End Times Timelines

So where have I been the past month or so? Why haven't I been posting? Well the simple answer is I've been busy. The more detailed one is that I've been in two 2-week long intensive seminary classes as well as Australia for 3 weeks. You've received a few updates here or there about some design work that I have done in the process.

You might remember my post about the common take on Jude 22 "Making a Difference" being the wrong approach. You also might remember my Men's Conference Flyer for Murray River Baptist Church.

Well this is another one of those sort of posts. I'm currently in, and about to finish up, the book of Daniel in a Seminary class. Two of our class projects were to create a chart revolving around the Four Kingdoms of Daniel 2 and 7 as well as create a timeline for a Seventy Weeks of Daniel 9:24-27.

Our teacher showed us a generic Word document table with boring text and white boxes and I though to myself, "How about I make my chart look attractive." This has given me the idea of making charts like this in the future. I found this to be a practical and helpful project and I hope you find it helpful, too.

Feel free to use these if you desire. I made them pretty large (25"x19"). Just click on the picture to open the largest file.

The Seventy Weeks of Daniel timeline is pretty straight forward. It's a Pre-millennial timeline of events based upon Daniel 9:24-27. Yes, I am Pre-millennial. Yes, I disagree strongly about the other two views (A- and Post-).

The Four Kingdoms or Four Beasts chart is based upon Daniel 2 and 7. Though not directly stated in the chart, the image of Nebuchadnezzar contains the same four kingdoms. The head of gold, chest of silver, waist of brass, and legs of iron and clay are represented in that same order.

This chart contains all four views of this passage, though I only ascribe to the Pre-millennial view as mentioned above. There isn't much difference in the identity of the four kingdoms, but rather the difference is how the Kingdom of God plays in. The liberal view is just dumb.

Do you like these charts? Would you like me to design some more End Times charts? I'm thinking about developing a complete End Times timeline based off of the Seventy Weeks chart. Would you find it helpful if I did this? Let me know. Your response will determine whether or not I put the time into it.

If you like this post, do me a favor and share it on Facebook. Let's get the word out about attractive and easy-to-understand Bible charts that make certain passages practical and profitable. As well as all the other design ideas on this blog!

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Men's Conference Flyer

My activity here on the site has been low to nil recently, but in my day-to-day life I've been busier than ever working on two design items for Murray River Baptist Church as well as a host of other activities.

I'll talk about just one for today, and as I have time I'll talk about the other, which is a cool Teen Activity we are doing on Saturday.

The Men's Conference for Murray River Baptist Church this year is focused on a journey through the book of Proverbs. Pastor Steven Maldoff titled the conference "Wise Words from a Wise Guy." I needed to come up with a design that was both simple and clean as well as communicated that message of Wise Words.

Below is the design I came up with. I hope that it will be an inspiration to you, both to have a Men's Conference at your church as well as with the design for any of your materials.

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Identities: Go Big or Go Basic?

This article is by Coreen Smith. Coreen is a freelance graphic designer. She specializes in church identities. That includes logos, letterheads, business cards, and envelopes. She is a good friend of mine from my graphic design classes in college and she is great designer. She does do more than just identities, though, so if you are interested head on over to her website at www.coreensdesign.com

Coreen also wrote an article earlier in the week that you should read first if you have not done so already. Check it out here.


When thinking about the options of going big, which is using a graphic designer, or going basic, which is doing the work in house or for your self, there are still key factors to keep in mind.

Going big does offer positives and negatives. Graphic Designers can be expensive, though not all are. When dealing with a designer, it is best to have some sort of concept in mind as to what you want the end result to be and what you plan to use your identity for before your meeting. This helps minimize your meeting time, gives the designer an inside view of your ministry’s vision, and how detailed and time consuming this project could be. Remember when using a graphic designer you are paying for their expertise and services. It also frees up your time to accomplish other things.

It is important for me to state that having a whole identity package (logo, business cards, letterhead, and envelopes) designed will give you more value for your money by bundling the work, rather than having each designed piecemeal. If you opt to use a graphic designer keep him or her informed of your plans and that you have a budget. Ask if there is any way you can get the most for your money or ask if they do ministry discounts. Just remember that if you never ask, you may never know.

The alternative to go basic by doing it your self does cut costs, but requires more time and involvement on the ministry’s side. The options vary from getting a free logo/identity  or buying one from an identity/logo site. The pit falls or down side to going to these sites is that you loose out on the custom individual look and run a greater risk in coming across other organizations that share your same identity.

Another option would be to place your organization’s name in a nice font with a clean appealing placement. (See my tutorial on Identity design made basic posted Friday.) This would take some time, but would eliminate having the same identity as another business and yet give you an individual look.

