Wedding from Canada

Hey,

Some of you may know that part of my vacation will be in Victoria Canada where our Student Ministries Director Chris is getting married on Aug. 8.

I know there we a bunch of you who wanted to go but couldn't so we are going to do our best to broadcast the wedding here online.

Once we have the details finalized I will post the link here so you can watch.

Stay tuned for more and block out some time starting about 3:45 p.m. Mountain time on Saturday August 8!

Something New

Hey all, so I have an idea for something new for us. I know that there are several of us here at FBC who take photos, I also know that there are several who take really good photos! 

I've been trying for a while to come up with a way to access and outlet all of the creative photogs that are running around this place, then Carlos started something at his church in Atlanta and I thought, "Maybe we could try it here."

So here's the scoop. Let's call this the official start of the discussion about the Pocatello Photography Project.

Sketchy details...

• Open to anybody
  
• We would have a different project three or four times a year (relationships, power, moments, etc.)
  
• We would take photos that center around the project theme
  
• Photos would then be submitted and chosen for display and other creative uses
  
• We would build community together by meeting at the beginning of each project
  

It's just the start of the idea. 

What do you think?

I've already been approached by one local artist (who goes to church @ FBC) about using his work in our worship services.

The creative opportunities are nearly endless.

This is something we are going to do... but I want your input as we start.

Let me know what you think and if you want to be involved.

Technologicality or something like it...

When it comes to culturally relevant technology there are no shortage of options. Ipod, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and many more. The big question is how can the church use them to be more effective? Perry Noble said this,"What we allow to distract us can often be the very thing that eventually destroys us!" The funny thing is that he said on Twitter. Which can be distracting...

I've been mulling over ways that I can use these technologies to spread the Gospel of Jesus. I have some ideas but I don;t know if they will work. I recently had a conversation with some pastors about Twitter and how I use it. They had some good questions but the one that kept coming up was basically "why do I care if Perry Noble likes ice cream?" 

See, their idea of how Twitter is used leads them to a particular place of thought. Now I happen to know that Perry does indeed like ice cream, but that's not the main way he uses Twitter. Through his blog, and his twitter, the people in the church he pastors as well as others around the world get a better picture of who Perry is. That's what we've been trying to do with the staff blogs here. We use them as a way to communicate, encourage, and be known to all of you!

I want to see some of these work but only if they make sense...

More of us blogging and connecting to each others online life

Twitter as a communication tool for teams

TokBox as a way to do small groups, and training

Some others that I don;t have figured out yet...

I want them to be used technologically. They need to make sense for us. 

What say you?

Does any of this make you excited to try it?

I'm serious about this.

Let me know

The Abacus is here!

Thanks to everyone who voted in my poll. Based on your recommendation I have now received my abacus and am trying to learn how to use it!

Ok, so I didn't really get the abacus, although I did have a few people ask me if it was a new line of computers that they hadn't heard of yet. For those of you who don't know what it is! What I did end up getting though is the MacBook Pro.

After much research I'm convinced that the Mac and Windows machines are exactly the same when it comes to the hardware. The only real difference is in the OS. There is a new version of Windows coming out this year and it looks pretty neat, but I needed something sooner than that.

So I went ahead and got the Mac. I have to admit it does look very cool. But coolness aside, it is just a tool. In fact all of the cool things that I have are only tools that Jesus has given me to help point to people to Him! I have to remember that otherwise I just get to wrapped up in my stuff. I would bet that there are some of you who need to do that today! You need to recognize that your stuff is only yours because Jesus wants you to use it in a way that brings glory to Him.

I'm not saying don't enjoy it. I love playing my hand-built, custom electric bass. But if I only used it for me then I would be wasting it.

The Mac is cool, but I hope that because I am able to have it someone, or many someones, will get to know Jesus, who, by the way, is way cooler than Mac and Steve Jobs any day!!

Just went live!

Hey,

We got to try something new today. Live Webcasting! So it's not that new but we've never done it before. You can check it out here.

Now, I know that the quality could be better. Here's the facts. We need a better camera! There is one in the budget. BUt we can't spend money we don't have, so we do what we can with what we've got.

Look for more live coming soon!

Dealing with Technology

One of the things that I get to do in my job is help other churches with their technology problems. I found this little gem on YouTube. Thought you guys might like it. I think that we, as churches, sometimes treat technology like this. "various overkill to ensure eventual deafness speakers."