RUNwithGOD

links for 2007-08-31

• Sears Posts 40% Drop in Net On Declining Same-Store Sales
  (tags: Economy Business Recession Sears News)

Praying for paper

Is it wrong to pray for paper?

This past week Ryan (C28 West Palm Manager) has sent out over 340 letters to area churches and youth organizations hoping to kindle a relationship with them. Our desire for C28 is to have it be a resource to the local church, to aid in their attempts to impact their students, their city for Christ.

We're actually developing a church directory so that we can help people get connected to a church. Our prayer is that C28 will continue to be a gateway to guide people into a lasting relationship with Jesus, and pair them up with a church that is better suited to disciple them along the journey!

We've gotten a good response rate so far, but there's a lot of relationships still out there to be started.

God, make our motives pure and continue to allow us these divine appointments. Allow us to strengthen your church, and continue to use us to reach this city, this state for Christ.

Putting on an "old hat"

I've enjoyed teaching the Media Small Group more than I thought I would. That doesn't sound right. I knew I would enjoy it. I went in with fear and trepidation, though. I haven't done this type of thing in years...

That's the downside of my life. I'm the "busy guy"... in the spectrum of Mary to Martha, I land squarely on Martha. And by staying busy, working to achieve mighty things for the Kingdom, I think I've neglected to see the people that make up the Kingdom.

It's been years since I was open with a group of adults. Check that. I don't think I've ever been open with adults. Back in my youthworker days, sure I opened up, shared, and prayed with kids. But there really is something to opening yourself up to a room of people that, more often than not, are going through the same thing you are. Leading this Small Group has helped put a smile back con my face that has been gone for way too long...

God, thank you for the opportunity to not only see the big picture of what you have for me, but reminding me that those numbers have names, faces, stories and needs.

Michael Vick Jury Selected

Thanks to Michael Zambrano for the find.

Stuck on an escalator

Please find below a hilarious YouTube video...

There's a lesson here... thoughts?

Thanks to Swerve Blog for the find.

links for 2007-08-29

• Social Networking for Professionals
  (tags: wikinomics socialnetworking business Web2.0)
• PodBrix . 1000 brix in your pocket . buy
  Is that really a $200 Lego Playset of the Apple's Commercial "1984"? Wow. Stupid yet strangely I must have it...
  (tags: Apple Toys stupidity)
• OPTIMASH PRIME Figure
  COOLEST TOY EVER! Transformers meets Mr. Potato Head
  (tags: Toys Transformers)
• Luke Skywalker's lightsaber heading into space
  Not sure if this is serious... or not...
  (tags: Engadget Entertainment Fun StarWars Stupidity)
• Building Your Own Social Network
  (tags: SocialNetworking business Web2.0)
• The fascinating Matisyahu
  (tags: DanKimball Music Entertainment)

Paula and Randy White Divorcing

The Christian "Industry" (I really hate to call it that) is taking a pounding. Megachurch pastors Randy and Paula White announced this past week they are filing for a divorce.

"It is the most difficult decision that I have had to make in my entire life," said the Rev. Randy White, 49. "I take full responsibility for a failed marriage - 100 percent. I don't blame Paula, and I don't blame other parties. But as the man of the house, I take full responsibility for that."

I've discussed this with Ted Haggard. It was just a couple days ago that we discussed it with Juanita Bynum/Thomas Weeks.

And now we're back here again. People who are supposed to be living the example of a Godly life, failing. Paula has a huge following nationally through her books, video and TV ministry, and is easily in the top five female authors coming out of The Living Word. Randy is well known as well (he's famous for doing the Pamela Anderson/Kid Rock wedding... and we all know how that ended...)

The real question I want to ask is: Why is this happening? Are people taking ministry positions they shouldn't have? Are they being thrust into the national limelight that they are not prepared for? Are they living their lives for ego, or for God? Or is Satan doing a very good job at dismantling powerful, God-fearing tools for the Kingdom?

Christ Fellowship West Kendall

I've totally ignored something huge... my apologies.

Several weeks ago, Eric Geiger announced that Christ Fellowship is starting our next campus in West Kendall. Huge upswing in West Kendall area... CF has some 2,000 people members living in that area already! We're praying for a large startup team to help us seed the location. We will be meeting at the Regal Cinema 16, a brand new location just West of the Turnpike on the North side of Kendall Avenue. This is an INCREDIBLE LOCATION!

I got to do something cool today. Hector, Landon and I got to hang out in an empty movie theater and dream about what the venue is going to look like. I've never done church in a movie theater, but I can say this... I am going to love it! The Room Acoustics are PERFECT! Designed specifically for audio at this level. And visually? We've got a HUGE CANVAS to work with! Mark Batterson speaks of Video Screens becoming "Postmodern Stained Glass" in the modern church... so we've got a virtual canvas almost fifty feet wide, three stories tall to work with...

At one point today Hector and I were discussing lights/projection, and we hear Landon speaking to us, but we can't see him. Evidently, behind the projection screen is a series of scaffolding, and Landon found his way back in there, and was over 20 feet up in the air, behind the movie screen. He's bouncing around on the scaffolding, looking at where we can mount the speakers...

