Scandalous Milk Carton Pre Episode 6 (Ten best practices for the young leader in ministry)
Check out our top 10 best practices (at the moment) that can help a young leader in ministry
Time Passes You By
Interesting possible observation made listening to six of the most amazing special effects gurus in Hollywood. I sat in a press room with the guys behind most of the big films you know and love.
For about 1/2 an hour I listened to them talk about the good old days. They talked about what’s wrong with the industry now. They talked about successes of the past. Really all of them talked about the good old days, except one named John, who was talking about the here and now.
The old way of doing special effects has really fundamentally changed. With the invention of the computer and the birth of the digital effects industry, no longer is there the same demand for model making, actual set building and miniature work.
Perhaps this concept is a bit generalized or oversimplified, but the point is - the times have changed.
You can talk about the good old days - what was and how it was a better time then - but the fact is, the revolution came and went and many were left behind. I’m not suggesting this to stomp on the old pioneering ways or to under-appreciate what people have done in the formative cutting edge past - I’m merely using it as a possible correlation to my personal and professional life to the here and now.
I must purposely advance or be left behind.
- As a young leader, are you looking at business/ministry models of the now or making models of the future?
- As a maturing pastor, is current methodology a signal you are ministering to a past generation?
- As a youth worker, are you focused on today or are you still riding the success of the good old days?
- As a web developer, are you resting on antiquated technology to communicate an urgent faith message?
- As an evangelist, am I pandering to the crowd I already have captured or am I pushing the message out to those who haven’t committed?
- As a visionary, am I too arrogant to use the mind of others or be a part of the team?
I’m not here to suggest that the old ways have all expired. These men are the reason movies like this exist. They created an industry, then the industry briskly advanced into the future.
The message remains the same, but the method must always change.
Either that, or we’ll end up being the 5 guys in a room talking about the good old days and there will be 1 guy still making movies.
JG
Josh as Survivor - man
Funniest YouTube Video I have Seen so far…
Open Source Mac Software (meaning free and good)
Staying to my Apple roots and the technology swagger of this blog I came across an awesome site for Apple nerds this evening. It is loaded with all of the best open-source software that has been and is being developed for Apple computers. The site to find the software is http://www.opensourcemac.org/, here are my top 4 picks:
- Firefox: Oh where would I be without the most secure and highly extensible web browser. I have tried stints in other browsers like Safari and Camino, but all the sweet add-ons for Firefox and the Greasemonkey scripts keep me coming back. Add-ons like “Make Link” which will take any link on the page and then format it into html or your preference for pasting, Better Gmail which combines all the best Gmail Greasemonkey scripts, or Commentful from Blueflux that helps you track blogs you have commented on, or Scribefire which lets you compose blogs right from the browser…. The list goes on and on, and the added functionality is too much to pass up on – especially for the productivity boosts! Firefox is the best browser, hands down, and my #1 pick.
- Handbrake: Want to take that DVD and make it a watchable movie on your computer in one click? That is Handbrake. I actually have ended up using it a lot for my own movies to watch through Front Row, or Apple TV now, and I have also used it to take small snippets that plug in better to programs like Media Shout for youth programs. Very nice!
- Audacity: I have not used this program much, but every tutorial I come across for podcasting or audio references this program. I believe there is an Apple and Windows version (same with Handbrake above), and it is very feature rich for the price. This is definitely the sleeper in my list. It has a high value for any one dealing with audio.
- Adium: If you are a pc user than you have heard of Trillian, a program that combines all of your IM accounts into one buggy and frustrating interface. Well, Adium does that without the buggy and frustrating. Really, for all the services it is plugging into it is a fast and clean program that definitely gets the job done. One another note, just pick 1 (2 at the most) IM clients. If people need to chat with you they can use your IM service. (I use Skype primarily “tony.steward” so add me and we can chat!)
Who Are These Guys Yackpack
Yackpack.com rocks, if you haven’t checked it out yet, well, you should. But moving in that spirit, we are going to “try” a YackPack group instead of a forum. So, if you want to be in our group send me your email and I will send you an invite!
Rock on!
Synthetic Chicken Nuggets Pre-Episode 5
Social Networking is the popularity darling of the Web 2.0 movement, but when you want to mobilize a community - is it effective and even necessary? Josh and Tony review their thoughts on social networking, especially in the context of their familiarity - youth ministry. And they have a special guest pop in…
Each Day into 3 segments
This weekend I heard a time management principle from my pastor that I have heard before, but that I am thinking about taking seriously now. That is to make each week into 21 segments; which is 7 days into morning, afternoon and evening, and organizing what I plan to do in those segments.
I have been a Getting Things Done, David Allen junkie for that past 18 months, but I find the distraction of large lists to be counterproductive. I am moving to this middle ground between GTD and 4 Hour Work Week, where I not only capture things so they don’t fall through the cracks, I also limit the things I am trying to capture or just doing the ones with the highest value (80/20 rule land).
Regardless of whether you use 4 Hour Work Week, Getting Things Done, or Franklin Covey, I think Prioritizing your time will always trump Managing your time. If you let a bunch of junk in, you can manage it all you want, it is still junk.
So, here it goes with the 21 segments experiment - I will let you know how it goes!
Top 5 Web2 Sites for Ministry
- Highrise: This Contact Relationship Management tool has a free version that will work for most ministries, and is very flexible for your preference of organizing people. With reminders, tasks, and tagging – as soon as you start using it you will realize the power it gives you to care and pastor the people and leaders around you.
- WordPress.org: As easy as it is to use a hosted blog service (blogger or Wordpress.com), Wordpress.org’s free blogging platform will give you a ministry website and blog that is very flexible and useful. With loads of helpful plugins from podPress for podcasting to SEO tools (Search Engine Optimization) that help your blog show up in search results – this is a no brainer.
- Google Analytics: Google’s free web statistics tracking site is the best bar none. And it is the best price of all, free!
- Meetup.com: Social Networking is everywhere, but sites like MySpace and even Facebook are just time sinks that require you to always be online to connect. Meetup.com is a social networking site totally focused on getting you offline to “meetup”. If your ministry wants to enter the public square in social networking, but in a way that helps people actually connect to you, this is the tool to use!
- Google Reader: as a pastor you need to keep up on world events, local events, and anything else you can get your hands on to be informed, to get illustrations, etc. Google Reader helps you subscribe and share the articles you read through RSS feed subscriptions from blogs, websites, etc. Having this database of information all sent to you, instead of having to go to all the different websites out there is a time saver. There are even sites like icerocket.com that will give you RSS feeds for searches you make, so you can stay apprised on issues relevant to your ministry.
San Francisco Pics
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