Todd Seifert is director of communications for the Great Plains Conference. He writes this blog much like he wrote a column for 13 years as a newspaper editor: focused on what is going on in his life. He hopes to share some thought-provoking words as a member of the laity on the conference staff.
Powwows are an exercise for the senses. The bright colors of the dancing regalia hit nearly every color of the spectrum. The traditional songs and rhythmic tapping of the drum perks the ears. I attended what was only my second powwow Aug. 25 as part of a contingent from the Great Plains ...
Would people in the United States stand for Americans to be held captive? Would Americans do nothing as other countrymen and women were beaten mercilessly, starved, violated in numerous ways and separated from their families? The answer is yes. View Videos from the Trip Day 1 — Dexter Avenue ...
Romans 8:28 says this: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." We'll come back to the scripture in a moment. But first, I want to talk about engines — how I’m amazed by them, and how I am utterly confused by them. My dad has...
Today (Wednesday, July 1, 2020) marked the start of a new appointive year in the Great Plains Conference and across The United Methodist Church. In Kansas and Nebraska, we have more than 100 pastors learning new names, trying to grasp local culture and history, figuring out which light switches turn...
I remember an older gentleman who counted the number of people in attendance each week at the church my wife served as music director in Springfield, Missouri. It was the late 1990s, and he was in his 90s, but as the first hymn wrapped up, he would walk to the end of each row, starting at the very ...
I had the privilege of seeing what I think is an efficient model of church democracy take place last week in Oklahoma City. That’s where delegates to the General Conference and South Central Jurisdictional Conference gathered for three days of meetings leading up to those big events. Full ...
I attended the pre-General Conference 2020 briefing Jan. 23-24 in Nashville, and for only the second time in my five years serving as communications director, I came away from a gathering of Methodists from around the world with a truly positive feeling. The briefing, conducted by United Methodist ...
I’ve become a bit obsessed with podcasts the past few months. I guess that’s why I launched my own — “In Layman’s Terms” — a few months ago. I simply fell in love with the not-so-new concept of telling stories and sharing thoughts via the spoken word. That love tied into another passion of mine ...
I’ve written about the important issue of photo copyrights before and have dedicated a small portion of a multimedia worship tools workshop to the subject as well. But every now and then something comes up that I think requires me to reiterate some key points. And let’s be honest, this is a ...
I sat down to read the new book “Soul Reset” by the Rev. Junius Dotson over the Labor Day weekend. I quickly found myself wishing he had written it about six years ago. I say six years ago because I was the guy that Dotson’s six-session Bible study and discussion guide is written to help. In 2013, ...
I recently re-read the books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, two letters from Paul to what was likely a group of small house-churches of new believers. What strikes me as I read these two books is how these people relatively new to the faith are trying to do the best they could in an environment that ...
I want to pause from the communications content this week to talk a little about time — particularly how it passes. As I write this, it’s only Aug. 13, and yet my Facebook feed is filled with parents posting photos of their kids as the youngsters head off to their first day of school. I recall ...
Anyone who has ever attended one of my workshops probably can attest to me saying something along the lines of “the days of opening the church doors and new people come flooding in are long gone.” It’s not all that profound. It’s really kind of a “Captain Obvious” statement worthy of those ...
I set a goal for 2019 to read 30 books throughout the year. I didn’t know what topics I would choose, mostly because my tastes change from time to time, and I didn’t want to pin myself down to a particular genre. I also don’t take into account my daily Bible reading and devotion time. As we near ...
I’ll confess that I’ve spent the past two days at my desk digging out from a pile of emails and associated tasks that needed to be completed. It’s only fair since I was returning from being out of the office for 10 days. I’ll also confess to feeling a little guilty for being gone that long. In 20 ...
We’ve been exploring topics the past few weeks about copyright law compliance. We’ve taken a look at song lyrics and movies. To wrap up this series, let’s take a look at what you can and shouldn’t use from the popular videos website YouTube. First, YouTube is a site popular with many demographics, ...
