Let's move on to the next thing you need to know to use MyVineyard: How and why you edit your profile. If you haven't read about what MyVineyard is, or what your profile is, then you may want to read those blog posts first.

Here's the video version, if you prefer to be talked to instead of reading:

Rick Warren was correct in the Purpose Driven Life that the Kingdom of God is not about you. However, your profile on MyVineyard is all about you. This is where you keep track of all the information about you that you want to share with the church staff and others. From your MyProfile Overview page, click on the "Edit Profile" tab on the right to get in to edit your profile.

You're shown a number of tabs, and now you can actually change the information.

The BASIC tab lets you change the most basic things about you: your name, email address, your photo, date of birth, and phone numbers. Remember, you have the power to update your information when you get a new email address or switch mobile phone providers and get a new phone number.

The ADDRESS tab let's you update your street address information. So if you move to a new house, this is where you would go to make the change. No more having to call the church and figure out how to change it. You are in control.

The next tabs are the ones I really want to focus on in this post.

The SERVING tab let's you tell us about the things you care about. Under Spiritual Gifts, you can share with us what you believe your gifting is. Martin Luther thinks he's gifted in Administration, Discernment and Evangelism, Leadership, Preaching and Teaching. You can select multiple items here, and pick as many as you feel apply. But if you pick all of them, we probably won't believe you.

The SERVING tab also has Passions you can pick. Passions are things you are passionate about. If you are passionate about Human Trafficking or Education, you should let us know. If you are passionate about Bunko or old Journey albums, well, you might just want to keep that to yourself.

Abilities is the next section.  Abilities are things you can do well. So if you can speak another language or you are good at repairing air conditioners or you are really talented at taking photos, then you want to mark those things here. These aren't necessarily hobbies - they're things you're really good at.

But here's the real question: why would you bother updating any of this information?

Well, let me tell you. One of the best ways to get plugged into a community like Vineyard OP is to serve. And one of the best ways to serve is to be able to do the things that God gifted you with for him. We're all about helping you figure out what God made you to do and trying to help you do that.

When we have an opportunity to serve in the Vineyard OP community, the staff can search the database for people who match that opportunity. So, if we need a photographer for an event, we can search the MyVineyard database for people who have photographic abilities. Or if we need people to work in Student Ministries, we look for people with spiritual gifts of encouragement and teaching who are passionate about children. But if you don't put any information in here, then we won't necessarily know these things about you. We aren't mind readers, but we do know how to search the database.

So please take the time to fill out this SERVING tab. Oh yeah, and if you don't give us your email address or phone number, then we won't be able to get in touch with you either. So fill that out to. As far as that goes, you should fill out everything as much as possible, just because I asked you to really nicely.

Finally, you'll want to fill out the SOCIAL tab. This tab has lots more information you can enter about things you enjoy. This information can help us find out more about who might be interested in coming to our next dodge-ball tournament. If you allow other people to see your information, then you might be able to locate other people who have similar interests to you. So, don't be too shy with your information. Unless you have a really good reason, you should share as much information as possible with other people on MyVineyard.

Well, that is it for this post. I'll be back shortly with another chunk of information about privacy and communication settings.

Until then,

David Andersen (the Web Guy)

OK, so this is not so much a blog post, as it is an opportunity to post the new Web Guy video.  We had a lot of fun with it during service, but it actually is supposed to help you find your way around MyVineyard.  So, without further delay...

If you haven't checked out the earlier MyVineyard blog posts, you can check them out here and here.

Till next time,

David

This past weekend, I had the honor of teaching the final message for the Take Your God To Work Day series here at Vineyard OP. We took a hard look together at the culture of fear and anxiety that has been nurtured in our society around the uncertainty of the future, specifically regarding employment (or should I say un- or under-employment?). This fear is fueled by lay-offs, salary reductions, mergers and rumors of mergers, bankruptcy and buy-outs. All these things combine to create a "perfect storm" of bad business behavior in the workplace. People will lie, cheat and even steal sometimes when they think their jobs are at stake.

Our culture most commonly responds to this uncertainty in the workplace by trying to grab hold of situation and force it to their advantage. This response is born from interpreting the things that happen at work (a lay-off is announced, a merger is rumored) through what I call the "worldview of fear".

I use the term "worldview" to mean the set of experiences and beliefs that help an individual interpret what the things that happen to them mean. The things that happen in our lives are just facts: a lay-off is announced, someone else gets the job you wanted. When we want to know what these facts mean to us, we tell ourselves stories about them based on our worldview.

