...our instrument is how we present the church's message to those around us. In either case, we shouldn't cheap out or do it halfway in order to save a few bucks. The gesture only works if it's total and complete. A half-designed brochure is a failure.Go read the rest of this article over at Church Marketing Sucks. I know it's a bit old, but definitely a good one.
Just the other day, a worker came over from Hydro Ottawa to install their new Smart Meter into our home, and every home in the city.
Their plan, is to charge people more for electricity used during 'peak hours'. Peak hours, being anytime between 7am to 11am, and 5pm to 8pm during most of the year.
As I've discussed before, the Ontario Hydro companies continuously fail to meet the standard sales technique of supply and demand. Normally, when consumers demand more, the suppliers will produce more, and therefore increasing their business. Hydro Ottawa, however, is extortion of an essential service.
And naturally, there will always be an increase in demand for electricity. Think about it, not only is their an increase in computers and electronic gadgets, but the population of Canada is rising by 250,000 immigrants a year, and an additional 100,000 or so refugees. Who, of course, require electricity as well.
So instead of extorting prices to try and drive down consumption, they should merely build more plants to produce the power required. Simple supply and demand.
Mark your calendars for June 2nd!
Marriage preparations are falling a little behind: we still need to find a church to get married in. Our home church, Sequoia, is pretty transient, and meets in a highschool gym. So it's not really an option for a Saturday wedding. So if you know of any good venues in Ottawa, let me know!
But really, the most important aspect of getting ready for marriage, is going extremely well. Premarital counseling. I'd advise any couples to go through it once they're engaged. It will help you build that foundation that will hold your marriage together for the years to come.
With the help of our pastor, Rick Lamothe, we're studying Preparing for Marriage: God's Way.
Shannon and I have had our first session, and are already off to a great start. The book covers everything from interests, faith, communication, finances, to love languages, relationships and commitment.
Pastors, pick up a copy of the book, and go through it with every couple who comes to you wanting to be married.
Shannon and I are engaged to be married!
Some of you are thinking "it's about time". But rather, it was only a matter of time.
I proposed last Monday, and since then have been running around sharing the exciting news with our families.
How I proposed:We're both extremely excited and happy with the start of this new stage in life. I'm really looking forward to marrying and spending the rest of my life with such a wonderful and beautiful sweetheart as Shannon.
The ring came in on Monday morning, so I hurriedly got ready and headed out of the house to prepare everything. First I had to swing by Courtney's work (Shannon's roommate) to pick up her house keys.
Racing down to the St-Laurent mall, I got the ring and some other items, and went over to her house. With about 1.5 hours before Shannon got off of work, I cleaned up a bit around the house, and looked after her puppy so she wouldn't have to worry about it when she got home.
When Shannon came home, she was surprised to find me standing there, with a dozen roses in hand. Getting down on one knee, I proposed then and there. And yes, we were both crying (even Shannon).
Over the next hour or two, we prayed for our engagement, and I gave her a long foot-massage with peppermint foot-massage oil.
Next, off to a delicious steak dinner at Montana's.
Then to see Orpheus Theater's Beauty and the Beast.
And ended the evening with a long chat at Tim Hortons over coffee.
It was a perfect romantic evening.
Please keep us in your prayers as we embark on this marvelous journey of marriage!
With Podcasts readily available from nearly every major church, we now have access to the most current teachings from the greatest teachers out there.
But even with podcasts, books, CDs, and online community groups... is it really a replacement for church?
Boundless.org covers this exact issue.
Because, even with ready access to all this material, it's really only a supplement. And while I'd suggest you take part in all those things, it's not a replacement for getting involved with a church. There, you have something far more precious: a family... that look after you, and get involved in your life.
And while I do listen to great sermon podcasts, I would never give up a church family like at Sequoia.
Many of you web developers/designers are probably familiar with Includes. It's a process of literally including one file into another on your website.
For example, you could use the process to include a menu into your page. That way, you can have the same menu across many pages... and if you want to change the menu, you will only have to fix it once.
I know, this is pretty basic stuff. But bear with me for a moment here. So, Includes generally require some sort of server scripting... whether it be PHP, ASP, or similar, to perform the operation without the user knowing this is happening.
But what if you're running off of an older server, that doesn't have any of these functions? I recently ran into that problem with a contract I'm working on.
That's where those wonderful people at Dynamic Drive come in. They run a great site with all sorts of useful web scripts. Many of which you can implement with some simple cut-and-paste.
And now we bring AJAX into the picture. Or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. And specifically, DD's technique that requires no server-scripting whatsoever.
Last night was The Gathering, held at Ottawa's largest venue (and hockey arena). It was a good time of worship and prayer that helped tie together many of the churches in the area... from all denominations.
It was a brilliant idea, and pulled together a large team of volunteers to bring the night together.
Unfortunately, while it was good, it wasn't great. And probably for a few different reasons.
Does anybody still listen to FM radio anymore?
Supposedly, they still do. Just not for the same reasons.
With the recent advances and popularity in music distribution, people are no longer tuning in to their local radio stations. Even while driving, they plug in their iPods and mp3 players, or turn on to a XM or Sirius satellite radio. Through those mediums, they can listen to exactly what they want to, when they want to... and lots of it.
The future of radio? Personality.
While you're working, or on the drive home, you tune in because of radio personalities. Radio DJ's who are fun, real, and who lace their shows with stimulating banter. They comment on local musicians and events, their latest favorite song, and their real-life situations. But best of all, you can see them and meet them at local events.
Think of it as a podcast with syndicated music.
It's entertaining stuff. So be sure to support your local radio stations: like CHRI 99.1FM here in Ottawa, Canada.
