In this edition of the newsletter I wish to address a topic that has been on my mind a great deal lately, and that is membership participation. It seems that the larger our church grows, the less participation we have. Mainly, I'm talking about attendence to the Weekly Fellowship Chat Sessions and participation in the discussions on the church bulletin board.

It occurs to me that our members may not realize the importance of their participation in these activities. Well, let's remember that what makes our church more than just another website is the fellowship that takes place among the members. After all, what's a church without fellowship? And the best way to experience that fellowship is through the church chat room and the bulletin board. Our church chat sessions are the best time to meet the other members of the church. We get together and share praise reports, swap news about ourselves, tell others about our ministries, share prayer requests, and pray on those prayer requests. Sometimes we discuss things like the policies of our church, debate some theological points, share resources that are available, and sometimes even share things about ourselves and our lives. It's a great time of fellowship, and is only improved by increased participation.

The bulletin board is also a great way to experience fellowship, and we also cover all the same topics I mentioned for the chat room. The advantage of the bulletin board, though, is that you can visit it at any time and participate in the discussions when you are able too. Participation is not limited to the time frame of the church chat session. The bulletin board is also a great place to share resources and to learn about resources found by other members. Many of our members, when they find a new resource available on the web, will go right to the bulletin board and post a link to the resource, along with an explanation about the resource. Many will even offer to help members take advantage of these resources. So you can see, the bulletin board pays an important part in our fellowship.

So, once again, the weekly Church Fellowship Chat Sessions are held on Monday evenings from 8pm to 10pm Eastern. If you aren't sure how that time frame relates to your own time zone, please refer to our church's Time Zone Information page, where you'll find lots of information about different time zones around the world. There are also links to other Time Zone pages with information about every time zone around the world. No matter where you live, in the States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, or any of the other countries our members live in, you'll be able to find how your time zone relates to Eastern Time. Of course, I realize not everyone will be in a time zone that is conducive to attending our chat sessions. That's where the bulletin board comes in. No matter where you are on the earth, you can still experience the fellowship of our church by visiting the church bulletin board.

By now, many of you are probably saying, "Hey, Dave, where are the graphics you usually add to the newsletter?" Well, I've done something a little different this time. I've put together a small gallery of graphics which are suitable for use on web pages, and posted them to a seperate page. Feel free to use these graphics on your own websites, in your e-mail, or however you wish. If possible, please "grab" them and store them on your own sites or in your hard drives. If you are using a system that doesn't allow you to "grab" graphics, then feel free to link to the graphics where they are. But, if possible, "grab" them. I have plenty more of these available, so if this proves to be a popular resource, I'll add a gallery page every so often. You can view these graphics by clicking here.

Finally, let me say a hearty "Welcome!" to new members of our church. We're glad you decided to join our fellowship, and look forward to your participation in our activities. Like I said earlier, this newsletter is of a little different format than usual. If you'd like to view our past newsletters, be sure and visit the church Newsletter Archive Page, where you'll find links to the newsletters from the past few months.

Well, that's going to do it for this issue of the church newsletter. Remember, you remain in my prayers at all times. And, as we say here in Georgia, "See ya'll in church!"