So far in our journey to better understand how best to comply with copyright laws, we’ve been focusing on music. Today, we cross over to feature films, television shows and movie clips. Just as before, we’re talking about a license you can purchase from CCLI, but this time it’s CVLI — Church Video ...
As I shared in my last blog, I want to make sure our churches are getting the most out of their CCLI subscription so the people who put together worship slides are getting the most bang for their buck and so the church is protected. Last time, I shared how to display copyright information either on...
CCLI — Christian Copyright Licensing International —helps churches augment their worship services while keeping them compliant with U.S. copyright laws. And, yes, those laws are complicated. I spent 20 years in the Fourth Estate, also known as the news industry. Copyright issues came up all the ...
My news alerts started firing off on my phone and watch in fairly rapid succession Monday. The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was burning. I’ve never been to Paris. It’s on my bucket list, along with about a dozen other European sites to satisfy my craving to see the world with my own eyes. But the ...
It’s truly amazing how much damage water can do. By now you’ve seen either with your own two eyes or via photographs the havoc being spread by water coming out of the banks of rivers and water standing because there’s simply no place for it to go. A much snowier winter than in recent years, ...
We have to come to grips with the reality that the days are long gone when all we need to do is make sure someone is on time on Sunday morning to open up the doors so people can come flooding in to hear a sermon. These days, people look at “church shopping” much like they envision shopping for a ...
Many tears. A few smiles. Strong resolve on both sides. Those are the images burned into my memory from the special session of General Conference last week in St. Louis. To be honest, it was a draining experience — one from which I am still attempting to recover. I won’t belabor any points that ...
After the prioritization votes for the legislative committee portion of the special session of General Conference on Sunday, it probably wasn’t surprising to too many people that the Traditional Plan moved on to Monday’s plenary phase, and the One Church Plan failed to move on to that step. Or did ...
An environment of praise and elation one minute. The air seemingly sucked out of the room the next. That’s how I experienced Sunday afternoon at the special session of General Conference in St. Louis. After a morning filled with engaging preaching from Bishop Ken Carter, president of the Council of...
After the first day of the special session of General Conference — a day set aside for prayer and praise — I was struck that a unifying embrace of cultures from outside the United States also poses one of the larger challenges for The United Methodist Church. That’s neither good nor bad. It just is...
Well, the time has finally arrived. Those of us plugged in to The United Methodist Church have been either eagerly awaiting or anxiously dreading this day since the adjournment of the 2016 General Conference in Portland, Oregon. The time, indeed, has come for the special called session of General ...
Amazing! Awesome! Life-changing! Those were just some of the words people who recently visited the Holy Land with Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. used to describe their trip. The seven-day adventure took the group of 61 people to historic churches marking the traditional locations of Jesus’ birth, ministry,...
I think it’s appropriate that I completed reading the book “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” on the day we celebrated the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I made a resolution in 2018 to read two books a month. I fulfilled that goal on Dec. ...
I’m not really into new year’s resolutions, but I am a pretty big advocate for setting goals. I’ve always looked at goals as providing some prioritization to my life, but I heard this concept put into a different perspective recently while listening to Pastor Rick Warren’s “Daily Hope” podcast on ...
I’m convinced Christmas is such a festive time of year because of the atmosphere that accompanies it. The lights on houses and along city streets remind us of the light — Jesus — coming into the world. Christmas trees become a focal point in our homes. Nativity scenes remind us of the reason for ...
Most of us get excited for the Christmas season. We decorate our sanctuaries with trees, wreaths and lights. Nativity scenes get dusted off and put on prominent display. And we shift our thinking toward marketing our church in hopes of bringing in the unchurched or de-churched neighbors in our ...
What a ride! Eighteen town halls in 17 cities in every district of the Great Plains Conference. In all, more than 4,100 people in attendance. Twenty-six delegates. Three plans. A few laughs. Not-so-few tears. Lots of prayers. That sums up recently completed town halls journey I embarked upon with ...
