With Family Crossings, families in your ministry can set up free websites to keep track of one another. The free version offers:

• General news content
• Photo galleries
• Family calendar
• Family address book
• Live chat
• Gift center

Would your family use this? Do you think this would be a good tool instead of Facebook for family communication or is it worth the trouble to sign up for something else?

My Job Chart is set up as an online way for parents to track the chores that their children do while maintaining an allowance that they bank via points. A friend of mine who uses this with her children told me that it is working wonders in regard to communicating to her kids what needs to be done as well as giving them a unique way to stay motivated.

Here’s how it works:

Not only do I see usefulness for this in the home, but it could be good in ministry as well. Small group leaders could keep track of various challenges they gave for the kids to do during the week. They could help kids stay accountable for practicing Christian disciplines. They could use it as incentives to help difficult children honor their parents and seek a change of heart.

Can you think of any other ministry uses?

My wife and I are in the process of adopting a child from Bulgaria. The international adoption process is one that is typically lengthy and most definitely expensive. As we searched around for help with our adoption expenses, we came across a wonderful organization called Katelyn’s Fund. Katelyn’s Fund has been a great blessing to our family and I wanted to share it with you so you could pass along to any families in your ministry (or yourself) who may be going through the expensive adoption process.

Here’s a note from Sheila, one of Katelyn’s Fund’s co-founders, about their current work:

Our biggest goal is to help build His kingdom through touching the lives of His precious children who are many times left behind.  We know the financial aspect is huge for many families and count it a blessing that we can be a part of that journey. We see intervening in a spiritual sense a huge task that we do not take lightly. We also have monthly support meetings with speakers and family fun nights to let families know we are walking beside them and have had shared experiences. We are praying about other aspects of orphan care and what that looks like but now we are adhering to the mission of meeting the needs of families and children – financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

Through this, I’ve compiled a list of Adoption Grants/Scholarships and Adoption Loans. I hope these informal lists could be helpful to some families you know. If you’d like to see a little more about my family’s adoption, you can see all the incredible stuff my wife has written about at the Johnson Scoop Blog.

Adoption scholarship info

Adoption loans

I want to commend a free PDF book by Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church. You may not agree with everything that Mark teaches, though I think he is practically and boldly biblical, this book will be a great tool in your hands as you disciple fathers in your ministry. Print it out and make them available to dads. Mail a copy to a dad who you know could use it. It’s a short little read, but very thought provoking. I read it last week and have a new sense of direction as a father now!

No this is not a personal ad. I’m completely happy with my wife Michaella! I’m letting you know about a great tool that our technological families may want to have. It’s called Cozi and is an online family organization system. Here’s a quote from the website:

Use Cozi to manage your busy family life with a shared online calendar, shopping lists, to do lists and more. Plus, capture favorite holiday memories—all in one spot. Cozi is accessible from any computer with an Internet connection, and any mobile phone.

I’ve been wanting to try it out, especially since I could sync my family calender with Outlook, but we haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ll probably need to wait until we replace our 9 year old computer! Have you dealt with the application? Let me know by commenting below!

I not only like to provide free resources on this blog, but also free “nuggets” that you can use to make your ministry more healthy. This month, I’d like to share with you some awards that I give to volunteers each year at our volunteer banquet. I have the volunteers nominate people for these various awards. When I present them, I speak a few words about the individual, and present them with a nice certificate (which you can find here). The awards are:

• Cardiac Award: The volunteer with the biggest heart for kids.
• Legacy Award: A volunteer who has committed a great deal of years, time, emotion, and energy to your ministry.
• Rubber Band Award: The volunteer who shows an attitude of flexibility each and every week.
• Boy Scout Award: The volunteer who shows themselves to be the most prepared every week.
• Lexus Award: The volunteer who shows a commitment to excellence in all that they do.
• Up and Coming Award: Goes to a new volunteer who shows unique promise in doing great things in Children’s Ministry.
• Spirit Award: Awarded to the volunteer who is a wonderful example of godliness to the kids and other volunteers
• Out There Award: Goes to the volunteer with an extra measure of goofiness and ability to relate to children on their level.

You may also be interested in:

1. No Other Ministry Promotion Poster
2. Volunteer Performance Evaluation

Subscribe to the Free CM Stuff RSS feed here.

I guess I’ve been on an audio kick. I promise that the next several posts will not deal with audio! If you would like some Christ-centered audio regarding church leadership, leadership within the home, and a whole host of other leadership topics, you can find them at Leader Source.

Go here to find more info regarding teachings covering a wide variety of topcis. Leader Source is an interesting organization. Check them out.

If you are like me, your ministry to children, families and volunteers does not end when you leave the office. There are few jobs in the world where you have to commit your whole life in order to be successful. Ministry is one of them. What this means is that you may have to access things at your office when you are in other places. I do this using a service called LogMeIn.

There are a lot of services out there to remotely access your desktop. Window’s XP includes a remote access component, but it is very finicky and runs through the operationg system rather than through the web. LogMeIn allows you to access other computers through your internet browser.

It is very convenient, but the drawbacks are that you can not transfer files (unless you opt for the paid version) and you have to install the program on each computer involved. The way to get around the file transfer issue if you are in a bind is to email yourself something to a web-based email client and then access that email from the remote computer’s desktop. Aside from that, I have found that LogMeIn is very easy to use and has been a lifesaver in many circumstances over the last 2 years. I even maintain my parent’s computer from it on a monthly basis.

If you would like to see some other options for remotely accessing your computer (i.e. if you are a little more tech-savy and could handle a VNC) check out this post at the tech blog Mashable.

Recently, I found out about a very nifty tool for the technological generation of parents that we serve. It’s called “Zefty” and is an online way for parents to help their children manage their allowance. They say they may add premium features down the road, but for now, everything is free. Here’s how the site describes its service:

1. Parents set up virtual accounts for their kids
2. Allowances can be automatically deposited
3. Parents manage withdrawals and deposits
4. Kids can print out ZeftyChecks to take to their parents
5. Kids can use ZeftyCalc to see how long they will have to save for purchases
6. Parents can use ZeftyCalc to find a reasonable amount for their allowance

Essentially, the parent is the bank branch with the actual money and Zefty operates as the online banking system. Obviously, the service will only work in a setting with older kids who can read and proficiently operate a computer. My daughters are preschoolers so we are resigned to giving them 4 quarters a week with one going to “Jesus.” Hopefully as they get older we’ll be able to use this site to teach them about Christ-centered financial management.

There are a ton of internet filters to choose from and they pretty much all cost money. You can choose Safe Eyes, AFO, bsafeonline, and Net Nanny. They will cost you $40-50 and/or a monthly charge. These are all adequate filters and have received good reviews, however, K9 Web Protection is a diamond in the rough. It is completely free and has been downloaded over 1 million times. It offers real time protection and updates and works seamlessly in your existing browser without any extra search bars, plug ins or add ons.

The parent company, Blue Coat makes its money by securing network systems for Fortune 500 companies. They seem genuinely concerned about helping families keep a safe and secure home and that is why they offer K9 Web Protection for free. It uses the exact same database and technology as their commercial system. You can look here for details about what K9 offers.

This program is free for home use and would be a great resource to promote to the parents of your ministry. We use this in my home and only my wife knows the password. This keeps me (and my brother in law who lives with us) accountable and encourages us to live above reproach. It is very easy to check for sites that have been visited via the web-based administration page. It is also impossible to deactivate or uninstall without the main administrator password. I hope it can be of benefit to your home and the homes of families in your ministry.