Greg Atkinson

My friend, Jim Tomberlin, just released a FREE ebook entitled “125 Tips for MultiSite Churches”. This is a collection of all his experience, consulting, research, study and insights on the multi-site movement. This is a must-read for all church leaders. You can get it HERE. Big thanks to Jim for offering this resource for free!

***Here is a message from Jim to my readers about his new book:

Hey Everybody,

Check out my new eBook “125 Tips for MultiSite Churches & Those Who Want To Be.” This a compilation of my 15 years of multisite church experience.

This eBook is about helping guide leaders through the decision-making and implementation process of going MultiSite. My intent is that these tips will become guideposts to help you navigate these new waters. And for those of you who have been doing MultiSite for some time now, it will serve as a refresher about the most important details as you continue to multiply the number of additional campuses your church starts, supports, and sustains.

While going MultiSite can certainly be a practical, pragmatic decision, it is also one that allows us to expand our reach and multiply our ministry impact in one of the most reasonable and cost-effective ways available to church leaders today. There is nothing more exciting than to be a part of a growing, healthy church. There will be surprises along the way, but the good news is that many have already been there and are finding their MultiSite strategy to be a critical element to their kingdom expansion strategy.

May God extend your borders, multiply your impact, and enlarge your harvest. If we can help, let us know.

Be fruitful and multiply,
Jim Tomberlin
MultiSite Solutions

LifeChurch.tv (through their OPEN Network) has done it again! Known for years for offering free resources to the Church, now they are helping you with your church’s Facebook page through a series of training videos.

With training videos on how to do events, extras and configurations, fan updates, insights/metrics, moderation, notes, photos, videos and wall updates – they have you and your Facebook team (which can be made up totally of volunteers) covered on how to create, manage and lead an effective and attractive Facebook page for your church.

Check out their resources and videos HERE. Now you have no excuse for not having a great Facebook presence!

Top Christian media website, Evangelize.com, has rebranded it’s video download site as MinistryFlix.com. To celebrate this name change, the site is giving away brand new exclusive content each week throughout the summer, created by some of its top selling producers. Please know some of this content you can’t find anywhere else on the web!

The site offers thousands of short videos that give viewers an opportunity to hear about important themes. Videos tackle issues such as gossip, worship, relationships and forgiveness – all from a Christian perspective. Many of the videos feature stars from such hit television shows as “The Office,” “Community,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Glee,” “Saturday Night Live” and more.

The site’s founder, Tom Rice, says “We are constantly bombarded with stories and visual imagery that compete for our imagination and aim to influence the way we view our world. Our imaginations are often led to value what is contrary to God’s teaching. MinistryFlix.com thinks it’s time to reclaim our imaginations,” says Rice.

MinistryFlix.com believes that parables and imagery are just as influential today as they were when Jesus delivered his sermon on the mount. They have put together a vast resource of materials that they believe will help capture the imagination of their audience and lead them closer to Christ.

“People yearn to hear truth that will set them free. Your audience might be your church, your family or perhaps your friends who don’t know Jesus. They’re ready to listen,” says Rice. Rice wants people to view MinistryFlix.com as the top digital resource for offering the best in Christian media for church, small group or individual use. The downloadable videos range from inspirational videos, documentary testimonials, and comedies and often feature recognizable actors. The content on the site is produced through a partnership of top Christian media producers.

Don’t miss that last point – it separates MinistryFlix.com from most of it’s competitors. They screen and filter their videos and won’t put up just anybody. My problem with some companies is they have so much junk on their website that you have to search for hours to find anything usable. Only the top Christian media producers have been selected to be on MinistryFlix.com. It’s really a who’s who of Christian media resources. If you want to save yourself time, it’s worth you bookmarking them and checking them first when you’re looking for a video clip for your ministry.

In case you missed it in the opening paragraph: They’re giving away FREE videos every week. The new Deidox film is only on their site and available as a FREE download. At least go get your free video!

Have you ever wanted a custom Twitter background for your youth group but don’t know how to make one?  Well here is a free customizable Twitter background and tutorial to walk you through how, compliments of Sheepish Design.

Sheepish Design did my new Twitter background (seen HERE) and is a great company to talk to about your church’s website. Most churches I come across are in desperate need of a new website and branding campaign. Sheepish Design can help you with that.

Go HERE to get a custom Twitter background and a tutorial for editing it. Thanks Sheepish Design!

SPREAD THE WORD!
LifeChurch.tv and XXXChurch.com present:

ThePornEvent.com is open to people everywhere, so feel free to invite your friends, Twitter Followers, Facebook Fans, or anyone from your community. Expect a non-threatening environment featuring stories, helpful answers, and an open conversation with people who’ve traveled a similar path. ThePornEvent.com is for anyone who is interested in what it looks like to live a life beyond pornography.

After two years of creating quality content as eight20eight, they decided to change their name. Now known as Soul Refinery, they will continue to create quality media that they hope will ignite the heart and refine the soul.
To celebrate the change and launch of soulrefinery.com, they are giving away two free Christmas motion loops.

While you can find their content wherever quality videos are sold, they hope you’ll consider supporting us directly by visiting soulrefinery.com. There you’ll find their entire collection, including films that feature stars from hit TV shows as The Offce, Community, Reno 911, Saturday Night Life, and others.

They also now offer the entire motion loop and countdown library that they recently purchased from our friends at Eleven72 — revamped and available in HD!

Please visit their new site today and let them know if you have any questions or comments. CLICK HERE TO ADD FREE LOOPS TO YOUR CART

My friend, Travis Reed, and the peeps at The Work of the People are offering a new FREE Christmas video. I figured: Who doesn’t want to know about a free Christmas media resource? So I’m letting you, my friends, know. To get the video seen below, go HERE and use the promo code: freetwotpchristmas

For fans of WILCO, IRON AND WINE, DAVID BAZAN, SUFJAN STEVENS, DEREK WEBB – you might dig So Elated’s new Christmas album “The Bewildering Light”. You can get it for FREE by telling 5 friends or pay what you want. I’m always looking for fresh sounding Christmas music – especially stuff with a Sufjan Stevens flavor to it. Check it!

YouVersion Live gives you a way to interact with church services and other live events using your mobile device. You can follow along with message outlines and take notes, read related Bible verses and click through to the expanded passage, vote on a poll and see the results live, ask questions anonymously, give, request prayer, and take it all home with you on your phone. It works with any web-enabled phone, as well as any computer with an internet connection.

Introducing YouVersion Live from YouVersion on Vimeo.

Check out this blog post from Terry Storch HERE.

*** PERSONAL:
Tonight I’m taking my wife on a date to the U2 concert at Cowboy’s Stadium. Can’t wait!

As a former worship pastor, I’ve followed Shaun Groves for a while. He’s been in my CD rotation and has greatly encouraged me through his music. I especially appreciate his Kingdom heart, his work with Compassion and the poor. He’s a great guy and I encourage you to get to know him if you don’t.

By the way, his song “Should I Tell Them” is one of my all-time favorite songs. I can’t tell you how it ministers to me before I speak to a group of people. You’ve got to check it out!