As Lent approaches very quickly, in the church as leaders and volunteer servants, we find ourselves with a very long to do list and a very short amount of time.  People often joke with me thinking that I love organization  The truth?  While I do love brightly colored post-it notes, organization isn’t my thing.  Relationships are.  One of the things that makes me most sad on a Sunday morning is if I don’t get to spend time with the people who are there – to hear about their lives.  The good, the bad, the ugly.  To joke.  To have conversation.  Play with kids.  To wrestle over a Scripture passage and learn from others.  To pray.  While emergencies come up, if you are prepared in advance for Sunday morning, you don’t have to be working on details at the last minute and can use that time instead for people.  And it’s worth every second.

A few new tools that will help you in this pursuit – 

LinkTree  – Help Instagram do more!  Have you ever posted an image on Instagram with a caption that directs people a link in your bio?  A link is dropped in your bio.  But the next link comes and so the old one is replaced.  But what about the person who stumbles upon the image a day, week, or month later?  LinkTree allows you to place a link in your profile as a “landing spot” – then you can list as many links as you would like for the future.  Lots of features are available, check out:   LinkTree.

IFTTT – Have you ever struggled getting your social media and digital tools to speak to each other?  There are so many good apps and options available, but having to upload something to Pinterest, then share to Facebook or Instagram takes time!  Or using a CRM like Airtable or Trello to help organize your work, but it feels like there should be a faster way to make things happen then constantly entering information?  IFTTT is a legal and safe way to make all off our technology work together!  And there are some fun options too – like getting an email every time the International Space Station passes over your house or a daily notification/email of weather updates.  For all the info, please visit:  IFTTT.

*To see a live tutorial and explanation, please visit:  Facebook Live Tutorial.