Neue or New?!

Well the friendly people over at Relevant decided to give a forum for those questions and more. Check out NeueMinistry.com and you won’t be disappointed.

Well the friendly people over at Relevant decided to give a forum for those questions and more. Check out NeueMinistry.com and you won’t be disappointed.

So today we had our first 757Arts gathering and I am so pumped. I will be giving more of a summary soon, but figured I would let you guys know it was definitely successful for it’s first meeting.
J-del **over and out**
Design is everything. It’s what draws the eye, sparks the imagination, creates buzz, stirs conversation, and ultimately tells a story. Been thinking a lot about how design impacts our church culture.
What type of design are you pumping out?
We are looking at our website and how the design just doesn’t flow the way we dreamed it. It’s time to reThink EVERYTHING. While thinking about this, I found a great article. Dropped a couple of the 21 ideas below. To read the full article, click here.
1. Load Time – Most of us are very impatient and slow loading pages will not make us want to return. On the other hand, pages that load quickly will encourage visitors to navigate through your site knowing that they won’t have to wait very long for each page to load.
2. Error Messages – If new visitors to your site are getting error messages and are unable to access your site, they’re not going to be impressed and they won’t be back. There are a number of different errors that can occur. BlogStorm recently published an article Why Businesses Need a Website that Works, which takes a look at one unsuccessful website with an obvious problem.
3. Colors – The look of your site will obviously be a factor in your visitors’ first impressions. The colors of your website can have a huge impact on the overall attractiveness of the site. Choosing the right color combinations can be difficult, but fortunately there are a number of online tools that can help. For a list of resources and links to some articles on the psychology of colors, see Find the Perfect Colors for Your Website.
4. Logo/Branding – Another factor in the overall look of your website is the logo and branding. Most importantly, the logo should help to brand your business in the way that you want visitors and customers to think of you. For more information, see What Makes a Great Logo? from David Airey.
I am always looking for designers who inspire. Check out Jurryt Visser. Killer looking design. 
So tomorrow is the first gathering of 757Arts and I think it’s going to be pretty cool. Like anything I do, my expectations are higher than what many hope for, but we’ll see. Let your peeps know and come on out.
Tomorrow at Moe’s Southwest Grill
11:30-1pm
5222 Fairfield Shopping Center
Va Beach, VA 23464
Spread the word and see ya there!
We do some very different series here at Forefront, but I L-O-V-E where we take them. This series we’re in right now, “Crappy Love Songs” is one of them. The logo design was altered from the free vine resources and we did a really easy intro video for each week.
It’s a simple photoshop file of a TV and the logo inserted into a video editor. Then we placed the youtube video of each message/song behind it. The crowd loved it and it changes it up for the crowd to sing along to the crappy songs right before the message. This is an easy way to brand the message and get the effect your looking for without a lot of hurdles to jump through. Check it out:
So, at Forefront we’re starting a series called, “Crappy Love Songs” this week and during every series we promote 1 thing. Since this series deals with relationships, we’re promoting our small groups (Gel Groups as we like to call them).
Each week we’re having a different commercial to promote them in a funny way. Here is our Real Men of Genius Parody: “Mr. Always Late to Gel Group Guy.” Enjoy.
“I’m beat the crap outta this thing!” is exactly what I said when our brand new Eureka vacuum cleaner just decided to suck (or not suck, which sucked). Just as I’m about to throw this thing out the apartment door my wife steps in and says, “Try taking it apart and see if you can fix it.”
I had poked, prodded, flipped switches, took off the back of the darn thing, but hadn’t completely taken it apart to see what the problem was. Two hours later it was dismantled on my floor and the lone motor was sitting there… plugged in. So I did what any rational-figure-outer would do: I flipped the thing on.
It went crazy, my daughter started crying, my wife leaped for joy… but it worked again. Which made me think…
As leaders, are we sometimes ready to give up on programs, groups, structures and plans in God’s church simply because we are just too frustrated to deal with them? Or maybe we want to, but fear the reaction of our people (crying like my daughter did). Possibly it’s due to the fact that pastors can be lazy. I fall into this rut from time to time and I imagine you do too.
It’s high time we step up to the challenge, and gut God’s church. Take it a part, and evaluate the problems, find a solution (even if it means people will react poorly)- because God has commanded His church to be the best. We’re His joy, and as a leader I need to learn to not be afraid and figure out the problems- and act on it.