Greg Atkinson

Let me explain: Yesterday our pastor was preaching from John 12 (Jesus’ triumphal entry). As Christ entered on the donkey, He was greeted with shouts, cheers, people waving palm branches and proclaiming “Hosanna!”. He commented on how silly it would be for the donkey to think that the praise and cheering was for him. Christ created the donkey, gave it life, empowered it, picked it and chose to ride in on it. The praise was for Jesus – He was simply using the donkey. In the same way, Christ made me, gave me life, empowers me, called me and chooses to use me. May I never think the praise is for me – it’s all for Him.

EXTRA:

Face Control from Redfield plugins is a Photoshop compatible plugin for making modifications to facial expressions and tweaking the overall appearance of someone in a photo. It might be worth checking out.

I’ve written two new articles. You can check one entitled “The Next Level” in Christian AV Magazine HERE. You can read my latest article on using countdowns in worship HERE.

Phil Cooke just told me about an intriguing blog post he recently wrote. We both encourage you to read it and share your thoughts.

That was the title of a story that our local Channel 8, here in Dallas, did on technology in the Church. They interviewed and showed footage of Ed Young and Fellowship Church, as well as local media producers Igniter Media Group and BluefishTV. To read the article go HERE. To watch the video go HERE.

BONUS:

A few months ago, I introduced the Church world to an up-and-coming filmmaker – Blaine Hogan – and blogged about his first video: “Starving Jesus“. Blaine has been busy since then and released a second video called “Where Is the Love?“. I didn’t want to mention it during all the craziness of Easter, for fear that it would get lost. Now that Easter is behind us and things have settled down, I hope you’ll check it out. I dig it!

EXTRA:

My friends at Midnight Oil Productions just announced the release of their 3rd volume of loops. If you don’t have their first 2 volumes, you can purchase them and get the 3rd one for FREE. If you just want the 3rd one, it’s $45. Check it out HERE.

The wonderful folks at Passion, including Louie Giglio, have released a special EP to encourage and minister to anyone affected by the events at Virginia Tech and for anyone just searching for hope in this world. To download the songs of hope, go HERE.

EXTRA:

The folks who you brought you Church Marketing Sucks and the Church Marketing Lab can now help you get a job or fill an opening. CFCC is now helping to connect churches and creative professionals with the launch of their job posting sites, the Job Lab and the Freelance Lab. Churches can post listings for full-time job openings as well as freelance projects and creative professionals who want to help the church can find the job or project to make that dream happen.

For a limited time postings are FREE while they bulk up the listings and work out any kinks. Check out the sites and spread the word. For more Center for Church Communication news visit their web site.

I’ve mentioned Jake Ludington’s newsletter before. I always learn of some cool new media resources through his newsletter. Here are a few things that he mentioned and I’m going to give a try:

• Spin It Again: Transfer your old 45′s and 33′s to CD or to your new MP3 player or iPod. This dedicated record and tape conversion software makes it child’s play to record and edit your old albums. The wizard driven process guides you through connecting your hardware, getting the correct recording level, and splitting your recording into multiple tracks. The software automatically removes clicks and pops and that unwanted tape hum and hiss. Convert your recordings to MP3s or burn them on to an audio CD.
• Eyejot: I’m doing a little video experiment with an online video tool. Eyejot is a FREE video app that lets you record video messages in your browser and send them to a recipient via email or RSS. This would fall under Web 2.0 tools for ministry. Check it out!
• JPG Video: Time lapse video is something I’ve always found fascinating. Take a series of images from the same place over the course of a day, week, month, etc., and then build them into a video to express the time change in a matter of minutes or seconds. JPGVideo is a simple app designed to make a time lapse video from a series of stills. JPGVideo is billed as a tool for Webcam images, but JPG files from any camera source will work.
  
• Windows Media Player Plug-in for Firefox: This plug-in allows you to use Windows Media Player inside of Firefox. It is designed to support the following Windows platforms: Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista.
• Registry Booster: They claim to be the safest and most trusted solution to clean and optimise your system, free it from registry errors and fragmented entries. Through Advanced Error Detection Technology, Register Booster automatically identifies missing, corrupt or invalid items in your Windows registry and dramatically enhances performance and general stability. * This I actually downloaded and used to clean up my computer. So far, I’m very pleased with it. *
  

NEW PRODUCER:

Check out Erwin Brothers Pictures, a new producer, available at their website or at WorshipHouse Media.