Here's some excellently designed church websites that I've came across over the last little while. All feature brilliant designs, intuitive communication and interactivity, and good content. Here they are, in no particular order.
Take a look:
DV Guru just posted a great article on why you shouldn't go to film school. And really, this probably applies to just about any arts-related program out there.
There's the first 4. Now go read all 10 at DV Guru.
- Your favorite filmmaker didn't go to film school.
- Digital Video.
- Film school is expensive.
- The Internet.
My digital camera has finally had it. In fact, it never really did have it... and has always been close to joining that big heap of buggy digital gadgetry.
The Canon Powershot A70 has given me problems right from the start. While its stats were pretty decent when I bought it, it gave me a long and troubling history:
Since purchasing it from BestBuy in 2003, the camera had to be replaced twice, and repaired at least two times (that I have receipts for)... and finally broke again just yesterday... not two weeks after the service plan ended (but two weeks before it was supposed to end, according to what the manager promised me when he convinced me to buy the plan).
I've found that BestBuy's service plan, while persistent, was overpriced and of poor quality. Every time, the Canon was brought in because of purple lines across the photos... and 6 months after they 'fixed' it, the lines would appear again.
So it looks like I'm now without a camera... at least until I can afford a new one... so much for updating my Flickr account.
We, (the multimedia-impassioned-Christians), need to write more books.
There. I've said it!
Walk into any Christian book store, and I challenge you to find a single useful and relevant book written for our ministry. I poured through the latest LifeWay resources catalog, and couldn't find a single one there either.
Is it that people in our field are too busy? Too occupied with the countless hours required to pursue excellence in their ministry for Jesus?
Well, there's plenty of online resources. We love the internet, and it works for us. Just take a look at the links on my sidebar over there -->
Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't it be nice to have something in print? Readily available for newcomers entering the field? I would love to see this happen. Even if it's just a "most popular" anthology from the Church Marketing Lab. A collaboration would be ok too. I'd even be willing to help with that.
So sharpen your pencils. Open up your Word and OpenOffice documents. Fire up your Quark and inDesign. It's time to get writing!
I took Shannon to see Starfield in concert last night. Fantastic rock/emo-ish Canadian Christian band. The concert was a great blend between their hit songs, and well-known worship songs.
The concert was sold out! They actually set today as a second concert, which is also almost sold out. So you better hurry and get your tickets.
I completely forgot my camera, so if you want to take a look, you'll have to search Flickr.
Their setup was pretty simple, and still awesome. Besides the usual lights and stage setup, they were ringed by three huge screens with projectors behind them. They projected full 3-screen-spanning videos that perfectly synched with the music. A combination of motion graphics, and very artistically presented song lyrics. All run off of a Mac laptop controlled by their bass guitarist.
Since the band controlled most of their own presentation, they had just two other guys. One to control a small lightboard, and another for the soundboard and small rack of equipment... It's amazing how affordable quality productions are becoming.
Well, we had a great time at the concert, and thoroughly enjoy their music. So check them out.
Yesterday morning, at setup before Sequoia's church service, we encountered a very loud and annoying cricket hiding in the back of the gym where the services are held. We felt that it would have been rather inappropriate to have a cricket chirping during Pastor Rick's sermon, and I planned to remedy the situation.
So, I proceeded to hunt down and enthusiastically chase the insect around the back of the room. After a few moments, I succeeded in my quest of annihilating the creature. Returning triumphantly from squishing the bug, I was heralded by calls of Sir Will, Cricketsbane.
I was down to the night-before rush to get the material ready in time. Last-minute changes and ideas left me with having to almost completely re-edit the short animation demo that was needed for a meeting the next morning. There was no way I could finish editing, and get enough sleep to keep me awake and alert throughout the meeting. And so I prayed that God would help me.
Nearly falling asleep, I cut out interesting video samples from various animated series, and slapped them down onto the timeline. Then I grabbed two songs from different soundtracks, and lined them up beginning to end and overlapped them so they just fit the length of the video.
And you know what? God edited my video. I couldn't have done a better job even if I tried. It did not require any tweaks or changes. It was finished. And everything fit perfectly too: the pacing flowed well, the music was seamless, the video was edited to the music, and it even felt like the music was tailored to the context and actions which transpired within each scene.
It was amazing... and very humbling.
That was quite the weekend. We were in Ancaster for a business convention, and stayed behind until about midnight to help pack things up. By the time we went out to the car, it was just past midnight. Turned the key, and nothing happened! The family van has stalled! We called a few friends, and a couple of them even drove back to help us out... we tried boosting the battery, and every other trick we could think of.
So we ended up having to stay in a hotel in Hamilton overnight, after driving for another hour to find a free hotel... since all the ones in the area were booked solid with the Canadian Open golf tournament.
Woke up, and took a taxi out to the car. We sat in there praying that God would look after us... turned the key... and it started!
We then proceeded with rushing home while the engine held out, and arrived back in Ottawa around 4ish pm.
There's quite an interesting selection of color (colour for you Canadians) pickers on the net out there, so I thought I'd list a few of my favorites.
Use these helpful tools to pick color schemes for your print, video, and web material. A good color scheme does wonders to attract viewers, and lead their eyes to your message.It's been a pretty crazy week... starting with a very long, and very lavish Chinese wedding last Saturday. Shannon and I enjoyed the 10-course meal they served, and then took off at 7am the next morning to go pick up her baby puppy just past Toronto.
We got the dog, and embarked on the adventure of taking him home. And what an adventure it was! The trip took far too long, with frequent stops at rest stations to let the puppy relieve himself (and even then, he messed his cage).
