My initial intention for the Chapel Network News is to serve churches and individual Christians throughout the city of Bellingham, WA and Whatcom County.
My hope is that the project will eventually outgrow this local region, but even if the CNN project only served to enhance the ministries and lives of the Christians living in this area, I think that that would be a very good thing.
I believe that this is a powerful idea worthy of pursuit, but I can't make it happen by myself. I need the help of every Christian ministry, business and individual in and near Bellingham.
I need you to spread the word about the Chapel Network News, first of all, because I can only run free ads and news stories in the Chapel Network News if people submit those items to me.
Therefore, I've run some "starter ads" (all of which are legitimate ads) in the first issue, in order to stimulate imaginations about how you might use this new opportunity to communicate with other believers.
How you choose to spread the word is up to you, but I would suggest making at least one 11x17 print of the available PDF file, and posting that print on a wall or bulletin board in a prominent location in your church. (As mentioned elsewhere, you can save the downloaded file and then have it printed from a USB drive, at FedEx Office or the UPS Store in Bellingham.)
I also need legal sponsorship from one church or Christian ministry (preferably my home church) so that I can operate under that ministry's tax-exempt "umbrella", so that donors to the Chapel Network News can be assured that their donations will be tax deductible. Operating this citywide ministry will be time-consuming, and if I'm going to dedicate as much time as possible to that task, I will need funding. Encouraging people to donate funds to the ministry, by enabling them to write those donations off of their taxes, will definitely help to assure the success of the Chapel Network News.
Even though my model of operation will be extremely cost-effective, compared with other possible models of operation which might rely on more conventional methods of publication and distribution, there will still be expenses, not the least of which will be my own costs of supporting myself! I don't by any means intend to live a lavish lifestyle, but it is kind of nice to have a roof over one's head, preferably not at the homeless shelter (although I will do what I have to do in order to survive).
Financial sponsorship from local businesses (especially those which are owned and operated by fellow Christians) would also be enormously appreciated.
Even individuals have the ability to sponsore this ministry in various ways, such as placing links to this web site in their own personal blogs or Twitter tweets, and such as making individual financial donations in order to help me to pay my modest living expenses. There are also other options. For example, I was recently made aware that eBay allows organizations to set things up so that portions of the eBay sales made by their supporters can be allocated to the funding of those organizations. (More on that later.)
Regardless of how you might choose to sponsor or help the Chapel Network News, I promise to use all of the resources available to me for the purpose of offering reciprocal benefits to the businesses, churches and individual Christians who help to contribute to the success of this ministry of communication. Even if I didn't do that, of course, I think that the option of placing free ads in the Chapel Network News would be a benefit to the Christians in the Bellingham community. But I want folks to see this ministry as a real asset to the community, and particularly to those who sponsor the ministry.
Thank you, and may God bless you for any help you might choose to offer.
Mark W. Pettigrew
Publisher of the Chapel Network News
mwp1212@gmail.com
P.S. I should also mention that there is a connection between this project and the Artistic Rescue Project (described at www.ArtisticRescue.com, a separate site which I have created specifically for that project), in the sense that funding I receive from supporters of the Chapel Network News will also enable me to pursue that other project.
