Finally!

Well, after some setbacks due to resources we were able to bring out some features that we’ve had on the drawing board for awhile. Here’s a brief rundown for you:

Redesigned Homepage. The upper portion of the homepage now lists the 3 most recent members, the 2 or 3 most recent resources (depending on length of title) and a testimonial area.

Redesigned Members Directory Redesigned with improved search functionality and a “New Users” sidebar. The search boxes function separately but now you have more options to streamline your search!

Recent Activities. Previously the system tracked all of your activity and displayed it in the Recent Activities box on your user account page. We have reduced the activities that others can see and given you control over the remaining ones. Select the activities visible to others in your account settings

Subscriptions (also called Auto-Notify). A new item called “my subscriptions” has been added to your navigation box. In the ‘my subscriptions” page, you can select from a list of keywords. Anytime a resource has been added or changed that fits your selected keywords, you will receive an email. In addition, the frequency of these emails can be selected in your account settings.

Recommendations. We have added a feature to the Best Practices and Resource section to give you the ability to tag a resource as “recommended”. When browsing a resource, you will find “recommend this” as an option alongside the “rate this resource” option. When you “recommend” a resource it will then show up on your profile so that others may know the resources you like and recommend. Should it be necessary, you can “unrecommend” as well and the resource will be taken off the list.

We hope you find these features useful as you connect with other leaders and look for new ideas and resources to guide men to Christ.

Scott Russell
Moderator – disciplemen.com

Jogging with the Tortoise

Many of you have been asking “What’s going on in the world of disciplemen.com?” and, admittedly, we have been slow to respond.

As we all are aware, the economy has taken its toll on every area of industry and ministry.  We are no exception.  Everyone has had to tighten their belts and be prudent about prioritizing their expenses.  For disciplemen.com, that means our development efforts have been slowed – but not stopped! It would be nice to be running with all the hares out there but jogging along with the tortoise is okay in my book because – as the tortoise says – “Slow and steady wins the race”.

So if you see something that needs fixing or have an idea for the website, please let us know.

Now, here are some of the things that will be happening with disciplemen.com in the near future:

• Redesigned Members Directory page with improved search functionality and a “New Users” sidebar.
• Changes to the posting of Recent Activities and the ability for each member to decide what activity will be viewable by others
• Subscriptions (also called Auto-Notify). Each member will be notified by email when a resource has been added or changed that fit keywords selected by the member.
• Recommendations.  The ability to tag a resource as “recommended”. These will then show up on your profile so that others may know the resources you like and would recommend.
• Redesigned Homepage.  The homepage will list the 5 most recent users and resources, plus an area for information or testimonies.
• Groups.  We are working on implementing GROUPS within the site. Groups allows for the creation of subsets of members based on organizational affiliations.  Once a moderator is assigned to the group, the moderator can create emails to be sent to everyone in their group. Further implementations will allow the groups to have their own “page” and blogs.

So, how can you help make these happen?  First, continue to pray for this ministry and for the Lord’s favor. Second, if you have the means and the Lord prompts you, consider sending a gift to the ministry for the development efforts of disciplemen.com. Click here for more information on how to do that.

Thanks be to God for all of you and for your ministry to men!

The staff of Disciplemen.com

The Heteens Are Here!

teen at computer

The Heteens Are Here!

The Heteens Are Here!

But you ask, “What are heteens?”

It’s likely you won’t find them mentioned at any of

the myriad of men’s ministry forums across the web or

even ministry magazines of that genre.

To the contrary, disciplemen.com takes a very serious attitude in it’s responsibility and opportunity to minister to discipling organizations across the globe. Our forum(s) continually provide tangeable solutions to reaching teen boys (heteens) – knowing they are the Tomorrow’s Men our churches so desperately need.

Our software engineers have provided the RSS syndication connectivity for you to quickly learn about each new power-post that can really launch your heteen efforts.

It’s your choice whether to continue with the hand-wringing uncertainty of what to do next or with a couple clicks, check out our Tomorrow’s Men forums.

Just a few of our present topics are:

• Our Teen-Sized Discipling Toolbox
• Learnin’ ‘Bout Heteens @ the Library
• Grab Your Teen Tooterin’ Manual - See What’s Under the Hood
• Getting Today’s and Tomorrow’s Man to Join the MEN
• Thumbs Communertainment (yes, it’s spelled right!)
• Screwdrivers, Scrap, ‘n Scripture
• The Birds ‘n Bees Discussion (but especially the Blood)

And for the adult men, you can even learn about Snollygosters!

So you’d better bookmark our blog and check our forums often.

See ya. I’m gonna go check for the latest myself…

===========

submitted by Gramps Curtis

It Bugs Me No End

Here is another submission from one of our members, Jim “Gramps” Curtis.

—————————

It Bugs Me No-End!

