Hey all, I’ve redesigned the blog and moved it to…
I redesigned this one too. Trying to figure out which design works better. Thoughts?
Filed under: Uncategorized
October 28, 2009 • 4:43 am 0
Is There Room for Twitter in Church?
We’ve integrated a live Twitter feed into our young adults service (foundryLA.org) beforehand and during meet & greet time. Live on the “Presbytron” and coordinated with the lighting design. People seem to have embraced it pretty well.
It’s becoming a great tool for folks to connect on Tuesday nights and throughout the week.
Filed under: Uncategorized
September 15, 2009 • 7:23 pm 1
Throught from #tweetCWC
It was a great weekend at this years Christian Web Conference at Biola University. First, I must admit that this was my first time attending something like this and was really encouraged to be in the presence of some really smart Jesus loving techies (not to be confused with Jesus loving trekkies which may or may not have their own gathering).
Over the course of 2 days, we heard from some great speakers (listed here). And I had the pleasure of meeting new friends and catching up with old ones- a lot of whom I now follow on Twitter.
Here are some thoughts and observations from my experiences at CWC ‘09.
Friday started with a great reminder that we need to be rooted in Christ in all that we do. That first and foremost, we need to be on the right path with the guy upstairs- because that dictates all that we do going forward. And that in all that we do, we need to be ’speaking, truthing, and loving’ as Tim Challies eloquently put it.
Another great point is that New Media is a tool. It’s not inherently good or evil. It’s a rock. It’s a hammer. It’s a guitar. You can use it to build or create something amazing, or you can use it to tear down and destroy.
And then there was the debate about traditional church vs. church online. Can Jesus be gloried in a virtual medium? Can people be discipled over the internet? And lots of other philosophical, moral, and ethical questions that folks will continue to discuss long for a long time to come.
One thing that I took away from all of this is that online interaction should lead to real life offline physical interaction. I feel (as so many others do) that you just can’t substitute face to face contact. Things may change in the future as the limits of technology increase but sermons on video, Twitter during services, prayer requests via email, Facebook/Flickr/Loopt/Friendster to share our lives (ok, maybe not Friendster) – all these things have the commonality of leading to a building of community in person.
It was great to follow the #tweetCWC hashtag on Tweetdeck as the weekend was going on. The discussion was happening online as the discussions were being lead by speakers in their sessions. I got to know a lot of these folks via their Tweets before I got to meet them in person (by the way, if any of you are around Bel Air Pres, let me know and I’ll take you out to coffee).
Lastly, I loved how we talked more about the “why” and “should we” as opposed to talking about the “how do I”. This reminds me of when I was at UCLA in the design school. The professors thought theory. That’s it. Context, interaction, flow, usability, color, imagery, etc. And it was up to us as students to teach each other the software applications. While I didn’t like it back then, I really do appreciate it now because as the medium has changed, the design theory has remained the same (anyone still remember Quark, Director, GoLive, coding by hand?).
And that’s true with new media as it relates to ministry. Who knows what technology will be like in 10 years (ok, maybe John Carley knows) but what I do know now is that Christ’s message remains the same. And like the newness of guitars and organs in the last centuries, all these social media tools that we use now will change in the years to come. So we must continue to spread the love and grace of Christ. Online and offline. In every medium of our lives.
—
p.s. I would like to engage in the “how do I use these tools more effectively” discussion too. A lot of you doing it way better than I am and I’d like to learn from it.
Filed under: Uncategorized
September 14, 2009 • 5:57 am 0
Dr. Love on Christian Dating
Presenting some hard truths in a creative impactful way.
Filed under: Uncategorized
August 30, 2009 • 10:28 am 0
What a Crazy Week
What a crazy week. Lets see if I can recap:
Sunday: Helped coordinate the 901 service at Bel Air Pres, Lunch, an afternoon at the pool, and dinner with friends in Eagle Rock. Funny how it takes 7 freeways to get home- 2 south to 5 south to 110 south to 10 west, to 405 south to 90 west to pch.
Monday: I played a little Monday Night poker with the guys. 2 tables, finished 5th.
Tuesday: Staff reductions at Bel Air Pres. 25% of the staff affected with either job loss or a cut in hours. It was a crazy day- a mix of being sad for those affected, a little frustrated by a lack of communication, and relief that I still get to work in full time ministry.
Wednesday: Worked late cause I was taking Thursday off.
Thursday: Urban Hike. 3 of us hiked 16 miles from downtown Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Pier. Yeah, it was a crazy adventure through MacArthur Park, Korea Town, Mid-Wilshire, Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills, Century City, Westwood, West LA, and Santa Monica.
Friday: Body is hurting. Stayed in and was glad to not do too much of anything.
Saturday: Cleaned house and had a surprise party here for a friend. He was truly surprised.
