Greg Atkinson

The holidays are the biggest season for volunteering. In the spirit of the Christmas season, I wanted to see if you might consider checking out ChristianVolunteering.org.

ChristianVolunteering.org is a FREE directory with over 2,000 volunteer opportunities in ministries serving the “poor.” The site’s partners include the Salvation Army, GospelCom (BibleGateway.com), World Vision, the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions and over 1,000 ministries serving under-resourced communities. In addition to volunteer opportunities for individuals, you can also search the site for opportunities that might be appropriate for church small groups and for short-term missions trips. If you just type your postal code, you can get a listing of the volunteer opportunities in your region.

Yesterday I took a day off. I had worked many hours the week before and just needed a day to chill. Plus we (as you can relate) have a busy season coming up, so I’ve got to take the time when I can. I’m also planning on taking off the week between Christmas and New Years. What about you? Do you have a day or two that you can take off before your crazy week?

Today, we have a retreat for all pastors and directors at my church. I’m looking forward to the time together.

I’d like to tell you a little more about one of the regular readers and comment contributors on this blog – his name is Richard Gaspard and he’s the Media Director of Crossroads Church and Director of Production of Crossroads Creative. Richard is a talented, visionary leader and has developed a video ministry that is truly on another level. (Remember my article: “The Next Level“?) Well, Richard and Crossroads have taken that step to the next level and started offering their media created in-house to other churches.

If you’re looking for media resources created by another church that can relate to your world, you’ll probably find something you can use at Crossroads Creative. Their videos are available for download or you can order the DVD volumes. They have creatively divided their resources into different series. Their series are called:

• On Ramps (video sermon series intros)
• Scenic Routes (video parables)
• Fast Lanes (video skits)
• Video (video clip-art or generic video announcements that you can customize for your church)

* PLEASE NOTE: For you, the readers of my blog, you can get 30% off your order through January 31st by using the promo code: CVIDEAS.

Personally, I’m proud of Richard and what he’s done at Crossroads and hope to see our video ministry expand in the future so we can offer “Bent Tree Media”. Well done Crossroads Church!

It’s rare that I post over the weekend. Just felt like blogging, I guess. Yesterday (Friday) was a day of running errands. I took my son with me, so it was some good father-son time.

Friday night I ended up running media (or VJ-ing) for a Michael English concert at Fellowship Dallas, where my friend Brian Davis serves as the Technical Director. Thanks to Brian for giving me the freedom to VJ and have some fun. I was running EasyWorship and doing some cool eye-candy on the screens while Michael English was singing. It was special for me, as I hadn’t seen him live in 12 years. It’s great to see that God did a big work in his heart and is still using him.

Tonight I get to take my oldest daughter on a date. We’re going to see the “Nutcracker”. I’m taking her to dinner before the ballet and she picked Denny’s. I don’t know why, but that’s where she wants to go, so Denny’s it is!

* On another note, I can’t believe it’s December!