- so much so, I’ve more than once ‘taken my ball and went home’!
I believe I have a ‘fix it’ approach to life and my Choleric temperament pushes me to ‘get-er-done NOW!’ This would probably be enough to keep me out of the Procrastinator’s Pew; but the problem is more serious than that.

Somehow I keep running across problems to work on, but shortly learn there is no way to learn if my ‘first aid’ is doing the trick; I get no feedback to tell me any results to my efforts. Bummer. I’m a feedback kind of a guy. You know, all the Total Quality Management Peter Drucker stuff has been drilled in my head and it’s really bugging me. Throwing gasoline on my burning thoughts epitomizes me looking up and feeling surrounded by only spectators.

Disciplemen.com is making some interesting, rather subliminal changes in my attitudes about working with others. I wake up many mornings clearly aware that God wants me to do this or that and how He wants me to do it. (Thank you Holy Spirit) When I follow my instructions I get no heavenly ‘atta-boy’s or even ‘yes Gramps, I see you can follow instructions’. And later, I’m given more ‘instructions’ to be followed, in His service. Sometimes I sense a tiny bit of how Job must have felt in missing any divine confirmation of his actions and attitudes.

Simply put, I’m getting the idea I am to:

1. Keep focused on my assigned task and
2. Trust God to improve my aim.

Can I say it doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to cut a smooth circle with a band saw or team-building a group of men you know in the leading of the Lord you love?

Do you think our purpose is not to produce ‘managed quality results’ as much as it is to be consistent in our personal obedience to our Savior (as directed by His Word and Holy Spirit)?

Second question: Which speaks to the heart of men in my world the most; my feedback-chasing remedies or showing myself to be a faithful steward to the spirits of hurting, hunting men around me?

I’m learning what ‘works for me’.

What pleases the Lord in your life?

Now More Than Ever !!

Did you know…?

Here at disciplemen.com, we are always looking for YOUR input. The following is exactly that – input from one of the members of the community (enjoy!):

——————————–
Now More Than Ever !!
——————————–
Disciplemen. Com has upscaled its resources to meet today’s critical needs for the man in God’s service; whether you be father, husband, young adult, or leader at church or in government.

More so today than in days past, we know God’s promises of provision are just as sure and more than match our needs. A favorite verse of mine describes the watchcare of us in the Person of the Holy Spirit.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Eph 3:20.

A careful word study of ‘exceeding abundantly’ will just thrill your soul so that you’ll share it with others or bust. A truth to understand is that God has provided some of our needs collectively. That is, we need to share our talents, joys, hurts, and God’s provisions within the church family. Look at the last word in the previous sentence ‘family’. We all know the advantages, disadvantages, power, and comfort of the family. It’s no wonder God created the family structure so soon in His creation of all that there is.

I’ve been blessed so many times by the words John was inspired to write in chapter 17. We get to listen in to the Only Begotten Son of God praying to God the Father in Heaven. He specifically mentioned several times that you and I be unified; we be a team; we be a family. Part of that purpose was so we could be a symphony of varied talents, personalities, strengths etc.

I believe God has preserved our freedom in this country and others so that we could be a team; a family; a forum that shares victories, answers, tools, talents as produced in disciplemen.com.

The Bible presents this sharing principle and the responsibilities each generation has in leading and strengthening those up and coming.

Now it’s easy to sit back with an ‘arms-folded’ attitude and see needed improvement in our forum, blog etc. But the forum and software are the tools and not the goals. Our quest is to seek the lost sheep, strengthen the saints, and anticipate the VERY soon return of our Savior Jesus Christ. Disciple.Com is a great place to share how God has blessed you in your service to Him.

Read all of John 17 slowly without distraction. Tell God (and one of your friends) about the diamond in verse 20.

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

Don’t delay… disciple today!

(submitted by James “Gramps” Curtis)

disciplemen.com NEW PHASE RELEASED!

From the last disciplemen.com Insiders Update E-mail:

September 4, 2007

The new disciplemen.com is primed and ready for its official launch. All we need is you and the NCMM members to list their resources for leader’s in the men’s discipleship movement! Help meet the needs of these leaders by participating in the 3-Step launch process:

1) REGISTER if you haven’t done so yet
2) JOIN the Leadership Directory and let the other users of the site know you are committed to discipling men.
3) CONTRIBUTE your favorite resource to the Best Practices & Resources section. Have you used a great book in a small group or mentoring relationship? Found a great Bible Study curriculum or web site? Created a useful tool for the men in your church? See if it’s listed in the BP&R, and if not, post the resource yourself – you can even attach documents, power point slides or pictures to your posting to equip other leaders to use it more effectively. We are hoping to have 750 resources listed the in the Best Practices and Resources center as soon as possible.Join one of our upcoming disciplemen.com launch conference calls & we’ll walk through the launch process outlined above.