But when we got back to Ottawa, Shannon became sick! I went over there on Monday to look after her and her puppy.
She went to work yesterday, but the sickness came back in the evening, and continued throughout today, keeping her at home.
I hope she's feeling better tomorrow! Being sick really sucks. At least she has me to take care of her ;)
I've finally gotten around to getting an account at Flickr. After all, it's the biggest and most successful photo-sharing community around.
It's fast, it's easy, and it has all sorts of tools... like being able to upload directly from your computer or cellphone... or putting a script on your website to display your Flickr photos.
My only complaint, is that they limit free accounts to only 3 photo albums! My photo organizer on my computer has dozens of albums, so how am I supposed to narrow that down to 3? I've more or less decided on Things I See, Things I Love, and Things I Make.
Luckily, Flickr's pro account is only $25 a year, and upgrades this to allow many more features.
Believers should take great care when navigating the blogosphere, avoiding such pitfalls as carelessness, gossip and dissension. Christian bloggers should adopt a responsible view of blogging that incorporates basic disciplines.Read the rest of Blog Responsibly at Boundless.org.When undertaken responsibly, blogging can be a tremendous ministry. And the beauty of blogging is that anyone can do it.
- Maturity
- Self-Control
- Accountability
- Humility
Here's an interesting photography project... put multiples of yourself into the same photo! Freak out your friends and family, and have a little fun at the same time.
What you need:
Well it looks like my efforts to categorize my blogging has been rendered useless... but for a good reason:
Blogger is back in Beta.
Or rather, the new version is. And in a few days or weeks, we'll have plenty of new features to play around with.
Here are the more exciting features that are coming out in the new version:
- My template in Dreamweaver -Thanks to the podcast from over at ChurhTechTalk, I heard about a fantastic new piece of software called Ministry Centered Planning Center.
I'd suggest any church to check it out. It's totally free, and can organize every aspect of your church. Service outlines and notes, song databases, volunteer ministry rosters, calenders, files, photos, everything. It can keep your church up-to-date and on top of things.
Did I mention it was free? There's no install involved either, so it runs entirely through your web browser.
So, I'm in Chatham right now, helping my gal pack up the rest of her stuff, load it into a truck, and move it on down to Ottawa! She's already found herself a great job, a great apartment, and a great roommate... she's all set.
It will be really great having her live so close too. I'll no longer have to travel for 9 hours just to see my sweetheart! It's definitely a huge step in our relationship, and it allows us to get to know each other on a more regular and realistic level. I'm looking forward to building our relationship even further.
Christian films have slowly and surely being catching up with the industry. Christian music has been widely recognized for a while now, and cinema is slowly on it's way.
The Second Chance, starring Michael W. Smith, is about a pastor who is estranged by the cold-shoulder of his fathers church, and returns to the church of his youth... right in the middle of the projects. He has to deal with homeless, prostitutes, and innercity street gangs, in a way that helps their daily needs, and shows them the light of Christ.
The film is fairly well directed, very well scripted, and has pretty decent acting. Good cinematography, and a true and heart-wrenching message.
Two cool things about this film...
First, a lot of the street people and some of the minor actors are actual homeless people or aspiring actors and actresses from the projects.
Second, the large church where some of the scenes were filmed, is none other than Brentwood Baptist! As some of you may know, they graciously hosted 8 of us when we drove 20-something hours to attend the Passion 05 conference. It was pretty weird seeing Brentwood play the role of a fictional church in the movie.
Ahhh, batch processing... the wonders of making your computer do the boring repetitive work, so you don't have to!
Right now, I have a video for church batch rendering into DV, DVD mpeg, DivX, and Quicktime.
Ohhh, but it applies to so much more. I can record what's called an Action in my audio editing software, and set it to do as many functions as I want, to as many files as I want. Like normalize, filter, and save them all to mp3.
Or in Photoshop, I can record all sorts of crazy things to make my job a lot easier. For example, you can tell it to Open a picture, Desaturate, Save, and Close. Batch, wait a moment, and it's done. It just turned all of your photos black and white without you having to do the work. (How to)
Just wind it up, and off it goes!
So there's been some talk about how media, and in this case, Christian TV programming, isn't actually "Christian" unless it directly presents the gospel. And so here's my response:
The only problem is that people don't watch blatantly Christian shows. Studies show that television audiences today only take about 3-5 seconds to decide whether they're going to watch your show or not. And if you've ever had a TV remote and surfed through the channels, you'll know what I'm talking about.
The same thing applies to missions work. If all you're doing is shoving the gospel in peoples faces or inviting them to church, they just won't come... and we've all seen proof of that right in our own churches. You need to invite them to a BBQ or some other event where you'll have the chance to sit them down and show them how much Jesus cares.
It's about planting seeds, and opening peoples hearts to be receptive to the Gospel. Accepting salvation is a process, and rarely ever happens the first time you hear about it. And there's many ways to present the gospel too.
Here's an example from "Finding Common Ground: How to Communicate with Those Outside the Christian Community... While We Still Can": two people go to a Missions Committee at their local church looking for financial support. One wants to go into the mission field, and the other wants to attend film school. Guess which one gets the money? Even though the film school student has a far greater potential of reaching more people with the gospel through media, it's the missionary who gets the funding.
It's all about the message. And because of that, I urge you to try new and creative ways to present it in ways that people can understand and relate to. We're not trying to impress anyone by striving for excellence... we're trying to do the best we can, for the glory of God, to change as many peoples lives as we can.
Here's a link to an online version of the article from the last post.
Here's an excerpt from a great article my dad cut out for me about production and creativity.
