Sorry for not doing my regular blog. God is really dealing with me these days. Last week was a great, but an emotional and exhausting week. I’ll share more about that later. Right now I’m really trying to seek God in the midst of confusion and doubt. Please pray that God’s Spirit would win out over my flesh.
The following was supposed to post on Monday morning:
Yesterday I flew out to Orange County, CA. Hopefully, I made it to Mosaic’s 8pm service in LA. Today I have a meeting with Brian Kim of NewSong Church and then will see Leeland in concert tonight. I’m in the OC speaking at Saddleback’s Worship Conference.
I’ll also be doing a Church 2.0 Local Forum this Thursday at NewSong Church in Irvine. I’ll be returning on Friday.
Yesterday I was contacted by John Falke of OpenResources.org, a new website for churches worldwide to download and use an entire library of creative materials – absolutely FREE. Materials include sermon audio, countdowns, promotional design graphics and opening videos from a wide variety of message series and churches.
In my book, Church 2.0, I have a whole chapter titled “Open Source” that is dedicated to writing about resources like this (and others I’ve mentioned on here before). I believe this open source model is a God-thing and am happy to tell others about it.
Church Video Idea:
This Sunday, as a Call to Worship, we’re using Amena Brown’s “He is Here” (HD) video from Bluefish.tv. The cool thing that I’m glad we’re doing is going with the “no music” version (they have one totally ready to go with background music and one with her speaking and no underscore).
While the video is playing and Amena is speaking (she’s amazing) – our band will be softly playing and building underneath – we’ll immediately go right into our first song when the video ends.
I’ve mentioned this before: the beautiful thing about Bluefish.tv is that their videos are $1.99! I’d encourage you to do like we have and download every video clip they have of Amena Brown.
The other day I blogged about my summer schedule. Today I wanted to tell you about my very important sponsors that are a huge support of my ministry and for that I am ever grateful.
I am extremely honored and humbled to partner with these companies and thankful for their support of my ministry. I encourage you to check them out.
PERSONAL:
For the record: Tiger Woods is THE MAN! I don’t care if you call it a man-crush – maybe it is. I just know that if he’s playing and I turn to that channel – I can’t turn it off. I don’t care if they ever show the other golfers. I actually wish they wouldn’t – just keep the camera on Tiger, even when he’s walking to his next shot. All Tiger, all the time. I don’t need to see any other golfer on the screen. Take that, Phil M.!
Sorry for disappearing for a few days. My internet was down at my house. Yesterday was my wife’s birthday. We had a fun time eating out last night – very casually, taking our time and then going for a walk after dinner – with the kids, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Fun night.
Today I fly out early to consult with First Baptist Odessa, TX. I’ll be with them all day and fly back late tonight. Saturday will be a total family day.
EXTRA:
My church just launched a new website for our live worship CD. If you’d like to get a feel for our worship at Bent Tree, maybe find a few new songs (some Bent Tree “originals”) and download the sheet music to them – go HERE.
It is June, my daughter is out of school and it’s officially summer! Summer can be crazy, but I’ve said “no” to lots of conferences, so my travel schedule is not as crazy as it could be.
Here’s what’s going on so far:
I’m getting in after a 17 hour day, so I’ll make this brief (yes, I write my blogs the night before): We are looking at purchasing a new HD camera for our video ministry. This is not a studio camera – this will be used for in-house video projects, interviews, etc.
If you were buying a new 3-chip HD cam, what would you purchase? Right now we’re looking at a Sony camera, maybe a Panasonic. Other ideas? What’s on your wish-list? A RED camera? Let me know. I’ll be looking at these comments before buying.
EXTRA:
Several saw my Facebook and Twitter post about being in ARENA training – which Bent Tree is switching over to. I’ll blog more about that in the future.
PERSONAL:
Please forgive me if you emailed me in the past few days and haven’t heard back. I went to bed early last night because I knew I had to be at the church early this morning and am writing this at 1am. I haven’t had time to check my personal email. I will be replying soon!
Yesterday I broke 1000 friends on Facebook. As you know, I wrote the Foreward for “Facebook for Pastors“. I’m a pretty big fan of Facebook and think it has tremendous potential for networking and ministry. I’m curious as to how many of you are not on Facebook and what your reasons are. If you ARE on Facebook, but we’re not friends, yet – hit me up for an “add friend” HERE.
Yesterday was “Senior Sunday” at Bent Tree. We have 2 morning services right now and across the entire stage were 2 different groups of high school seniors for each service. Our music was led by our senior high youth band and they did a great job.
For our weekly Wednesday night rehearsal, I had invited the youth tech crew to come and hang out (they’re always welcome anyways, but are usually serving during that time). They came and hung out with our Sunday team and explored “the big room”.
One very bright young man (he’ll steal my job one day – which is a good thing) asked how he could grow in the area of technology. One of the answers I gave him was to read, read, read. I constantly read: online, magazines, books, etc.
He asked if I had any magazines that I could give him. I laughed and said, “Come to my office!” I loaded that dude up with one of every magazine I read. He had a handful. I hope they actually get read – if so, the sky is the limit for that young man.
EXTRA:
We survived the Atkinson family camping trip. We got a few bug bites, but all is well and we made it back safe and sound. My campfire ghost story – “The Marshmallow Man” was the highlight of my kids’ trip. That makes me smile. For pics and more, check out my wife’s blog HERE. Yes, my wife blogs, too, for all you moms out there.
