RUNwithGOD

Testing Polling Software

Everybody, I need your help. I'm testing out some polling software... Instead of being able to vote through web, this software allows you to vote through Txt Messaging (and provides realtime results). Please, test it out for me. It's so cool to see the bar graph change right when you vote! See below...

If you cannot read the text (problems with some Windows Computers) click on "Full Screen" on the lower left hand of the poll.

Txt 41411 from your phone, and send the message "Cast 3201" if you want to vote for "Boy", etc.

Qs, holler at me. If you can't see the bar graph, your RSS reader probably can't do Javascript. Click here.

Check out the software at PollEverywhere.com.

(Question was changed on 4/25)...

Death of the Whopper

Burger King started a national + viral ad campaign... Whopper Freakout. They went into one of their public restaurants and "pretended" that they no longer sell Whoppers. They had hidden cameras all over the place, videotaping real customer responses to the Whopper being discontinued.

Check out the video below...

Marketshare, Macs, and Worship 2.0

Oh, I'm loving this. Don't know whether Mac is "trendy" or we're looking at a new generation of computer users that haven't been brainwashed by Microsoft...

According to recent surveys on college campuses, college freshmen are flocking to Macs in record numbers. Up to 55% of college users prefer Macs.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the future.
It's a beautiful sight.

Aside from that, though, it's amazing to me that that many college students have laptops they use in class. Honestly, I graduated from college in 1999. I took my laptop to class maybe a half-dozen times. Mind you my Macintosh Laptop back then weighed 16 lbs (not kidding) but times are changing... always changing.

A question has been batting around my head for a couple years now... how can we incorporate this laptop-driven society into a worship service? All those laptop screens offer another avenue for people to connect... Is it possible to create a worship experience that can reach the televisiophonernetting society, live? Can we create a live, multi-sensory worship experience that is interactive in addition to educational, informational, and spritual? (Note: Don't have an answer. Just talking...)

Thanks to Cult of Mac for the photo.

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.

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.

The "Apple" Experience

"So, how did you feel waiting in line 13 hours when I just walked right in and got mine?"

I've heard the question several times. It's a valid question. Apple Stores had a ton of stock (although I was getting reports they were sold out within 48 hours). AT&T Stores, for the most part, sold out in 2 hours.

You know why I loved sitting in a borrowed lawn chair for thirteen hours? I got the Apple Experience.

1) Observers. People came by wondering why we were in lawn chairs. Hundreds (literally, hundreds) of people came up to start a conversation. And, of course, they always came to the front of the line... it was so bad we made a sign answering the questions, and when people asked we just pointed to the sign. Most at least heard of an iPhone, although some people didn't quite get it. We sat there mocking the passerbys. They mocked us. We mocked Apple Employees. They mocked us. All around it was a mocking experience!

2) Free stuff. Vendors in the mall handed out flyers/coupons/meals. I got bottled water, two chicken sandwiches, Starbucks coffee, and a couple bags of popcorn, totally gratis.

3) A day off. Sure, I could have sat at the beach, but with those pesky cancer-causing sun rays it's much safer to sit indoors.

4) Oops.

5) Community. Out of the 250 people in line, I communicated with the first 20 on a semi-regular basis. The great thing is we didn't use names, we used numbers. Since I was second in line, I was "Number 2". Please, no childhood bathroom humor. It was great to learn about what made these people think/tick. What were they going to do wit the phone, what they did for a living, how they lived... kids, marriage, etc...

Number 1, before I said anything about what I did, declared that he did not want to talk about "politics or religion". Several times during the day he started talking politics. When I reminded him and asked if I could start "talking about religion", he recanted his political views (although I agreed with him on most of his views).

Number 3 and his family are new Christians, and I enjoyed talking with them about their growing faith. They asked many questions that fledgling Christians would ask. I found myself smiling because we were discussing Christianity at its roots in the middle of a public area with 200+ people packed in like sardines. It was great.

Sometimes the "easiest/quickest" way is not the most beneficial. It's not the result - but the journey, right? Sure, I could have ordered the phone on-line and waited two to four weeks for it's delivery, but what would I have lost had I not done that.

The irony is that while I was stuck in line to buy a "communication device" I feel like for the first time in months I actually got to communicate with people.