Greg Atkinson

Yesterday I had a web conference meeting get postponed until today and decided to use my afternoon free time to take my three kids to see Toy Story 3 (our local movie theater has movies for $5 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays!).

Obviously, I don’t want to spoil it for those of you that haven’t seen it, yet, but I think we all know Andy is getting older. In this movie he’s going off to college – surely he can’t play with his toys forever and thus the movie tells the rest.

I don’t know if it was the fact that I was surrounded by my precious children while I was watching the movie and deeply resonating with the theme of kids growing up and not interested in the stuff they used to be interested in, but I was moved – very moved. I found myself crying and wanting to stop time.

Here’s a few pictures of how time flies:

Today’s post is an example of what I refer to as life-streaming and have talked about all around the country. If you’re reading this via email or RSS, please click on the link and look at the above pictures on my blog.

Well, friends, it’s been 9 months since I made my plea “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” (a blog you must read and comment on if you haven’t already). 73 comments later (as of this writing), I’m still asking the question. The good news is I heard from some very nice gay Christians that answered “Yes – we can get along.” The bad news is there were some that felt I still needed to change my beliefs in order to show I was “loving” and thus allow us to get along.

What I experienced from some of the angrier, louder, more defensive gay Christians was intolerance – ironically, the very thing they wanted from me was tolerance – they were just intolerant of my beliefs. Simply put, some of you want me to be tolerant of you, but you are not tolerant of me. Let’s define tolerance:

tol·er·ance  [tol-er-uhns]

1. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry.

I have friends that are Muslim – they don’t expect me to give up my Christian beliefs in order for us to “get along” and I don’t expect them to change their beliefs (though we strongly disagree) – that’s tolerance. Sometimes you need to agree to disagree.

To anyone reading this that may be homosexual: Please know that I love you, respect you, would be honored to be your friend and I DON’T have it all together. Yes, I struggle with  my own issues. We all have our issues and sins. Where we disagree is I consider the homosexual lifestyle (being sexually active and in a relationship with someone of the same sex) to be sinful. You might believe that it’s perfectly normal, not wrong or sinful and that’s okay. We can agree to disagree.

The truth about this discussion is that I think it’s vitally needed, relevant and crucial to Christians today. I also think pastors and Church leaders need to be educated, informed and made aware of these real issues and how to handle them. All people need to know that they are welcome in our churches and that the Church is the one place they can turn to when they struggle, are tempted, scared, confused – you name it – you can turn to Christ and His Church.

Through this blog, I’ve had the pleasure of making a new friend: Justin Lee, founder of the Gay Christian Network. Not only have we chatted on the blog and via email and text, but on the phone as well. He’s a great guy and I consider him a friend. I’ve asked him to do some guest blogs on here to educate, inform and help with awareness of this crucial issue for the Church and hear his heart and perspective. He’s conservative theologically and showed me tolerance – which means the world to me. He’s a great example of being tolerant of another’s beliefs and his answer to my question was “Yes, we can get along.”

I still ask the same question to the rest of you – now 9 months later – in light of this issue of tolerance: Can we get along?

I’ve mentioned to several worship leader friends that my favorite worship song right now is “How He Loves”. I got introduced to it via Kim Walker of Jesus Culture and love her version of the song. As a guy, I also love what David Crowder did with it and his version. Yesterday, I got introduced to John Mark McMillan’s version of the song. Check out this video of him leading it live (via Relevant):

This blog posts serves two purposes: First, for those of you who are new to my blog or missed the most commented on blog posts, I want you to have a chance to read and respond (by commenting on these popular posts). Second, I’m trying to get the Popular Posts feature you see at the top of my blog to work correctly.

Apparently, it only tracks comments since I installed the new blog theme. So even though there are blog posts with 40, 50 and 70 comments, the most recent post which got commented on only 4 times is at the top. Make sense?

I need new comments from regulars (using a different email address – it won’t work if you’ve commented before) OR new comments from new people that have never commented on my blog before. Please help me let the Popular Posts section truly reflect the most popular posts from my blog.

Here are the posts that have the most comments and need new comments on them so they can appear in the top Popular Posts section:

• Flat-screen Pastor
• Is Your Preaching Impotent?
• Impotent: Steven Anderson
• Impotent: Steven Anderson 2
• Impotent: Mike Murdock
• Impotent: Conclusion
• Can’t We All Just Get Along?

All I need each of you to do is make a new comment on each link. It can be “testing comment” or anything you want to say to respond to the post. Just make sure you’re either a first-time commenter or you use a new email address.

Church on the Move did this funny video for Father’s Day. I thought it was worth you checking out. Did you do anything special for Father’s Day at your church?

Dad Life from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

Catalyst 2010 | The Tension is Good from Catalyst on Vimeo.

You won’t want to miss the Catalyst Conference this year, happening October 6-8, 2010 in Atlanta, where 13,000 young leaders will converge for the leadership experience of the year, including high-octane speakers, powerful worship, innovative programming, and an experience unlike any other. I’ll be there and I hope to see you there, too.

Hear from leadership authorities including Andy Stanley, Seth Godin, TD Jakes, Craig Groeschel, Francis Chan, Beth Moore, Perry Noble, and Christine Caine, along with several innovative thinkers and practitioners like best-selling author Daniel Pink, charity: water founder Scott Harrison, Gabe Lyons, First Response Team founder Tad Agoglia, and Rani Hong, winner of the United Nations Human Rights Award.