After weighing your options, walking through the questions, and deciding what route you might like to take; remember that an identity is an investment. No matter what option you choose, big or basic, your ministry will get good use out of it. You will have a good marketing foundation to build upon today and in the future.

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I'm Still Alive

I just wanted to post and say that I'm still alive and have not forgotten about the site. I've been extremely busy, plus part of the time I was on vacation. I posted some while on vacation, but ultimately, spending time with friends and family all day and sometimes into the wee hours of the night prevented my posting.

Just so you know, I received a copy of Dr. Thom Rainer's book, Simple Church. Dr. Rainer is the president of LifeWay. His book has some church marketing principles in it and the book was suggested to me as being helpful for this topic of church media and marketing. I've received two copies free of charge from Dr. Rainer. I will read the book, critique it, and then offer the second copy as a giveaway. You can be looking forward to that in the near future.

Currently, I'm in a summer class and the major course project is taking up most of my time. As soon as I finish it, or at least get close, I plan to publish the Advertising "From the Experts" that I missed a week ago. Then I'll start working on the next media tip.

I know that the first week of July I'll be publishing our first guest poster. She's a friend of mine from college and will be posting on Church identity design. Things like logos and letterheads, etc.

So you can be looking forward to that, too. There's a lot to talk about in church media, and I haven't given up the ghost yet. Just busy, so I hope you'll bear with me.

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Igniting a Digital Revolution

Can you think back 20, 30, or maybe 40 years and recall when your church was drastically different than it is now? Do you remember packed pews and what seemed like hundreds of children invading the church? Do you remember when your church bus was used for more than decorating the parking lot? Over the past 40 years, church attendance in America has dropped by 50% and 3,500-4,000 churches close their doors each year (Source: Keeping God in America). Many churches are struggling, dying, or dead.

Recently, we've discussed why your church may need a digital revolution to help bring the life back. I want to offer two quick suggestions on how to go digital now. Both of these topics have already been covered in previous weeks. This is where we put it all together.

Now it's time to act.


Sermon Downloads
The easiest, by far, is adding your sermons to a digital download website. Sermon Audio, Sermon Central, and Sermon Cloud are all great options. Chances are that you already record your sermons each week. If you don't, check out this simple guide for recording your sermons. From there, it's not too difficult to upload your sermons to the internet. I already covered how to upload your sermons a few weeks ago.

It's quick, it's simple, and can nearly double your ministry. While this alone may not bring the life back to your actual church, informing your congregation about this new ministry can be exciting. Especially if you give them a monthly wrap-up letting them know in which of the various countries your church messages have been downloaded.

Service Powerpoints
This is the best way to improve your services digitally. It increases attention during the sermon, it enhances retention after the sermon, and it entertains before the service (with trivia questions or something to look at). There is no reason why you shouldn't be using Powerpoint in your services. Finances are not an excuse. Trust me, it will be the best investment your church ever made.

We've discussed setup, what to do, how to do it, and even provided you with some starter slides free for download. Using Powerpoint is guaranteed to create excitement, enhance Biblical understanding, and (probably) increase visitor returns. I say probably on the last one because I haven't been able to study it yet, but I know the first two are tried and tested guaranteed results (speaking from personal experience).


Summary
What I can reassure you about church attendance is that if your people are excited about your services they will tell other people about it. When they tell people, more people will visit. If visitors like what they see, chances are they'll return.

Will the excitement last? If you mean brimming at the top, jumping up and down excitement over Powerpoint or sermon downloads, then no. It will be exciting the first few months, and then they'll get used to it. But if you mean happiness, enjoyment, and, best of all, greater learning, then yes, the excitement will last. Did you follow all my commas in that last sentence? I'm not even sure I did, and I wrote it.

Is this even your problem solver? As I discussed in Monday's article, lack of digital technology may not be the only problem you need to work through, but it will certainly not hurt your situation. Unless you consider greater understanding of your sermons harmful. Did I mention that enough?

Bottom Line: Technology, when used properly, will boost Biblical understanding.


You can't afford to let another week slip by without beginning to act on this. I'm not telling you to have everything setup by Sunday. But at least get a plan of action started as soon as possible. Purpose to start uploading your sermons to the internet within two weeks and to have a projector within a month.

Not a pastor? Share this with your pastor, tell him you think this would be a good idea, even, dare I say it, volunteer to help set it all up for him. Your pastor has too much to do as it is, help him out and get the wheels turning today.

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User Feedback

Here at Media Missions, I'm always trying to improve by making everything more relevant to you, the reader. I strive to make content that is helpful and interesting. But I don't want to just provide good content, I want to provide it at the right time of day that benefits you.

To help me do this, I've installed a poll widget to the right of this article. Will you take a brief moment and answer when you'd most like to see content appear on the site? Your opinion matters.

