We'll we finally got the new vineyard website launched.  Thanks to all those who helped out. 

In a lot of ways this is just the beginning as this gives us a flexible structure to build off of.

We even got our first set of events posted to the scoop. 

I just got off the phone with Andy.  He is going to review the bio I did on him and Noreen and go over the beliefs section.  It looks like we will be ready for launch in a couple of days.  Take a look at www.tylervineyard.com/reloaded if you haven't recently.

We need to have a launch announcement to promote the site and let the people know that it is there.  I'm going to be out of town on the 18th and the 25th (for vacation whoo-hoo).  So we'll have to work around that. 

Bulletin items – Patty has expressed an interest in updating the bulletin every week on the scoop.  I need someone to volunteer as backup when Patty is not there on Sunday.  If we could get the bulletin items up there by Sunday.

Small Group info - we still need to get up to date small group information on the website.

The Scoop – We need to decide how we are going to use this and we need comment moderators that will check the website daily for comments that are pending approval. 

CALLING ALL TYLER VINEYARD BLOGGERS 

As I mentioned in a previous post.  If you are a member of the tyler vineyard and you blog. We want to know about it and add you to this site and to our new web community "the Scoop".  Just reply a quick comment with your blog url and name and we'll add you to the link section.

I finally have a template that is decent enough to show.  You can see it at

http://www.tylervineyard.com/reloaded

Don't get too excited as it is just one page and most of the links don't work. 

As you can see we retained most of the original design but have lightened it up with some bold colors.  We also adjusted the layout so we can have a variable length content box (the green box)  and a footer that is always at the bottom (no matter how you size your browser window or how long the page is).

The layout is almost entirely done in CSS, so there might be problems with different web browsers.  Let me know if it looks a little bit too funky. 

We had a good meeting last Thursday.  Below is my attempt to summarize our ideas and thoughts.  Feel free to add comments/edit this post to include things I missed.

Take a look at our current site at tylervineyard.com and it will make more sense.

 Look and feel – Cool, It's obvious why Boyd is a rock-star. 
Could be a little lighter – this is a church not a club.  We do want to make sure we catch the right vibe and don't come across as blah or stuffy or churchy.  Couch photos – casual living room. Blue Jeans, coffee – emphasise unchurched, too churched.

Home Page 

No flash intro – maybe some opening flash animation in a header, but nothing that obsucures the content.

 Address, phone number, map link and service times promenent on the front page before you click anything and at the bottom of all pages.

 Sections – again leveraging a lot of what was there before:

Services - Kid's Church, Club 876
Beliefs -
Vineyard doctrinal statement
Critical to clearly explain for people checking us out.
Culture -
Church for the unchurched and over churched

People -
Andy and Noreen
Head shot, short bio and history of vineyard

Missionaries
Picture where/what maybe map of world with thumbnails for each one..

Mention small groups

Worship -
Picts of worship team, value statement, link to Vineyard music. Possible links to good albums, Eisley link – they deserve it, besides the extra traffic we bring them would just be overwhelming   It would be cool to get a couple of mp3 tracks that you could download or stream, maybe even use them as optional (off by default background music).  I don't know what the legalities of cover worship songs there are and how big a deal it would be to hook into the sound board and digitally record (I bet it's a question of how perfectionistic you want to be about mixing/post-production).

The Scoop
(Big old Coffe Scoop of course)
New Section for church members -
Bulletin Items – Activities
Calendar
Login / Private Directory
Small Group info
Flickr Badge
Blog Ring
Prayer Request/Prayer Board

Vicki was going to work on Colors
Jill already has some new pictures she took on sunday up in Flickr.

Ryan and I were going to try and pull some of the current content out of flash and get the technical backend cranked up.

Before I was formed in the womb

You knew me?

knew my sins

my rebellion

all the pain

all the grief

how i'd fight through this world on my own, so i thought

knew each smile and each tear

my laughter, my fears

…knew all my dreams….

before I was ever conceived

since long before time began

Father, You knew me then?

 …………….and knowing all that

You sent Your Son

He died in my place

so i could come

not trembling, but boldly

to your great throne of grace

and be loved by my God………….

…………..who knows all of my ways.

                                        KatieJill

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" Jeremiah 1:5

I just wanted to respond to the sermon Keith gave on Sunday.
For those of you who weren't there we looked at Destiny, the fact that God has a plan, purpose, and destiny for us.  And that the path to that destiny is having a firm foundation of relationship with God.  That the foundation will be tested by storms that will reveal our character. 

So the trick is always to leave a sermon not with simply an agreement or acknowledgement of truth.  But look a little deeper and turn it into into some kind of action or at least self-revelation.  As blogs are the perfect forum for naval gazing I'm am opening up two questions.

1) What do you know of God's plan, purpose, and destiny for you.  It's okay if you don't have it all figured out, but hopefully you've got a few little pieces or parts.

2) Foundation check – maybe you're just in survival mode right now, like the little bird Jill just posted about.  How's your foundation, are you resting in his arms? Are you trying to earn approval from yourself and others?

I'll try to answer those over at my blog this week.  I challenge you to address them on yours.  Post a comment if you do.

"Mama, can i crawl back in my egg? I'm a little tired"   ever feel like lifes a bit much? Here at the Vineyard, you can relax and worship Jesus. Nothing rests you like Gods incredible unconditional love.

(no it doesnt hurt the bird to pick it up. Its Mama wont reject it if you do. I checked with a bird expert who knows bout this kind of stuff)

Like the pictures on the sidebar?  You can add your own pictures of vineyard activities or just nice shots that you want to share with your church family. (Artsy cool is nice too!)

 Here is how – Sign up with Flickr once you are signed up go to the Tylervineyard group and join.  You can then upload photos to your account and then transfer some of them to the Tyler vineyard group to share with your peeps. (As Andy ocassionally says).

The new pictures will automatically pop up here on this website and may make it over to tylervineyard.com as well. Right now it is a anyone can join post free for all.  If there are any problems just let jill, gabe, or me know and we will put the smack down.  Thad, if you want your photo with the reindeer hat taken down just let me know (I personally think it's fly).

 There are lots of cool things we can do -  Favorite places around Tyler, Art gallery, Brew tones photo's ect.  Post a comment and let me know your ideas.

 Bryan