Every year at our International Shelby Conference (ISC), we have classes, speakers, performers, one-on-ones, and much, much more. Last year, we had the very talented Nicole C. Mullen perform during a worship breakfast, and this year we are so excited to have two artists that are Memphis stars, but also performers for different projects all over the world. Kevin and Bethany Paige are a talented duo that lead the worship at Memphis’ Lindenwood Christian Church.
[VIDEO] Rocking Out With Memphis’ Best
April 4th, 2012Happy April Fool’s!
March 30th, 2012How is March over already? I know that other parts of the country have had a cold winter, but here in Memphis, it seems like Spring started in January and Summer started in February. Now April 1st will be here on Sunday. April 1st, as you know, is April Fool’s Day. No, really, it is (ha… ha).
Although there is nothing about this “holiday” that is Christian-related, Jon Acuff, from the ‘Stuff Christians Like” blog has put out a hilarious post about the levels of pranks that people play and the apologies that go with them. I especially like when he recommends you tell someone, “Turns out I’m dumb,” when you can’t think of anything else to say. Another good tip: start fake crying when things get really out of hand.
We Need To Turn This Around (Duh)
March 26th, 2012I recently wrote a blog post about how to use Shelby Arena to measure the health of your church and its members/visitors. Well, right after it was published, I saw an article on The Christian Chronicle about the major decline in Church of Christ attendance in the last nine years. The article, titled “102,000 Fewer People In the Pews Since ’03: Churches of Christ In Decline”, talks about how the adherents in the nation’s historically a cappella congregations stands at 1,554,579, which is down 6.2% from 2003. The article also shows that the amount of Church of Christ churches in the U.S. peaked in 1990 and has been declining ever since.
Measuring the “Health” of Your Church & Your Members
March 22nd, 2012
One great tool that we offer in our browser-based Arena Premium software is the Health Meter (also known as the Active Meter). We always like to open up opportunities to hear from our customers and see what tools are really helpful to them. It’s also a plus when we can offer something that doesn’t yet exist anywhere else in the church software world.
What we’ve realized is that many churches want to review involvement, attendance, and other measurable information from their members (or visitors). Using Arena’s Health Meter, each person’s information can be queried to show the ‘church health’ of that individual. With Arena’s complete view of a person, ANY information you are tracking can be added to the criteria and used to calculate their involvement. This information is displayed in an ongoing graph, which tracks their growth over time.
ANNOUNCING… Arena Select in the Cloud! [plus Giveaway!]
March 21st, 2012Arena Select is now available in the Cloud!
Cloud, or “hosted” software, is software that is delivered over the Internet from an off-site location where the data is stored. No more hardware or software installations. No more virus software to update or software upgrades to deploy. The servers where your data is located are regularly backed up and protected by state of the art physical and digital security measures.
Go here to see a video about the product and the technology. Be sure to check out the documents at the bottom of the linked page for more detailed information and call (800) 877-0222 or email sales@shelbyinc.com with any questions!
WE’RE SO EXCITED THAT WE’RE GIVING AWAY AN ANDROID TABLET & GIFT CARDS!
We are so pumped about this new product, that we need your help sharing the news! Check out the widget below to enter by connecting with Shelby and helping us spread the word about Arena Select Hosted. Thanks in advance to all of our awesome customers, partners, and friends. Y’all are the best!
Flying Priests
March 19th, 2012Apparently the Russians are dedicated to having a church of worship on their army bases, as opposed to performing worship services in tents or other military buildings. It has just been announced that their army will have an air-dropped chapel (along with parachuting priests) where their soldiers are stationed. The churches are needed because of special rules in the Orthodox Church that require a certain amount of utensils.
Priests who serve in the army will have to learn the basics on how to deal with this device. The idea is getting some push back due to the extra military spending that it will need, but as of now, it seems to be happening. Check out the more detailed article on RT.
Something for Your Soul
March 16th, 2012This story in Memphis’ Commercial Appeal caught my attention because I have recently started running and I also regularly work out at the YMCA, so I figured it would be right up my alley. I quickly realized that it isn’t just about a man’s determination to stay in shape and to challenge himself with marathon running, but to make a difference to someone who can’t otherwise experience these things.
ISC 2012 Is 3 Months Away!
March 14th, 2012Hopefully by now you have heard of ISC, or the International Shelby Conference. It is our annual conference that is being held in Memphis, TN this year (shout out to our hometown!) and is full of classes and many special opportunities to meet people who do what you do each and every day.
If this is your first time at ISC, we welcome you to attend our First-Time Attendees meeting on Tuesday, June 12th at 5:30 PM. We will help you navigate the conference and answer any questions you may have.
Round Three: How Do You Spread the Gospel?
March 12th, 2012We’ve already covered Round One that asks, “Why Are You A Christian?” and Round Two: “Community… and Why It’s Important!” Today we sum up the three-part series with the topic of evangelism. As Christians, we’ve always been told that an important part of our faith involves spreading the Gospel to the unchurched.
“It’s important to know the time and place to talk about Christianity. It’s almost necessary to first form some sort of relationship with the person before you jump into a conversation about why you believe and why they should, too,” said my small group leader. He was addressing the issue of evangelism and how you explain your Christian beliefs to someone.
A Cool Observation of God’s Work
March 8th, 2012This is the coolest thing! I came across this interactive scale of the universe on one of my favorite blogs, churchm.ag (ChurchMag), and it lets you scroll in or out to see the size and details of some of the largest and smallest living and non-living things in the universe. It really puts everything into perspective for you.
As ChurchMag put it, “Our God is so big!”
It’s so neat to see how God has put His hand in everything and how He designed each molecule, plant, bird, person, planet and galaxy. Check it out here.