I had a great time in Indy, but as I mentioned: I overdid it. My back is now out and giving me some serious trouble. I’ve had back surgery in the past, so I’m no stranger to back pain. I believe the wearing of “the boot” on my bad foot has aggravated my back (the boot makes one leg taller than the other). So, I’m at home with my laptop, rotating heat and ice on my back. I’d appreciate your prayers.

NEW:

My new backgrounds, called “Fresh Backs Vol. 1“, are available at the Shoutable Store. Look for “Recent Additions”, then “Downloadable” or click HERE and scroll down to “Fresh Backs”.

FREE STUFF:

• A video with a point called “What’s Your Price?” – FREE from SermonSpice
• “Numb“, FREE from WorshipHouse Media, includes 1 Short film, a leaders guide and teaching outline, along with handout questions.

EXTRA:

LifeChurch.tv just updated their website. Job well done to Terry Storch and crew.

I’m exhausted. I’ve overdone it with my hurt foot, but I’m having a great time in Indy. I haven’t had any time to blog or check email while I’ve been here. I’m pretty much gone from my hotel from early morning ’til late at night. I tell you – I really enjoy this crowd of folks and have had some great conversations with some cool new friends in the ministry.

I’ve also enjoyed getting to know Keith & Krystin Getty (they wrote great modern hymns like “In Christ Alone” and “The Power of the Cross”). They are coming to my church this Fall, so I look forward to worshiping with them again. I fly home tomorrow and can’t wait to see my family. I’ll have some pics to post soon.

EXTRA:

If you have time, read my latest 3 articles: One is HERE on Monday Morning Insight, one is HERE on FaithVisuals.com and the last one is HERE in Worship Arts & Technology Magazine.

Brian Davis (a friend of mine and the producer of my podcast with Anthony Coppedge) has entered the world of blogging. His new blog is called Worship Tech Online. Brian is a very gifted and smart guy, with an expertise in audio. He’s taught me a lot. On his new blog, he recently wrote about providing talkback to your Aviom system, with step-by-step instructions. I think his blog is extremely practical and one to check often. Check it out!

A couple of months ago, Bill Seaver of MicroExplosion told me about Twitter – it was about the time he told me of MySliceOfPi. Bill is the man with Web 2.0 stuff.

Bobby Gruenewald of LifeChurch.tv recently blogged about Twitter. I’ll post what he wrote, as he has more experience using Twitter for ministry purposes…

Twitter is a free online “micro-blogging” service that allows you to post short updates (text based and limited to 140 characters) via SMS, instant messaging, the twitter.com website or several applications designed for the service. –wiki–

We used the service a few weeks ago in conjunction with a three day fast that we did as a church. Over the three days…Chris Spadlin who taught a message about fasting the previous weekend sent out “updates” about the fast via the twitter service throughout the day. People could subscribe using SMS (text messaging) on their cell phones, via instant messaging or by visiting the LifeChurch.tv website where we could pull in an RSS feed of the updates. It is currently completely free…except for the charges that a person might normally have for receiving SMS messages.

Twitter is a platform for SMS applications and it doesn’t cost the thousands of dollars it typically takes just to get started.
Here are some possible uses for your churches/ministries:

• Have users subscribe to your twitter feed via SMS and send out a weekly thought/prayer/mico devotional
• Use twitter to allow people to signup for activities/events (this definitely require some programming on your end, but will work)
• Have people subscribe to a special twitter feed to be reminded of an event or church experience/service via SMS
• Create an interactive element where people can SMS during a worship experience/service and incorporate the feed of all of the responses into the experience in real-time
• Allow people to subscribe to the feed of a mission trip leader as he/she sends out updates throughout the day of what God is doing through the trip

This is from Kent at Church Relevance:

Lesa Snider King, the chief evangelist of iStockphoto.com, recently shared an excellent tip with MinistryCOM on how to create an engaging postcard with stock photography:

You have precious few moments to grab someone’s attention, and the simplest way to do it is by using strong, effective imagery.

The next time you create an event postcard, spend less time on the text or copy, and more time on choosing an image that communicates what the event is all about. Pick something eye-catching, something powerful, and colorful. After all, if you can’t grab the person’s attention with your image, it’s unlikely they’ll read your copy!

Of course, this principle applies to any church marketing you do. Effective communication requires that you can first get the individual’s attention.

EXTRA:

Today I fly to Indianapolis to speak at the National Church Music Conference. I’ll be doing a keynote address, 4 workshops, a panel and a hands-on tech lab. Pray for me.