We're losing the culture war because our competitors are telling better stories than we are. Let's face it, we work in the industry, yet how many of us race home from work so we can enjoy our favorite Christian TV or radio program? We're being out-thought by the secular world and it shows in the creative aspects of the programs we produce.
I'm sick to death of people pitching me programs with the line "Phil, what we need is a Christian version of Oprah," or "Have you seen Jay Leno? Why can't we do a Christian version of that?"
I'll tell you why I hate it: because we ought to be doing so much better. We worship the ultimate Creator of the universe, and yet our creativity stinks. My dream is to walk down the corridors at a major Hollywood studio and overhear a conversation from their executives saying, "You know, what we need is a secular version of this really great program I saw on a Christian network last night."
"Fostering a More Creative, Visionary Environment" by Phil Cooke. NRB Magazine.
Wow that was quite a busy week. I was rushing to master the TV series, and get my proposals done for a contract I'm working on. But through all that, I managed to spend a whole bunch of time with Shannon, who was in town visiting.
It was a very productive week for her too! She secured a new job, and a second one, and an apartment, and a roommate.
Not to mention we had a fantastic weekend together. Full of romance, excitement, praising God, and spending time with friends and family. We even took off to Niagara Falls with the family.
It's going to be great having her living here in Ottawa! She's a wonderful sweetheart, with a great passion for Jesus, and I love every moment I spend with her.
Less than a day from now, my sweetheart, Shannon, is coming to town!
She's here on vacation for over a week. Not only that, but she'll be attending an interview, and looking for an apartment here in town. Please pray that these details will work out. With God's help, they always will.
God has really blessed our relationship so much. I'm looking forward to spending time with her. Getting to know her better, and experiencing life together.
Of course, sometimes we have our challenges; we are different people. But we share our values, faith, and love... and those have always helped us to grow stronger in our relationship.
Those of you who have known me for any length of time, know that I'm serious about leading a God-glorifying relationship with Shannon. Lately I've been reading an interesting book on the matter: "Boundaries in Dating".
hmm, I could write a whole blog on dating and relationships *lol* complete with numerous book recommendations.
The CCSB convention is here in town this week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. But with work and other things keeping me home, I am not able to get out to the conference itself.
Luckily, the entire thing is being webcasted. So I can go onto their webpage, and watch it live, in the comfort of my own home.
Awesome.
Oh, and Henry Blackaby, and his son Richard, are the main speakers for the conference. They run an exciting ministry that reaches some of the top leaders around the world.
Anyways, I'm going back to watching Bob Shelton talk about enabling ministries through e-quip.net
Wow, God is aware of your needs, and if you have faith in Him, He will never fail to provide. Matthew 6:25-34.
For years, Shannon has had to move around because of school... and each and every time, she's trusted God to help her find an apartment, or a new church, or a job... and God has always provided.
And yesterday afternoon... Jesus did it again. Shannon received an amazing job offer, far above the dreams and expectations we've been praying for. When Jesus provides... HE PROVIDES. With Style. There can be no mistake that something this amazing came from any other source than God.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7
Superman can leap tall buildings, fly faster than a speeding bullet, and perform incredible feats of strength. And he was sent to earth, to live amongst us... became one of us... so that we may be saved.
Sound familiar? Especially when you consider that Jesus is God... he made the buildings, and the bullet, and defined the world and how it works.
I would even go so far as to say that the story of Superman was created to patch up that Jesus-shaped hole in the hearts of many.
And you know what? Even though I'm not super, I can still be a hero. A hero to my family, a hero to my friends, a hero to my protegee, and a hero to my girlfriend.
I'm not super, and I'm not God. I make mistakes and screw up. I need to forgive and ask forgiveness. Jesus is in my life to save me. Superman may save me from meteors or crime bosses, but Jesus saves my eternal life. Not only that, but he gave us the guide book to live our lives heroically.
I'm actually talking about two board games here. Go, and Risk. They are both excellent strategy games that I've recently taken up with my girlfriend. She has a brilliant mind, and I've had a hard time beating her!
Both have intense amounts of strategy, but Go is simple to learn, and predates Risk by centuries. Literally older than chess, this ancient asian game has been played by years, and has still never lost it's charm. Risk, is far newer, but brings a different twist on the theme of capturing territories.
In Go, you play pieces to capture your enemies stones, and to surround as much territory as possible. Whoever controls the most, wins. Risk is actually very similar, as you take turns placing your armies, and by attacking and defeating your oponents armies, you capture territory.
Both games take a lot of thinking and planning your moves ahead of time. They're fun, and easy to get into. You can even learn how to play Go right online. Or get the Risk computer game.
So does anyone out there want to play? I need to practice if I hope to beat Shannon next time!
I went to the theaters to watch Cars last night, and Pixar has definitely done it again.
With a 62.8 million US debut, the Pixar team has once again left every other 3D animated film in it's dust. It's amazing how, even though Pixar only produces one film every 3 years, and Dreamworks produces about 10 in that time, Pixar still makes about $1.6 billion more.
Their secret? Heart. While Dreamworks produces meaningless comedy slapstick, Pixar strives with all they have to produce films with heart, good family values, and undeniable charm.
Pixar, along with Walden Media and a few other companies out there, really strive to do the best they can... to teach, inspire, and encourage the return of good family values to this continent.
A challenge to all producers out there: the box office proves, "Cars" is what the world really wants.
Going to the circus sure isn't the old event it used to be. When entering the big top granted you a seat in the stands to wonder at dancing horses, standing elephants, and of course, clowns.
Now, with amazing troupes like Cirque du Soleil, we're pulled into a world of wonder, romance, and childhood daydreams. You're dazzled by the light and fog effects, as the performers fly across the stage on hydraulic lines to the tune of a full operatic rock band. Performers, that's exactly what they are; Every one of them is not merely a circus act, but a dancer, singer, and actor as well.
