Quick Reference: What to look for in an event space

If you are planning social events for your church, life group, or Sunday School class, it helps to have a few locations bookmarked for potential use.  Variety being the spice of life, you may be looking for different spaces including peoples' homes, public parks, hotel ballrooms, and community centers.  For your convenience, here is a quick reference list of factors to consider.

1. Parking.  It may seem unusual to list this one first, but it really is the most important.  If you want to bring as many people as possible to your event, parking should be readily available and close to your venue.  While most public buildings and parks have ample parking, some do not.  If you are expecting your guests to bring pot luck dishes, materials, or children, try to

5 tips to make social events affordable!

Coming up with fun events can be a daunting task.  Factor in that you'll want the majority of your events to be very affordable to maximize participation, and it can get a little more daunting!  But worry not, dear friends.  Today I give you five tips to make your church social events more affordable.

1. Have potluck meals.  Originally a term meaning a meal that's available without preparation (i.e., showing up at someone's house and being invited to whatever they have going for supper), potluck is a great way to spread around food costs.  Whether it's dessert or a full-on buffet, you can have a great variety of refreshments by

3 Elements of great church events

In the future of Rebecca's Inkspot, I hope to share with you some great ideas for church events.  Today, I am going to tell you three elements that make an event great and memorable.

1. Great events are INCLUSIVE.

Inclusive means making a space and a way for everyone in your group to participate.  This means:

• Choose an activity that everyone can do.  If you have someone in your group with a disability or an allergy, make every effort to find ways of including that person.  It will mean the world to him or her, and is a visible demonstration of Christ's love and compassion, which He speaks to in Luke 14:12-14: "He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast,

Putting the team together - 6 key roles

We've seen it so many movies and television shows, from Blues Brothers to Avengers, Leverage to Scorpion.  It takes a group of people with different skills and personalities but a common goal to accomplish a big task.

Growing your Sunday School class and your church, spreading the word of God, creating a community and making it a healthy place for needs to be met and joy to be shared is, indeed, a big task.

Consider this as you recruit members of your leadership, caring, and outreach teams for your class.  Here are six suggested roles:

Office Supplies!!!!

As you will soon see in my updated About Me section on this blog, I am very passionate about office supplies, to the extent that my husband once gave me a big box of Sharpies at Christmas that I held jumping up and down shouting "BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!!".  In my desk at home, I currently have four SpaceMaker boxes, three mini drawers, and one cabinet full of office supplies.  So suffice it to say, I know my Bostich from my Swingline.

Congratulations, you say.  You're a crazy person.  What's this got to do with church?

Well, a lot, actually.  Sunday School (and its more modern incarnation, Life Groups) often follow the format of a school.  They are held in a classroom.  For the needs of the church, attendance is taken and visitors or new members fill out some kind of registration form.  Attendees may be wearing name tags (more on that later).  Refreshments or breakfast may be served.  Announcements on upcoming events are made.  A lesson is given, using the Bible and possibly a television and/or a whiteboard of some kind.  As the class ends, attendees return their name tags, deposit their trash in the trash can, and records of attendance, visitor forms, etc. are returned to the church.

This all sounds pretty simple and easy, right?

But it takes time to purchase, lay out, organize, print, and supply all these items.  So to help you out, here is a list of common office supplies that will help your class run smoothly.

Simple gifts

Just as the purest white light contains all the colors of the spectrum, so the infinite abilities of our infinite God are expressed through each one of us in a finite way.  God is organized and structured - some of us have a gift for doing the same in our little piece of the world.  God is creative and artistic - some of us have a gift for expressing and creating beauty all around them.  God is love, and all of us have the ability to show love to each other fully through Him.

People have different abilities, personalities, and spiritual gifts given to them by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12).  It's worth considering this when looking for volunteers at your church for two reasons.

What's with the fish? and other reasons I started this blog...

What's with the fish?

Yep, I've been wondering how to explain that one to you.  But give me a minute and it will all become as clear as ink-stained water.

Ever since I was a little kid, I loved to read.  I would read and read and read.  I would ask for books for my birthday,  and the main branch of our local library was to me a mecca and paradise of all the knowledge and stories of the world.  I remember walking in and hearing that "ahhh-oooh-ahh-ahh" heavenly choir sound, as the librarians and patrons shuffled quietly in-between the stacks on the *gasp* TWO STORIES visible from the lobby where a (now outdated, as in USSR era) globe rotated in the center surrounded by brushed steel bars.  Of course, I was an awkward, introverted home-schooler and I realize now that the music was all in my head and I was probably in someone's way while gawking in front of the doorway.

Well, it's 2014.  I went to public school eventually, and then college, and then graduate school.  I learned how to be not-so-socially awkward, and started going back church.  I met a man there who loves books as much as I do, and who lets me correct his grammar and spelling (yep, a marriage made in heaven).  Together we became directors of a Sunday School class at our church, and learned a lot.  That's part of what I'm going to share with you on this blog.

For me, underneath it all, the world has the appearance of many complex systems, always intertwining to generate life's experiences.  That may sound very cold and calculating, but to me it is a beautiful way of seeing life.  God has created all of us with different gifts and abilities, and as Christians inhabited by the Holy Spirit, we receive spiritual gifts as well (1 Corinthians 12).  One of my abilities is to see patterns and systems, and to bring order to chaos by organizing things.  My goal in this blog is to share with you some of the patterns, systems, and tools that can be used for organizing groups and helping them function well: hence my blog site's subtitle, "Thoughts on life and how things work."

Now for the fish.

1. Being a person of many interests, I have had many hobbies.  Many, many hobbies.  Too many, such that I have only kept up a couple of them for more than a year or so!  One of my hobbies was keeping tropical fish.  My most recent fish was a Betta fish called Inkspot.  He was a beautiful blue color, just like the one in my logo.  I love the way these fish swim, their long flowing fins almost melting into the water like ink bleeding into a wet page.
2. Another hobby was watercolor painting.  Since I needed a logo for this website, I thought I might as well use something I made myself.  The original miniature has been digitally blurred and faded for better contrast with the blog title text.
3.  Lastly, the fish or ichthys is a common symbol of Christianity.  God has made me, and has made me who I am.  Jesus has saved me from a world of pain and suffering, and has given me a life more abundant (John 10:10).  I owe Him everything, and hope that this blog will be something that gives glory and witness to Him.

And as for Inkspot... well it wasn't just the fish's name.  Another of my hobbies was working at a 19th century letterpress.  I know from personal experience that ink is quite sticky.  I hope what I write here will stick with you.  In a good way.  :-)