I just want it to work. I don't care how or why it works, just that it works.

Kinda like my car, a Prius. People ask me how it works and I say, just like your car. This pedal makes it go, this one makes it stop and this round thing tells it where to go.

1. Don't buy cheap drill bits.
2. Read the box the screws came in, the box will tell you which number bit to use.
3. Don't use a filister screw with an electric machine. Only use the machine for phillips, squares, stars, etc.
4. Don't buy cheap screws. If the screws came with the set in a box, don't use them. Go to the Ace Hardware and buy decent screws.
4a. Don't by any screws that were made in Asia. (they use recycled steel).
5. Don't re-use screws.
6. Go slowly. Very slowly and press down on the screw using the gun.
7. When the bit goes, "kachunk" it's called "rounding" the screw. Your instincts to avoid that are very good. One kachunk is OK, more than one means pull the screw out, throw it away and get a new screw. Also refer to ##4, 4a and 5.
8. And the most valuable lesson I have learned through all my years of building, remodeling and fixing: hire someone who knows what they're doing to do what you want to do and find another "hobby".

The only good reason for a religious institution to change, in my mind, is to better serve its purpose.
We do not exist for the purpose of our own institutional survival.

Such a rebel! Love it. Our worthiness of survival is not up to us to judge. All we can do is influence the judges by our actions: Everyone else.

Don't forget, this isn't an either-or situation. Adopting social media is not replacing current methods of distributing information, its adding to it. The only way you can "shut people out" is if you stop doing what you're doing now and use social media as a substitute.

I highly agree, Jeff. Approximately 90 percent of my congregation's new visitors find us via our website. I don't think many people initially find us through our Facebook page, but we do use it (and Twitter) to schedule announcements throughout the week because some members respond better to those announcements than actually read their newsletters.

It certainly isn't true that our congregations have to engage in social media or they will die out. Here in Waterloo, our congregation is growing very rapidly despite a pretty poor website and no other serious usage of online media. It all depends on the situation of each congregation: some are in circumstances where they really do need social media, while others can take it or leave it without any impact either way.

Social media can help some of us fulfill some of our missions, and can be a danger as well. For instance, most of the older folks in the congregation--those who founded, built, and sustained it and whose money and labour commitments on our behalf are beyond estimation at this point--are not as plugged in as you and I, and would be disenfranchised by too heavy an emphasis on social media. Furthermore, there are serious class and other disparities between who has good access to online resources and who does not, and social media will include some people while shutting out others.