As someone working in the arts industry, I am amazed and encouraged by their unashamed creativity, by their determination and devotion, by their heart, and by their love for excellence in everything they do.
You followers of Jesus should be examples of those qualities, and many more. Strive in all you do.
The guys over at Church Marketing Sucks have an excellent post on the usage of stock photography. And they have an excellent point. What with the same stock photos turning up on totally different products, and the much overused stock cliches.
Yes, I'm guilty of using the occasional stock shot from stock.xchng or Flickr, but most of my design work makes use of my own photography, or pics taken by people in the same company or organization. Really, I would much rather not use any stock if I didn't have to. Using original photographs and media ensures that your work will not be misrepresented by another group. For example, if your church purchased a stock photo, and used it an a large marketing campaign, it would be relatively easy for a malicious group to get the same photo, and use it to take advantage of or estrange your hard-earned market.
However, the quality of your work is another consideration. If you are not a good photographer, or do not have access to one, then maybe your only choice is to seek suitable material from a stock gallery. The message and quality of your work always come first.
To stock or not to stock? That is up to you.
My family was sitting in our kitchen, eating dinner and watching the news on the local station. The show opened up with a preview of the evenings news stories. One exciting story caught our eye: the invention of a water-powered vehicle.
We sat through the entire hour-long episode, eagerly awaiting this world-changing story, only to find that they dropped it in favor of a gay Olympian and the opening of a local fair. Now what's with that?
The invention of a simple, affordable engine that runs entirely on water is pushed off the air by some queer athlete? There wasn't a single story in the entire program that was more important than a hydrogen car. Think about it... it tolls the end of the gasoline and petrol monopoly that has raised our gas prices to a dollar a liter. With a cheap engine, and fuel literally falling from the skies, the convenience and quality of life in Canada would raise significantly.
Yet another death knell for traditional media coverage. Already, you can access creative content and news reports directly from their sources... free, fast, and easy. Blogs, free video archives like YouTube and Google Video, and free photo hosting on Flickr. These keep me up-to-date on the most important matters, and the one's I'm actually interested in.
Oh, and for those of you still looking for coverage on the water-powered vehicle.
I'm just in the middle of watching through the "making of" of Narnia, and did you know, that the wonderful scene where Lucy first walks into Narnia was almost real? The actress, Georgie Henley, was put into costume, blindfolded, and was filmed as she literally saw the movie set for the first time. The director wanted to capture her expression of wonder and amazement as realistically as possible.
Experience life in person. Be there, live it, feel it, love it. Going to a sports game is always better than just watching it on TV. Gifts are more interesting than certificates. Real watches are nicer than knock-offs. Being with your loved one is always better than just chatting online.
And there's more than just being in person. Reality is about truth and trust. Being real, as much as being in the real. That means being truthful, not being a hypocrite, and standing up for your beliefs and convictions.
Enjoy, and live a fulfilled life.
I really believe that God has given me my talents in multimedia and design... and I always do my best to produce quality work for my church. But the problem is, many people from church come to me expecting that I will do my work for free.
Sure, I don't mind doing the occasional small church production, on top of my regular volunteer work of running the tech ministry. But when someone (or the church itself) comes to me expecting me to do a much larger project for free, that's when I have to put my foot down and say no. Especially for projects that require huge amounts of skill and time. I do have to earn a living in this world, and can't afford to work for free all of the time. Multimedia and design takes far more skill and time than people realize.
Just go into your church office, and look up how many paid staff there are. If your church expects to pay your pastor for working full-time, then they better be prepared to pay you for the same amount of work. It is unfair, unbiblical, and exploitive to use religion to pressure someone into working for free... especially if it's above and beyond their already heavy volunteer work.
So next time your church or ministry leader comes to you with some work, demand to be paid for your efforts. If they want free work, then they can round up some inexperienced and untrained volunteers from the congregation... and they will end up with an unprofessional and amateur final product.
Celebration! Church has been using postcards (or 'rave' cards) for a couple of years now, and with great success. With a good designer they can be fun, informative, interesting, and something your church can really be proud of. Not to mention that they're almost the cheapest and most personal form of advertising your church can get. Mail them, drop them off in highly visible places, or hand them out in person.
Here's some things to keep in mind.
Good communication can build a relationship, and bad communication can destroy it. It's a powerful tool, and it's important to be able to communicate effectively. Whatever your message is, if you can't make it known, then it's futile. We live in "the communication age" right? But with all of this technology and innovations, it still comes down to dealing with people.
Text seems to be an increasingly common means of relating important messages, but it leaves a lot to be desired. Great writers and poets have been using this for years, but as interesting as that is, it's relationships that require communication the most. It's so difficult to convey proper meaning through text mediums, such as chatting on the internet. You have to be very careful of your wording, so that your audience will interpret your words to the meaning you intended.
Being understanding and open-hearted is key. You should give the benefit of the doubt, and never automatically assume that your friend or loved one intends to hurt you. But at the same time, be fully open and honest with each other. Trust. If you can keep that up, I guarantee that things will go well. I know from experience.
Ideally, there is more than text. Tone of voice is another essential tool in conveying your thoughts. The emotional inflections and implied meanings will surely help. Talk in person, use the phone, VoIP, whatever.
Then of course, body language. Whether it's gestures, or a great big hug, nothing sends meaning and intent like an action. A smile does wonders to warm the heart. Webcams are nice, but meet in person! A handshake with a business partner develops trust and familiarity. Or in a different situation, there would be no way to pull off a long-distance relationship you didn't meet on a regular basis. There's nothing better than holding a loved one, expressing your feelings, and sharing your dreams, fears, hopes, and desires.