The worship experience, on paper, will be phenominal for the West Kendall Campus. We've already begun praying for the Campus, that God would honor our efforts by making His presence known on in West Kendall. God, use our gifts, talents, and abilities to further Your Kingdom.

links for 2007-08-27

• GI Joe: The Movie (how about Lite-Brite: The Movie)
  In the wake of Transformer's success... StrangeCulture's take on the next toy movie...
  (tags: Toys Movies Transformers Entertainment GIJOE strangeculture)
• Mark Batterson's Top 10 or 15 Quotes
  (tags: MarkBatterson Quotes Church Christianity)
• Thus Saith the Radio
  the most powerful denomination: the "stealth" denomination. Shows the power of Christian Talk Radio
  (tags: Christianity Radio Emerging ErwinMcManus Church)
• I Don’t See How Someone Can Worship God With A Booming Sound System
  Perry defends his belief in culturally relevant, high energy worship. He does this, though, without insulting the older methodology... hymns. Interesting...
  (tags: Culture Worship WorshipTech Stupidity PerryNoble)
• Teen sticks Xbox 360 power supply in bowl of water
  The best thing about this story is he was following advice that someone posted on a blog. Geez, would someone please regulate what these stupid friggin bloggers are posting on their sites? =)
  (tags: Stupidity XBOX Microsoft Teens)
• Lying to your customers
  If my employees did this, they would be fired.
  (tags: customerservice SethGodin business retail)
• The Influence of Web 2.0 on American Politics
  Benefits of Social Networking on 2008 Election. I'm glad we're talking about this 15 months before the election.
  (tags: Web2.0 Election politics news SocialNetworking)
• Decentralization of the Social Network
  Open sourcing Social Networks? Don't hold your breath... it would be sweet, though, if... "Why can't we all just be friends..."
  (tags: Web2.0, socialnetworking culture wikichurch business)
• NTRconnect offers remote Mac, PC control
  web-based remote access software for Macs and Windows
  (tags: Apple Technology RemoteDesktop Software)

Halo 2: Bible Edition

As a video game lover, and former youthworker, I just had to give this more attention than a simple link!

Check out Halo 2- Bible Edition coming soon to a Christian Bookstore near you! (Lord, help us all!)

Thanks to tominthebox news for breaking this story...





UPDATE: Halo 2 Bible Edition is a satire on Video Games and Christianity. I thought about leaving it open for you to come to your own conclusion, but I could so see someone calling my bookstore wanting to order this, and getting really frustrated when my employees broke into hysterics.

080826 Shuffled

In
CF Generations :: Generations Worship
Fuel :: Angels & Demons
Arcade Fire :: Neon Bible
Arcade Fire :: Funeral
Wavorly :: Conquering the Fear of Fright

Out
Coldplay :: X & Y (selections)
Corinne Baily Rae :: self titled (selections)
Various :: Transformers Soundtrack (selections)
Heath McNease :: The Heath McNease Fanclub Meets Tonight
The Polyphonic Spree :: Together We're Heavy

Thomas Weeks forgot to read his book...

When I bought The Living Word back in 2003, the best-selling book was Thomas Week's Teach Me How To Love You. Thomas is married to Juanita Bynum, a well known evangelist, recording artist, and author. Together, they were Pastors of a church they co-founded in Duluth, Georgia called Global Destiny Church. Teach Me How To Love You is a book about their relationship, how it started, and how to become a "Godly Mate" to your spouse. Sounds good, right?

Weeks and Bynum made the news earlier today. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Juanita was severly beat by her now estranged husband in a hotel parking lot. Another story gone bad. Feels like we were just having this conversation about Ted Haggard.

Rule of thumb, I guess, is if you're going to write a book about Christian Marriages, make sure you're marriage is strong enough to handle it.

God, help us to live a life worthy of Your sacrifice. Give us the patience to work through problems and the strength to deal with the consequences of our actions.

Hacking the iPhone

Yes, someone has unlocked the iPhone. Some 17 year old kid did it before anyone else. Good for him. See YouTube below...

Do I have any thoughts? Apple stock just went up as I'm sure a ton of more iPhones will be bought by people wanting to unlock phones and sell them... there are whole new untapped revenue stream coming soon. Good for Apple! Good for T-Mobile users, who luck out that T-Mobile and AT&T use the same network. Bad for AT&T. I'm not that upset, either. It's AT&T. At the heart of AT&T, it's really MA Bell... If they had kept their name as "Cingular" I would care a little more...

UPDATE (082607): I wanted to post an update on this. Evidently the kid's got a blog online where he talks about the sale/trade of his unlocked iPod.

links for 2007-08-25

• Survey: Bible and Religious Books are Most Popular Genre
  You'd think this would mean, as a Christian bookstore owner, I'm a millionaire... sadly, no.
  (tags: religion Bible poll Books ChristianRetailing)

"Working for the church while your family dies"

I ran across a song that's been haunting me for a while. I present to you Arcade Fire's "Intervention".

For full lyrics, check out this link.

However, you can get the point from the chorus below...

Working for the church
While your family dies
You take what they give you
And you keep it inside
Every spark of friendship and love
Will die without a home
Hear the solider groan, "We'll cry alone"

Note: Arcade Fire is not a Christian group... but I find their lyrics eerie. Reading the entire song, I'm not totally sure what this song is about... I'm still working through it... Any ideas? I'll probably revisit this at some point...

Note2: I do not, in any way, feel like this song. I do not think that while working for the church my family has died.

Note3: Somebody created a music video to Intervention by editing one of my favorite 1920's Russian Films, Battleship Potempkin. This film was shot in Odessa, Ukraine... at some point you'll see people running up and down a series of stairs... I've been there! Anyway, watch the film below:

ZunePhone

You know I'm an Apple guy, and I couldn't resist taking a shot like this.

Please find below a homemade (totally fake, but hilarious) mockup of Microsoft's attempt to copy the iPhone... America, meet the ZunePhone, or as Bill will undoubtedly call it, the zPhone...

And yes, I'm almost two months into owning the real iPhone, and it is really worth the hype.