The worldview of fear operates on three evil maxims:
1. I am on my own
2. The future is random
3. Trust no one

So, when we apply the worldview of fear, it looks something like this:

Fact: the company is going to lay off 100 employees from my office.
Fact: My boss gave my co-worker the new account.
Story: The new account goes to the employee my boss likes most.
Story: My boss likes my co-worker better than me.
Story: I am going to be laid off.
Action: I will talk trash about my co-worker whenever possible and make my co-worker look bad to get my boss to like me better and so I won't be laid off.

Facts are just things that happen. Our worldview tells us what those facts mean through the stories we tell ourselves, which leads to action. You can see how the worldview of fear is particularly destructive.

In contrast, Jesus Christ calls us to a God-centric worldview. In Matthew 6:24 - 34, Jesus is on a hillside in Galilee, instructing his disciples on what it takes to be one of his followers. Here he says:

"So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them."

Jesus uses the example of "the pagans", which should be understood as the Romans and other people groups who worshipped gods other than Yahweh. They had to try and manipulate and appease their fickle gods to gain provision. Today, "the pagans" is best understood as anyone who does not know God, who does not declare Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Instead of worshipping Roman deities, people who do not know God often times will try and manipulate the corporate systems, management or co-workers to gain the provision they need - to keep their jobs so they can provide for their families. Because they are not followers of Jesus, they have no hope that God will provide for them.

Followers of Jesus must trust God to take care of the future. They know that God will provide for them as they seek to be obedient to him and in relationship with him. Because he is the source of everything - their talents, schooling, jobs, parents, houses, cars, health, wealth and even the breath in their lungs - they know that he will provide from his unlimited resources.

That's what Jesus means when he says:

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Jesus' worldview (as contrasted with the three evil maxims above) looks like this:
1. God is in charge
2. He has a plan for me
3. I can trust him

When this worldview is applied to the scenario discussed earlier, it looks something like this:

Fact: The company is going to lay off 100 employees from my office.
Fact: My boss gave my co-worker the new account.
Fact: God is in charge
Fact: God has a plan for me
Fact: I can trust him.
Story: No story needed.
Action: I pray for God to reveal what I should do next and I continue to do my best at work with love for my co-workers, regardless of how they treat me.

The things people say matter half as much (or less) than the things people do. So, when the rumors of lay-offs roll in, how do followers of Jesus respond? If people know you are a follower of Jesus, you can bet they are watching to see what we do. If nobody knows you're a follower of Christ at work, then that is a different set of issues. Go download last week's message. But if people know you are a follower of Christ, then they are watching.

They want to know if your faith in God really makes any difference.

Because if you're freaking out like they are, why would they bother with God? They can be just as scared without him. Or if you are scheming and jockeying for position just like everyone else scrambling to hang on to their jobs, then what difference does Jesus make in your life? People who are still a long ways off but are moving toward Christ want to know that following Jesus makes a difference. They want to see the incarnational expression of Christ in his followers. And when they don't, it is disappointing. And it raises doubts about the validity of a life of following Jesus.

The workplace is the most common place where followers of Jesus have opportunity to spend real life with people who do not know God. Do your co-workers know you are a follower of Jesus? I'm not talking about handing out tracts or preaching impromptu sermons during lunch break. I'm talking about a genuine reflection of the love God has for those who do not know him. Do people see that you are a follower of Jesus? Do people see that your following Jesus makes a difference in your life? Because, how you conduct yourself when a lay-off is announced may be the best example of the difference following Jesus Christ makes you'll ever give to your co-workers.

Peace,

David

This blog assumes you have already read about what MyVineyard is and you've gotten yourself a username and password.  Click on the images in this article to get a better look at them.

Once you get logged into MyVineyard, you are presented with your homepage. The homepage is a quick event, message and group snapshot of all the things you are involved in with MyVineyard. There's a lot going on here, so let me take a minute to walk through the features on this page.

The MyVineyard Homepage

Upcoming
The upcoming section shows you a handful of events that are upcoming on your calendar. These events are pulled from the groups you are a member of. You also have a calendar that is showing all of the upcoming events for the current month. Clicking on any of the events will take you to that event to view more details.

My Groups' Activity
This section shows all messages, events and other activity for your groups. This is a nice way to be able to see a snapshot of what is going on in your groups. Clicking on any of the postings will take you directly to that posting.

My Profile and My Groups (on the left)
This just lets you know who you are logged in as, and provides a place to log out. Clicking on your name will take you to your personal profile.  It also provides a list of groups you are member of.  Clicking on the name of a group will take you to that group's page.

Now, click on the My Profile tab at the top of the page. The My Profile page is where you can see and edit your personal profile information.