Sometimes, a call or email from a local church with a question leads me on a path to find something entirely new that prompts me to share this new information with all of you. Such an instance occurred this week when a question came in from the Gateway District in Nebraska about special Sunday ...
Reading scripture has had a profound impact on my life. It’s amazing to me that I can read the same verses multiple times and find something – even slightly – different to take away from it. I know that’s because my experiences and whatever issues at play in my life at the time lead me to seek ...
Kansas and Nebraska – when you place them together – create a fairly large parcel of land. In fact, if you put the two together, you have about 160,000 square miles. That’s huge! My duties as the conference communications director have allowed me to see many parts of our two states. My most recent ...
Anyone who has attended one of the bishop’s town hall meetings knows that the three plans to be considered at the upcoming special session of General Conference can be confusing. The plans – offered by the Commission on a Way Forward and approved by the Council of Bishops – are meant to help our ...
It sure can seem at times like the world has forgotten what it’s like to be kind. We criticize each other. We share things on social media that we would never have the guts to say to a person’s face – at least that’s true of many people. For Christians, I think the act of being kind is an essential...
This week’s subject is part resource, part shameless self-promotion. But it’s aimed at helping you stay connected with other United Methodists across Kansas and Nebraska while helping you stay in tune with your spiritual disciplines. Earlier this year, the Great Plains Conference launched its new ...
Wireless microphones have become as much a part of the worship experience as the organ and hymnals. Preachers who don’t want to be tied to a pulpit rely on these devices to allow them to move around to engage their congregation while delivering their messages. But as our communications staff has ...
You’re preparing for Sunday worship. The pastor has given you his or her scripture. You have photos to represent sermon points – maybe even a video. You’re all set to build that week’s audio-visual presentation and start promoting the upcoming worship experience on social media. But you are lacking...
The folks who like to wreak havoc with email and get you to pay for things they want are getting more and more sophisticated. It wasn’t all that long ago that many of us were receiving emails from sudden royalty in Nigeria or some other country who just needed a little money to leave their homeland...
While I’m a big fan of video – and still prefer that medium – there’s no denying that podcasts are quite popular. And it’s actually easy to see why. People these days are busy. You can play a podcast from a mobile phone like an audiobook while exercising or while driving to work or hitting the ...
First of all, I apologize for not having written in a while. But it’s been for a good reason. As most of you are aware, the three Great Plains Conference offices in Lincoln, Wichita and Topeka have been consolidated to a new, single conference office in Topeka. Toss in the upheaval that comes with ...
I used to think there was no more thankless job in all of The United Methodist Church than that of district superintendent. Now, I think it must be serving as a member of the Commission on a Way Forward. God bless those 32 people, especially the three bishops serving as moderators, who agreed to ...
IN LAYMAN'S TERMS I present to you today a series of questions. Let’s start off with this: What does it mean to “be the church”? Some people have what they think is an easy answer. Others find an answer to be elusive. We likely agree that we want the church to be relevant in the 21st century. But ...
I don’t have a solution. Those are ominous words. When I was the editor of a daily newspaper, one of the rules in our shop was that we didn’t go to our publisher – the top supervisor – to talk about a problem without at least some idea for a solution. Yet, I find myself pondering one of our ...
Perhaps no time of year provides more of a sense of hope than the time around Easter. For starters, we as Christians are reminded of the importance of sharing with others the hope for eternity through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. And then, there’s the hope that starts with the ...
Last week, I shared some thoughts about how I like to set up slides for projection for song lyrics in worship services. I like to set them up not just for aesthetics but also for cadence so guests who don’t know our traditional songs have the best opportunity possible to know where the pauses are ...
With Easter coming up next month, it’s important to use this time of Lent to prepare for one of our biggest visitor days of the church’s year. Many churches will focus on greeters, making sure there is a handout of some kind with information about the church and invitations to special events ...
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