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Knowledge Management
Success in today's global, interconnected economy springs from the fast and efficient exchange of information. Sustainable competitive advantage is no longer rooted in physical assets and financial capital, but in effective channeling of intellectual capital. The market value of a commercial enterprise is derived not only from its physical and financial assets, but also from the intangible assets it creates through knowledge-based activities.These intangible assets include intellectual property, such as patents and copyrights, as well as the more nebulous assets such as methodologies, practices and customer relationships. These intan

lly reviewed to:

assess its content, ease of singing and relevance.
evaluate and recommend new songs before they enter the repertoire.

9. The music ministry has adequate financial support within the church’s existing resources.

10. Human resources are used effectively and supplemented by appropriate use of technology such as CD's, DVD's MIDI or backing tracks where required.

11. The church supports and encourages local and "lesser known" writers by using their material where possible and helping them to develop skills and access training opportunities.

12. The music ministry obeys the letter and the spirit of the law regarding copyright and performance rights.

A helpful tool

I've distilled these into a quick assessment you can use to see where you and your church are at in terms of ministry. You can download this assessment as a PDF document here. It will give you 60 quick ideas to improve your music ministry.

Leadership W/O Communication is Like a Gun Without a Bullet-- Imppressive but It Can't Do Anything
Next to people, communication is the most critical element to success whether you are in a growth mode or you are facing difficult economic times. However, when times are tough, failure to communicate has much greater consequences. Failure to communicate could accelerate failure . Communication is essential to developing trust. Trust is necessary to get people to reach down deep inside and give everything they have under the most difficult circumstances.Colin Powell stated in an interview that as a young twenty-one year old lieutenant he was still trying to figure out the whole concept of mission and people when a crusty old Master Se

My first experience in music ministry happened fairly soon after I first picked up a guitar at 15 years of age. I knew about 20 chords and could play a few songs from a new songbook titled Scripture in Song. Fortunately most of the songs were in guitar-friendly keys.

There were four of us who played guitar in a small country Baptist church. I know one song we dreaded was "Rise and Shine" ('God said to Noah there’s gonna be a floody floody…'). The chords were simple, but the strumming rhythm was a real wrist breaker.

After church we would retire to one of our homes and listen to the latest Larry Norman or Randy Stonehill album, and try to work out the chords and guitar licks. As Bryan Adams sang, 'I played it till my fingers bled…those were the best days of my life'. The songs were simple and we’d try and embellish them with influences from progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd and Yes. However there's a limit to what you can do with a $20 nylon string guitar. Sometimes this went down well. At other times some of the elders would warn us of the dangers of getting so caught up in the music that we forgot the main game. In their quirky country ways, they had a point.

In the years since then I have enjoyed being part of many different music teams. My studies meant I moved around a fair bit, so I was part of a number of churches. Some were well resourced and it was a struggle to get to do what I loved, whereas others were small and welcomed whatever help they got.

When the Willow Creek team first came to Australia I witnessed what was possible with a dynamic, creative and well-resourced team. However, my frustration was that the models of music ministry I was seeing presented by big, well-resourced, upper middle class churches was simply not achievable in the majority of churches.

This sparked my interest in training and developing churches without these kinds of resources. The problem was to distil from 20 years of experience 'what things really mattered'. What were the issues that could make or break a music ministry, whether in a mega church or a church struggling to survive as demographic change followed its course?

Since then I've had the privilege of speaking with hundreds of music ministers and team members here in Australia and from overseas. From those conversations, these are what I believe are the 12 "biggies" for creating an effective music ministry.

Notice that I said effective, not "successful". Many people equate success with big budgets and large teams. An effective music ministry can be one talented and gifted person doing what they do in harmony with their church and surrounding community.

1. Music is valued as a gracious gift from God, given for our enjoyment, as well as being a strategic tool for strengthening believers and reaching unbelievers.

2. The ministry team should have a biblical understanding of the nature of worship, music, church and Christian experience.

3. Music ministry takes place in the context of a church with a shared understanding of its purpose and mission.

4. The music team are servants with a clear understanding and a passionate commitment to the part they play in that mission.

7. Music team leaders are involved in the planning and programming of services and special events.

10. Human resources are used effectively and supplemented by appropriate use of technology such as CD's, DVD's MIDI or backing tracks where required.

11. The church supports and encourages local and "lesser known" writers by using their material where possible and helping them to develop skills and access training opportunities.

12. The music ministry obeys the letter and the spirit of the law regarding copyright and performance rights.

Web Site Design Tips - Graphics
Lots of people in business on the Internet feel that in order to have a web presence with their site, they have to load it up with graphics and tons of visual images in order to make the site more appealing. The truth is, as Les Wilder said in the movie "Angels In The Outfields", less is more. This is very true for web design. In this article, we're going to give you some web design tips for graphics that will give your page just the right look and also keep the load time to a minimum.For starters, you want to make sure that any graphics that you use on your site are fully optimized for the web. In other words, if you've got some realtimes this went down well. At other times some of the elders would warn us of the dangers of getting so caught up in the music that we forgot the main game. In their quirky country ways, they had a point.