It's been a couple of weeks, but I'm more or less back in town. (less, until Sunday)
The family started off with a trip down to Florida for a business conference, and then spent the next week traveling around. It was pretty cold, so we unfortunately didn't get much time at the beach. We did go by Gettysburg though, and saw some cool old Civil War stuff.
Then as soon as we got back, I took off for a 9-hour train ride to spent Easter weekend with my girlfriend. It was a loooong ride, but Shannon's more than worth it. I would go a whole lot further than that to see her.
We had a fantastic weekend together, and I even survived meeting her parents!
Over the last couple of days, we went through a pretty interesting time together. It was a little confusing, and some tears were shed, but we ended up redefining our boundaries in the relationship for a more God-pleasing romance. Some of it were things like making sure we have a little time apart each day to spend reading our bibles and praying, even if we've traveled great distances to be together. She'll probably be formally writing about it.
In the end, we've come out stronger than ever... in a deep romance that Jesus is blessing more than we could have imagined.
When I look closely, I find that many of the wisest and most inspiring counselors I know of, work very closely with their wives. Knowing how to counsel people on your own is great as it is... but think of doing it as a couple. You have twice as much knowledge and wisdom to draw from, and two totally different outlooks on the subject that your counseling on. And most importantly, a good couple often knows what each other are thinking, or where they're headed with their advice.
Just take a look at some of these christian counselors that I've learned from in life. (I only know a few of them personally)
John & Stasi Eldredge... wrote Wild at Heart, and Captivating, and are a constant source of insight and encouragement to many many people.
Dr. James & Mrs. Shirley Dobson... founded and lead the Focus on the Family organization, which has done fantastic things to promote healthy families.
Bill & Creely Wilson... founded Brentwood Baptist Church, now thousands strong, and an active and vibrant church community.
David & Norma-Jean Mainse... founded CTS TV and 100 Huntley Street.
Dr George & Marian Bryniawsky... have been close friends and mentors to my family for years.
Rick & Donna Lamothe... pastor and founders of Sequoia Community Church, and close friends of the family.
It really looks like the greatest and most influencial and life-changing couples work together as a team. And when seeing that, I am so amazingly thrilled at the prospect of changing peoples lives with the help of Shannon. She is already very wise, a strong christian, and a great counselor, and we recently had a chance to counsel someone as a team... to amazing results.
Digital cameras are affordable, they're easy to use, and they take some great photos. But what do you do after the picture is taken? If you're like me, you probably have a folder somewhere on your computer with a few thousand digital photographs. Where's the fun in that?
There's plenty of options out there to get your pictures out in the open.
Just recently, I uploaded a whole pile of digital pictures to a photo lab at Loblaws, and just went in to pick them up the next day. Stick them in some frames around the house, and you're done. Nicer quality, and cheaper than printing it out at home.
I also have a photo iPod, which many of my favourite photos on it. Play some music, and put on a random slideshow of your pictures. Instant picture frame!
Or if you're willing to spend a little extra, why not buy a digital photo frame? There's already several on the market, that have their own memory or wireless network connection, and will cycle through your favourite photos as often as you like. Something fresh and new to decorate your house.
Here's a few of the digital frames out there:
As you may know, my mom has been fighting cancer for the last year. The cancer had progressed really far, and when they started, it was going to be an extremely difficult case. Here we are, a year later, and after every treatment imaginable... major surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, dieting, vitamins, and holistic medicine.
None of it would have made a difference if it wasn't for the faith of my mom and the family. With lots of earnest prayer and faith, God made all sorts of miracles happen. Right from the start, mom went in with a positive attitude, and love for Jesus in her heart. She recovered from the surgery at a miraculous rate... the radiation and chemotherapy hardly had any side-effects... and despite would-be crippling cancer, she was active and alive.
Today, she got the results from her final CT scan now that her treatments are over.
And she is healed! They haven't found a single trace of cancer in her! God is amazing, and the test results were the final confirmation of his having healed her. Even the doctors were amazed.
Everyone, thank you for your love and prayers over this past year.
It's really insane how far Google has grown since it was an up-and-coming search engine online. Nowadays they're buying companies left and right, and adding more and more of the world into their search engine. It's not just websites anymore... now you can search blogs and printed books too.
But the craziest of these has to be their new mapping interfaces... they're offering the world... and now, more than the world...
Bridging the gap in a long-distance relationship is always difficult thing. Chances are, you probably only get to see your girlfriend once a month... so what do you do in the meantime?
"Distance makes the heart grow fonder" is a load of crap. But thanks to modern technology, there's many ways for you to interact with your significant other... even though you may be miles apart.
The key to success in any relationship is communication. So be sure to make lots of use telephones, email, and instant messaging. The tech-savvy are one-up in this area. Try chatting with a webcam, which allows you to see the person directly. Even use of VoIP can save you a whole lot of money on phone calls in the long run. Perhaps even write a blog together?
Or for the truly insane, there's a plethora of new products out there (most of which are totally creepy, unless that's your thing).
Traveling is the only true way to cross the distance. So get on those trains, plains, and automobiles, and get over there to see her first-hand. Shop around on the web to find the best prices.Getting into a romantic relationship can be a scary prospect for some people. There is a lot of responsibility and vulnerability involved as you venture deeper into each others lives.
Strive.
Men, we need to set the example as the spiritual leader in our families and relationships. It is our duty to ensure that our wife/girlfriend/children grow strong in faith and wisdom.
Here's a couple of ideas to get you started:
Learning from the examples of some great leaders out there, I've been working at adding two new habits to my routine, and two pieces of free software have really helped with that.
