You know the drill- if you can use them, use them.  If you would like a .pdf of any of these- send me an email.

So we all know that Apple did not unveil the iPhone 5.  Just the iPhone 4s.  A phone looking relatively the same, but twice as fast so it could accomodate Siri, a 'personal voice activated assistant.'
And we were all shocked.

But- turns out a voice activated personal assistant like that isn't new to Apple.  This video is from Apple's "Futureshock"Knowledge Navigator concept device from 1987!   Who know how well it worked.  Since they are just now dusting it off- I'll say it tanked.



But still- 1987 had some pretty cool technology!

My favorite line? "On the school bus, e'r-body happy/ Paper airplane- someone threw one at me"
You just can't find lyrical poetry like that anywhere these days.  People try to hide behind metaphors and rhythm- lame! Haha.

And the rap the older Kansas Boy spits at 1:51 is amazing.  Don't worry if you don't see the awesomeness in it, it has to grow on you.  Like



Just kidding.  Not sure which one I like better- this or "Friday" by The Rebecca Blackz.


And may I add- what is up with these kids and their obsession with putting cereal in their songs???  Cereal has made double the appearances in songs... well ever.  I don't believe "cereal" has been said in a song ever before these two.  And "bowl" really lucked out in the fact that there are no words that rhyme with cereal that sound appealing.  See for yourself:

Personally I would have gone with "bio-material".

One concern with the "Friday" video- is anyone concerned that 5 thirteen year olds are driving around in a convertible???  Let alone the fact that thirteen year olds can proclaim cries of "Partyin! Partyin! Yeah!" That seems like it won't backfire at all...

Collide Magazine posts their "videos of the week" and here are my two favorites from this week.  Enjoy- they are pretty awesome!

Barton Damer released his new Motion Design reel.

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

If you are a Christian in between the ages 18-50 who enjoys reading and has access to news, you have probably heard about the whole Rob Bell situation.  Basically- there has been a lot of hub-bub about his new book, Love Wins.  Mainly on the subject of Hell.  In Bell's promo video, it seems that Bell is proposing the idea that no one will be in Hell, that a loving God would not send someone to Hell simply for not believing in him.

I have my personal opinions, and I will let you have yours.   I have believed Rob Bell has had beliefs that go against scripture for quite awhile and he hides it behind clever videos and sayings- but I'm not going into that here. I believe Universalism is wrong, and even more, I think it is dumb for Christian pastors to preach that, because if everyone goes to Heaven despite what they do, why would anyone come to church?  But a blog is no place to post one's personal opinions.  O wait.....

Love Wins was released today, and I believe this will be a day people remember for a while.  Not necessarily because something extraordinary is going to happen, but because everyone has an opinion, and it is hard to have a "well, it doesn't really matter" type opinion when someone with alot of influence says that there might not be a Hell.





So today is officially Love Wins-day.  I got you a card.

We've all seen them.  The church's website that looks like it was designed by a 70 year old woman, or a 5 year old.

There's nothing worse than going online to check out a church and finding a horrible site featuring Papyrus font and some sort of stone pattern background.  Well, maybe I exaggerate- but you know what I mean.

So churches, here is a list that tells you that you should change that website! (This is mainly for amusement, because I seriously doubt  hope that no church that uses the internet as a social tool uses these things)

1) If you are using an angelfire or geocities website. 
            No explanation needed.

2) If your site features a custom cursor, like a dinosaur or target.
            

3) If your site features an animated .gif
           If you don't know what an animated .gif is, or if you have forgotten what they are- here is one.  I would rather see a 404 Error screen than an animated .gif.

4) If your site has a guestbook.
          Seriously, who uses guestbooks anymore?

5) If there is a 'games' page.



Well, there's the list.  Now I, and I suspect you if you are between the ages 21 and 40ish, have had a website featuring one (or in my case) all of these things.  And then I was proud of it, but it was also 2002.  Times have changed- lets show people that church's can be creative and embrace social media just like everyone else!

Herman the Hermit

Its been known for a long time that people like Facebook.  That they spend way too much time on Facebook.  That they are ‘obsessed’ with Facebook.  You know it, I know it, even Herman the Hermit knows it!



The graph below pictures something beyond normal- as the website where I got this graph says, ‘for a growing portion of the world, if an event or thought or relationship isn't documented or shared somehow on Facebook, it's like it never happened at all.’ [CoDesign]

So- churches, businesses, artists- are you utilizing this tool properly?  Maybe you have thought to yourself ‘I don’t want to buy an ad- no one clicks those!’ 
I call balderdash, my dear chap!
You refuse to put your advertisement in a singular location where the entire world can see, yet a magazine, newspaper, or telephone book ad doesn’t seem like a waste of money?  Each of those things can only reach a certain number of people.  Its localized.

Yes, many people do not click on the ads on facebook- but look at these stats- over 1 million status updates every 20 minutes, over 10 million comments made every 20 minutes!  With those odds, you are guaranteed traffic.  

Churches, ads may not be best for you because it isn't [shouldn't be] about the numbers, its about the relationships.  But this does mean that you should have a page on facebook, keep it updated and full of discussion.  If you want to reach your members, visitors, and people in your area- use facebook for it (which is probably already done), but also- use it well.

