It started a month or so ago when I was reading a blog. It’s a family friend who has two children that God made uniquely but wonderfully special. (If you want to be inspired by her faith and journey, check it out at – http://baseballsbutterfliesblessings.blogspot.com/) She recently had her son’s super hero birthday party and mentioned the great ideas she got from Pinterest. I visited the page she linked and loved the ideas as a fellow party theme lover! I didn’t think much more about it. Since then, it seems to be the hot buzz word I hear around – “I waste too much time on Pinterest,” “I was inspired by Pinterest,” “I just pinned the best idea.” Okay, it as time to get up to speed!
I requested generic access, but couldn’t seem to get ‘in.” It seems that Pinterest is a community. A community with special views, rights and privileges that I wanted to join. I knew I had friends in the community, so I went with current technology and did a Facebook post requesting access. Permission granted!
I am now uncovering the world of virtual bulletin boards. All of the ideas, links, and creativity that is out there on the web can be “pinned” and organized on bulletin boards. You can follow others, create your own boards, and search within this unique site. In addition to being curious about my own children’s birthday party themes, I started thinking about how can something mainstream like Pinterest be used for ministry. Is that possible? YES!
I started doing searches and was positively overwhelmed with the resources out there that had been pinned. Sunday School Crafts – pages of great ideas. Church Youth – all sorts of ideas. Online Giving – inspiration and quotes. Church sermons – lots of topics and imagery. That’s just the tip of the iceberg! So, go ahead and get to pinning. Create a ministry board. The ideas seem to be endless! (and please share with me as you have your own ideas and create!)
Funny, I just saw today that Compassion International is on Pinterest – they use it to share with people about all kinds of things, including ideas for writing letters to sponsored children.
http://pinterest.com/compassion/