My Profile Overview

The first section is your main My Profile page. It shows all of the information about you that you have chosen to enter for MyVineyard. The first time you come to your profile, you will see it already has some information about you. This is all of the information you provided to Vineyard OP when you first started attending, and we put your 2009 church directory photo in there if you were here for that. So, don't freak out about some of your information already being there.

At this point, you may be worried about privacy. You may be asking out loud, in a panicked tone, "Have they published my information so that just anyone can see it?!!" Calm down, it's OK. Remember, MyVineyard only has profiles for people who have attended Vineyard OP. We set your privacy defaults for your profile so that only your friends and church leadership can see your information. You decide who your friends are, so when you first sign in, nobody can see your information except church staff. I don't want to spend too much time on privacy here, as I will be covering it in more detail in future posts.

Back to your profile page...

When you click on the My Profile tab, you will be looking at the Overview tab for your profile. The Overview page shows your name, all the members of your family, your picture, your contact information and any recent activity you've had on the site.

My Profile Info Tab

If you click on the Info tab, you get a ton of other information you can provide that I will be discussing in future.

My Profile Involvement Tab

Clicking on the Involvement tab will show you even more information about your activity here at Vineyard OP. It shows the groups you are a member of, any positions you've filled in the church, events you've attended, and who your friends are. The Process Queues tab is only for people with permissions to view that information (like group leaders and church staff). Once again, you can see all of your own information on your profile, but no one else can see it unless you choose to let them.

So, how do you edit your information?
In the upper right-hand corner of the My Profile page, you'll see another set of tabs that include Change Settings and Edit Profile.

Clicking on the Change Settings tab will take you to a page where you can edit your username and password, Communication settings (what groups can email you), and your privacy settings.

Clicking on the Edit Profile tab, will take you into the page where you can change all of your personal information.

Some of you will be able to roll with it from here, and others will need more help. I'm going to stop here for this post, but all of these settings will be discussed soon at http://vineyardop.org.

Until we meet again,

David Andersen
Head Geek
Vineyard Church of Overland Park

One of the attendees who went to Hope Faith last Saturday shared the following story with me, and I want to share it with you.

Here it is:

"I wanted to share what I thought was a pretty neat God story from this past Saturday at Hope Faith. My wife and I went down with our 2 daughters. We were assigned to unbagging clothes donations and re-sorting them to be prepared to be washed. After a couple of hours my girls came across several bags of clothes we had donated about 2 months ago. That in itself was pretty cool because they got to see exactly what was happening with our donations.

But a really cool thing was that at the same time they were unbagging there were folks in the store coming to get clothes. [David: Hope Faith's clothing shop is open on Saturdays, and volunteers are paired with a Hope Faith client to help them shop and select clothes].  One of the ladies was looking for a backpack-type bag that she could keep her things in. My daughter had donated something similar to that and it had her name on it. Well, they ended up bringing this woman back to where my daughter was and giving her the donated bag which just happened to have my daughter's name on it. The woman was overjoyed because she said that the bag must have been for her because she had the same name as my daughter!

A coincidence?

I don't think so.:)"

God is at work before we show up.  He is at work while we are there (wherever that may be).  He is work when we leave.

David

What does a group of college roommates inventing basketball shots in their backyard have to do with the Vineyard? More than you might think. What started as a way for a bunch of guys at Texas A&M to blow off steam has exploded into what Mark Bergin called "an international internet phenomenon." The group, known as Dude Perfect, has taken trick shot artistry to a whole new level.

Like many of you, I logged more than my share of hours as a youth throwing a round ball at an iron hoop. We played HORSE till the cows came home and my will to win eventually led me away from the conventional hook shot and reverse layup to the back-to-the-basket, one-eye-closed, standing-on-one-foot, left-handed, between-the-legs, low-percentage bounce shot, anything to gain a competitive advantage! I remember being pretty good, unconventional, even remarkably creative but don't take my word for it, I'm generally mnemonically challenged! One thing's for sure, Dude Perfect makes the guy jumping on the mini-tramp in the gorilla suit at half-time look sooo last century.

Check out the various Dude Perfect videos on YouTube and you'll see every trick shot imaginable. My favorites include a shot from the top of the roof of their Texas home to a basket in the back of a moving truck (no kidding!!) and the jaw-dropping "super-long-distance bucket from the third deck of Texas A&M's Kyle Field to a portable basket positioned on the sidelines below." It's incredible, entertaining and, thanks to the Internet, it's gone viral!