Media Small Group, wk 1

We had our first ever media small group meeting tonight at the CF Palmetto Bay Studio. Really cool. We had nine people show up. The cool thing was it was the first time Palmetto Bay and Homestead Media crews came together. Sure we may be on different campuses, but at the end we are working together to create a venue for people to Connect to God every week. But in the hecticness of the weekend, let's be honest, Media people don't get an opportunity to Connect...

Aside from me, we had eight people. Four from Palmetto Bay. Four from Homestead. Mixed ages. Mixed backgrounds. Mixed demographics. It really is cool, though, to sit down with people you see week in and week out and actually have a serious conversation with them. This group will be a huge blessing to me.

CF Media, if you're not in a small group consider being a part of ours. We're meeting next Wednesday, 6:45pm, @ the Palmetto Bay Studio.

links for 2007-08-22

• Teen pleads guilty to recording 20 seconds of Transformers the Movie
  19 year old Jhannet Sejas recorded twenty seconds of Transformers the movie on her Canon PowerShot still camera. So the MPAA sues her, and wins $71 in court fees. If this is jeopardy, the question would be "What is Stupidity?"
  (tags: MPAA Movies Business Stupidity)

links for 2007-08-21

• Leadership: The compliment that is not a compliment
  Eric has some great insight in duplicating leaders... not to mention a great sub shop.
  (tags: EricGeiger leadership management infrastructure)
• Church gives away iTunes for attendance
  Want to get people to attend church? Give away iTunes Gift Cards...
  (tags: Church Marketing iTunes religion)
• ESPN brings PodCenter to the iPhone
  (tags: ESPN iPhone)
• A Content-Centered Internet
  2003 vs. 2007- Internet used for "reading content" more than "communicating"... not sure if this is symantics, or if I agree with stats... but still an interesting viewpoint.
  (tags: Internet Marketing Church ChurchMarketingSucks)

Media Small Group starts Wednesday

Wanted to give a heads up to everybody... Amy and I are starting a Small Group for CF Media Volunteers... In the Media, so often we are so busy creating a venue for others to Connect to God that we miss out on getting ourselves connected. My hope is that during our brief time together we can get Connected to God as well as Connecting to Others.

We'll be meeting on Wednesday night, 6:45pm, at the Palmetto Bay Studio. CF Media volunteers from both campuses (Palmetto Bay & Homestead) are welcome to attend. We are going through the six-week iPray study that coincides with the sermon series, iPray, that Rick/Eric are currently leading us through.

If you are already connected to a small group, great! If not, please consider this opportunity to meet with us as we delve into our study on prayer.

If you have any questions, drop me a line.

John & Linda's "30 Hints"

Thanks to everyone who helped make my 30th Birthday last a full week! Emails, TXT messages and Facebook posts flooded in. I promise, this will be the last Birthday post. (I'll find something else to obsess over). Hope you took advantage of my Reverse Birthday Gift. If not, too bad for you. There was something, though, I had to share with you.

I got a Birthday card from my parents. I hear you... "Big friggin whoop." What makes my parent's cards cool every year is NOT the card, but the crazy crap they write in the card.

For my 30th, my parents gave me a list of 30 "Helpful Hints" (read: Things To Do). Nothing like giving a workaholic a list of things to do... where needed, I will add my thoughts below [in brackets and italicized text].

Without futher delay I present My Parental's Helpful Hints:

1) Brush your teeth
2) Change your undies - [I wondered what that smell was...]
3) Kiss your wife (Amy) - [not to be confused with my other wife?]
4) Don't forget to walk Beowulf
5) Call your Grandmother
6) Pray daily
7) Drive carefully - [maybe I should take back the Cadillac XLR then...]
8) Pay bills on time
9) Open your mail
10) Be nice to strangers
11) Lock your doors - [uh, yeah... we live in Miami. Goes w/o saying.]
12) Comb your hair - [it's a good thing I'm not sensitive...]
13) Compliment your employees - [stupid morons]
14) Run frequently
15) Work in the yard!! "We beg..." - [um... yeah... I'll get back to you on that.]
16) Put in drycleaning - [I haven't done drycleaning in a year, why start now?]
17) Invest wisely
18) Don't work harder - [I thought they would have said "instead work smarter."]
19) Get the truck washed - [Last time I did that I also put in my dry cleaning.]
20) Call your parents
21) Fill your gas tank at 1/4 left
22) Clean the garage
23) Eat your veggies
24) Chew with mouth closed
25) Get more rest - [is that before or after I do this list?]
26) Write more blogs
27) Play more games
28) Listen to more music
29) Buy your wife flowers - [but they die like 2 days later...]
30) Do something you want to do!!

Thank you, Mom and Dad. Even at age 30, your written reminder serves as notice that I will forever be your little boy... a much bigger, bald, goateed little boy looking to pay someone to pick the weeds out of his yard.

What hint would your parents leave for you?

links for 2007-08-17

• Happy 25th Birthday, compact disc!
  The CD turns 25 years old this week.
  (tags: technology music)
• Weird, scary and bizarre iPhone tales
  Synopsis of iPhone stories, including iPhone Surgery, 300 page phone bill, $5k phone bill, etc...
  (tags: apple iPhone stories)

CF Palmetto Bay Studio Control Room

Construction began this week on CF Palmetto Bay's new Control Room. Hector is overseeing the project, and I know he's got some great things planned. The control room is being relocated into a storage room in the back of the worship center. (It currently resides in another building some 300'-500' away (as the wires are run).

I'm very excited about the move. This is going to be a great thing for the Media Ministry @ CF. During the transition we are simplifying a lot of the technology, and I really believe that we are heading in the right direction.

I have a small wager in place with several CF staff/volunteers. I have vocally stated that we would be in the new control room before 2008. The others (who shall remain nameless) have vocally said it would in 2008. Having construction start now, almost five months before the New Year, things are looking good for me!

