistryHub.com will be at the National Outreach Convention 2006 ? Well, ok we have...but ya' know, it just keeps getting better!

We are very excited to announce that MinistryHub.com has partnered with our good friend Tom Clegg, author of "Lost In America" in his NOC 06, Pre-Conference workshop ,of the same name, on November 8th from 8:30-4:30 PM. Tom is a fantastic writer and speaker, so if you are planning on being in San Diego this November 8th it would do you well to sign up for this Pre-Conference session.

Hope to see you there!

The MinistryHub.com Team

Lost In America

This high-impact, day-long evangelism equipping event has been enjoyed by thousands of participants. The seminar utilizes approximately 70% presentation and 30% interaction, high-tech digital video, resource table, humor, Biblical teaching, practical equipping and a hard-hitting approach to evangelism that debunks conventional thinking.

Who Should Attend?

Christians who want to increase their effectiveness in reaching out.
Pastors and church staff seeking ideas for evangelistic breakthroughs.
Concerned lay leaders who want an outstanding training tool for building bridges to their community.

National Outreach 2006

2007-03-05T13:03:00.001-06:00

It's official, this November MinistryHub.com we will be participating in the tradeshow at the National Outreach Convention 2006. So if you are going to be there, make a point of come over and meet the MinistryHub.com Team. We're going to have some great giveaways and would love to meet you.

If you don't know anything about NOC 06 it's 4 Days in San Diego with 2000 other ministry leaders, some 80+ workshops, and well...MinistryHub.com (Did I mention come by our booth!)

The MinistryHub.com Team

Hello Wally!!

2007-03-05T13:01:00.001-06:00

As you know it's our desire at MinistryHub to greatly reduce the time that it takes pastors each week to find creative service ideas for their services. But we don't want to stop there, another huge benefit of MinistryHub.com is that we want to eliminate the need for pastors to have to "wax up the ol' surfboard" (as one pastor put it during our survey) and surf the net for hours trying to find the product they need. When you become a member of MinistryHub, have signed in, selected your topic and then participated in a Virtual Brainstorming Session (TM) you will then have access to "The Results" section of the site. It's here you'll see your ideas, your groups ideas, and the top 100 ranked ideas for your topic. We've then linked those ideas to whatever product is available for each idea. To do this, first we've taken some broad strokes and have partnered with companies such as iTunes, Musicnotes.com and Amazon.com to make mp3's, charts, cd's and DVD's available to you. This alone will make a tremendous amount of product easily available, but we don't want to stop there! To give you even more of the product, that you need on a weekly basis, we have created MinistryHub Publishing and have been signing the best of music arrangers, drama writers, and graphic artists. Over the next couple of weeks we'll be introducing to you some of the talented people who have joined us in our endeavor to change the way you program your weekly services.

We want to kick off the introductions with a fantastic arranger, musician and... well just a great guy, Wally Brath. Wally hails from LaPorte, Indiana, went to school at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, was a worship leader at a couple of churches in the Chicago area. (One of them was named after a creek, even though there isn't a creek there?) and now resides in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, with his wife Shana (a wonderful musician herself) their son Graydon and daughter Karissa, as the Pastor of Music and Worhship at All Nations Christian Fellowship . Look for his arrangements in "The Results" area of MinistryHub for the top suggested songs. You won't regret it.

The MinistryHub Team

Did You Know...

2007-03-05T13:00:00.001-06:00

A little over a year ago, in our quest to find a better way to program Church services, the MinistryHub.com team put together a survey to see what and how YOU were doing ministry.

Did You Know that of the churches surveyed...

95% use some form of Brainstorming when begining their search for programming elements.

100% said that they receive value from networking and sharing ideas from others in Ministry.

It's all pretty interesting stuff. If you haven't had a chance to participate in the survey I encourage you to do so. It only takes a couple of minutes and then you'll get to see the results. So survey away!

The survey number is 24349. Please make a note of this number. To access the survey go to http://www.AdvancedSurvey.com. and enter 24349 into the Take A Survey box.

Come back and let us know what you thought of the results.

The MinistryHub.com Team

Getting Beyond The 52

2007-03-05T12:55:00.000-06:00

We ran across a blog entry that we thought helped explain some of the challenges that those of us in the performing arts ministry experience each week. Here at MinistryHub.com we state the obvious truth in ministry at the top of our website, "Sunday Comes Every Seven Days!" Brian Petak of Heart, Soul and Might entered a blog labled, "The Arts Movement ." where he writes about the opportunity he had to sit in on a "think-tank" with Nacy Beach at Willow Creek for their most recent Performing Arts Conference, "Thwonk!" In that brainstorming session they discussed how the local church struggles each week "getting beyond the 52."

