• I-Phone Apps that may be helpful for you
  • CaringBridge - a way to stay connected with health issues - they also have an I-phone App that allows you to stay connected.
  • Prayer Steward - a way to stay on top of Prayer Requests and your commitments to prayer - technology meets spirituality!

   

• Dynamic Marriage Facilitator Training www.familydynamics.net
• .Pdf of Course Flyer

• Pure Life Alliance is a ministry network between churches, therapists, authors, and attorneys who work together for purity within the body of Christ.  We seek to assist men and women in their pursuit of healthy sexuality and to restore marriages that have been damaged as a result of sexual impurity. 

  www.purelifealliance.org
  
  

• http://www.smallchurchmusic.com   Free Hymn Accompaniment

Quality pipe organ accompaniments of public domain hymns can be downloaded for free as mp3 files. These are not just midi files, but recordings of an actual pipe organ in Australia by a retired clergyman, Clyde McLennan. A few of the tunes are copyrighted, but are legally downloaded for a very small fee due to an agreement that the author has with the music industry. The site also includes easy listening piano music, other music, lyrics, and sheet music of public domain hymns that can be downloaded for free.

This is useful for congregations that may not always have a live organist on hand but need a quality accompaniment to play through their sound system. We have used this at Walla Walla with great success. The tunes are very singable with some variety between stanzas. They sound so realistic we have people turn around to see who is playing the organ. You may contact Pastor Steve Juergensen for more information at : penguinsrus@charter.net

• Ben Stein's film, "Expelled--No Intelligence Necessary," investigates why no alternatives to Neo-Darwinism are examined in our universities and our media, and why scientists with very good credentials are blackballed should they even mention another possibility. The film also connects Darwinism with the underpinnings of National Socialism and the Holocaust. A series of free resources for discussing the film are available at: www.getexpelled.com > Resources > Free Downloads.  

• An interlinear Bible can be a useful tool for practicing or using one's Greek and Hebrew.  A bound volume can cost as much as $60.  A versatile free interlinear Bible for your computer based on the Westminster Leningrad text

  (Hebrew) and the Westcott-Hort text with Nestle 27th edition variants (Greek), and coded to Strong's numbers can be downloaded at:

  http://www.scripture4all.org/download/download_ISA20.php

• Churches sometimes want to have a "vote of confidence" in the pastor's leadership.  These seldom turn out to be affirming in any way.  A good article on votes of confidence can be found at: http://old.mbconf.ca/mb/mbh3611/pauls.htm

• There are a number of very good Luther articles on this site:

  The site is: http://www.orlutheran.com/html/martin_luther.html

• Audio symposia for laity, for potential seminary students or interested laymen, and for pastors are available for download at: http://www.learnoutloud.com/Results/Publisher/Concordia-Seminary/663.  They are free.  Also included are courses in Greek and Hebrew. 

• Biblia Hebraica and the Nestle Greek text are available free for those who wish to use them on their Windows based handhelds.  There is also a download of Rahlf's Septuagint.  Go to: http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/tyndale/Fonts.htm and scroll down to mid-page.  When unzipped, the files are in Microsoft Word.  The Biblia Hebraica is a large file.  Break it down into separate folders for individual books.  The default font for the Nestle text is not attractive.  Convert the entire document to TITUS Cyberbit Basic or something similar.  These texts can also be used directly from one's computer and are a handy way to include original language citations in conference papers.

• Many old church records are in German and the German is in an old handwritten script in which a number of letters appear to be unrecognizable, as well as identical to one another.  Even if someone has learned German fairly well, the old Kurrentschrift (cursive) can be quite a challenge.  These sites give enough information about the letters and how they are formed to teach yourself to read the old script: http://www.kurrent.de/_html/uebungen.htm 

• http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/manuscripts/gospel_of_judas/
  Gospel of Judas informational website.

• Worship helps:
• 
  http://www.justworship.com/worshipsongs.html

• OREGON FAITH ROUNDTABLE AGAINST HUNGER: 
  Over half the hungry people in our country are children.  Oregon faith based organizations are coming together with legislators to reduce the hunger rate in Oregon from 1st place to 17th place this year.  We can make a difference working together.  Check this organization out at www.ofrah.org.
• Erin Hoekstra, a hunger fellow from the Congressional Hunger Center in Washington, DC will be working with OFRAH for the next six months. During her time here, she will be establishing local roundtables like this one in Lane County. If you are interested in beginning a roundtable in your area or would like more information about OFRAH and the local roundtables, please contact her at ehoekstra@hungercenter.org.