Dude Perfect for a Purpose

What do six undergrads do with all the notoriety and public appearances? Astonishingly, they share their faith! All of the guys are thoroughgoing Christians with a heart for the poor. My interest in them was piqued when a friend at Vineyard gave me the article referenced below. My interest grew when I read about their support for Compassion International, a ministry close to my heart.

Compassion is a foreign aid organization that's focused on releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name. For as little as $38 a month, anyone can sponsor a child in a developing country, providing for their health, educational and social needs until they turn 18. It also ensures that they'll have a chance to hear and respond to the gospel.

Viral Compassion

My wife, Dianne, and I sponsored a girl named Vishala from India a couple of years ago. We just added another little girl, Johanna from Ecuador, to our family in January joining the 97 other families at Vineyard who started sponsoring children during the Hope Lives series at church.

My relationship with Compassion International started three years ago when I read founder, Wess Stafford's book, Too Small to Ignore. I was moved by the heartbreaking stories but it was more than that. See, Wess is a missionary kid. He grew up in Africa, not far from where my wife was born and raised. Dianne is a missionary kid as well and when she read the book it touched her at an even deeper level. She grew up within arms reach of the effects of poverty on children and Wess' book awakened those echoes. We had to get involved.

I know what you're thinking, "Mark, I'm only one person, what can I do?" As Mother Theresa said: "If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one." As Edward Everett Hale, a pastor from the last century, said, "I am only one but I am one. I cannot do everything but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do." There's only one thing I can say to that:

"Dude, perfect."

Let me know what you think.

Peace, OUT!

Mark

With the launch of the new website, you may have noticed this cryptic little link in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage that says "Login to MyVineyard". What is that? What are you supposed to do with it? Well, here in the 411 blog, I'll be taking some time over a number of posts to explain all about MyVineyard and what it means for you.

So, what is it?

MyVineyard is a private social network site just for Vineyard OP. It is similar to Facebook in a number of ways. It allows you to:

• Maintain a personal profile with your picture and your personal information
• Become friends with other people on the site
• Join groups you're interested in
• Browse events and sign up to attend the ones you're interested in
• Post and respond to messages and communications within the groups you join

But, MyVineyard is NOT Facebook. It differs from Facebook in many, important ways:

• MyVineyard is a private site. Only people who attend Vineyard OP have access to the site.
• MyVineyard is associated only with Vineyard OP. So all people, groups and events are associated exclusively with Vineyard OP (you won't be hassled by the latest Mafia Wars or Farmville request).
• You can choose to be completely private on this site. You choose your own privacy settings, anywhere from "everyone can see me" up to "no one can see me". You have complete control over who is able to see your information, who you are friends with, what groups you join and what events you attend.

Why would Vineyard OP offer something like this?

MyVineyard provides the opportunity to connect and communicate better with the groups you are already involved with, and to open opportunities to connect at a deeper level with groups and service opportunities you may not know about. For instance, the Outreach Group I sent the email out about yesterday is one of the public groups on MyVineyard. You can choose to join this group to receive updates about outreach and to interact with all the other people at Vineyard OP who are passionate about outreach. If the emails I send start bugging you, you can go into your settings and specify that you don't want to receive email updates from this group any more. When outreach events are posted, they are posted to this group, and you'll be notified via email - if you choose to receive those notifications. See how this works?

In the near future, small groups that choose to participate will have their own groups on MyVineyard. The small group leaders will have the option to use the MyVineyard small group to stay in touch with the small group members, post updates, share ideas and plan events. And it is always up to you what groups you choose to be in, and what communications you choose to receive.

MyVineyard is also part of our church congregation database. Vineyard OP pastoral and administrative staff use MyVineyard to manage events and keep records for everyone who attends Vineyard OP. For instance, our Prayer Network is a public group we use to communicate prayer needs out to the members of that group. We also use it to help offer people opportunities to serve that fit who God made them to be. In your personal profile, you can update information about the gifts you have, the ministries you are interested in and the issues you are passionate about. Based on this information, we can search for people who are passionate about the homeless and see if they want to volunteer to serve at Hope Faith with us.

Your personal profile is how you communicate your personal information to Vineyard OP. If you change your phone number or move to a new street address, you can simply update the information in your profile, and you will have notified Vineyard OP of the change. This is the information Vineyard OP uses for sending emails, giving statements and other information.

This first post is just to help make you aware of what MyVineyard is. We understand MyVineyard is probably not for everybody, but you should login and update your personal profile information if nothing else. The next section deals with what you need to do to get a username and password and get logged in.