Plus, Catalyst Labs will feature innovative thought leaders like Michael Hyatt, Pete Wilson, Mark Batterson, Anne Jackson, John Ortberg, Mike Foster, Jud Wilhite, Reggie Joiner, Jamie Tworkowski, Alan Hirsch, Gayle Haggard, Chris Hodges, Jon Acuff, Tim Elmore, Charles Lee, Chris Seay, Chris and Phileena Heuertz, and others.

Best Rates on Catalyst tickets end this Thursday, June 24th, so register now. Call 888.334.6569 to speak to a Catalyst Concierge, or register online at www.catalystconference.com. You can use Rate Code FOB for an additional discount off your ticket price. Catalyst will sell out, so make sure and register early!

When is a good time to bring in someone like myself for a secret shopper visit? Anytime is really good, but summer has some key advantages. If you bring me in July or August, you have a chance to get solid feedback and make strategic changes before you crank things up in the Fall.

Most churches do some big Fall campaign or push and having me in this summer to help you do what you do better could be a huge win for you and your church. See what Ray Johnston, pastor of Bayside Church in Sacramento, CA had to say about my visit with them last month (Bayside is a church of 12,000 where Lincoln Brewster leads worship):

“Greg Atkinson is smart, detailed, thorough and saw things that we would never notice.  His feedback was invaluable and we are making several strategic changes as a result of his visit.  We will use him again.  I encourage to you do the same.  In a word – he’s the best.” – Ray Johnston, Senior Pastor, Bayside Church, Sacramento, CA

I’m confident that I will notice things you would never notice and positive that I can help YOUR church make several strategic changes. Like Ray, I want YOU to say, “We will use him again.” So, I encourage you to make the investment and bring me in to help your church make guests feel loved and welcomed.

To get more details, endorsements and prices (based on size of church), go HERE.

For most, we assumed that Twitter was going to remain ad-free, build a huge following and user-base and then sell it to another company (like Google) to let them figure out a way to make money off of it – probably by junking it up with ads all over the place.

Today I logged into Twitter and notice the Trending Topics on the right had Toy Story 3 with a “Promoted” tag next to it. Twitter has found a classy way to make money and not be an eye sore. The question is how many companies will it allow to promote on their Trending Topics and will the column become useless and meaningless due to the amount of “Promoted” companies or topics. Time will tell. Here’s a closer look:

More info on this Promoted Tweets HERE. Personally, I think Twitter just changed the game when it comes to advertising. Now, “Promoted Tweets” are personal and relevant and not random. This subtle shift and mindset could seriously be a game-changer for how companies approach promotions.

This is from the Twitter website:

Since all Promoted Tweets are organic Tweets, there is not a single “ad” in our Promoted Tweets platform that isn’t already an organic part of Twitter. This is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising. Promoted Tweets will also be timely. Like any other Tweet, the connection between you and a Promoted Tweet in real-time provides a powerful means of delivering information relevant to you at the moment.

There is one big difference between a Promoted Tweet and a regular Tweet. Promoted Tweets must meet a higher bar—they must resonate with users. That means if users don’t interact with a Promoted Tweet to allow us to know that the Promoted Tweet is resonating with them, such as replying to it, favoriting it, or Retweeting it, the Promoted Tweet will disappear.

*** What do you think about it? Did Twitter just open up a whole new can of worms? Where do you think Twitter is headed? Where do you advertising and PR is headed?

Maybe you heard all the buzz about the new iPhone 4 last week and even saw Steve Jobs’ presentation of it. What you may not have heard is about how Steve Jobs is fighting to keep porn off the iPhone and iPad.

Is Steve Jobs taking heat for this? Absolutely. Could he make a ton of money by offering porn on his products’ app stores? Yes. But sometimes you have to take a stand. So-called “apps,” or programs, are wildly popular and can be downloaded through Apple’s iTunes store. There’s an application for nearly everything — including news, sports, maps and restaurants — but Jobs says the store won’t offer porn. Approximately 5,000 sexually explicit applications were removed from the store early this year after the Parents Television Council, the conservative group, urged citizens to complain to Apple. The PTC noted that children often browse the store, looking for games.

Jobs took a stance against porn when the iPhone was released in 2007 and has reiterated that stance at least three times during last month while also taking a dig at a competitor, Google’s Android phone.

“The Apple CEO can expect further criticism from fans of pornography; but the PTC applauds Steve Jobs for his bold and courageous stance in favor of promoting decency and protecting children,” the Parents Television Council said.

Asked during an April interview with reporters whether Apple would keep in place its strong restrictions on making applications for the iPhone, Jobs said, “You know, there’s a porn store for Android. You can download nothing but porn. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go.”

He wrote e-mailer Matthew Browing in April, “We do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy Android.”

Then, in May, Jobs defended Apple’s new iPad — which also uses applications — from charges that the product does not give consumers enough freedom. The e-mailer, Ryan Tate, had written Jobs saying that “revolutions are about freedom,” implying that iPad’s commercials touting a revolution were off base.

Jobs retorted, “Yep, freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom.” Jobs later wrote during the exchange, “You might care more about porn when you have kids …”

So, what say you? Are you in favor of Jobs and Apple taking a stand against porn on their products and trying to protect our kids or do you think he crossed the line?

* Note – some quotes were taken from an article published by Baptist Press

This is a part of the message preached this past week by pastor Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Seattle. It’s worth watching.