the church picnic

Normally, I am against most age-old church traditions. They are generally filled with the same pomp and circumstance that have driven people away from God for decades.

However, there is one tradition that I am so happy is alive and well today: the church picnic!

Okay, I’ll admit…some of it is out of selfishness. The food is generally very good, and abundant. Burgers and dogs. Potato, macaroni and other salads of a delicious nature. Cookies, pies and cakes. Oh, yeah!

But one other reason I love the picnic: everything else disappears for a few hours. Troubles, job woes, personal issues…they go away to make room for laughter, games and fellowship. I look around at the faces, and see a simpler time. Not quite Little House on the Prairie, but not today’s fast paced world, either. Somewhere in between. Somewhere that’s fun, and genuine, and good. Somewhere you can take a deep breath and relax.

Somewhere I like to be.

Now, excuse me while I look for my eating pants…we have a church picnic this Sunday!

when a media guy listens

Gotta be honest. Most services, I’m so intent on listening for cues and making sure the next slide is ready to go, I don’t get to listen to the message. Oh, I hear it, I’m just not listening.

So, the first time I listen to it is usually on Monday when it’s up on the podcast. And even then, I’m sometimes distracted by the mechanics, and not the content, of the Word.

But last week, I listened. And then I listened again. And it was one of those messages. And you know what I mean by one of those. It was one of those that hit me right where I was at that very moment. It dug deep into my soul, and scooped out the junk that I was living with. It released me from a bunch of the stuff that I think has been holding me back.

But my point here isn’t the change it made in me. The point is…I wish everyone that was hearing the message would listen to it.

We live in a world where folks are Facebooking, and Twittering all the time. We are so busy with what’s going on that we aren’t paying attention. And I’m not talking about the people tweeting and posting during the service. Heck, I’m one of them! It’s so cool to see a status update that says we have the coolest church around, and looking up to see the poster in the third row!

I’m talking about the way we are submersed in the everyday crap that takes our attention away from what really matters: each other.

Take a few moments today or tomorrow. Put down the iPhone, blackberry or Android. Put the iPod away. Step away from the computer and turn off the TV. Be in the moment. Listen to what’s going on.

Don’t just hear it.

if you don’t have a podcast…

if you don’t have a podcast set up for your church, then you are missing out. More importantly, your congregation members are missing out.

A clean, crisp recording of the message, along with a reliable podcast hosting company, is a must in today’s electronic age. This was not more evident to me until this past message series at LifePointe. It was a relationship series that touched everyone’s soul, and the podcast hits were off the charts!

Give your congregation the chance to re-listen to the message, give them the chance to share it with friends and family. Your pastor spent the time putting together the Word, so don’t make it a “one chance only” opportunity.

mac vs. pc

the war finally came to my front.

Mac vs. PC.

We had been experiencing trouble with the projector in our new building. After months of analyzing, we realized it was the way the computer/media shout/projector were reacting to each other. Combine that with the occasional Media Shout crash, and a decision had to be made.

The pressure to go Mac had been great. I had always been on team PC, and shunned those who said Mac was the only way to go. All the other church media guys laughed at me, told me I was too old-school, that the only way to take our service to the next level was to go Mac…

…and we did.

Got the best Macbook Pro we could afford, the 13″/250, and paired it with ProPresenter 4. And guess what? No issues. Better graphics. Smoother transitions. Multiple uses of video without crashing.

They were right. It is better. For church.

I will say this. If I were looking for a computer for personal use, I would still look at the cheaper, and still powerful, PC options.

But for now, thank you Mac, for making life a little easier…

help

I have always been self-reliant.

I would never ask for help…with anything. Homework assignments in college, projects at home or work…anything. I used to think this was an admirable trait. But recently, I found out that it was the trait that has been holding me back.

God put us on the planet with other humans for a reason: to interact and be part of a community. It’s that community that brings us closer to Christ, and brings us closer to each other. We are hear to support each other, and help our fellow man to achieve greatness; to become the people that our Creator meat for us to be.

If we can’t rely on each other, then we are but an island. And, as the old saying goes, no man is an island.

