19 Dec 2022
By Allen
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Great benefits for Non-profits with WordPress

Great benefits for Non-profits with WordPress

Ministry, Websites, , ,
Even though I'm retired, I often find myself helping non-profit organizations set up websites. My recommendation to most of them is to set up a WordPress site. Very few need the demands of more complex sites. The non-profits I help are usually Christian-based, which is not popular in some tech communities and outright targeted in some parts of the world where they operate. Using WordPress is accessible in all languages, stable and very affordable hosting is available. Overall, this allows me to remain useful and focus on work with purpose.Why WordPress? To start, over half of all new websites on…
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01 Dec 2021
By Allen
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Retire Early, Find Purpose (Part 2)

Retire Early, Find Purpose (Part 2)

Featured, Ministry, ,
In Part 1, I talked about retiring early. It is a matter of planning, math, and a little psychology of delayed gratification.  Now, the work of finding your purpose takes some introspective digging with questions like: If you knew you could not fail, what would you do? If money was no object, where would you invest your time and energy? What accomplishment are you most proud of and why?  How or where could you do that again? What is the one thing you cannot NOT do? Each of these questions is a variation on a theme of finding what drives…
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25 Oct 2021
By Allen
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Retire early, find purpose in life

Retire early, find purpose in life

Ministry,
Part 1 When I retired in my early 50's, people either ask "Aren't you too young?" or "How did you do it?" To the first question, I say you are never too young to retire from one career to find purpose in another. My career was right on track, but it was on the wrong track for where God wanted to lead me. To address the latter question, start by living debt-free and saving like crazy.1. Live under your means. When my wife and I married when I was 30 and still had student loans and bad credit. Then I…
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03 Apr 2021
By Allen
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2020’s Impact on Habits and Worship

2020’s Impact on Habits and Worship

Ministry, ,
"It takes 40 days to build new habits." We've heard that from experts for so long it has become internet truth. Actual studies show it can take from 18 to 254 days to shape habits. Whether you believe 18, 40 or 254 days, we need to recognize that the 2020 year of COVID-19 lock-downs forced churches to adapt new technology to reach people. Those people, in turn were building new online habits for worship and connection. Businesses and churches had to adapt quickly to survive. Parking lot church, outdoor worship, and even huge crowds worshiping on California beaches. Businesses adopted…
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12 Mar 2021
By Allen
3 Comments
From Software to Seminary

From Software to Seminary

Featured, Ministry, , ,
It started in 1979 with "Hello World." I was a kid learning Basic to program a text based adventure game on a TRS-80 and I was hooked.  I wanted to take a game apart and make it better, so I did.  I learned programming and ended up having a pretty good career in IT, focused on database systems and business intelligence.  Now, 42 years later, it is time for a new adventure. The industry has changed a lot in those years.  Back then we learned programming BASIC by buying magazines at Radio Shack.   The magazines were full of pages of…
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