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Making Some Home Improvements

Did you ever see the TV show Home Improvement with Tim Allen, better known as Tim the Toolman Taylor on the show? It was one of my favorites. It was always fun to watch Tim think he could fix something or build something and then watch it turn into a disaster. He might be doing a simple task like painting the wall and he'd trip, plummeting his hand into the drywall creating a huge hole. Then he'd try to fix the hole and the whole wall would fall down. Any time I think of doing some home improvements I always think of that show.

Here at Media Missions, we've been making some home improvements. Thankfully, we haven't punched any holes into any walls or ruined any links and pages. In fact, we've made a lot of steps forward to making this blog important in the lives of Christians, designers and churches alike. We want you to know that we aren't some blog that got started because someone had a cool idea, but then got too lazy to keep offering good material. We want you to know that we mean business. We understand the value of using our talents for the Lord, and we will not let that ability go to waste.

Some of the changes that we've made recently:
1. New web address: www.mmnextstep.com
2. About the Author page
3. Mission/Purpose page
4. Doctrinal Beliefs page

Some changes we hope to make in the months to come (as I figure how)
1. A custom design
2. Better navigation
3. Special promotional contests

The most important step that we've taken is getting a custom domain name. No more .blogspot address. That makes it easier to find us and easier to remember. We don't look like a generic, no-name blog, but we actually have our own website. The most important step that we will take in the future is getting our own design. Currently, we operate on blogger's pre-made themes. Though I do like the layout for the blog articles, the design needs some work. It's kind of like buying a frozen apple pie at Wal-Mart or making one from scratch yourself. The frozen one might be fast and easier, but the homemade one just tastes so much better. This will take some time as I know little to nothing about web design and may need to hire a friend to do this for me.

One thing I'm looking forward to doing, and I hope you will too, is promotional contests featuring my wife's artwork. Very soon, we will show you some of that artwork here on the blog. Many people have asked her if they could have a particular painting or buy one from her. We have the ability to make digital copies of that work, and I'd like to give three copies away on several different occasions as a promotional contest for attracting more readers.

We have a lot of articles lined up for the coming weeks and months, and I hope you will look forward to reading them. One way to accomplish that is by allowing you to suggest what I write about. If you have a topic you are interested in or would like to hear some tips about then write to me in the comments section at the bottom of this page, just click the speech bubble. I may get to your topic in the near future, but I may not. However, if you suggest it, I will certainly feature it as soon as possible. Just do me a favor, and don't ask me to write any articles about painting your home's walls or putting up drywall, because if you follow my advice with that topic you might end up with a hole in your wall.

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May the 4th Be With You

So today is a special nerd day: it's Star Wars Day. "What makes today Star Wars Day?" you may ask. Well take a look at the title of this post and hopefully you can figure it out. I was going to make a frivolous post commemorating one of my favorite series' of all time, but as I started looking for some well-designed art pieces of Star Wars to post, I came across something...frightening, to say the least.

Did you know that there is an actual religion called Jediism? It's based upon Buddhism and Taoism, so says Order of the Jedi. I decided to write this article as a enlightenment, no pun intended. While I don't believe there is anything inherently wrong with Star Wars or media in the church, there is something desperately wrong when the two become blurred. This is a prime example of what happens when media is used improperly, specifically with regards to culture.

Now this isn't some church/media integration gone bad. It didn't start out as a Baptist church, or even a Pentecostal church for that matter, that just liked Star Wars a little too much. This is a group of people that took Star Wars and formed a religion out of it. I don't even know if religion is the right term. It is more of a philosophy; the Order of the Jedi affirms that much anyway. The scary part is they believe this actually exists and that they created it. Temple of the Jedi Order writes on its homepage, "We are not fictional Jedi from the wonderful Star Wars movies, neither are we role playing. Jediism is not the same as that which is portrayed within the Star Wars Saga by George Lucas and Lucasfilm LTD. George Lucas' Jedi are fictional characters that exist within a literary and cinematic universe."

One thing is certain, they cannot afford a good website. Both of those links are to .org websites and contain poor designs. Now there's nothing wrong with .org websites, but .com is more professional. I suppose they are trying to claim themselves as a non-profit organization. In my mind that type of thing is reserved for charities and churches, but I guess they claim themselves as a church.

Art by David Moss

Just to show you how big of a problem this really is, Jedi Church claims that in the most recent New Zealand census, over 200,000 people claimed Jedi as their religion, more than Jehovah's Witnesses and the Assembly of God. So just what do they believe in? As would be expected, they believe in an all powerful force in the world and that there are two sides of that force: A light side and dark side. They claim that, while most religions will try to tell you what is right and wrong, "[we believe] good and evil, are all axioms of the force, and that we must listen to the force so that we will know the right thing to do." That's a load of hogwash. That's like saying listen to your heart, it will tell you what to do. Do you know what the Bible says? "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9. Do you want the truth? The Bible is truth. "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:17

But what's the worst part in all of this? After all, we already know there are some crazy religions out there that are down right evil, especially Satanism. An article written by Matthew Cresswell of The Guardian states that Jediism is becoming a growing problem in the UK. "Chi-Pa Amshe, speaking as a spokesperson for the Jedi council (Falkna Kar, Anzai Kooji Cutpa and Daqian Xiong), believes that Jediism can merge with other belief systems, rather
like a bolt-on accessory. 'Many of our members are in fact both Christian and Jedi,' he says."