Requesting a Username and Password

1. Click on the "Login to MyVineyard" link on the homepage
2. Click on the "Sign-Up" link on the left side of the screen
3. Fill out all of the fields and click the submit button
4. You will be emailed a username and password at the email address you put into the form

NOTE: MyVineyard only sends usernames and passwords to people who have attended Vineyard OP and given us their contact information. If you have not given us your email address and contact information, then MyVineyard will give you a message saying that you aren't in the system. If this happens, you won't get a username and password automatically and you need to send me an email with the same information you entered to sign up and I'll take care of it.

Logging In To MyVineyard

Once you have the username and password,

1. Click on the "Login to MyVineyard" link on the homepage
2. Enter the username and your password in the appropriate fields and click Login
3. You'll be taken to your MyVineyard homepage

As always, if you have any questions about MyVineyard that aren't answered via these posts, you can email me. I reserve the right to point you to a blog post if I've already answered your question. Please be patient as I will be blogging about different aspects of MyVineyard over the next several weeks.

Over and out,

David Andersen
Vineyard Church of Overland Park

How much is enough?

That's the question Wess Stafford, the founder of Compassion International, posed via video a few weeks ago and I haven't been able to shake it. That simple question started my wife and I on a quest to simplify our lives so we could give more freely. I never dreamed, when we started this journey, that I would find such release and freedom in the process. It's been incredible and we're just getting started.

That being said, I have to warn you, if you ask the Holy Spirit a loaded question like, "How much is enough?" you're probably not going to like the answer. The truth is, for most of us in the West, enough is a whole lot less than we have. The harsh reality is most of us live bloated, over-indulged lives, held captive by materialism and, what the Bible calls, greed!

To help you begin the process of letting go, let me suggest a prayer by A.W. Tozer from The Pursuit of God:

Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Once you've wrestled with the Holy Spirit over how much is enough, that discussion naturally leads to a second, much more dangerous question:

How do I get down to enough?

The following list includes some of the things the folks at Vineyard-Overland Park are doing to simplify their lives so they can give more freely. I thought it might help you consider the possibilities.

1. One couple at Vineyard slashed their grocery budget in half by deciding beforehand what they would buy versus wandering through the aisles buying on impulse.
2. Several folks at Vineyard decided to give first, making generosity a priority, instead of giving out of their leftovers or not at all.
3. One family decided to sell a second car so they could use a portion of the savings to support a child through Compassion and give more to Vineyard. Another couple felt like God was asking them the question, "Do you really need that third car?"
4. One couple decided to sell their house and buy a house that costs half as much in an effort to raise their giving to 15% of their income. Another couple sold their home last spring and moved into one less than half the size to enable them to give more freely!
5. Several folks at Vineyard recommitted themselves to living within their means, eliminating "extras" to enable them to give.
6. One woman at Vineyard decided to stop purchasing clothes from department stores and shop Saver's, Salvation Army or Goodwill instead. She also makes it a habit to give away 1 or 2 items she owns for each item she purchases.
7. Several folks at Vineyard went through their closets and donated all their unused clothing.
8. One couple felt led to support a child through Compassion but they wanted their children to participate as well. So they got the family together and asked each child what they were willing to sacrifice to help with the support. One of the children chose to take two less snacks to school each week, another chose not to get extra milk with his lunch twice a week, another committed half of his chore money each week and the youngest committed to helping more around the house. The youngest is only 3! It's never too early to start training generosity into your children.
9. One of the men at Vineyard started a coat drive at work, posting signs and personally asking people to look through their closets for gently used coats that they can donate. The coats will be donated to Hope-Faith Ministries. A shoe drive is in the works for next month!
10. One family felt led to simplify what they eat, getting back to basics. They decided to eliminate "prepared" food items like frozen pizza, pizza rolls, chicken strips, Gold Fish, Cheeze-its, soda and chips and make more items from "scratch." Besides the obvious health benefits, the savings would then be invested in the Kingdom of God.
11. Several families felt led to eat out less and give the savings to the Lord.
12. One family decided to set a limit on their bank balance and call it enough, designating everything beyond that for special needs.
13. One couple has joined the group ministering at Hope-Faith. They are also selling books in their library to raise funds and fasting with the plan of donating a "daily food amount" to homeless shelter ministries.
14. One family is looking for ways to reduce the cost of an upcoming wedding! The average wedding in America costs $30,000. This one fact alone presents an excellent opportunity for Christians to practice good stewardship.
15. One woman at Vineyard has decided to keep her old car in good repair instead of buying a new one. She also has decided to get up 10 minutes earlier each day to make coffee instead of paying $4.06 at Starbucks for a latte.

If you're taking steps to get down to enough so you can give more freely, I'd love to hear from you. Comment below and let us know what you're doing.

Peace, OUT.

Mark Warner