Quest for 100: Loser

I admit defeat. I probably didn't have a chance. It was a stupid idea... I'm a workaholic with three jobs... sure I got time for something else to fit in my busy schedule..."

I could make excuses. I could lie about the situation. I could hack the Nike+ system and fabricate that I ran 76 miles in the next 24 hours. (Really, I could...)

But I'm not going to. Instead, I'm admitting that I am a loser. At the end of the day, I just couldn't motivate myself to do it. The downtime I had, I wanted it to be downtime.

I've lost weight this summer, not as much as last year, but still good.

Thanks to Amy, JR, AJ, my mom and everybody else who pestered me to run. 24 miles for a guy who doesn't regularly run isn't that bad. Ultimately, it's good to know what your strengths are.

Hey, I'll do 100 miles before I turn 40. Think I got a chance for that?

links for 2007-08-16

• North Point Production
  North Point Community Church's Media Website
  (tags: Church Media Internet)
• Alesis iMultiMix 9R: Rack Mountable iPod Dock
  My Christmas List officially started here... ProAudio Rack Mountable iPod Dock...
  (tags: ProAudio Technology iPod Audio)
• iDJ2 MOBILE DJ WORKSTATION WITH UNIVERSAL DOCK FOR IPOD
  I REALLY wish I had this 4 years ago. Portable DJ gear... two audio streams with roundtables... all from one iPod!
  (tags: audio music ipod ProAudio dj)
• Biker fails to notice missing leg | Reuters.com
  Could you imagine what he looked like when he stopped and tried to balance the motorcycle with only one leg?
  (tags: motorcycle japanese medical amputation)

Reverse Birthday Gift Reminder

Don't forget, my Reverse Birthday Gift offer expires Sunday, (8/19). 30% off all NOTW clothing @ The Living Word, Miami and C28 West Palm Beach... Check out my original post for more info.

Online Love Triangle & the Church

I ran across a story in the Wall Street Journal that I really wanted to share. I've been trying to figure out how to spin it.

Second Life, if you're not familiar, is a virtual fantasy world. It's an Interactive role-playing game of sorts. It's a real life simulation. The game isn't filled with warriors with swords or monsters or aliens. The characters look and act like normal people, and in fact are all controlled by real people. Millions of people have a "second life" in Second Life. They work jobs. Have relationships. Go to church. Go to concerts. Spend money. All in a video game. It's technological escapism. You don't like your life. Create a new one online, and pretend.

But at what point does a game stop being a game? The WSJ shares the story of Ric Hoogestraat. Ric plays Second Life six hours a night and up to fourteen hours on weekends. He uses the game to escape his regular life. See, Ric is married to Sue Hoogestraat in real life, but to Janet Spielman in Second Life. Ric's character, Dutch Hoorenbeck proposed, married and lives with Janet's character - Tenaj Jackalope. Their Second Life marriage is so legit that Sue has caught her husband having "cartoon sex" with his Second Life wife via the computer game...

Read the WSJ article to get the insight on the online love triangle. It shows everything that is wrong with technology.

I've been researching Internet Churches lately... reading blogs, articles, books, talking to people... and what I'm hearing more often than not is that people cannot connect to God via the Internet? Their Reasons? The Internet isn't intimate enough. People put up a facade. You don't really get to know people unless you see them face to face. Physical (face to face) contact is necessary. How can you fellowship through a computer?

Tell Sue Hoogestraat that the Internet isn't intimate. Which is Ric's facaade? The one Sue sees or the one that Janet sees. If physical (face to face) contact is necessary, then Ric and Janet's relationship is completely legit and the two of them are just playing a computer game... right? They're just cartoon characters on a computer screen.

Unfortunately, I think most of us don't think that's the case. And that's the problem with technology and the church. We are so quick to condemn it because of it's weaknesses, but we to afraid to work with it, to tame it so that we can take advantage of its strengths.

Thanks to the Wikinomics Blog for the WSJ article.

Market for Computers

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

Interesting, Microsoft.com has a powerpoint slide of this quote on their website, but Wikipedia says the quote MAY NOT be true...

After the iPhone Surgery, I'm doublechecking everything...

Jeff = Good Mood? That's unusual...

Top 10 Reasons I'm in a good mood today:

10. While my parents are out of town, my mom insisted I drive her Cadillac XLR for her (to keep the battery fresh, of course). Tooling around Miami in a Cadillac Roadster? That alone is enough to get in a good mood... but there's more.

9. CF Homestead Media has worked out several major flaws in our worship center. It took a lot of planning and talking in circles, but the end product improved significantly over the past couple weeks. I was really stressing over it, and I'm glad it's resolved.

8. Big announcement coming up this Friday @ the CF Ministry Rally... Eric is tipping his hat (if you're curious).

7. C28 West Palm is catching stride as Back-To-School shopping starts. Aside from the increase in sales, we're getting a lot of exposure to new customers.

6. Ryan has done a great job inking a deal with Summit Christian School (in West Palm) where every Middle and High School student (350 some I believe) will be getting a NOTW shirt as part of their Spiritual Emphasis Week. The great thing is the school has uniforms every day of the week, EXCEPT for the occasional day (once a month I think) when they will be allowed to wear our NOTW shirt. Talk about branding.

5. Had coffee yesterday with Rob Robbins, Station Manager @ CallFM. I have a lot of respect for Rob because he took a radio station that "could not survive" and has turned it into a strong, viable product. Rob has great vision, and we will all be seeing some phenominal opportunities for growth coming very soon.