• FREE SOFTWARE
  A free office suite software fully compatible with Microsoft Office files. Get version 2.0 at www.openoffice.org.

• Check out LUTHERAN DEVOTIONAL CORNER -  a site which is produced by a number of pastors in the LCMS.  There are sermons available for download from many LCMS pastors.  There are devotions available for daily delivery to your e-mail inbox.  There are catechetical resources for downloading, some of which are in MP3 audio format.  And, there are sermon building resources available.
  
  http://lutherandevotionalcorner.info/

• Tools and resources to encourage and enable congregations to equip their members to reach out with the love of Jesus Christ and embrace their unchurched friends. Material for a Friendship Sunday outreach is included as part of an overall, ongoing Friendship outreach focus.
  
  http://friendshipablaze.com/

• Executive staff from the Gallop organization recently stated the Disney's new film "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" based on C.S. Lewis book will be a major event in December and be a great outreach & education opportunity for churches.
   

  Bethel Lutheran in Madison (same great people who brought you the Bethel Bible Series) has written a family guide. Senior Pastor Bill White encouraged me to share this great resource. Churches can freely download this resource, copy, and distribute. The complete PDF file (you will need Adobe reader!) is at

  http://www.bethel-madison.org/html/education/Final_LWW.pdf

   

   

  Further details about the movie are at

  http://www.thestonetable.com/

  http://movies.aol.com/franchise/exclusives/chronicles_of_narnia_movie

• Worship pollsters tell us the learning paradigm has shifted from word based teaching methods to visual methods. Wellspring Scriptures offers creative treatments of the weekly lectionary readings for pastors to download from the internet and use in their worship services. These range from simple responsive readings to suggestions for PowerPoint pictures to monologues and sketches where actors act out the story. The creative scripture treatments all move towards greater congregational participation and the use of more visual elements in worship. Remarkably, these scripture treatments are comfortable to those who prefer traditional worship, yet equally appreciated by the contemporary worship group.

  www.wellspringscriptures.com

• What are we to make of Luther's harsh words against the Jews in his 1543 tract, "Against the Jews and Their Lies" and the way some have used his words since?  See a very helpful article at:

  http://www.wlsessays.net/subjects/IJ/ijsubind.html

• GriefShare is a non-denominational group and features biblical teaching on grief and recovery topics. GriefShare sessions are small group settings that include a video seminar hearing from experts on grief and recovery subjects.  You will also have the opportunity to interact with others who have experienced a recent loss, learn about their experiences and share your own. Groups are meeting near you at various church locations.  Click on the link above to learn more.

• The Didache, an early Christian manual for pastoral customs and practice from about 100 A.D., available as a fold-in module for e-Sword. It is a small download at: http://www.freebaptist.net/esword/Didache_pfw_v1.zip

• A very good, user friendly free Bible program for your Windows OS computer can be downloaded at: www.e-sword.net. It features a number of contemporary English versions, original language texts, several very useful commentaries and classic works. The program and most of the modules available are available to be sent to you on a CD.

• This site does a good job of assisting, equipping and encouraging pastors and lay leaders of small churches and rural ministries:  http://www.smallchurch.com/

• More good audio resources are becoming available in MP3 format. Many who would like to use these files have no convenient way to play them. CDex is a relatively simple free program that converts MP3 files to WAV (audio) files for burning as a standard audio CD.

CDex is available as a download at:
http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/?q=download

Voice files can be set to a fairly low quality, like 16 kbps to reduce the number of CDs required.

Converted files are stored in a folder titled "my music" within the folder into which CDex is unzipped. Use a regular CD burning program to copy the converted files to a CD. Whereas some conversion programs need a platform with considerable computing horsepower, CDex will work on older Windows computers.

• AbiWord is a very nice free basic word processor especially useful for people whose computer did not come equipped with Microsoft Word, but sometimes need to use documents in Word.  It loads and responds very quickly.  It is a download slightly smaller than 5 MB.  Get it from http://www.abisource.com

• A University of California professor shows that Darwin's ideas underlie the culture of death that supports abortion, eugenics, infanticide, animal rights, and the horrors of Hitler's Third Reich. See the articles available at: http://www.csustan.edu/History/Faculty/Weikart

• George Mueller asked God to make his life an example of God's faithfulness in prayer. For more than sixty years Mueller ran several orphanages with no resources to supply the daily needs of two thousand orphans other than prayer. A complete book on Mueller's life and God's answers to his prayers can be found at: http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Voice/George.Mueller.of.
  Bristol/George.Mueller.of.Bristol.html Scroll down the page for the option of downloading and saving the various chapters as text rather than HTML.

