Erin Manning is a professional photographer and has recently put together a nice little video that will help all of us amateurs take better portraits. A great watch especially right before the holidays. The video doubles as an add for her new book, but it’s not too annoying and the tips are worth it.
Hat tip to Dumb Little Man
Kay and Rick Warren have invited 3 Republican candidates (former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney) and 3 Democratic candidates (Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John Edwards) to speak at the 2007 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church.
Clinton has already agreed to attend the others are reportedly working on their schedules.
Should be interesting
Bill Mercer, former play-by-play announcer for World Class Championship Wrestling, the Cowboys, Rangers and others was on KERA’s Think yesterday (as a replay show).
Anyone in the broadcasting business around here knows the name Bill Mercer. And anyone who considers themselves a sports fan has probably heard his voice. In September we spent an hour with Mercer, whose 50+ year career as a broadcaster and broadcasting instructor continues today. His recent memoir is “Play-By- Play: Tales from a Sports Broadcasting Insider” (Taylor Trade, 2007).
I’m going to have to add that book to my Amazon Wishlist for sure.
A couple churches have shared surveys they’ve given their congregations over the last couple months.
National Community Church and Granger Community Church have both shared their surveys online.
Also, Willowcreek Community Church in Chicago recently announced the findings of one of their recent surveys and admitted that they’ve been wrong in their way of thinking and doing ministry.
That’s a bit jaw dropping but can you imagine what might have happened if they never surveyed their congregation and kept doing “business as usual.”
I’m working on a survey for the community groups in our church and wondering if any other churches out there have surveyed their congregations or specific groups and ministries within their church. What have you found? What did you change? Where did it lead you?
I posed a question to my community group last night, “Why are you involved in a/this small group?â€
I thought the answers offered some interesting insight into why our group has come together. I’m sure this varies from group to group and person to person, but it seemed that community and intimacy with others seemed to be the predominant answer.
As the leader, I think (maybe selfishly) I hoped they would all say, “to learn more about the Bible.†But for those last night, building community and friendships is what really made them say, “Let’s get involved.†And their answers make sense. While Bible study is a large part of our meeting, the group really comes alive when we share life together. Whether or not that’s in the middle of looking at a passage of Scripture or eating a taco, sharing life experiences with others really seems to put a spark in people’s eyes.
KERA’s Think had a great show yesterday with the author of the Mother Jones Magazine article, “Did I Steal My Daughter?”
I thought it was a very interesting discussion and look at foreign adoptions and some of the thoughts a mother and father might have from both sides of the coin. Laurie and I have talked about possibly adopting a child from Russia or another country someday so who knows… the information could come in more handy than we realize.
From Think:
What do parents who adopt children from abroad really know about the child’s circumstances and background? Our guest this hour, journalist Elizabeth Larsen, plunged headfirst into the world of international adoption when her family adopted a young girl from Guatemala. She writes about the experience in “Did I Steal My Daughter?” which appears in the November/December issue of Mother Jones Magazine.