4. Wikinomics has really been hitting a cord with me. I never really thought I'd be the guy reading business books and getting ideas from it, but the idea of wikichurch has been rattling in my head for months now.... and I love it!

3. Emily, the Assistant Manager from C28 in West Palm has come down to Miami to fill in as a temporary Manager for The Living Word. We had a quick turnover at the manager position (Rebecca went back to teaching at a local Christian Elementary School) and I needed some help retasking the staff and getting me organized. Emily's retail experience is a HUGE PLUS! Not to mention, she already understands how much of an unorganized freak I am.

2. Talking: I have had several opportunities in the past 72 hours to talk to people who are in different places. Ministry, business, life... I've realized that by working so hard, so much I've really limited myself to the people I come in contact with, and that I really hate being "the loner."

1. Amy went back to work today. After 10 months off from teaching, she's gearing up for the school year again. She's going back to Palmetto Sr. High where she's teaching PreCal and Algebra I? She's excited, which means she's happy, which ultimately means I'm happy. Oh, and I'm glad to get another paycheck coming in, too.

Reverse Birthday Gift

I've shared that my 30th birthday is coming up. In fact, I will be turning 30 on Saturday, August 18th. I am excited. My 20's were great, but it'll be cool to see what God has for me during my 30's.

But I digress...

I'm not a Birthday Party guy.
I don't do cards.
I don't want gifts.

I do want to give something to you, some of my favorite people... my blog readers.

I'm doing an EXCLUSIVE SALE just for my blog friends. In honor of my 30th Birthday I'm giving EVERYONE WHO READS MY BLOG A 30% DISCOUNT off NOTW shirts at both TLW and C28. The Living Word just got a large assortment of NOTW shirts, and as always C28 is stocked with the newest and best NOTW has to offer. Sorry, discount doesn't apply to online purchases and are only good at stores I own. If you go to a California C28 or The Living Word in Sarasota, FL you'll get laughed at if you drop my name...

So, if you've been debating buying some NOTW stuff, now's the time. Go to either store and drop my name, my blog (runwithgod.com) or just say "but that's not what Jeff said..." and get yourself a great discount. On me. My treat. Why? Because I appreciate my blog readers. Go to the stores and buy for you! You're welcome!

Now I can't give away everything for free, so my reverse birthday gift only applies to NOTW product. My reverse birthday gift starts Tuesday (8/12) and will end Sunday (8/19). SOOO, the money you were going to spend on me... spend the money on you and get something nice for yourself!

Tell your friends. Get the word out. Questions, e-mail me.

Brothers Under Christ vs. UFlorida, Revisited

About a month ago I blogged on Brothers Under Christ (BYX - a Christian Fraternity) and their struggle to set up their organization on the University of Florida campus. BYX is on a number of campuses across the Bible belt. I am actually an old "Buxer" from back in the day...

Reason this is being revisited is that FOXNews has been running a story today on BYX's struggle, and for the most part is siding with BYX... You can see the video clip here.

I've been informed by the BYX information that on Tuesday (8/14) FOXNews will be running an interview with the students that want to bring BYX onto UF's campus...

From all reports, FOX is spinning the article in a positive way for BYX, which is a great thing to see. Plus, there is no such thing as bad publicity... maybe this will usher in BYX on other campuses (outside the Bible Belt).

Stay tuned!

iPhone Surgery, Revisited

I bit. I'm sorry. The iPhone Surgery DID NOT HAPPEN, AND WAS A WEB HOAX. North Denver News, I don't even know if you're legit or what, but AWESOME!

Evidently I'm a sucker. They lobbed up a softball at me and I hit it out of the park (and I did it w/o steroids too!) Honestly, I verified the story with several "more established" news websites, but they bit too! The whole thing felt a little freakish, and honestly I'll "try" to sleep better at night knowing it wasn't true. In typical Jeff fashion, though, if I'm going to crash better to crash hard!

What's worse is I found it was a hoax when I was searching the Internet trying to find a picture of the freak's freakish thumbs when I was surfing the net at 2:45am...

I retract the iPhone Surgery blog post, but will leave it online as a testimony that I was beat by satirical geniuses... Congrats to you guys for working many bloggers into a frenzy. To Barry Bonds: I retract nothing and still look forward to a baseball season where I do not have to hear your name.

Thanks again to Anthony Kirchner for feeding me mis-information. HA! That's what I get for getting on Facebook. I get caught up with an old college buddy from an freshman Bible Study I taught years ago, and next thing I know I'm writting a formal apology on my blog... now if I find out (however unlikely) that Anthony was in on the prank...

links for 2007-08-11

• Butch Whitmire: What IS Our Process?
  Butch Whitmire, Creative Arts Pastor at Granger, publishes their Worship Experience Planning Schedule
  (tags: infrastructure Granger worshiptech church creativity management)
• 6 Keys to a Longer Lasting Church Volunteer
  Six great ideas on how to simplify how we use Church volunteers... knowing me, I'll probably revisit this...
  (tags: volunteering ministry management ChurchRelevance)

Man has "iPhone Surgery"

UPDATE AUGUST 13, 2007: I formally retract this blog. Find out why.

There are very few things in life that truly disturb me. This is one of them:

To quote CBNNews.com...

Man Has Thumbs Altered to Use iPhone

CBNNews.com - A Colorado man recently had radical surgery on his thumbs to use his apple iPhone more easily.

Thomas Martel was having a hard time using the tiny features on his new iPhone with his large hands, The North Denver News reports.

"From my old Treo, to my Blackberry, to this new iPhone, I had a hard time hitting the right buttons, and I always lost those little styluses," The North Denver News quoted Martel.

So he had his thumbs scaled down with a new technique called whittling.

Doctors made a small cut in both thumbs and then shaved the bones. Afterwards they adjusted the muscles and fingernails.

