RUNwithGOD

Vacation Musings, v1

On vacation for a week... got some time at my parents beachfront condo up in Stuart, FL. Check the Twitter and TwitPic for updates on that... this is probably the LAST Amy/Jeff vacation for a long time... thank you very much Caitlyn.

While on vacation, I've had a couple thoughts:

* 3G and EDGE network stinks in Stuart, FL. The speed is horrible. However, seeing that the average age of the people in this area is two minutes away from dead... I don't think anyone is complaining.

* Reflecting back on Starbucks @ Florida Turnpike Rest Stops... I don't think I've ever had a good experience, or a good drink...

* TiVO... next to my wife, my unborn child, and my dog... I do not think I could miss anyone more... iPhone, I'm sorry... you lose...

* I'm reading a book on businesses taking advantage of 2.0 society. The book cost $29.95. Man, that's expensive. I don't think I questioned how expensive it was when I bought it. Then I reflect on Christian retailing, and how any book over $16.98 people balk at the price... come to your own conclusions...

* I wish to apologize to my iPhone for inferring that I would not miss it. I still love you.

* HD TV looks phenomenal. I really should get this activated at the house.

* Heroes at Christ Fellowship: In my absence this weekend, a ton of guys are stepping up and filling in some of the gaps. Thanks Hector, Tony, Oscar, Charlie, Eddy, Ammy, Mary...

* Be praying for CF's Ukraine mission trip. They are currently somewhere over the Atlantic/Europe, and will beginning their mission trip in the coming days.

links for 2008-06-23

• Adobe Photoshop CS4 Interface and Screenshots [Updated]
  Preview snapshop of Adobe Photoshop CS4
  (tags: Design Adobe MacRumors AppleTV)

Favorite Facebook Flair

Thanks to Caitlin Elizabeth Berndt for making fun of me.

Facebookers can get the flair here...

Jesus, meet Dinosaur... Dinosaur, Jesus

I'm speechless on this one...

Thanks to "Stuff Christians Like" for the satyrical laugh, and to Z$ for bringing it to my attn.

Sunday Shout-Outs, First Edition

Starting a new category here on the blog... Shout-Outs... give me a chance to gush about volunteers/staff who do things out of the ordinary... There is a lot to be excited about this week.

What started out being a potentially horrible wknd ended up being one of the strongest weekends we've had in months...

1) Thanks to Priscilla F, for catching early on that the projector wasn't working @ CFWK.
2) Thanks to Scarlet H, for fixing a ProPresenter glitch @ CFR's Macbook Pro.
3) Thanks to Oscar R, for burning the midnight oil to prepare for CFH (despite "missing" computers).
4) Thanks to Charlie B, for fixing a dismantled MacPro @ CFPB's Studio this AM.
5) Thanks to Eddie P, for being all over the place @ CFPB this wknd.
5) Thanks to Tony T, Brittany S, and Warren C for learning new techniques for VJ and Lighting.
6) Thanks to Bruce O, and Phillip S for learning how to run a new camera position
7) Thanks to Jay S, Basil L, Ariel R, Molly M, and Gabby K for "double dipping"... (serving in more than one service this week to cover for the many people on vacation)

This was a great wknd at Christ Fellowship! Thank you, volunteers (those mentioned above and the many, many that were not), for raising the bar and caring enough about the quality of our sacrifice to go above "normal" expectations.

I am excited at CF because our members, our volunteers are excited. Their passion for excellence is what drives me to do better.

links for 2008-06-22

• Woman sues Victoria's Secret claiming thong injury
  Yet another reason why I cut back on my thong usage...
  (tags: VictoriasSecret Thong Sexy Lawsuit Legal Injury)