• The Unbound Bible offers a wide variety of Bibles and Testaments as free downloads for Palm handhelds with OS 3.5 and above.  These include the Westcott-Hort with UBS 4 variant readings and the BHS Hebrew Old Testament with vowel points, both of which are normally for sale at moderately expensive prices.  The free Unicode Bible reader is required.  Free English versions include God's Word, the New American Standard, New King James, and RSV.   Go to: http://unbound.biola.edu/  A number of additional on-line Bible study resources are also available through the site.

• The Westcott and Hort edition of the Greek New Testament is available on a CD in MP3 audio files for $19 (shipping included) from http://www.ccel.org/a/anonymous/gnt.  Each chapter may also be downloaded for free.  The files can be converted and burned to regular audio CDs with iTunes for Windows XP.  This is a free download from www.itunes.com.

• Communion wafers for someone who is gluten intolerant! Believe it or not, here is a recipe for gluten free communion wafers.

 http://www.recipegoldmine.com/glutenfree/glutenfree.html

• Another page gives sources for ready made gluten free wafers. http://www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/communion.html

• "A Year At A Glance" looks like a nice help for LCMS pastors and those who plan or use the pericope. http://www.yaag.org

• THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST – Information on the movie by Mel Gibson that follows the 12 hours leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. The official movie site http://www.thepassionofchrist.com and you'll find outreach ideas connected to the movie at http://www.thepassionoutreach.com.

• AGE SPECIFIC DEVOTIONS – I have had a request for sources of age-specific devotions. You can find devotions written for adults at: http://www.lhm.org/dailydevotions.asp

  You can find devotions written for teens and young adults at: http://www.lifeloveandfaith.org/

  You can find devotions written for teachers at: http://www.lea.org/devotion.htm

  You can find devotions for children at: http://www.cph.org/forms/Devotions.asp

• The following site has links to several articles about J S Bach's faith and how it related to his music. The article by Uwe Siemon-Netto discusses how Japanese are becoming Christians through curiosities about the meaning of the compositions aroused by listening to Bach's music. And, Bach was a committed Lutheran Christian.
  http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Links/Links-Articles.htm

• A multi-faceted resource for finding, hearing, and selecting hymns can be found at: http://www.hymntime.com/tch

• "Listening and Caring Skills for Ministry" by John Savage is very useful book for elders and others who wish to learn to heal the hurts people carry under the surface.  It encapsulates the skills taught in his forty hour Lab I seminar.  It and several other resources from him can be ordered at the following address: http://www.leadplus.com/Order%20Form.htm

• Are you in need of a sermon in German?  Check out this website:  http://www.sermon-online.de

• The entire Book of Concord (1921 Triglotta edition) may be downloaded in PDF format - this is a 481 page file - it may be a large download so allow sufficient time.

• Reading PDFs are a breeze because nearly everyone has a PDF reader.  Creating PDFs is another thing because it usually requires purchasing Adobe Acrobat for $300 or more.  While it doesn't come with all the same whistles, Software995's pdf995 will let you create pdf files for free.
  Go to http://www.pdf995.com

• POWERPOINT HELPS - The Davis School District of Farmington, Utah, maintains a website that offers educational resources for teachers. Among the various resources offered by the district are step-by-step instructions for the use of software. One of the software programs featured is PowerPoint. You can download and print a series of handouts that offers helps in PowerPoint 2000 and PowerPoint 2002. Additional software programs covered include WordPerfect, Word, Presentations, and others. You can explore their site at: http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/etc/paul/software/powerpoint.htm.

• For anyone who wishes to study the Early Church Fathers online check out this website: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/. There is a search function which allows you to seek out a specific subject.

• The administrator of www.glaubx.de is putting the entire German Bible in MP3 files onto the Internet for free downloading. Only a small portion is available so far. Several German translations are being used, all of them quite modern.

• Although there are benefits to learning with a teacher, a self-guided course in the basics of New Testament Greek can be found at: http://www.theology.edu/greek01.htm

• Moments of Grace - Hymns, Worship Services and Meditations for Caring and Healing Ministries (a small booklet) is available from Creative Communications.  You will need the Order Code - HW-H.  You can also call 800-325-9414 to order copies.