"Sure, the procedure was expensive," he said. "But when I think of all the time I save by being able to use modern handhelds so much faster, I really think the surgery will pay for itself in ten to fifteen years. And what it's saving me in frustration - that's priceless."

Uh, yeah. Is anyone else mortified? He hacked up his hands and shaved bone away so he can type on an iPhone! Listen, I'm Apple's #1 fan. I've got more gadgets than I know what to do with. I'm as wired as they get. I've also got huge hands. I'm a former football player (Offensive Line) that can palm a basketball no problem... But I'm not going to shave bone off my fingers so I can use an iPhone quicker than normal.

Come on! The thing has built in spellcheck! Really! You type wurhim and it knows the word you meant to type is "within". How much of a freak are you that you would rather go through physical pain than mistype a word in your phone!

I'm besides myself. Can you tell?

Get's better: Evidently the guy is now walking around with big fingers, tiny thumbs... To quote the North Denver News...

While Martel's new thumbs now appear small and effeminate in comparison to his otherwise very large hands, he says he can still lift "pretty much anything I could lift before the surgery - though opening spaghetti sauce jars has been a problem. That was a big surprise."

I cannot believe we live in a culture where people are driven to succeed, to get ahead no matter the cost, even if it will cost them physical damage in the future. Or, for that matter, the ability to upen spaghetti sauce jars!

In other news (totally unrelated, of course), congratulations to Barry Bonds for his record breaking 756th Home Run. Now that Barry has finally hit the long ball, maybe he'll fade into his steroid-ridden, HGH-obsessed oblivion and us baseball purists can get back to a game where we're not obsessing over cheaters and other illegal-medical marvels. Barry, I hope the title you carry is worth the damages your body goes through.

Thanks to Anthony Kirchner, Facebook Friend and CBN employee, for tipping me off on the thin-thumbed iPhone fanatic.

2008 Presidential Election - Where they stand...

I truly despise the fact that we're talking about the Presidential Election fifteen months before the election is to take place...

However, when in Rome...

Someone has compiled a table of all of the Presidential Hopefuls and what their stance is on controversial issues. I do not know who compiled this list, so I cannot guarantee the stats. Plus, it's so early I'm sure the candidates will waffle a couple times...

Seriously, from now on are we going to let the President rule for 2 years, and then talk about why he sucks and needs to be replaced? Can the economy hold up under that instability/scrutiny?

Thanks to ChurchRelevance for finding the link.

links for 2007-08-09

• Carpe Digital
  21C translation of what Jesus meant when He said "Go into all the world..."
  (tags: Culture Technology MarkBatterson InternetChurch)
• PC Magazine: Apple’s Mac market share set to soar
  A Windows-based Periodical says Mac can get up to 20% marketshare in the near future. WOOHOO!
  (tags: Apple Technology)

links for 2007-08-08

• Nine in 10 Americans say ban texting while driving
  I gotta say I'm in the 90%... but I text while driving all the time...
  (tags: technology news poll cellphones txt)
• Blogs as Stores
  A Comprehensive Overview of Ecommerce Solutions for Bloggers
  (tags: blog blogs)
• Simplify Media - Connect Your iTunes
  Share your iTunes library "legally" across the Internet. NOTE: RWG does not promote illegal MP3 sharing. But whne I'm at work I love the fact I can listen to my music from my home computers.
  (tags: Apple itunes software sharing community)
• Apple iPhone Skins @ DecalGirl.com
  Guaranteed way to make your iPhone stand out in a crowd.
  (tags: Apple iPod iPhone Accessories)
• Open Apple no more
  Death to the "Apple Key" found on Apple Keyboards since the Apple II? Really? As long as I'm not hitting CTRL, ALT, DELETE on a regular basis I'll learn to survive.
  (tags: Apple Accessories)

Facebook 48 hours later

I wanted to update you on my Facebook experiment. I've been doing it 48 (actually more like 45) hours. During that time I've made/been reunited with almost 70 friends. The majority are college age kids (that used to be in my youth group when I worked with youth). Some are currently in High School. Very few are 20-30 somethings. The oldest to date is 35 years old. The youngest I believe is 16.

Favorite comments from my Facebook Friends:

* Kim: "Welcome to 2004 Jeff :-)"
* Anthony: "You're now my second-oldest facebook friend... (after one of our friends mom.)

So much for being on top of technology. Really, I enjoy it as a venue to get in touch with people. But they have SOOO many applications, SOOO much of it is poorly developed crap... I really wish somebody would do quality control on web 2.0 applications. And that is the problem with open source projects. You get lots of development, but very little quality control.

Very few are students I went to high school or college with. Seems that Facebook really kicks in with people below age 25. Four percent of my high school classmates (Westminster Class of 95) are registered with Facebook. When I tried to find Westminster Class of 94, the number dropped to like 1%. 10% of my Facebook is college buddies. 5% is from High School. 10% is business contacts. However, 65% of my Facebook is under the age of 23.

For me, the draw of Facebook isn't to connect with classmates. For the most part, the classmates I connected with I already had a connection with. Facebook allowed me another venue to connect with the emerging generation (teens, 20somethings).

