bcf bound

one last blog for the evening…say a quick prayer for me tomorrow and especially tomorrow night…i’ll be on the campus of uga doing a talk to our college ministry – Bulldog Christian Fellowship – tackling the wonderful issues of dating, purity, and relationships – really looking forward to it! we start at 8pm tomorrow night if you think about it and can say a quick prayer then…thanks!

wrap up for tonight

just got home after a really long day at church…3 meetings, one benevolence situation, few phone calls, 1 sermon written…man, i’m tired – time to watch american idol, unwind and kill some time before heading to bed…however,

however, as i said, just have to praise God…really felt that i was supposed to deal the subject of the baptism in the holy spirit – i’ll be honest, i wrestled with it because i wasn’t planning to go there with tonight’s talk – however, after a little more internal wrestling, prompting and a confirmation through another individual i, at the last minute, added it to the notes and “flew into motion” with it…

short praise report – really felt like i was able to clear some misconceptions and false understanding that people had tonight – one person reported being baptized in/with (what ever you want to say) and i really challenged the others that were seeking to continue to do so – i really believe we’ll have more reports before next week that others have also been baptized in the holy spirit – just wanted to praise God for his amazing love and gift of “the promise of the Father”…

transfer the passion

transfer the passion…this post by perry challenged me to really transfer the passion in everything i do- love to read his blog…if you’re not subscribed to it, you need to be today…this post will challenge you!

my thoughts…man, this hits so close to what i’ve been driving home on wednesday nights – that we have to know why and how God has wired us…that life should be lived with passion and intention – not impotence…we have to know what His dream is for our life (His vision)…that we have to operate in our passions…that we have to be “unlocked” to serve at our maximum potential and “unleashed” in serving…that the “unlocking” comes through removing everything that hinders us from God and requesting help from others…that the “unleashing” is our response to the vision God gives and our ability to release it in ministry…a.k.a. serving!

we have to transfer the passion!

daughtry rocks

this guy should’ve won it all last year – by that, of course, i’m referring to chris daughtry from american idol…

anyway, just picked up his cd on sale yesterday at target (yes, call me old school, i know i could’ve downloaded it for perhaps a little cheaper…my problem…i actually enjoy reading all the liner notes so i still buy the cd’s) – this dude rocks – really enjoying it – great cd

say a quick prayer

For anyone that reads this…

Just want to ask you to say a quick prayer for me – the next 48-60 hours are slammed!

I’ve got 3 meeting tomorrow – we’ll review our weekly service plans for this coming Sunday, then another meeting to discuss web strategy, then another to discuss small group strategy – the great thing…2 of the 3 are highly proactive and future oriented – I love that stuff! The other (worship planning) is also, but it’s a weekly meeting.

Then tomorrow I teach the last part in the series we’re doing on Wednesday nights. Thursday I teach at BCF – I love teaching at Bulldog Christian Fellowship – being around college students is a lot of fun and I really enjoy hanging out with them during these times and also communicating truth to them. Pray for Patrice and I…we’re going to team teach on Thursday night about relationships/dating/sex/all that stuff… – should be fun.

just for fun…

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

drive!

UPDATE!

First, my apologies to the great people at Northpoint - I was just informed by Jim over at churchtechmatters.com that the videos were intended for participants of the 2006 drive conference…I picked up the link from another site on which I’m pretty sure the blogger was indeed a participant…so, I’ve removed the link and made the following editorial changes below…regardless, there are other sites listed below which offer a ton of free goodies to churches (Jim also has a wiki with add’l resources available). As well, Jim also has pulled together a great list of resources that Northpoint has made available for free to churches and I still respect the heck out of those guys in the ATL!

Just found out that Northpoint is making last year’s video sessions available on-line for church leaders – man, you gotta respect the heck out of those guys (that’s north Georgia slang right there…).

One of the country’s greatest Christian leaders is making available the conference from last year which cost hundreds of dollars per person to attend – what a great heart, what a great ministry.

I love the fact that more and more of the Church is going open-source…there are many Christian leaders that are opening up their ideas and making them available for FREE! I love it! Hope we see more of it in the Body of Christ and since I’m in the pentecostal portion of it – I really hope I see it happen within the pentecostal leaders segment…they need to step up to the plate and stop the “ownership mentality” – face it, the fact of the matter is, God’s the one that’s given you the creativity and anointing – please don’t put that on the market. I’m going on notice here as saying that if we don’t see the pentecostal leaders step up and open up, they will quickly see their portion of influence take a nose-dive – something I don’t want to see happen!

