Jason Hope Ministries

I just finished the redo of Jason Hope Ministries web site (jasonhopelive.org). You should visit his page and see what is going on there. He has just published his first book, “Field of Grace.” I can’t wait to get my copy!

This website is a milestone for Digital Ministries in that it is our first transition from TYPO3 to WordPress. To make this possible, I adopted a WordPress theme that would alow me to use “child themes” to copy same theme and adapt it for various websites. This structure is important to us for two reasons. First it allows me to become  familiar with one WordPress theme, so that I can adapt it quickly to meet the needs of a variety of clients.  Second it makes it possible for meto help clients with common usage issues. I chose the Hybrid these as the base, and then consulted several child themes to come up with one that would do the job for Jason Hope Ministries. Once I learn “the ropes” on this project, I hope to start converting more clients.





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Seeing The Big Picture

In his devotional, “How The Bible Is Structured,” Charles Stanley tells us that the Bible reveals God’s plan for “redeeming mankind from enslavement to sin.” Stanley goes on to remind us that, “even though God’s Word must necessarily be read and studied in pieces, do not forget that it does function as a whole. Once you understand the Bible’s outline, you can see how the Lord works in individual books and chapters.” In saying this Stanley makes a critical point that pastors and Bible teachers often forget. The Bible must be considered as a single, integrated document.
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Welcome to the DMI Forum

This forum got a big boost when I discovered how to merge posts from here with posts from Technologia kai o Poimenas  (Technology And The Pastor), which is located at tkp.dmin.org. I am bringing the posts over about once a week. The two forums are similar, but here the focus is more on using technology in ministry, while Technologia kai o Poimenas is more about the ministry that technology empoweres. You might consider the distinction insignificant, but I felt that it was necessary to protect the ministers from the geeks. The only thing is that I can’t truly define either of those terms, and even if I could, I wouldn’t be sure which forum was appropriate for …. Oh well, anyway, I’ve gotten some content for this forum to get it going.

I hope this will become a forum for the free exchange of ideas on the ways God wants His Church to use technology. Your ideas are welcome and very much needed. This forum will be much better, and more useful, without me doing all the writing.  So, if you would like to enter posts, just register and get going, or email me and let me know so I can setup an account for you.  You can get me at: john@dmin.org.

Also please visit Technologia kai o Poimenas (Technology and the Pastor) at tkp.dmin.org. The content there will be different in the future. As I said, there I am hoping to minister to pastors and other ministry leaders directly, so it is part of what I have been doing with Digital Ministries all along. The idea is that I can post resources and threads that will be helpful to folks. Have a look at what’s there now, and then contribute something.

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About

The idea for Technologia kai o Poimentas comes out of my work in supporting ministers and ministries in using technology. I got into this thing we now call “technology” quite by accident in 1969. I was freshly discharged from 4 years service in the U. S. Army, and I needed a job. My father worked at Lincoln National Life Insurance Co., in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and he knew they needed a computer operator. After I learned to operate computers, I wanted to learn how to program them, so I changed my major at Purdue, University. The rest, as they say, is history — my history I guess, which leads to this blog. I knew the Lord in my youth, but walked away as a young adult. (Where have you heard that before?) The truth is that I wanted nothing to do with God from about 14 until the Lord reeled me back in at 46 yrs. old. That 32 years in the wilderness would have ended in my death, had the Lord not intervened. I knew that as soon as He called me, so I took it all very seriously. After 20 years in software engineering, during the birth of the Information Age no less, and another 9 years in digital graphics, I left the business world and became a pastor. While I was still working in digital graphics, I attended evening classes at Bible college and then at seminary. I finished up seminary while I served as an associate pastor. By the time I turned 52 years old,  I had earned a Master in Pastoral Studies, and a Master of Divinity from Azusa Pacific University, and I was ordained as a staff pastor at Horizon Christian Fellowship, in San Diego, California. Because of my background in digital technology, Horizon asked me [...]
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Biblical Inconsistencies

In his devotional, “The Question of Inerrancy,” based on 2 Tim. 3:14-17, Dr. Charles Stanley makes a compelling argument. While there are many critics of the Bible who relish in finding what they see as inconsistencies, their approach is always based on taking the Bible apart and finding fault with the pieces. Stanley says, “This leaves the Christian in the pew fretting over how to distinguish between God’s Word and a scribe’s opinion.” But, the Bible was not given to us as a collection of verses. It was given as a book in two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. They are complete literary units that must be understood in their entire context, and they must be understood together.
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Technology, Jesus, Bible, Sin

I have a wonderful collection of leather bound, printed bibles in all translations, some hundreds of years old. I love them; but I almost never use them. Because I have the Bible in every translation plus the original languages, lexicons, commentaries, dictionaries, encyclopedias, concordances — more reference material than I could ever use, all on the wide screen LCD here on my desktop. So I know and teach about Jesus through the Bible which is brought to me by some very sophisticated technology. Sin – oh yes, that’s here on this screen too. Sometimes obvious, often subtle, intruding in a thousand ways on what should be the private conversation I am having with my Lord. And not just here, but there too! Out there, on the net, on the LCD HDTV, on my Zune, and even on my RAZR. (I don’t have a pod or blackberry; I’m too old.) I need to get a grip. This technology makes everything faster, more dramatic, simpler and more complex all at once.
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