I'll keep Facebook online, but it will probably become the red-headed stepchild to my blog. If you're on Facebook, look me up! And if you're a fan, tell me why I'm wrong!

links for 2007-08-07

• Simpsons Movie, D'Oh! Top Ten (Plus One) Religious Episodes on 'The Simpsons'
  Spirituality/Theology of the Simpson's TV show... ever noticed that God is the only person to have five toes?
  (tags: religion entertainment Simpsons PopCulture)
• Fake Steve = Forbes Senior Editor
  Fake Steve Jobs has finally been unmasked (after a year) and surprise, surprise he has a book deal in place.
  (tags: Apple SteveJobs)
• iTunes Store Tops Three Billion Songs
  One Billion Songs in the past seven months. They are now the third largest retailer of music in the nation.
  (tags: Apple iTunes Music Retail)
• Facebook Vs. MySpace
  What is the differences?
  (tags: SocialNetworking)
• Secure Give
  Kiosk/ATM that allows parishoners to tithe at church (w/o writing checks...)
  (tags: Church Offering Culture Business Technology)
• Toxic employees
  Poison for Customer Service
  (tags: customerservice employees management SethGodin)
• Friendraising, not Fundraising
  Even the business world is recognizing the need to invest in people...
  (tags: Missional Business SocialNetworking)

Andrew Allard, second revisit

I got an e-mail earlier this week from Kevin, Generations Pastor at Grace Capital Church in New Hampshire. Grace Capital is Andrew Allard's home church in New Hampshire. Kevin sent me an e-mail, updating me on the progression of Andrew's story. (If you're new to RUNwithGOD, read about Andrew here and then here).

Since Andrew's passing we have seen 17 of his friends accept the Lord into their lives and have become regulars at Impact - our student ministry. We have prayed that the ripple effect of Andrew's life would continue on for years to come. I was recently up at Soulfest - a Christian Music Festival in Gilford, NH - and Andrew was again mentioned by one of the speakers onstage. He challenged all in attendance to live out their faith with the love that Andrew had for all people. Many people responded right then and there to "get off their evangelistic butts" and reach their friends for Christ.

Andrew had a contagious faith that is still evident 5 months after his passing.

We all can use an evangelical butt-kicking now and again. Thanks, Andrew, living for the Lord so strongly that the echoes of your life are still reaching the lost.

Not enough power to go around

I shared about CF Homestead's chaotic weekend services involving failing power grids and backup generators. We weren't the only ones to have problems.

Travis Johnson over at Life Pointe in Homestead also dealt with no power on Sunday... although I'm sure they were calmer than I was!

Good to know other people were in the same boat we were!

Uh Facebook?

Okay, I'm taking tomorrow off with Amy, so I decided to mess around with Facebook. So far I'm impressed. Interface is simple, and within 2 hours of setting this thing up I've got 16 friends and was reunited with a couple college chicks I haven't heard from in a long, long time.

If you're on Facebook, check out my profile.

For the record, I'm really not a social networking guy. Maybe this one will be different. I'll let you know.

(and by "college chicks" I mean friends that I knew from college that were of the female persuasion. NOT in a dating relationship. I dated Amy in college, remember?)

CF Homestead: Weekend Whirlwind

Five letters. Crazy.

There are some weekends where things run smoothly. Praise God this one ended smoothly, but it took a while for us to get there. I often joke that all I do is control chaos. Well, today I don't know how much I controlled it, but there was chaos.

At CF Homestead this morning, two minutes into Mighty to Save, the last song before we were supposed to start the Video Teaching...the lights flickered. I immediately looked for Jorge, since he has a habit of tripping over cables and unplugging devices. I did not find Jorge, but seconds later the room went completely dark. No power in the building. Make that no power in the school. And no power at the homes on the other side of the canal. And no power all the way out at Harris Field. Evidently, no power anywhere in Homestead.

Let me give props where due. Berch and his band did an incredible job continuing on in worship. When the power went off, there was a hideous feedback from the speakers (and I'm still not sure where it came from), but Berch kept on playing accoustic, desperately trying to keep the ambience of worship. Drums picked up too. I did notice he was doing a lot of praying during the rest of Mighty to Save.

After seeing the band was okay, I went to get Jorge. With great joy I told him that it was time for the message, and with video teaching offline Jorge get's to preach. He got his Bible and in about four minutes hammered out what he was going to say.

Once Jorge was comfortable speaking in the dark, we dove into coordinating the next service. I will say this about Homestead campus... it really is a big family. I walked out into that hallway and had about 10 men itching to help the situation out. Matthew Oakey (one of my first blog subscribers) recommended generators. Chuck and Michael said they had generators, and we sent them home to get them. I sent Onan to get gas. Someone else got fans and indoor AC units. Somebody else had a bunch of extension cords.

We made it back with plenty of time to spare. I told the volunteers to put the generators into place, and we would set everything up ASAP.

Jorge, not realizing that the clocks were no longer working (b/c the power was out) was preaching the sermon of a lifetime, in the dark, with no microphone. He finally saw my signal to wrap it up (I think he could have gone for another hour) and we cleared out the building quickly so we could work to set up the generators for the service.

As God as my witness, as soon as we got the room cleared of all of the people, the lights come back on, and the building powers back up. Everyone gets excited and I make the (premature) call to strike the generators because the power is fixed. Not more than 2 minutes after I say that, the power goes out again.

Reliving my fear of Homestead Power, I did not want to have a completely powerless system for the 11:30 service. We set up the generators anyway, and ran all essentials (audio, video, screens, computers) from two different generators. I was doubtful that two generators could handle the load, but I was happy with the results. At least we know now it can be done.

And the power did come back on before the 11:30 service was to start, so we had complete light and AC for the service. So we basically went crazy for about an hour for no reason, but I think God realized I needed to work on stress management.

I will say this. CF would not exist if not for our volunteers. Every week I'm in awe that people continue to give the way they do, and am thankful that they have taken ownership of CFs vision the way they have. Thank you for bouncing ideas, asking questions, analyzing situations, and basically making CF what we are today.