Tonight, I got in over my head.  Way over.  I was working on updating a website, and was told I needed to install something.  I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but I thought to myself, ‘I’m tech-savy, I can handle this.’  Cut to an hour and a half later, and I have just gotten off the phone with technical support in India because I brought the server down.

I was in over my head.  And I knew it 10 minutes in.  I have been in a cold sweat for the past hour, all the while feeling so hot that I could burst into flames at any moment.  I was uploading files via FTP (don’t ask me to explain it- I don’t know what it is- which should have been my first clue to get out!), and instead of making a back up, I simply copied.  Not a good idea.

Does this kind of thing ever happen to you?  Where you take one step into a land you have never been in before, and before you know it, you are a mile in, not even knowing the direction you came.  I feel like this must be what Alice felt like in Wonderland.  Terrified you have screwed everything up in one single moment.

It’s a horrible feeling, to say the least.  I felt so helpless.  There is a feeling specific to when you try something and you suck.  I don’t mean the ‘at least you tried’ kind of trying something, but the ‘why would you think you could do this?’  I mean- people get degrees in the kind of stuff I was trying tonight.  Well, failing at tonight.  What made me think I could handle it?

Pride.  Pride is a funny thing.  It can fool you, it tells you that you can handle something, that you can not only hold on to the bucking bull for a few seconds, but that you can hang with the professionals.  Of course, you would never say that out loud.

They say the internet can be a scary place.  I might have seen the scariest of all tonight: directories.

Here is the video from Capstone's Dunk'd Winter 2011 video I edited.  It was amazing to get to see 8 brothers and sisters in Christ go through the waters of baptism!



2011 Winter Dunk'd from Capstone on Vimeo.

I don't normally copy other people's posts- but this post really hit me.  Donald Miller entitled his post 'A Creator Must Believe He Has the Authority to Create'.  Here are the key points:

A critical scene in the movie takes place near the end, when Logue is walking George VI through the paces of the crowning ceremony. They are alone in Westminster Abbey. George VI is stammering through his lines, gets up from the throne and throws a tantrum, stuttering on about how the people need a voice and he hasn’t got one, about how he isn’t fit to be king. He turns from his tirade to see Lionel Logue sitting sloppily on his throne, head in hand as though he were bored with the tirade. And the anger of King George VI worsens. He threatens the actor, commanding him to get out of the chair. Logue contends that he will not, that the man before him has no authority to dismiss him. George VI yells in anger that he does indeed have the authority, that he is the King, and Logue’s eyes light up. The King could not be King until he himself believed he was fit for the role. The throne meant nothing unless it meant something to the King. The people would not follow the King unless the King stepped into the authority they had given him.

And this is how it is with stepping into the role of a creator. Made in the image of God, able to speak something into nothing, able to create solutions to the worlds problems, we stammer about in disbelief, waiting for somebody else to take responsibility for our lives and for the lives we have been given to care for. We are all creators, but too many reject the God-given right to create and instead become consumers, hiding in the safety of some government, some corporation, some self-help philosophy to take care of us. And so why should we be surprised when we turn around and somebody is sitting in our chair, dictating how our marriage will go, how our career will go, whether or not we can have peace with our neighbors? We shouldn’t be surprised. We handed them our authority.

Until we believe we are creators, nothing will change save what some other creator changes for us. We are their servants, the consumers of whatever fate is dictated to us by the bold, be they good or bad.

What are you wanting to create? What do you believe you have the authority to create? 

Recently, Church Marketing Sucks posted a blog entitled "Churches Aren't Paying Attention On Twitter."  Collide Magazine's Scott McClellan then posted his thoughts on the subject at Collide's Blog.

Here is a brief recap:
Mickey Mellan sent replies on twitter to various church twitter accounts.  Out of the 25 churches he contacted over twitter, only 3 bothered to reply.  A chilling study.

Collide's McClelllan commented,

My suspicion is that most churches prefer broadcasting to interacting. Think about it — our preferred communication mediums are one-way channels. We love sermons, direct mail, podcasts, billboards, email blasts, punny church signs, static websites, text message alerts, and worship bulletins. No response required, and if we’re being honest, no response desired. We wanna preach, but we don’t wanna listen. We like to broadcast our message, but we don’t like to hear what you think about it.

Now sometimes the church twitter message is simply texted in.  I know many friends who have only been on the twitter site to sign up for their personal account, and then text everything in.  But I have to say, I don't like the whole broadcasting feel.  It is a great way for church members to find out what is going on in the church, but what about the possibility to reach visitors, the lost?  

Twitter is not a one way street.  I don't think it was meant to be a one way street.  That's why you have features like the @ reply, the retweet, the direct message.  

I update Capstone's twitter many times, and I am guilty of simply broadcasting.  It is much easier, but Jesus never called us to easy.  Twitter, like Facebook, allows us to reach places we never could.  We take it for granted and use it as a secondary (or in some cases primary) bulletin. 

Do you update your church's twitter account?  Join me in changing the way we interact over the internet.  Let's stop broadcasting and start interacting.

Do you follow your church's twitter account?  Start interacting with it!  Know that it is a person behind the account.  After services, comment on how you liked the service, what you looked forward to, what you didn't like!  This can a revolution in the church.