It’s difficult to adequately capture the enthusiasm that we have on the Technology ministry for how we’re seeing The City reinforce the many communities of Mars Hill…it’s way beyond the expectations of any of us.

Earlier this week I got letters, actual hand written letters (for a mostly email guy, this was a great blessing to receive) from a few Community Groups that were enjoying how The City is helping them stay connected, plan events, etc. There were even a few anecdotes on some of the neat things they’re using it for…I love it! We’ve made some t-shirts to give away to those with the best stories about how they are using The City (contest to be announced shortly, Codex readers get a little jump start).

We are four weeks into our Alpha and are four weeks away from a really big milestone. I’ll try to come up for air and write here a little bit more frequently, but I hope our generous readers will excuse our absences for a little bit longer while we march forward launching The City.

If you are a Member, The Mars Hill Technology Team could use your help.

As we traverse these next six weeks, we’re going to be massively growing The City from the 300+ folks on it now to 2000+. This will create several volunteer opportunities, even for those that aren’t Technically inclined.

Community Liason
This team of three volunteers could use a little more help in organizing all the feedback we get from people on The City, boiling it down to the key issues, prioritizing them, and then passing them off to the development team to incorporate the great ideas we are getting. You’d be a great candidate for this opportunity if you care deeply about community, enjoy interacting with people and their ideas, and can use some simple websites for organizing this info. This opportunity fits into any available timeslots, no scheduling required. Contact me at zack[at]marshillchurch.org and Adam will connect you with this team.

The City Kiosk
We are anticipating that as we get closer to launching The City in the campuses, that we’ll need people at each campus that can answer questions, help people get signed up, and assist those that might have a really hard time interacting with a website (we’re thinking of some offline solutions like a printed out sheet that the Kiosk could provide). You’d be a great candidate for this if you’ve got some experience in any kind of call center, help desk, deskside, customer service, or are in general a people-person that’s comfortable with social networking websites. As The City is all about real physical community, you get to be the face of welcome to many new people. This would be a Sunday Service opportunity. Again, contact me at zack[at]marshillchurch.org or walk up to the Serve desk at your campus to get connected to this opportunity.

As I’ve hinted at, this work is adapting daily to the needs of Mars Hill and plans might change in subtle or not-so-subtle ways. Whatever happens, we know that we need your prayer and that we need brothers and sisters that can stand shoulder to shoulder with us as we labor to bring about a community network for Mars Hill. The first weeks of Alpha have been very encouraging and evidence of God’s Grace is everywhere. We all feel very thankful to be working on this and to see how Jesus is using it to strengthen His people.