After 43 years on this planet, I finally get it. It’s easier to lean on a thousand shoulders than stand on your own.

why?

Why does it take 4 hours to see a doctor at an emergency room on a Thursday night when there’s only 12 people in the waiting room?

Why does the nurse, the doctor, the sign in person, and three or four other hospital workers have to ask you the same 37 questions about latex allergies and how the pain feels on a scale of one to ten?

Why does every size hospital gown leave a smidge of butt showing in the back?

Well, these questions are funny and aggrevating, but guess what? None of them matter when someone you love is in the hospital.

One moment you’re joking about the wildest circumstances, and the next you’re being told by the doctor that it’s more serious than they first thought.

Nothing else really matters at that point. Nothing at all.

Christ told us not to worry about things that aren’t important.

Boy, was he all over that one, or what?

 

why do christian movies stink?

O.K., the title to this post may not be fair. But, if you love the movie industry, you must agree that a vast majority (95%-99%) of Christian films stink.

Now, I’m not talking about the big budget Hollywood extravaganzas, such as The Ten Commandments or Passion of the Christ. I’m talking about the movies made in the past two decades produced specifically for the “church going” market. Duds like “Time Changers” and “Facing the Giants.”

Those are all well-intended flicks, but they’re awful because they are not relevant and in order to appeal to what they feel is their target market, they use dialogue that only Ned Flanders could appreciate!

peaceful easy feeling…

It’s 8am Sunday morning, and I’m sitting at my computer at church as I write this. We’ve already been here longer than an hour, and I’m listening to the worship band rehearse, and the volunteer setup crew putting the finishing on the stage. It’s a huge feat, because we meet in a movie theater, so we literally “build” a church and tear it down every single Sunday.

And right now is always the most peaceful time of my week.

It’s those few moment between disorganization and chaos.

It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s worth it. It takes that feeling of accomplishment to a new level, and it gives me the opportunity to watch a bunch of guys give a valuable block of time to their church…and mostly without complaint.

It’s the best time of my week…

what is connection?

We have got some great volunteers at LifePointe church. And, we’ve got a bunch of them! Half of our church are active volunteers, and that’s nothing to sneeze at when it comes to church statistics.

But, I often worry about connection. And by connection, I mean a deep-rooted attachment to one’s surroundings and a committment level to service that exceeds the average.

That’s what I mean by connection.

I always wonder if the people that volunteer under me are experiencing a level of connection that they deserve. You know…the one that God has in store for them.

How can i know? What are the signs? If there is no connection, will interest level stay at a high?

It’s kind of like being married, i guess. There has to be some communication. Asking, listening, lunches…whatever it takes. We only have one shot at helping someone connect with the community, with God, and we can’t screw it up. Eyes wide open should be the motto.

Do me a favor…if you think you’re not connected, or are connected and want to take it to a higher level, tell me! Just like my wife tells me when I’m not taking our relationship to the next level.

Only…I promise I won’t tell you to wait until the commercial comes on.

Is there a God?

Ahhhh…that is the question. The one question that secular humanists have been asking themselves for centuries.

You know, I think to help answer this question, i’m going to put on my “atheist hat.”

If God doesn’t exist, and man is truly all by himself on this big, blue marble, and everything we’ve accomplished up til now can only be attributed to man’s greatness, then what do we have?

Well, according to the latest count, there are 2.1 billion Christians in this world. If there were no God, then there are 2.1 billion (yes…I know that not all Christians act in a Christian way) people that are trying to be the nicest, the best humans they can be. 

2.1 billion people giving portions of their paychecks to help others, buying groceries for the needy, smiling at someone having a bad day, hugging someone that just experienced a tragedy.  

2.1 billion people building houses for the poor, risking their lives to get medicine to the sick in third world dictatorships, trying to spread hope in the most hopeless parts of the world.

2.1 billion people just trying to help.

Now, if there were no God, and these Christians were following a false hope…well, is there a better false hope to follow?

And, by the way, I think that 2.1 billion people promoting that same hope proves that there is a God.