The schedule for these calls will be:
Friday, September 7th – 11 a.m. EST
Thursday, September 13th – 1 p.m. EST
Wednesday, September 19th – 2 p.m. EST
Tuesday, September 25th – 4 p.m. EST

The conference calls will last approximately 1 hour with half of this being a demonstration time and half being for Q & A.If you would like the telephone number and conference call code to be included in one of these sessions, please email us at resources@disciplemen.com and we’ll be happy to provide further details.Here are a few of the things users of disciplemen.com can look forward to with this release:

• User submitted resources to the Best Practices & Resources section
• New entries into the Leadership Directory
• More information about members of the Leadership Directory
• New search functions throughout the site
• An entirely new 5-Star Ratings system for all resources
• A revised comments/reviews ability, tied to Ratings
• A new design for the How-To’s section
• Ratings now added to the How-To’s section
• Ability to earn more user points
• Forums to communicate with the community and the developers.

We are excited to see how God uses disciplemen.com to help connect discipleship leaders all over the world.

Thanks, and God Bless!

The disciplemen.com team
 

A ‘soft’ Launch at NCMM

disciplemen.com was launched at the NCMM meeting last month in Kansas City. During the conference, the beta release of the site, available at new.discplemen.com, was demo’d in the opening plenary session. All four sections of the site – What’s happening?, How To’s, Leadership Directory and Best Practices & Resources – were up and running. The 48 hours leading up to the event were hectic, as you can imagine, but the guys at Modomo Technologies, our developer, pulled a rabbit out of their hats and had the site ready to go, with only a few of the usual bugs – I mean ‘features’ — you might expect in a beta release.

Over 100 men’s ministry leaders registered on the site as users, and most of those joined the Leadership Directory as well. Plus, more than 60 new resources were added to the Best Practices & Resources Center.

It was a great week with leaders from around the country.

Next Release Coming at NCMM

On April 12-14, a few hundred leaders in the men’s discipleship movement will gather at the National Coalition of Men’s Ministries annual conference, entitled Momentum. We’re excited to be launching the next phase of disciplemen.com at this conference!

In the disciplemen.com Internet Cafe, attendees will be able to access the brand new Leadership Directory, where they can list themselves along with their interests and expertise for others to contact them. In addition, the Best Practices and Resource Center will be rolled out, allowing leaders to post materials that they have used – books, curriculum, events, speakers, etc. – and share them with other leaders from around the world.

It’s not too late to register for this conference. In addition to the disciplemen.com Phase Two debut, there will be representatives from 50+ ministries dedicated to helping leaders disciple men in the local church.

PK Announces Seven Big Events in ’07 – What Will the Impact Be?

Promise Keepers announced a new approach to their conference season this year, with 7 of their traditional arena events, and a new set of small conferences called CityCenter events and PK Selects. They are also going to make much of their past content available online via webcasting (for an example, see Man in the Mirror’s extensive webcasting site).

This could have an interesting impact on the way many leaders disciple their men this year. With less PK events, church leaders may look elsewhere for the big “catalytic event.” Some might make a renewed effort to have a men’s retreat in their church. Other ministries may step into the gap left and offer alternatives. Maybe the seven events will be even more well-attended because there will be fewer offered this year. Or maybe the era of the “big event” is just on its way out.

What do you think?

We Need Your Best Stuff!

As our friends from Modomo work on bending the Drupal Totally Cool Open Source Content Management System (see the previous post) to their will, one of the main components is the Best Practices & Resources Center, or as we like to call it, the BP&R. The idea is to gather the best ideas, resources and materials in one place so leaders can find it.

This is where you come in…

We will populate the BP&R with materials that you – the leaders that use disciplemen.com – provide us. Have you used a great book in your small group? (Like Twelve Ordinary Men, or Point Man?)We want to know about it. Have you organized a really cool event at your church that helped move men into discipleship? (Like a men’s retreat or an adventure dinner?) How did you do it? Have you worked with a parachurch ministry that really gave your ministry to men a boost? (Like Men’s Fraternity or Man in the Mirror?) Share it with the community.

We want to connect leaders who are successfully discipling men with those that want to, and facilitate you sharing your “best practices” and “resources” with each other – thus, the name.

To submit a resource or idea send an email to resources@disciplemen.com. In your e-mail include the following:

• Name of the resource
• Brief description
• What is it (a book, event, speaker, web site, Bible study, ministry, etc.)?
• How did you use it?
• Do you have any materials you made or used to implement it in your church? (like graphics, flyers, your own discussion questions, an itinerary, etc.) If so, please attach them to your e-mail
• Your contact info, including your name, e-mail address and a daytime phone

We’ll look over what you send and then contact you to fill in any details we might still need. So think about what you have done or used in your ministry to men, and please, SEND US YOUR BEST STUFF!!!