• First Order is a very nice True Type font for Windows in the style of an 8th Century Gaelic manuscript. It may be downloaded and distributed as freeware from www.1001fonts.com.
  Click on the "Calligraphic, Gothic Fonts" link. The author asks for an e-mail acknowledgment from new users. See the "Read Me" materials.

• Listen to the New Testament in streaming audio or download several versions in MP3 audio files. The languages available include Spanish, Vietnamese, Slovak, Farsi, Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, and Arabic. The NIV and several other English versions are also available in streaming audio.

  http://www.audiotreasure.com

• Rutgers University sponsors the Marriage Project. It has produced a number of fine documents on issues related to marriage today, including "Should We Live together?" Get them for download at: http://marriage.rutgers.edu/publications.html

• Theological essays on many subjects published through the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WELS).
  http://www.wlsessays.net/

• A good basic sermon resource site on the revised common lectionary. 

• Bibles and Greek New Testaments for a Palm Pilot or a Windows CE handheld, several of them free for downloading.
  http://www.olivetree.com    

• WEB SCRIPTURE RESOURCE - (From CSL NEWS, a service of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis) Concordia Seminary, St. Louis is pleased to announce the return of audio files on its Web site designed to assist pastors in their sermon preparation. The files feature Concordia Seminary faculty members translating the Old Testament and Gospel lessons assigned for each Sunday in the three-year series of Scripture readings utilized in many Lutheran churches.

• The entire lectionary the LCMS uses is now available in two formats from the Commission on Worship at the Synod web page.  One format prints all of the lessons in full.  http://worship.lcms.org
  
  If the above link does not work - try:
  http://www.lcms.org and select Commission on Worship from the drop-down menu.

• If you occasionally need a full set of Greek and Hebrew fonts for a conference presentation, but your computer came without them, or if you  would like to download some Bible texts.

• Study and use the English Standard Version on-line at: http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/

• BIBLE TRIVIA - (From CrossDaily.com) Teachers and parents are constantly on the lookout for new and creative teaching ideas for both the classroom and home school. Bible Trivia Pro has the resources to enhance your student's learning experience. Generate customized quizzes and add your own questions to their already extensive database.  Discounts are available for multiple orders.

• Some congregations distribute the antique square or cut nails during Lent. Once these could be purchased at any lumberyard, but are now hard to find. This web page offers more than a dozen different styles of square nails in different sizes and finishes:
  http://www.tremontnail.com/

• A large number of Christian resources can be found at: http://www.gospelcom.net

• A good starting place to go for scientific information on evolution from a creation perspective is: Evolution-Creation

• Now you can have online access to over 600 reproducible Bible Activity story sheets filled with games, puzzles, mazes and other activities (for children). Since they're searchable by keyword, Scripture and topic, you can find the story you're looking for in a snap.

• Resources on Mormonism: WELS pastor Mark Cares of Nampa, ID is an expert on Mormonism and has a one-stop site for witnessing to the LDS.

• If you occasionally need a rough translation of short passages from a language totally unfamiliar to you, go to this URL and let Babel fish do it for you. This could be useful for church records before World War I.
  

• You can receive Religion Watch by e-mail every month for the low introductory rate of $18 (the rate for the electronic version of RW - which is usually $20 - is unlikely to rise due to mailing and printing costs). The print version is available for $26 (regularly $28). If readers subscribe for two years, they receive a free book as a gift.
  http://www.religionwatch.com/

• This is a place that sells old or used Books, Videos, and CDs on the web to help with fundraising to areas of choice.

• Net Results - New Ideas for Vital Ministry - Has everything from growing your Sunday school to solving growth restriction problems to measuring transformation in congregations to spiritual faith in adulthood....
  http://www.netresults.org/

• If you are curious how the ministries of your church match up to the preferences in your community, then you will definitely want to check out a Ministry Match report.
  http://www.link2lead.com/L2L/start.asp

• "Early Church Fathers (37 volumes) and Encyclopedia of the first 1000 years of Christianity is available on CD.  The download is quite large, the District has put this information on CD, and will gladly send you a copy, to receive information about how to get the CD email Vicki Knutsen, Information Systems Administrator.  
  
  The Encyclopedia is also available for downloading  (78 mb - so allow ample time for download if on a modem) at http://www.zeitun-eg.org/encyclop.htm.