382 – Heart to Heart

This week on WELSTech we’re talking heart to heart with bloggers about a new blog for parents as well as revealing our Trekkie side and following the MLC College Choir on their Midwest tour. Martin shares a Windows-based Chromebook alternative, and we open the listener mailbag of WELSTech goodness.

The discussion:

Blogging for ministry – So you want to start a blog? Martin and Sallie cover the basics of blogging, from content ideas, style and challenges to popular blogging platforms and some of our favorite ministry blogs.

Platforms

• WordPress – Hosted (.com) | Install your own (.org)
  • Hosting companies – Dream Host (FREE for non-profits) | Site Ground
  • Edublogs
  • Kidblog
  • Learn WordPress.com
  • How to Choose a Premium WordPress Theme
• Squarespace
• Blogger

Favorite Blogs

• Bread for Beggars
• Sermons from Pastor Phil Huebner at Christ the King, Palm Coast, FL
• Truth In Love Ministry
• The 5 Types of Blog Posts that Always Work from Churchm.ag

The interview:

New blog on the block – Martin and Sallie welcome Wendy Heyn and Ann Jahns to WELSTech to talk about a new parenting column from Forward in Christ magazine, Heart to heart. Each month a group of parents discuss a parenting topic and the conversation continues online via Heart to heart blog posts and comments. Ann and Wendy share their firsthand experience as new bloggers, and impressions of the supportive Christian community which is developing.

• Tune in next Tuesday, March 10 at 8 pm Central for a live webcast with Heart to heart bloggers – www.wels.net/forwardinchrist

Ministry resources:

Frequent Church Attendance survey from Gallup

News in tech:

Reflecting on Leonard Nimoy’s recent death led to Star Trek technology that we use today

Picks of the week:

• YouTube Kids app – Android | iOS
• HP Stream 13 Laptop

WELS insider:

MLC College Choir is currently touring the Midwest.

• Check out their schedule to locate a concert near you
• Follow MLC on Facebook to keep up with the fun experiences they are having

Need to know:

Need clock hours? Join us at WELSTech Conference 2015, and we’ll provide a certificate for 13.5 to 21 clock hours!

Community feedback:

• Choice Eliminator for Google Forms
• Printer Pro – Free iTunes App of the Week
• Copyright resources on the WELSTech Wiki
• The Miracle Morning
• Tile

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 383 – We’ve arrived at Part 6 of What’s Best Next, WELSTech’s current book selection by Matt Perman, and it’s time to Execute our productivity plans! Watch and participate on 03/10/15 @ 4 pm Central – welstechlive.wels.net.

Featured videos:

Want to learn more about WordPress? Visit the WordPress Quickstart Video Library or tune in to the WELSTech Instructional YouTube playlist for the WordPress Tutorial 1: Introduction, part of the WordPress Theme Development playlist from LearnWebCode.

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