Tag: church

Still looking…

11/365

Well, I feel like a slacker, but I’m still looking for a new church home after I resigned in late May from my position on IBC staff.

I visited Taylor’s Valley Baptist today. I enjoyed it. It was a nice service with a mix of hymns and newer praise songs. And they still had an organ. Props to them.

Bill Muske filled in this morning and did a great job preaching on prayer.

I hear their singles group is pretty good. And its mainly led by the singles (go figure – a Sunday School class led by the members in the class – wait am I being cynical). So maybe I’ll try and make it to Sunday School there after we get back from North Carolina, or I might try and go to their weekly Bible study tomorrow night.
We’ll see how work goes tomorrow.

Well, back to napping or reading the Morning News or whatever I was doin before I fell asleep.

Indy Ringtones

Rythym at Myspace.com reports about a new service for indy bands to upload ringtones that listeners can then download straight to their cell phone.

So what is this wonderful thing I keep hyping up? Ring tones. That’s right, RING TONES, BABY. It is artist-driven downloadable ringtones that is geared towards fans. I just signed Rhythm up and you can already download their songs onto your phone (via www.rhythmonline.com). For fans, you can download a song today and it will be your next cell phone bill. For Artists it does cost money to get it all set up, but they have given me a referral code ‘rhythm’ that will give you and
everyone you sign up an an instant $10 discount!! That is huge. So for less than $40 you get your stuff online and start making money today for each download.

I like this idea. I don’t know how big it will get – but I like it. Personally I just use my bluetooth adapter, record an mp3 of my favorite songs, edit them and then upload them to my phone using bluetooth (but that doesn’t work for technically challenged people.)

What if praise bands get on board?

With many phones now carrying enough memory and having the quality to work as MP3 players, what if sermons could be sent directly to cellphones of people in your congregation?

Using RSS, new Mp3 and podcasting technology I’m sure there’s an advertiser somewhere figuring out how to get you to subscribe to the Nike RSS or Pepsi RSS or Polka RSS where they will automatically send you an ad every day with special offers and the like.

How can we as a church jump on and use this?

You can subscribe to services that will send verses to your phone already.

What about a daily devotion from a pastor or and audio commercial for an upcoming prayer service?

This could get very exciting as technology advances and more and more people update their phones, and mp3 players and the like.

As promised: Film at 11

Tonights film:

Thanks to Charis for the film.

Speaking of film, betachurch.org suggested churches hosting a film festival.

I think that sounds like a lot of fun. They suggest buying a camera or two, and an iMac and let kids make their own movies. I don’t know if I’d be that trusting, but I think with kids, teens or adults it would be a fun and good community draw.

What do you think?

Podcasting

effective web ministry notes has an interesting entry on podcasting and its future.

I think this could be the next big thing.

How long will it be before churches begin podcasting services or Bible studies to shut-ins or people traveling?

How great would it be to be traveling with your family during the summer, take a break at a restaurant with Wi-Fi access, or even from your hotel room, and in the process download a podcast of your church’s Sunday morning service for you and your family to listen to as you continue your travel down the road.

With former MTV VJ and podcast founder Adam Curry giving podcasting a huge push and Sirius Radio giving Curry a four hour program to push podcasting — it’s coming.

How will we as Christians take advantage of it and use it to further the Kingdom of Heaven?

What other ways do you see podcasting being used to present the gospel in new relevant ways?

I’m excited and hope I can be on the frontlines.