links for 2008-06-21

• Porn purveyors ogle Apple's iPhone 3G
  Is that porn in your pocket?
  (tags: MacDailyNews Porn iPhone3G)
• Psystar taunts Apple with Xserve clone
  For the first time ever... I am tempted to buy an illegal device... a $2,000 rack-mountable Mac... WOW!!!
  (tags: Psystar Apple Clone Server Xserve)
• Simpsons House In Real World
  No, I do not think it's weird that someone built a replica of Homer Simpson's house. If the real life Homer and the rest of the crew lived there, now that would be weird...
  (tags: Cool Simpsons Television Comedy Fun Design Animation)
• Barack Obama's Speech on Father's Day
  Is Barack Obama spinning himself Christian?
  (tags: 2008Elections BarackObama Speech FathersDay)
• Wait till this year: 10 reasons Cubs could go all the way
  Slowly finding myself starting to jump on the Cubbie bandwagon... if the Marlins can't make it, then...
  (tags: Cubs Baseball ESPN)
• The Best-Paid Bench Warmers
  Sadly, most of these people are paid millions of dollars to play a game, and play it poorly. Sometimes I really think I'm in the wrong line of work. Literally, I would have to work over a decade to make what they do (and do horribly) in a year.
  (tags: Sports Forbes Workaholic Failures Sad)

10 things missing from Google Apps for Non-Profits

I've discussed Christ Fellowship's move to Google's Apps for Non-Profits (I termed it CF+G). We started the transition over a month ago, and I am genuinely surprised at how easily CF's staff has adapted to the new interfaces and adopted to the "Google" way of thinking. I still cannot believe we didn't do this sooner, and cannot think of a mid-to-large size church that I would not recommend this system to.

With that being said, I got ten things Google needs to fix. Yo Google, pay attn!

10) Google Notifier for Windows doesn't work. Notifier (Windows Version) won't accept Google Apps user/passwords...

9) Unable to "merge" existing Google accounts with Google Apps accounts. Several of our users have pre-existing Google/Gmail/Blogger accounts... It'd be nice if they could merge their accounts with their new Google Apps account. One username/password is a lot easier to remember...

8) No support for Palm. I know, I know. I thought Palm was dead too. Evidently they're still around. I still have users using Palm... I need an easy way for Google Apps to sync with Palm...

7) Limited support for Outlook 2000. Crazy request. To upload Outlook data to Google Apps you need to have Outlook 2003. Most of our users used to use Outlook 2000. It'd be crazy to upgrade to 2003 only to ditch the software... come up with a way to upload Outlook 2000 data to Google Apps!

6) Google Docs unable to edit PDF. I'm probably asking the world here, but we should be able to edit PDFs through Google Docs, not just read them. Google, I want you to: accept an uploaded PDF, scan to editable text through OCR software, then let our users edit, collaborate, and view text.

5) Task Management Software? Why is it no software companies (Google, Apple) understand that people use To-Do Lists? Remember the Milk is great, but it's not Googleesque. Buy them out and merge the software...

4) More control over the "Start page". What Google Apps is missing is a true "Intranet" site. Google Start Page has the potential, but there's no way to Administer the page globally... to add, edit, delete modules or text on the page across all users simultaneously...

3) Calendar Reminders only work on the Primary Calendar. Reminders (Email, Pop-Ups, SMS) only seem to work for the primary calendar (top calendar), and not on "shared" calendars. It would be beneficial if the Reminders would work on all calendars, whether primary or not.

2) Calendar Pop-Up Notifications get Snoozed. Sometimes we get a reminder, but we don't want to deal with it immediately. Just like alarm clocks... sometimes you need another 10 minutes...

1) Google Sites upload limited to 20megs. Also, only able to upload one file at a time. Of all the Google Apps, Sites has me the most excited. HOWEVER, you gotta open up the file size to larger than 20 megs! Photoshop files are MUCH LARGER, especially with print. 20 megs is ridiculous! In addition, GIVE US BATCH UPLOADING!!! Who has time to do one at a time!

Finally, as an afterthought, if you (Google) could figure out how to get my Starbucks Grande Iced Coffee Black No Cream No Sugar delivered to my office by 9am, you would easily replace Apple as my favorite tech company. Thank you for your consideration.

ProTools now Leopard Compatible

From the "About Friggin' Time" column, Digidesign just announced that they are releasing a software update to their popular ProTools recording studio software that is Leopard (Mac OS 10.5.3) compatible...

The next problem, of course, is plug-ins. Check here for that...

Digidesign, thanks for being on the ball with this one. Not like Leopard has been out for, what, eight months or something... If you want to go ahead and start programming for Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6), that'd be great...

links for 2008-06-17

• Is Standby Power Stealing Money from Your Church?
  To turn off or not to turn off? This is the question...
  (tags: Energy ChurchRelevance Power StandbyPower)

Luddites, or what I learned (and remembered) from college...