First, I've noticed that every major Christian leader that I love and respect, takes time in their day to journal. Even if it's for just a few minutes, they write out their thoughts and dreams, and keep track of what God has been telling them in their day. So many books have been written in this way too. Most of the best devotionals, leadership books, and self-help books, were slowly compiled through the life experiences of the writers. If I really have been called to leadership, I better start my own. Already it has really helped me to organize some of my thoughts.
So after some searching, I came across the Advanced Diary. This nifty little program is free, supports multiple daily entries, searching, text formatting, embedded pictures, can be printed and exported, and can even be password protected. It also runs off of a USB drive, so you can take it anywhere you go.
Next, leaders are always have a system to keep important information, interesting tidbits, facts and figures, and notes... easily at their disposal. How many times have I tried to think of a quote or statistic, and just couldn't remember what it was, or where it came from?
Evernote does this well, by letting you easily create formatted notes, sort and organize them, and export them. Combine this with their Firefox web clipper, and you can highlight parts of webpages and add them to your notes with a single click. Brilliant.
Keep track of your life. It's the only one you've got. And who knows? Maybe someone is actually interested in learning from it.
I went into church today, thinking that I wanted to do a really great soundmix of the band to impress a girl.
But then God really hit me...
I just needed to do what I was supposed to do, and worship God. Worship him with the talents and gifts He's given me. Then I realized that the girl isn't going to be attracted by a rockin' mix... she's going to be far more excited with my heart for Jesus, and my willingness to use my gifts for Him.
And you know what? Once I gave in, and focused on just worshiping Jesus, we actually ended up with the best sound mix the church band has ever had!
(except I still don't know whether the girl was impressed or not *lol*)
Once upon a time... there was a story.
Stories. Even the wildest ones, when told well, will relate to something at the very core of your being. They are effective and inspiring. They can be purely entertainment, and they can even be used to teach.
Why are people so intent on hammering each other with cold facts and figures? I've often found myself sitting on one side of a debate with a friend, talking about beliefs and values, and I've realised that the second I start demanding that my own views are right, the friend immediately and subconsciously closes themself off.
So why should the truth be restricted to a purely logical form? Even Jesus taught almost entirely with parables.
I'm not saying you should abandon facts altogether. Facts are only there to support the story.
"Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care... but once they know you care, you better know something!"Write out your books and articles. Make movies and theater and dance, draw comics and manga. Create stories that call the hearts of this world to something greater... Jesus.
Face it. Media affects our lives. Take a look at the hit television series, CSI... Over 100 episodes of riveting forensics suspense. Entertaining, educational, and emotional. But how does it change our lives?
Well since the show came out, universities and colleges have had a major influx of applicants to their forensic sciences and criminology programs. And criminals have become smarter: using things they've learned from the show, like bleach to clean the crime scene.
And what's funny, is some of the aspects of the show aren't even real. Like in the real world, there's actually dozens of people involved in the forensics and investigation, all highly specialized. The person who does the arrest doesn't actually do the forensics work themselves.
Whether we choose to believe it or not, media really does change how you think and feel. It sets fashions, determines purchases, and changes morals and politics.
So is it really affecting your life? Try the Full Tilt Media Challenge. Go 30 days while only listening to positive Christian music and media, and then go back to your old habits. You'll find a huge difference.
Here's an interesting ideas to help eyes stick to your church site.
Use flickr to make a website badge. Load some photos from your church events onto flickr, or if you're handy with server programming, write your own script to randomly display a series of images. It will keep things interesting, and always changing.
I tried something similar to that on the Celebration! Church page. Just below the main menu, there's a button that, when clicked, will randomly open up an image from within the massive photo gallery hosted on the site. There's lots of potential for something like this on church websites, so check it out.
Also, take a look at some other ways you can use the free flickr service.
Some of the leading men over at Celebration! Church have banded together to start a group blog. Wholly Yours will cover all sorts of men's issues, inspiration, accountability, life discussions, media, games, and a whole lot more.
If you're a guy, I would definitely suggest you head over there and get into the community. Learn, grow, strive. You don't have to be part of the church either, everyone is welcome. It's a great place to throw out ideas and thoughts. It's a pretty diverse group, so I'm sure heads will butt now and then, and not all things there will reflect yours own or my own beliefs, but at least it will always be interesting.
For the girls out there, feel free to start a similar idea, as it will be very beneficial to you and your other female friends. Or, of you're just curious about what sort of things occupy a guys mind, go check it out.
For all of us gamers out there, joystiq has some reasons why we would make excellent parents.
When it comes to Birthday and Christmas presents, they'll know which games to get the kids.It makes perfect sense to me! Just so long as the parent does in fact play with his children. Also, they need to stand up for their families, and prevent the creation of yet another game widow. While I do enjoy the occasional video game, I realise that there is a life outside of my computer/xbox/whatever.
Gamer parents know which games not to let their kids play. Ratings are there for a reason.
The kids will always have someone with whom to play multiplayer games.
My own father was temporarily addicted to games for a while, back when I got my first console. He stayed up for all hours of the night until Blockout and Road Rash drove him nutty. Thankfully, he quickly recovered, quit cold turkey, and years later, now occasionally challenges me to a Burnout Revenge crash.Over the last 30 years, the percentage of people living together before marriage in North America has grown over 1000%. Why is this? And why is this ruining marriages in our country?
Focus on the Family had some interesting broadcasts on the issue, with all sorts of statistics. Here's an example of just a few reasons why you shouldn't live together before marriage.
