VolunteerCentered » Website

Agile Ministry Is Now VolunteerCentered.com

James Higginbotham — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:21:54 +0000

We are excited to announce that AgileMinistry.com is now VolunteerCentered.com! While the name has changed, the content hasn’t changed. In fact, we hope to expand our current focus on volunteer leadership and management into other areas, including blog posts from church planters and leaders in the field. By the way, if you are already a subscriber of Agile Ministry, you don’t have to do a thing – you’ll still get email or RSS notification of new articles.

Why the name change?

One of the difficulties we’ve had over the last few years is getting people to remember the name of our website and understand what we do. While we always liked the name, it just never stuck.

We hope that VolunteerCentered is both a name that is easier to remember and more descriptive of our focus: to bring you great articles about volunteer leadership, management, and recruiting.

What other things are you going to cover?

Over the coming months, our hope is to expand our current articles to cover even more about being a leader of volunteers. This includes hearing from other leaders in the field that are raising up teams for a cause that is important to them. We also want to provide more focus on current news articles and other websites that are talking about their community volunteers, the impact of government in non-profits and volunteering, and volunteer management best practices.

What do I need to do to subscribe?

If you are already a subscriber of Agile Ministry, you don’t have to do a thing – you’ll still get email or RSS notification of new articles.

If you are a new reader, you can sign up for our email notification or RSS notification when we publish new articles.

How can I contribute?

Have an idea for an article? Want to share some tips or best practices on volunteer management? Drop us a note and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Thanks to everyone for your readership and we can’t wait to see what the rest of 2009 and 2010 has for all of us!

Start the New Year Early

James Higginbotham — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 05:12:32 +0000

With the end of the year is approaching, now is the time to start preparing for the next year. We’ll be starting a new series on leadership unlike anything you’ve read here before! It will challenge our current way of thinking about leadership and the church, and include additional posts through the week to subscribers of the blog.

If you have never subscribed before, now is the time to do it! If you are subscribed already, how about asking a fellow leader or staff member to join you? It is easy to get started:

Subscribe using your email address and receive new articles in your inbox, or subscribe using your favorite RSS feed reader: http://www.volunteercentered.com/subscribe

Stay tuned! The first article will be coming soon!

New Website: WhatYouDoIsWhatTheyHear.com

James Higginbotham — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:51:52 +0000

I have rolled out a new website called WhatYouDoIsWhatTheyHear.com that features some of the principles from the recent post with the same title. The purpose of the site is to provide a simple page for you, Agile Ministry readers, to send your fellow staff members, lay leaders, and next generation leaders to learn more about the principles we talk about on this blog. It also provides a link to the free ebook, Handle With Care, for visitors to the site that haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

I encourage you to send a quick email to those you think would benefit from the topics discussed here with a link to the new website. Whether the recipient is a new leader or an experienced one, there is something to learn for everyone.

Finally, I’d like to give a big “Thank You” out to all of my readers and RSS/email subscribers – thanks for your continued readership!

[tags]volunteer management, volunteer leadership, new website[/tags]

Announcing a New Blog: Tech Leadership

James Higginbotham — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 01:08:37 +0000

As many of you know, I’m a full-time software architect, concentrating mostly on Enterprise Java for the small and large companies. While I have posted a few technical items on this blog from my days as an IT ministry leader, I’ve tried to keep it mostly focused on my passion of improving church and ministry through process. Recent topics have included volunteer management, ministry execution, and (currently) project management in the church. There have been times, though, when I have something to say about more technology-related topics.

I want to now introduce a new blog, specifically for technology enthusiasts – Tech Leadership. It is a blog focused on all that is software and IT, including management and leadership in a technical setting. So, come on over, take a look around (just remember, the paint is still fresh), and subscribe to engage in conversations that are fun and more technical in nature. I look forward to seeing you there!

About Me

James Higginbotham — Tue, 16 May 2006 01:47:36 +0000

Jim Walton at Church Tech Matters wrote a post about his new About Me page, so I thought I’d do the same. I’ve posted my About Me page, and I’ve also provided a new contact form if you want to reach me.

Playing Catch Up…

James Higginbotham — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 05:24:14 +0000

The last few weeks have been quite busy, so the posts have been sparse – my apologies. I am gearing up for some great posts soon regarding church and ministry project management, so stay tuned. In the meantime, why not let some of your fellow ministry leaders or staff catch up on what has been said here already? I’ve just posted a new Squidoo Lense that focuses on this blog, including some lists of links that deal with volunteer recruiting and management. So, if you are a recent subscriber, or need a way to help get a friend up-to-date, check out the Agile Ministry Lense: http://www.squidoo.com/AgileMinistry/

Also, I have added an email subscription option to this blog, so if your friend prefers to receive email newsletters rather than use an RSS reader, you can suggest that they signup: http://www.volunteercentered.com/subscribe

[tags]Squidoo, volunteer management, recruiting volunteers, Agile Ministry[/tags]

Moved to Feedburner

James Higginbotham — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 04:39:25 +0000

I have moved the syndication feeds to Feedburner for better tracking and centralized management. You may receive duplicates of previous posts since Feedburner thinks they were all new – this should only happen once. If this doesn’t make any sense to you, don’t worry: Anyone subscribed to the old RSS/Atom feeds will be automatically redirected to Feedburner’s feed with no change required. If you like, you may update your reader to use the following permanent RSS/Atom feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AgileMinistry.

BTW, I am monitoring both the old and new feeds to ensure a smooth transition, but don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any issues.

New Email Subscription Option

James Higginbotham — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 00:44:58 +0000

In the spirit of being agile and listening to our readers, Agile Ministry now offers an email subscription option to complement our RSS feed (if you are not sure what RSS is, check out the definition using the Wikipedia: Wikipedia: RSS). So, if you prefer to get updates about new postings in your mailbox rather than using an RSS reader, then subscribe using the form on the right side or by visiting our subscription page. This option is best for those that forget or don’t have the time to check the website for updates, or who prefer to read posts in their email box rather than an RSS reader.

On a side note, if you are looking for a nice RSS reader to get you started, Bloglines is a nice web-based tool that can be used from work, home, or anywhere you have Internet access. Once you create an account, you can use the Bloglines subscription link on the right side to quickly add Agile Ministry to your “My Blogs” section.