September 11, 2009 - 9:57am
Go for it!
Hey Seth, there is certainly a need for this sort of thing; a little maintenance goes a long way.
As for fixing up donated machines, but you might want to check out http://www.freegeek.org/about/overview/ I'm not too familiar with this organization, but they seem to be doing a similar thing. The main constraint I see is now that computers are so incredibly cheap (BestBuy.com currently has 3 notebooks for $249.) the demand is likely less than when a intro system was $1000+.
Blessings!
-NP
September 16, 2009 - 9:22pm
Good Idea!
I should do the same thing, My church in Pittsburgh ministers directly to the college students in the area, I should offer to fix the students computers, as every one of them has one and it's important to the school work. This could open doors to the non-believing students and make them less wary of the church.
October 1, 2009 - 10:40pm
October 2, 2009 - 1:54pm
November 16, 2009 - 2:33am
work time
sdudenhofer
This sounds like fun. I believe if God is putting something on your heart you should go for it. Some comments though: What are you going to do for an income? (or is this not your full time job)
Working to save the church money basically means you are paying instead of the church. At the end of the day time is money and I've found it can be better for me to spend time making money and then giving some extra time or money into serving the church directly. (By church here I mean the organisation.)
I feel we should be helping/serving people who are in need all the time. This is true whether we have a ministry of it or not. What often happens if you offer free repair is people who can afford it will use you the most and then you won't have time to help those in need. Also people don't appreciate things if they're free. Rather charge proper money but also make sure that those you take care of those who can't afford it. I find that mostly the church (and the people in it) can easily afford to pay for stuff but they expect special treatment because you're a fellow churchgoer. I found that helping people for free makes them call on me for every little thing and when you have to fix little Johnny's malware infested pc for the tenth time so he can get back to playing online games you start regretting the offer.
I guess all I'm saying is that we need to be wise when opening up areas of ministry like this because in my experience the church is full of people who will abuse it, asking you to help them get their new iPod to sync with their new laptop for free...
Also for this new ministry to grow it will have to get some money, to pay for full time members, buy tools etc. Who will fund this? If the church funds it you end up drawing resources out instead of investing to it. It would be better to be making piles of money through a successful business and then use that to finance such a ministry.
I hope this doesn't come across negative but I've walked a bit of a way down similar paths and am learning a lot in the process. One thing I'm learning is things always get stuck when it comes to money, we think it will just appear but you need to plan for that end of things too.
November 20, 2009 - 2:34pm
I agree
As I have been thinking out this solution. God has planted a different vision for me than what I thought it was going to be. I am going to be teaching a class for people in the urban area of muncie(where I live). Through this I hope to teach basic computer skills and potentially (for those wanting to) work towards getting people A+ certified. Then to give people hands on training, we will offer to the community free pc repairs. My hope is to raise up leadership from within the class, (as I am in an internship to go into ministry) to take over when I leave. Then potentially I am looking at creating a consulting company to potentially employ some of the students.
Also I am looking into creating a pc recycling program similar to free geek. But I need the previous mentioned objectives to get started before I look into this.
A lot of this I realize I can't do all by myself. But, if I put God in a little box then I am limiting what he can do. I don't want this to be a Seth show....
November 20, 2009 - 2:34pm
Website
I am blogging about this at www.osjournal.net I'm working on getting more posts on there
Hey all...recently I have been feeling God calling me into creating a new ministry. Basically offering the church free pc repairs. Not buying hardware, just being willing to use my gifts to save people money.
The basic gist of this would be to offer free services. (ie virus removal, malware removal, etc) Then also offering people a way to donate old computers to be "fixed up" and have linux installed and then given to families/people in need. Then the people that recieve a computer, will volunteer 2 weekends to help learn about computers.
The hope would be to create an autonomous model that can be used elsewhere. Hopefully as it goes live and can keep you all updated if you are interested....
thoughts??