Ithaca Hours & The Church

Maybe I have been in a cave for the last 10 years, but Ithaca Hours is new to me. If that name means nothing to you either, here is the low-down.

Ithaca Hours is a local currency system that promotes local economic strength and community self-reliance in ways which will support economic and social justice, ecology, community participation and human aspirations in and around Ithaca, New York. Ithaca Hours help to keep money local, building the Ithaca economy.

I love this concept, and wonder if the church could adopt something like this. People giving of there talents to help those in need, and being rewarded by trades of service. Let me explain how I see this working.

1. Churches work with non-profits. They open up their volunteers and buildings.
2. Designers handle all marketing, free of charge.
3. Programmers handle all web programming, free of charge.
4. Printers handle all printing, at cost.
5. All involved record time and trade time in services.

I know this is imperfect, but to me this could become something great. It helps the Christian creative community network, and it encourages the creative community and churches to do good with the talents and resources God has given them. I would love to try something like this out on a small scale, for one project. If you are or know of a church, programmer, or printer wanting to help, contact me. And if you are interested in this idea, lets talk.

Check Your Mail

The Love Shirts have been mailed. If you ordered one keep your eyes peeled for one of these black and white striped envelopes. Now I live in the most northwest corner of the continental United States, so you Florida people may just have to wait. Thanks again for making this amazing!

Graphic-Exchange

Spend time in this site, you will be better for it.

We’re just Clever.

The term creative or innovative gets thrown out like candy these days at churches. We pride ourselves on how creative we are, but I have to say, I think clever is a better word. Rarely do we come up with something truly innovative, we tend to play off an existing idea. We come up with clever ways to use movies, clever ways to use popular songs, and clever ways to ride pop-culture movements. But to me those are not creative, they are just clever. Try and think of some creative ideas that the church can do to Glorify God, and impact communities. And add to this list of creative churches you know of, I could only think of 2.

Mars Hill Seattle: Ask Anything

LifeChurch: One Prayer

Feedback vs Ego

I am a member of the CMS lab, and on occasion will post art for review. To be honest it is rare that I truly want people to give me their input on how I can make my design better. What I usually want is a big old pat on the back, and for people to tell me how great it is. I know that is wrong, but it is the truth. Now time for you to tell the truth. and be honest now.

The First Christian Designers

As a designer it is always my goal to communicate a story, or message visually. I can create a beautiful piece of artwork, but if the message is lost, I have failed. Sometimes in design we focus on what is new, relevant, and flashy, but then lose our story.

I wanted to share some early Christian artwork. All they showed was the story. This was truly a form of communication for future generations. What can we learn from this?

Note to readers: Art can and has become an idol to many early and present Christians. That is sin.

Google Friend Connect

Google is rolling out a service, Google Friend Connect, that could give your website fully functional social applications without the need to write one line of code. You could think of it as being like Facebook applications that are built into your own website. Get in at the beginning and get your church body interacting in a way that you never thought your church could.

What do you think, should churches use this?

Free Fonts for You

We all like free stuff, especially Christians, and our pals at Smashing Magazine have made it easy for us. If you like what you see head on over to Smashing and hook them up.

Freebooter Script

Cora Basic Regular

Walkway

Karabine

64 Nets!

For the past week this blog has been focusing on helping Bite Back malaria. We offered a free shirt to anyone who donated, and the response truly humbled me. So here is the low down on how we did.

31 Shirts Donated. That’s 30 people sacrificing their money for the love of Christ.

64 Nets Donated. That’s 63 families that can now sleep in peace. Praise God.

Thank you all for helping us do this. Thank you to the people who posted on their blogs about this. Thank you to the people who prayed about this. And thank you to everyone who helped support this with your donations.

Time is running out

FINAL TALLY: 64 NETS DONATED!

Sorry ordering is closed.

Time is running out to make your donation and get a FREE SHIRT. You have until end of day Friday to help Bite Back! Here is all you have to do.

1. Go to Bite Back and read about Malaria and what we can do to help.
2. Donate as much, or as little as you want. $10 = 1 net so you know.
3. Email me (corey@jaghq.com) your receipt, shirt size and shipping info.