Had a conversation with someone today where I referenced a group of people, the "Luddites." The person looked at me weird... time for a history lesson...

The Luddites were a social group in 1800's Britain that fought against the Industrial Revolution - mainly by attacking the Textile Industry which was booming in Britain during the era. Ironically, the Luddites did not become aggressive at the beginning of the Industrial revolution. Instead, they waited some 30 years before they became organized and began to attack.

Amazing to me how even 200 years ago people are afraid of what they do not understand... living in fear instead of learning to use the change to their benefit... For modern day implications, check out neo-luddism...

Thanks to my English Literature Profs for the education. Some would say that 18 credit hours (and a minor) focusing on British Literature was a waste of time, but hey, I got a blog post out of it...

links for 2008-06-14

• Philanthropy Has Seen Better Days
  It's getting harder and harder to share the love...
  (tags: Economy non-profit philanthrophy Business Businessweek)

VJs Wanted...

I need some help. (Please, hold the jokes...)

At CFPB we've expanded one of our media volunteer positions, the VJ (Video Jockey).

We switched recently from using EZ Worship (ugh) to ProVideoPlayer. PVP isn't new to CF, (CFH has used PVP since it launched last year). The ability to manipulate the hue, saturation, speed, brightness, contrast of a video virtually on the fly... well, this is another reason that the guys at Renewed Vision are my heroes!

While we used to just do one ambience/environment video every song (on center screen), now we're using three, four, five + videos per song... not to mention that we are now aggressively synching stage lighting with environmental videos and using intelligent lighting as well... yeah... the position has gotten a lot more necessary as our services expand.

But I digress. I need four volunteers who are willing to step up and help create the worship environment at CFPB each weekend (one per service). Experience isn't necessary. If you can 1) read 2) click a mouse - then you're perfect! If you're willing to volunteer at the service you attend, or at one of the other services... holler at me online or call the church office - 305/238-1818.

Thanks to all of our media volunteers who help create a worship environment audibly and visually every week!

iPhone: Early Adopter Tax ($$$ well spent?)

My tongue in cheek tirade against Apple (I'm really not upset, people) is actually echoed through the blogosphere.

This one is cool (it has graphs on it)...

Evidently, if I had not bought the first generation iPhone in June 2007, INSTEAD invested that $$$ in Apple Stock (AAPL)... today my ROI would have gotten me the new iPhone G3 version AND kept the $599 assets in AAPL stock.

That "Early Adopter Tax" gets me every time.

Thanks to Jon Sampson for the link.

Live @ CF CD/DVD Releases

Back in April Christ Fellowship had a special worship service, Night of Worship, where all of our campuses came together in worship of the One worthy of the worship. It truly was an incredible night.

We recorded the event... and after re-editing the video and remastering the audio, the CD/DVD combo - retitled Live @ CF - is finally releasing.

The $15 CD/DVD Combo will be available at CF Campuses this weekend. They will be available at the Living Word Christian Bookstore on Monday, June 16 at a discounted rate of $14.97. They're also available for purchase online through CFMusic.org

BTW, Media Crew, if you worked the event, I'm comping you a CD/DVD. You deserve that, and much more. Thanks for helping to make this happen!

To further tease you, here is the video JR Lovins' song, Living For Your Glory. Don't tell anyone, but it's my favorite song on the project.

10 Tips for CF Staff on switching to Google

I've talked about Christ Fellowship's transition into using Google for our communication (or as I've branded it, CF+G). It's been a great experience thus far. I'm currently doing some training sessions teaching our staff how to use the Google suite for all that it's worth.

Here's a list of 10 things that are worth repeating from the training:

10) Google Notifier
If you use the web-based email application, or you use the calendar, then you REALLY NEED to install Google Notifier on your computer. Even if you're not logged onto the website, you get immediate notification when an email arrives. Notifier also makes the web-based email option become your "default email" application. Works for Mac & Windows - sans Windows ME users...

9) Never delete an email
Straight up, you have almost seven gigs of email space. Unless it's junk mail or spam, DON'T DELETE! "Archive" your mail instead!