Here are the videos from northpoint – check them out as you have time…

And, here are some other free “goodies” that churches can use…I’ll post some links to other sites that pertain to churches later…

1. eleven72 – Free stills and motion backgrounds
2. FaithVisuals – Free backgrounds, countdown and video clips
3. Floodgate Productions – Free worship background
4. Igniter Media Group – Free loop
5. Meatloaf Media – Free loops
6. RevoStock – Free background
7. Sermonade – 1100 free stock photos
8. SermonSpice – Free money video
9. SermonVideos.com – Free motion background
10. Student Ministry Resources – Free videos, countdowns and graphics
11. The Shoutable Store – Free video and motion background
12. The Work of the People – Free video
13. Video100 – Free animation
14. WordSearch Media – Free video clips
15. Worship Films – Free backgrounds (including one HD background) and videos
16. Worship Graphics – Free image themed sets
17. WorshipHouse Media – Free service starter video

moving?

hey, thinking about moving everything over to google since they’re destined to take over microsoft one day anyway – would love to hear from some people that use google for the following: calendar, to do, blog reading, email (sole email) – let me hear the pros and cons – in my mind it seems like the natural thing to do so that i can always have net capability to calendars, blogs, etc – love to hear the good and bad…

lessons learned from a grassroots, almost all volunteer revolution

if you don’t know what firefox is, you’ve missed out! it quickly became THE web browser for a large segment of the internet-connected world – i personally use it at home and in the office. why? because it’s a smaller program so it’s more nimble and doesn’t use as much memory – also, it does a great job of not opening yourself up to viruses (primarily because it doesn’t run active X all the time is my elementary understanding). Finally, it’s got a cool name! – think about it, internet explorer vs. firefox – which one sounds cooler? thought you’d agree – so…on to the real reason for this post…

this month’s issue of Inc. has a great article.

in essence they take a look at the mozilla management model – in other words, how in the world do they manage thousands of volunteers all over the world and keep them moving in the same direction – that is, having the best, most current version of open-source software for internet browsing available. for what its worth, i thank there may be some things we can learn from them in the church – after all, we too have a ton of volunteers and we’re trying to get them all moving in the same direction. here are their points with my thoughts in italics following…

1. it’s all about community – they say, “the best decisions are the ones that win the most buy-in from the most people” – my thoughts..i agree that community is the best context for decision making and change to take place in. if we’re in community with people, then there’s a greater propensity for us to arrive at a mutual understanding of our purpose and God’s plan – getting “buy in” is important – but not nearly as important as getting vision from God – that’s His “buy in”
2. just ask – in other words, when people believe in something, just ask them what they think – my thoughts…wow, makes me want to say, “how simple stupid” – and i wouldn’t be directing it at you – i’d be directing it at me! we know that those people that are volunteering (the largest majority at least) believe in what God has mandated, why don’t we just ask? reminds me of the book by tommy barnett – there’s a miracle in your house – have we looked in our “house” for the miracle, for the answer – God has partnered people with us – get that…”WITH us” – we need to partner with them
3. lead by following – basically, don’t exert too much control – my thoughts…boy are there a lot of control freaks in the church – in fact, this month’s Rev! magazine has a great article about it…not to say we need to be too loose, but if we trust people, then let’s trust them
4. nurture renegades – in other words, those going in an opposite direction may be doing so for a reason – firefox came into existence because a couple of renegade programmers broke with the conventional and started developing the open-source software for firefox – my thoughts…what if our greatest opposition could become our greatest supporters - it happens – see #1 above – its got to start with the realization that we’re in community!
5. think hybrid – in other words, find ways to blend the open-source community with the existing community – my thoughts…so much truth here – why does a person have to teach a sunday school class that involves: teaching, organization, administration, crafts (for children), prayer, etc – why can’t we have one person for the crafts, one for the teaching, etc – think hybrid about volunteers – you’ll open yourself and others to more possibilities if you think this way
6. think globally – for firefox there’s a world of volunteers waiting to pitch in – my thoughts couldn’t agree more – however, i think we have to begin to see globally first
7. shut up – for firefox it was about listening to people – which means you’re not talking – my thoughts – wow! again! couldn’t agree more – we need to listen to our volunteers – they know what’s going on in the trenches – we need to value their input – we need to talk less and listen more – in other words, shut up!

one year writing

just a quick post to say thanks for listening…i’ve been writing these posts for 1 year (and 1 day to be exact)...the readership is slowly growing – but ultimately that’s not my main intent…the real reason i blog is to keep a digital journal of the journey – to record what God is doing in my life, in my family, in my church and what i see Him doing in the Kingdom…read on…my goal for next year is to be much more faithful – stay tuned

oh yea, btw, during the first year I posted 51 times - not that great – that’s about once every seven days – I’m going to try to at least triple that this year – my goal is 150 posts – we’ll see how it goes…feel free to show some comment love if something that i write strikes you as important, controversial, or you just totally disagree – i’m cool with all of that as long as it’s done with respect!