This is just awesome. A church somewhere is teaching grandparents how to play Xbox!
during a denominational retreat for retired ministers, a workshop session will be dedicated to teaching seniors how to play Xbox. Apparently, in a pre-event survey asking these retired ministers what kind of topics they would like to have addressed in the upcoming retreat, several of them mentioned that they wanted to learn how to play video games with their grandkids. Church Marketing Sucks
Sadly, this years Oscar nominees are looking pretty bleak. Hardly any decent and good films actually got nominated in the entire list. Most of the major nominations, and certainly the films that received the most nominations, are extremely artsy and stand outright against decent family values and morals. The only one that should even be of any interest, is Crash, for an intriguing storyline and brilliant editing.
As an avid movie-watcher, and someone who has been raised into the industry, here, in no particular order, is my list of the:
Most Under-Nominated Movies
As you can see, church and religion has the total right and freedom as per the Bill of Rights to influence and determine the laws of state ("petition the Government for a redress of grievances"). The separation of church and state truthfully means that the state and government has no right or place to influence or control an establishment of religion ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof").Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Last night, my monitor died.
I was working on a project, went upstairs to make some tea, and came back down to a totally messed up monitor. And of course, I panicked. Time was running out on some aggressive deadlines, and my monitor fried!
So I went out to BestBuy in the morning, and bought up their second-last CRT monitor (the big fat ones). Looks like the world is moving to LCD and Plasma, cause that's all they had there. Lucky for me, people who can sacrifice a little desk space can get themselves a 19" monitor for $200 Canadian. It's even bigger than my old screen!
Manga, the japanese form of comics, has really taken off in North America over the last year or two. Just walk into any bookstore, and you'll see shelves and shelves of the books, with over 100 new titles just in the last year.
All we need now is a new breed of christian cartoonists and mangaka's to step up to the plate and praise Jesus through their art! They don't have to be super-religious or bible stories... themes of christianity in every day life, family, and relationships work just fine, and already have widely-read secular versions of these types of stories. Testimonial comics and also becoming increasingly popular.
Here's a couple of noteworthy sites out there:
Serenity - christian manga series about a girl struggling with her life.
Alias Comic Publishing - Some interesting american-style comic books.
Comix35 - ministry involved in visual literature. They also have good lists of christian comics out there.
Reverend Fun - american-style daily comic strip.
There is a few of them out there, but we definitely need some of those bright Jesus-loving artists out there to get going and use those gifts that God gave them.
Now I have no idea what the catholic opinion is on creation, but it seems pretty silly to me that they would suspend one of their own teachers in the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board.
George, a well respected teacher, was suspended from the school board because merely mentioned the term "creation" during one of his classes, and two of his students complained to the board.
It definately sounds like the students run things at that school.
But what really gets me, is the thought that it's theoretically a christian school, and is supposed to teach about creation!
Please be careful who you mark on your voting ballot on the 23rd.
If you're voting for the conservatives, make sure you know ahead of time who is in the riding for your area. There is a scheme in elections canada to confuse the ballots and deter people from voting conservative.
Elections Canada marks their voting ballots with acronyms, and are using this method to confuse voters.
For the Progressive Conservatives with Stephen Harper, they are marking the ballots with the "CON"
The initials "PC" on the ballot actually stands for the Progressive Canadian Party which is basically a fake party created a couple of years ago so they would show up first in alphabetical order of the party listing. They are not the conservatives.
So when you vote, beware, and make sure you know who is riding for the conservatives in your area.
I don't know why Paul Martin is so against privatizing medical clinics in Canada. Sure there's hundreds of reasons why Canada would benefit from privatization, but that's not the point I'm trying to make here.
There is, in fact, already thousands of private clinics in Canada, where you can walk in, have a serious operation, and OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) will completely cover all costs of the operation.
Over 100,000 of these operations are performed yearly in Canada, and all are being paid for by the government.
These operations, are abortions.
Now somebody explain to me why the liberal government will completely fund an abortion at a private clinic, but will not allow other operations. Say, having a spleen removed? Or Heart valve surgery? Or bladder stones? Or even cancer tests, such as the one my mom has to wait three more months for?
Well it looks like there's yet another scandal uncovered that ties back directly to the Liberal Party. This one also links to Paul Martin himself.
It all begins with the "Power Corp.". This large corporation receives massive amounts of money in oil contracts through it's daughter companies. Jean Chrétien's son is married to the daughter of the former head of Power Corp. Even Chrétien's son-in-law is the director of the daughter corporation that made the oil deals with Saddam. Also, Chrétien appointed Paul Martin, who is currently Prime Minister of Canada, and is also being advised by Maurice Strong, who is a former president of Power Corp.
Here's a little graphic from over at Western Standard that shows the connections so you can see for yourself exactly how many liberals are involved in this international scandal.
Now we know why the Canadian government was so spineless in the prospect of helping our North American neighbours bring down Saddam Hussein.
New years day, the family got together to do our yearly planning, goal setting, and resolutions.
I definately suggest that all families should do this together with their children.
We put together a whole list of categories, and went around placing personal, and family goals in each section. Ranging from financial, business, and investments, to spiritual, intellectual, and physical.
For some examples, here's a few of my personal goals... to give you ideas, and so you can help keep me accountable!
It's time to celebrate! My minivan has just rolled over the 500,000 kilometer mark. It's only a 1996 model, yet has very little rust, and still runs relatively smoothly.
On the way to church last night, Zack and I ended up driving up and down a street parallel to the highway trying to rack up those final few kilometers so I could stop and get some photos of the mileage meter, and the exact spot it hit. And what do you know, but it stopped right in front of my friend Ron's house, and he happened to come walking down the street as we were taking photos.
Here's to the first half-million, and here's to the next!