8) Search, and you will find
The strength of Google is their ability to catalog and analyze text data (ever use their search engine?). Feel free to search your entire email system. Type the name of a person, or their email address, or key words that would be found in an email. See what happens.

7) REPORT SPAM button
Occasionally, SPAM will trickle through. DO NOT DELETE SPAM. Instead, click on the checkbox next to the email, and click on the "Report Spam" button. By doing this, you will help Google prevent other people from getting SPAM. Good for you!

6) Multiple Calendars, one user
The strength of Google's Calendaring system is that you have the ability to share appointments with other people. But maybe I don't want everyone to know when Amy's birthing classes are going to be. If I create a separate calendar for my personal events, I then can share my work calendar with the work folks, and keep my personal calendar just for me (and Amy).

5) Text Messaging is your friend
Can't tell you how many times this saves me. Get a text message 15 minutes before a meeting reminding you, "Yo. Dummy. You got a meeting." (Note: SMS=Txt Messaging)

4) Remember the Milk
One thing missing from Google's suite is a good Task Management (read: to-do lists) option. Vivian pointed me to RememberTheMilk.com. Stupid name. Great site. If you use to-do lists. Go sign up for this. Great stuff! Plus, it integrates into start.cfmiami.org

3) ACS Integration
Speaking of start.cfmiami.org, you can easily integrate ACS into your start page. Check out the info below (thanks to Debbie for finding this.)

Visit start.cfmiami.org - click on add stuff, and then copy/paste the URL into the search field...

My Church Life - http://gadgets.acstechnologies.com/mychurchlife/google.xml

Small Group Metrics - http://gadgets.acstechnologies.com/smallgroups/google.xml

2) Separate Email Account to register on all websites
The best way to cut back on SPAM is to never give your email address on any website. I promise you, if you've ever put your email address on a website, mass email list, discussion board, chat room... they've sold your email address to someone else, or better yet, their database was broken into and data stolen (that happens, too!)

The way around this is to have a separate email account that you JUST HAVE FOR SPAM/JUNK MAIL. Since you're familiar with the gmail account interface, sign up for your free extra account here. For some of you the damage is already done, but if you take the measures above, the SPAM should get better over time.

1) Outlook? Never heard of it...
The #1 Tip I can tell you is that you should totally forget that Outlook is on your computer.

Qs, you know where to find me.

ROI, or why I HAVE to upgrade my iPhone

Apple announced earlier this Monday the iPhone 3G. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion. The tech rumor mill had this one nailed. 3G speed, GPS, Application Store, Enterprise... not much surprise in this one.

What I had heard, but didn't believe, was the price... $199 for an 8gig phone and $299 for the 16gig phone.

What the?

I'm an Apple fanboy. Sometimes an Apple apologist... but this is crazy. One year ago Apple releases iPhone v1, and I shell out $599 for the 8gig version. Apple doesn't sell them like hotcakes, and they drop the price. I'm fine with that. Apple releases the 3G version, and drops the price again! I paid $600 for less than 12 month old technology, and the new version of the phone with the same memory capacity (8gigs) is now $400 less? You gotta be kidding me.

On that note, I'm selling my phone. I have to, in order to get any return on my investment (ROI). The value of my less-than-one-year-old-iPhone bottomed out. You can buy a new one for $200, which means my old one is less than $200.

How much less? Here's my problem. If someone is going to spend $150 on an old phone, they might as well spend $200 on a new phone with more features. How low can it go? $125? $100? $75? Uh oh...

And just like that, my $600 iPhone drops 80% in value... mandating that I get out now in order to get something out of my investment... before it's too late and my iPhone depreciates any more...

I've already got one buyer (thanks Berch), but I may sell off Amy's iPhone too... if you're a potential buyer, let me know...

Thank you, Steve Jobs, for once again screwing over your early adopters. If I didn't love your products so much, I'd probably be upset. For now though, I'm just pumped because I'M GETTING THE NEW IPHONE!

iDENTITY for sale, iNQUIRE within

Met with my Broadman & Holman rep this evening... and he excitedly showed me this...

Yep, time to buy Eric's new book, iDENTITY. The new B&H title is hitting the street, er, bookshelves September 1 and it's time to order copies for The Living Word.

BTW, I ordered 72 copies for the initial order.