Brian Petak writes:

Some of what we talked about concerned typical challenges of church worship/arts ministries that are doing their best to be creative in the midst of a demanding weekly schedule. We called that challenge “getting beyond the 52″ - a reference to how often Sundays come around each week. One of the biggest challenges revolves around the almost universal need for a more effective creative planning process. This is seen most vividly in the reality that the worship/arts team needs a LOT of planning and a LOT of time to creatively communicate, while often the teaching pastor finds himself behind in message preparation. In Utopia, all message content (at least big ideas) and every creative element (music, drama, video, dance, etc.) would be planned out weeks in advance to allow for the greatest creative synergy possible for the most effective communication. We all know Utopia doesn’t exist! This is a challenge we brainstormed around, seeking to effectively address it not only at the Arts Conference level, but ultimately at the local church level.

It is our desire that MinistryHub.com will greatly aid churches to get beyond the 52 hour crunch that we experience week after week. It's simple, the less time it takes to find the perfect idea for your service or series provides you more time to pull it all together.

The MinsitryHub.com Team

There Has Got To Be A Better Way?

2006-10-03T07:55:00.000-05:00

From Tim Yates, Founder Of MinistrHub.com

In March of 2005 I was in the midst of programming one of the most difficult series I had ever been handed in my 17 years of ministry. My service development team had already met, brainstormed our topic and didn't have much to show for it, so I set out on the web, alone, trying to find the service ideas that we needed to effectively communicate our message. After serveral hours of searching, and still finding nothing, I remember sitting back and thinking, "there has got to be a better way of doing this!"

I went home that evening frustrated, to say the least, knowing that the series was coming quickly and I wasn't prepared. It was later that night I remembered an idea that I had back in 2001. One fall evening, faced with the same problem, I was washing the dishes (by hand...our dishwasher wasn't working...it really was one of those days) and began thinking about the bigger problem at hand. I couldn't possibly be the only one frustrated with the process of finding service ideas, so I began thinking about the barriers that prevented me from finding the service elements that our church needed.
I thought back to the first performing arts conference I attended at Willow Creek, and the brainstorming breakout sessions I sat in that day. I remembered how amazed I was, during a mock brainstorming session, at the amount of songs, dramas and movie clips that came forward, only to take this process back to my home church and be frustrated with the lack of results. So why were there more ideas generated in that mock brainstorming session at Willow that afternoon than my best meeting with my best team of volunteers? Was there some common element that afternoon at Willow that caused us to generate more ideas?

First I thought of myself, I know that I can’t see a movie or hear a song without tagging it to a topic. It's who I am, it's what I do. This is my life as a programming director of a contemporary church. Does this sound like you? Could it be that the people I sat with that day at Willow Creek have been designed just like me? If so, then it's unrealistic to put that kind of pressure on even my best team of brainstorming volunteers, men and women who have their life already full of their own daily activities and jobs.

I decided that night that it came down to communication. There needed to be a way for me to share my ideas with you and you to share your ideas with me. But then I thought, better yet, I need to be able to share my ideas, not just with you alone, but with EVERYONE, and you need to be able to share your ideas with EVERYONE. There needed to be a way to communicate with one another and create a storehouse of ministry ideas, but also not stop there, we then need take those ideas and then guide you to the product, the charts, the dramas, the media clips, you need. Now.

I'm happy to say that almost 19 months later, after hundreds of hours of praying and planning, creating partnerships and programming, we are about to launch MinistryHub.com BETA. There will be a lot of activity taking place in the next few months as we work to bring this site to it's full potential, so when you get in and check it out, make sure to let us know what you like and even what you don't like. Just know that this is a site CREATED BY PASTORS FOR PASTORS and it's our desire that MinistryHub.com will become part of your regular work week and not just another addition to it. Instead of hours, we hope that you will be able to sign in and in minutes experience a Virtual Brainstorming session for your topic and then walk away with hundreds of ideas for your next service.

I can now say THERE IS A BETTER WAY coming to program your services.

We're so excited!

Tim Yates

Go to www.ministryhub.com today, sign up and start making your life easier today.

Hey buddy is this the line?

2006-09-05T23:06:00.000-05:00

Alright, here's the low down. Sign up and get in line.

No Cutting
You Be Nice

We'll be opening the doors soon...we're so excited!