080407 Shuffled

In
The Polyphonic Spree :: Together We're Heavy
Sad Accordions :: A Bad Year for the Sharons

Out
Almost :: Southern Weather
Jon McLaughlin :: Indiana (selections)
U2 :: Joshua Tree
Coldplay :: X & Y (selections)
Until June :: self-titled (selections)
The White Stripes :: Icky Thump (selections)
High Flight Society :: High Flight Society (selections)
Rhodes :: half a Mind to Stay (selections)
sorry Daniel, I held out as long as I could.

NOTW Sighting in Miami

After seeing the success of NOTW in other Christian bookstores, and admiring the style @ the C28 location in West Palm Beach, we decided to bite the bullet and bring the line into the Living Word. For those of you guys who are dying to get a C28 into Miami... it's time to show the love and buy the stuff @ my bookstore. Create the demand, and I guarantee I'll get one down here.

Anyway, for those of you who have admired the NOTW designs from afar, but were too lazy to make the drive up to West Palm Beach to buy the shirts, "select designs" will be available at TLW. We brought in several of the wovens and polos. Definitely worth looking at... But the super-cool stuff is still up @ C28.

Oh, and whether you buy at TLW or at C28, remember that starting Saturday (8/4) we are going into our Tax-Free Holiday... which means that all clothing, books, apparel, and many other items are Tax-Free! Looking to buy some stuff? Save 7% on most of the inventory at TLW and at C28. Thank you very much State of Florida! Tax-Free Holiday ends Monday, August 13th.

Oh, and one more thing. Since I'm advertising here... C28 is bringing in several lines of shoes designed by NOTW. Let me know what you think. I'm legitimately looking for feedback here. What do you think?

The Demise of my Wife is Greatly Exaggerated

Several people have called very concerned about my wife. Since I haven't blogged about her return, saying she was home safely, she must not be okay.

Fearing the worse, since there have been no major plane crashes reported in the past couple days, her flight must have fallen into some space-time continuum (circe Michael Crichton novel "Airframe").

Or somehow she got trapped on an island in the South Pacific (nevermind that she was on an Atlantic flight) with these crazy people called "the Others" who are obsessed with women's reproductive organs and this smoke animal that eats all evil people (circe LOST, tv show).

Or she was never really in the Ukraine, and the Ukraine trip for the past 10 years has really been a cover for a secret government spy group that is trying to unravel a terrorist group called SD-6. Amy was rushed off to South America (Colombia to be exact) to battle toe-to-toe with her Arch Nemesis who was attempting to dethrone the American Economy by spoiling all the coffee beans (ie- no Starbucks, no economy). (Circe ALIAS, tv show).

Or, I'm going to go out on a limb here, we're both very tired. Amy's mother-in-law could have been in town for Amy's arrival on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then Amy and I could have spent Thursday up @ C28, and not really have had a chance to tell the world she's okay.

Whatever her "excuse" is, she will be posting on CFMissions.org very soon, and I'll let you know when it's up.

Thanks for those of you that continually check in. Seriously, thank you.

I [heart] Volunteers

Earlier this week I wrote on my workaholic tendancies, and my inability to handle stress when my wife isn't around.... and ended up having a very serious conversation about how to work with volunteers in ministry. If you haven't read the comments in "Workaholic Jerk", check it out.

Volunteering is difficult. We strive at Christ Fellowship to say that we want our "volunteers" to attend a worship service one hour a week, and then volunteer/serve in some capacity one hour a week. Sounds great in principle. However, practice sometimes looks different.

Today I spent almost eight hours watching four or five volunteers rework the stage lighting infrastructure in the Palmetto Bay worship center. Several of the volunteers were high school/college kids working for a free meal. There also were a couple adults who took the day off from work. All of these volunteers will work another 3-6 hours this weekend to make the worship service happen.

When I left at 6pm to come home, there were two guys still programming the light board. As hard as I tried to kick them out, they would not leave. Crazy.

Ownership is a weird thing. Honestly, of all stage elements, I know the least about stage lighting. Two of our key volunteers, Keith and Brian, know far more than I do. Instead of me mandating and dictating the situation to them, I basically let them lead...not like I knew enough to do it myself... What's phenominal is that at the end of the day these guys are smiling from ear to ear, unable to tear themselves away from volunteering, from serving. Keith kept saying this weird line over and over again, (I'm not sure if he was kidding), "If I knew serving up here was so much fun, I would have quit my day job!"

Maybe there's a little pride in the situation. Knowing at the end of the day you are the mastermind that created the effects... And at the end of the day I'm okay with that. They own the situation. They are the lighting guys...

Now, not everyone is suited to take ownership. Some volunteers don't have the knowledge of technology, or the maturity to lead others, or are capable of seeing the big picture, or know how to relate to a staff supervisor. But if you can find those diamonds in the rough, those guys that willingly take off a day of work to hang some lights... well, you better respect them.

The problem that I've found with volunteers that take ownership is that they don't know how to let go. When volunteering gets in the way of family, it's time to stop volunteering. When work suffers, maybe you should reconsider. I've seen guys get so wrapped up in serving that they burn themselves out. I was one of these people. And I wish someone on staff would have told me back then, "uh Jeff, STOP!" Volunteering is an awesome thing, but it's not worth the other parts of your life suffering.

More than any other church setting I've volunteered/served on staff, CF has taught me to respect and appreciate volunteers. I've also learned that they are a church staffer's most valuable asset, and need to be protected above all else.

Keith T., Brian L., Eric C., Luke I. and whoever else stuck their head in to help today, thanks for your time once again. I greatly appreciate the sacrifices that you and all of CF Media volunteers do week in and week out. CF Media would not be where we are today if not for our volunteers, on Palmetto Bay and Homestead campuses. For that, I am eternally grateful.