For comparison:
* Initial order for Joel Osteen's "Become a Better You" was 90 copies
* Initial order for Ted Dekker's "Skin" was 36 copies
* Average initial order for any given frontlist (read: new) book: 2-3 copies

Yeah, Eric, hope your book is good. Otherwise, I've got to pay freight to send these bad boys back...

iDENTITY will be available @ The Living Word, as well as through the Media Resource Center at Christ Fellowship.

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye

I feel like a small part of me has died inside.

For the past five months, this has been the view from my office. By my office, I mean JR Lovin's office. Since I came on staff @ Christ Fellowship in January, well, I didn't have an office. My office was, well, an occupied storage closet w/no power, no phone, no AC, no Internet, no paint, no lock... so, yeah... storage closet...

JR was nice enough to offer to share his office with me. And by office I mean the couch in his office. But after five months of staring at the back of JRs head and listening to him have constant arguments with himself (talk about freaky) I'm finally ready to move into my storage closet office.

Don't know if it was the most productive arrangement for either of us, but at least it was educational, enjoyable, a glorified frat-party that occasionally allowed for serious time, an experience.

Thanks, JR. jreed

links for 2008-06-06

• Ed Young, Jr. on “Church Pirates”
  interesting comments from Ed Young, Jr on church planting...
  (tags: EdYoungJr ChurchPirates ChurchPlanting)
• Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement addres
  (tags: Apple Stevejobs)
• U2 to reissue 3 albums with rarities
  Who wouldn't want U2 B-sides on vinyl?
  (tags: U2 Yahoo Music)

links for 2008-06-05

• Why, In China, Gas Is $2.49 A Gallon
  Egg Rolls, Fried Rice, Cheap Gas... why have I not moved to China yet?
  (tags: Gas Economy China Forbes)
• Answering Multi-Site Criticisms:  Multi-Site Churches Don’t Value Teaching Gifts
  Rough math... CF uses anywhere from 10-15 "teachers" every weekend (on all venues combined)... no, we don't value young teachers!
  (tags: MondayMorningInsight Teaching Multi-Site)
• Pilots land on a wing and a prayer
  (tags: news reuters prayer)

I thought I had a life

Thanks to Joy of Tech for the guilt trip perspective.

BTW, I scored 6 of 10. What'd you score?

When Jesus speaks, I listen

Huge fan of "the church" being involved in culture... Love that through all forms of media the idea, the concept of Christ is promoted... The world does not appreciate being beat over the head with a Bible. Time for some fresh ideas.

We've discussed music's "Spiritual Lens"... and movies like Tolkien's Lord of the Ring Trilogy and/or CS Lewis' Narnia films of course bring that Christ-figure to the forefront. There is a downside, though, to allowing culture to use the "Spiritual Lens".

If you're not careful, the allegorical Christ-figure, Aslan, will wind up peddling taquitos through some cheap parody of the Taco Bell Chihuahua.

Of course, since I am easily swayed in my faith, seeing the allegorical Christ-figure tell me "You want taquitos" only made me... well... want taquitos. Oh yeah, I keep forgetting, people have a hard time reading sarcasm in my blog. THAT WAS SARCASTIC!

Photo taken at Christ Fellowship West Kendall (which meets in a movie theater off Kendall Drive).

Rock Show, Revisited

"Rock Show? We prefer worship experience."

I overheard a conversation after our Saturday Evening Service. "The worship was incredible this evening. I thought I was at a rock concert..."

I've been "producing church" for a while now at big churches as well as small churches, and every time I hear "rock concert" in church context, I flinch. I know my heart, and the heart of those that I work with on stage as well as those that work behind the screens scenes... and to call our worship, our sacrifice, our offering to God a rock concert... well, I think the person is missing the point.

Don't limit what we do by calling it a "concert". Make no mistake, at Christ Fellowship we do use a different style of music (than most churches today do), BUT we are still worshipping God.... and the hours of sacrifice from our staff AND VOLUNTEERS is directed not at an audience for their personal enjoyment but in worship of One to bring Him glory.

I invite you to come worship with us. Use the environment we've worked hard to create to help you connect to God.

BTW, enjoy the raw video (Future's Decided) from our Worship Service Saturday night... Thanks to the MANY of you that help produce the worship environment at CF's twelve weekly worship services across Miami.