There Has Got To Be A Better Way?

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.