Filed under: Uncategorized
April 3, 2009 • 6:42 am 1
Acholi Beads x20
James has been working with these women in Uganda for a while now. Check out the Acholi Beads blog: acholibeads.com/blog
Research among displaced Acholi people has shown that a woman who makes a good living spreads that benefit to about 20 people around her – she feeds her children and sends them to school; she cares for her nieces, nephews and grandchildren; she helps her brothers, sisters and parents meet their financial needs. So each time we partner with a new woman, we know 20 lives are improved.
Filed under: Uncategorized
March 9, 2009 • 5:50 pm 1
Big Bear & Big Dent
Had a great time this weekend in Big Bear with friends. It was good to get away from Los Angeles.
And then got home to find someone had backed up into my car that parked on the street in front of the house…
I’m glad he left a note and will be taking care of the repairs. There are still good people in LA.
Filed under: Uncategorized
January 14, 2009 • 1:20 am 0
It’s All Relative
A little over two years ago, I purchased a new car. My monthly payment? $530. Insurance added another $140 a month. Wow, that was $670 out of my bank accont without even drving a mile. Or just a little over $8000 a year.
To some that may not seem like it’s a lot, but now that I’m working in full time ministry it seems like a little bit of a waste. But the other side of me doesn’t listen too well to practicality. I love driving, the control of a manual transmission, taking curves faster than I should, and roadtrips. Oh, the roadtrips.
So with that, I recently decided to get rid of six-seventy-a-month. In it’s place, I purchased a 16 year old Nissan 300zx convertible. It ran strong, was fun to drive, the previous owner took great care of it, and most importantly, it was cheap. I spent a little to fix her up to daily driver status and it still came in at under one year of payments.
So what’s the lesson here? Maybe it’s that fun does not have to be expensive. And the extra Benjamins in my pocket every month? It can go a long way in other areas…
Filed under: Uncategorized
January 11, 2009 • 5:44 pm 0
Save Money in ‘09
Opened up Yahoo this morning and found this great article by Brett Arend on getting high returns on your investment on things we can do that don’t involve the stock market.
Small Investments With Major Returns
With the economy heading south, there’s probably no better time to start thinking about these things:
* Buy a bread maker. You can buy one for $55. If it saves you just $4 a week on store-bought bread, that’s $208 a year. A 280% return.
* Get a credit card with a great sign-up bonus. Like the AirTran Visa card. Cost: The $40 annual fee. After your first purchase you get enough reward miles for a free flight, saving maybe $250. Then cancel the card. Return: 525%.
* Take out a local library card. Cost: Nothing. If it saves you $10 a month on books, that’s $120 a year. Return: Infinite. Note: Some libraries now let you borrow electronic books over the Internet as well.
* Replace your premium cable package with a Netflix subscription and a $100 set-top box. You can download movies and TV programs as well getting DVDs through the mail. Cost: $100 for the cheapest set-top box, plus $17 a month for a three-movie subscription. If it replaces a $50-a-month cable package, that’s a 98% return on investment.
* Order a packet of seeds and plant them in a window box or garden. Growing your own herbs, spices, and even vegetables – depending on the amount of space you have – is a great investment. If you spent just $10 on seeds and saved a mere $50 in the year, that’s a 400% ROI.
* Switch to a prepaid cellphone. Cost: $20 for the phone, and maybe $100 a year for minutes. Move the rest of your talk-time to free Internet calls, and stop hemorrhaging $60 a month on a cellular plan. ROI: 500%
* Start making your own coffee to take to work each morning. Cost: $20 for a Thermos, $10 for a filter and papers, and $60 a year for ground coffee. Then skip the $4 a day drive-thru. If that saves you $1,000 a year, the return is more than 1,000 %.
Not sure if I’m ready to give up my iPhone, but getting a breadmaker? Great idea. Seeds, coffee make? Also great ideas.
Here are a few of my own (I’ll do it in the same format):
* Skip two nights a month at the bar/pub/club and have friends over instead for a little byob get together. Cost: $5 for 2 bottles of Charles Shaw from Trader Joes and you don’t have to drive. Each time, that will save you at least $35 in drinks, $15 in parking; or over $1000 a year. The return is more than 1,000 %.
* Make that nice meal at home once a month for you and your lady. Cost: $30 for a nice tableware set for 2. $15 spent on itunes for a romatic playlist. $15 on a bottle of wine. And $20 for 2 portions of Filet Mignon, roast potatoes, and steamed asparagus (or something equivalent each month). Eating out at a nice place for 2 will easily set you back $100 each time. That’s a savings of $900 a year and a 400% return on your investment.
Ok, I just saved you all $1900. I’ll think of more later.
Filed under: Uncategorized