That's the problem that we face. This is just another tactic of the devil. The Bible warns against false teachers (Jude 4). They are wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 5:17). Paul said to reject anyone who teaches another doctrine than that which he has preached because it's trying to lead you astray (Galatians 1:8). The weaker Christians in our churches can be easily duped by this type of message. We need to preach the whole counsel of God to our congregations (Acts 20:27). We need to teach them sound doctrine (Titus 1:9). When bank tellers are taught to spot counterfeit money they don't examine the fake bills, they examine the real thing so that when they see the fake, they will know immediately. We must help our people put on the full armor of God so that they can withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand, and so that they can resist the fiery darts of the wicked (Ephesians 6:11, 13, 16).

What are your thoughts? If you'd like to add your 2 cents, there's a comment box below. Feel free to continue this post by sharing your thoughts.

As a side note, if you like this article may I ask you share it on Facebook or another social media network to get the word out about my blog. People need to be aware of this topic so that they know what's going on behind the religious scenes of the world. As well as for the other helpful articles that have been posted and will be in the future.

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Big Leaps: Matthew Meals

Media Missions has a ministry locally in Pensacola, Florida but also Internationally in Australia. Through my connections with missionary Steven Maldoff, I design various flyers and bulletins for Murray River Baptist Church of Buronga, NSW, Australia. I called this post a Big Leap because of how far away Australia is spatially, yet we are still able to use our talents to reach people for Jesus. This next month, MRBC will be running a series of events called Matthew Meals. The concept is based upon Luke 5:27-32. Matthew, the tax collector (also called Levi), was called of Jesus to follow Him. Matthew then holds a big feast where he invites all his friends, family, and co-workers to meet Jesus.

A Matthew Meal is an evangelistic opportunity for the members of MRBC to do just that. Throughout the month of May this will be ongoing. I share this with you for three reasons. Firstly, to promote the events at Murray River Baptist Church. Though, most of my Australia friends either live too far away from Buronga, or are already in the church. The second reason is to give you the idea of hosting a Matthew Meal at your church. If you are interested in unique ways to have evangelist outreaches, then give this a try and suggest it to your pastor.

Thirdly, I ask you to pray. Will you join with me in prayer for these events? Pray that souls would be saved and that others would gain an interest in the church. At the very least, pray that God plants seeds in the hearts of the lost that eventually it may be watered and God would give the increase.

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Beginning Steps

Taking the next step begins with taking the first. You cannot achieve your goal if you do not begin somewhere. Getting where you want to go means taking one step at a time. God leads us in much the same way. He does not reveal His whole plan for our lives at the very beginning, but guides us as we take each day one step at a time. The only way to get where God wants you to be is to take the first step.

Our first step has been with one locally run ministry outreach to the children and teens of Truman Ave., Pensacola. A few months ago I designed a business card for Souled Out Ministries, a group of guys who organized the Bible Club. Their card is shown below.

Just this past Saturday, Souled Out Ministries hosted a Basketball Tournament and Evangelistic Outreach that saw about 100 children and teens accept Christ as Savior. We ask that you join with us and pray for this ministry.

Another facet of Souled Out Ministries is Connection. Connection is in its beginning phase and its goal is to connect the children of Truman Ave. to Churches through the Bus Ministry. Through following up with many of the salvations this past week, and in the weeks and months prior, Connection desires to get these children and teens into solid Christian churches where they can grow spiritually in the Lord. Truman Ave. is not the best neighborhood in Pensacola. Many of these children and teens would not be able to make it to church if it were not for the church coming to pick them up. Connection understands this, and that is what it was created. The business card for this ministry is also shown below.

Will you consider how you can get involved? Maybe God would lead you to begin a Bible Club in your area. These guys started off with just a few kids and barely any workers to now having easily over 200 children and teens along with 30-40 workers. Give your all to God and He will use you.

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Taking the Next Step

Media Missions: Taking the Next Step. It is our goal to take the next step in world evangelism through media ministries. It is our desire to use the talents that God has given us for His glory. Media Missions is one of those ways that we can accomplish our goal and desire.

This blog seeks to highlight the efforts and work of Media Missions. We will assist the ministries that we come into contact with in the area of media starting with those that are already familiar to us. It is our long-term vision to assist as many ministries as possible through this blog.

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