Small Church Looking For A Big Website?
My friend Luz pointed me to a great new resource for small churches looking to get a quality website on a budget: Cloversites.com
Good Sites.
Why I was impressed…
- By far the easiest Content Management System (“where you go to make changes on the site and stuff”) that I’ve seen. You click the text and change it. You drag away or drag in pictures. Brilliant.
- Posting messages is a breeze. Site has its own module for listening to and downloading sermons.
- Church Calendar maintenance is a breeze–another module for that too.
- The sites are gorgeous. (They’re in flash…which may be a problem for a small number of users)
- Great pricing. Monthly fee after set-up is only $20 and includes 10GB of storage. Initial set-up is 1K. But they look like they’re worth it. (And as far as sites go … that’s pretty reasonable.)
- Good, varied templates that are a snap to customize.
CMS @ work
Why I Have Abandoned iTunes
Goodbye Apple. Hello emusic & amazon.
Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event happened today and they unveiled a bunch of new features and stats and ads. It ended like any good “rockin’” event with the unbelievable energy and theatrics of…Jack Johnson. Apparently he softly banged his acoustic guitar onstage at the end but his beautiful Koa wood guitar held up pretty well. (Also apparently, he grew a beard for the event to boost his “GOD OF ROCK” image.)
And in other news…I have abandoned iTunes.
Don’t get me wrong. I still use the program to store and listen to all my music…it’s just that I don’t buy things on the iTunes store anymore. I’m sure that sounds rather harsh–leaving my first music store love and all–but it happens. This is a free market economy. I love Apple when Apple is the best, but I leave it when it’s not. For what I want to buy and listen to, iTunes isn’t the best.
So iTunes Store: It’s not you, it’s me. Really.
Here’s what I left the apple store for…
Despite a generic and unpromising name eMusic is the best way to get anything not signed to a major label. You pay a monthly subscription (ex: $15 for 50 downloads) and then go crazy buying music every 30 days. Sigur Ros. Beirut. Arcade Fire. Bon Iver. Etc. Etc. It’s also a good way to keep your music library fresh on a budget every month. You can also re-download anything you purchase at any time for free.
The albums are usually a dollar less and the music is DRM free. (I agree with the idea of DRM for legal purposes but when the fam and I are transferring music choices…it’s a pain.) Whenever you download something from Amazon it’s automatically added to your iTunes library, so no extra pain there. Plus, every day you can get a featured album for $1.99 (like Radiohead’s “OK Computer”!)
Found any other good (legal!) places for music? Let me know.
The Radical Love of God – Even the Adulterer
In my college and career group we’re going to be talking about The Radical Love of God for the next few months at our corporate meetings. Right now I’m studying Hosea ch 1-3 and it’s really changing the way I see the love of God and the cross of Christ. It involves Hosea’s marriage to the unfaithful Gomer as a metaphor for God’s love for his people.
Here are a couple quotes on the text I can’t shake:
“Did you ever think of sin as something so personal, something so directly involving God? That’s how God describes it. Rejecting God’s law is turning away from him! Sin, God goes on to say, is “contempt” (12:14). Contempt for whom? Contempt for him, of course. Breaking the law was not merely the breaking of some impersonal principle. It was the betrayal of a personal covenant, like a marriage covenant.” -M. Dever
“She had been faithless all along, and finally she had gone off with another man. Hosea could have had her stoned by law, just like we stand condemned by law. But God commands him to love her. “Go again, love her.” And not just to go and get her and love her, but to be willing to pay this ‘significant other’ for her. If that was not almost an emotional impossibility, Hosea could not afford it. If he could have, he probably would have paid cash. But he couldn’t. So he paid half in cash and half in barley. And the total amounted to what Exodus 21:32 says a female slave costs. Gomer had evidently sunk to the lowest possible level. And God says to Hosea, “Get her back, whatever it costs, get her back. The reason God could expect that of Hosea is that he aims to do just that with his wayward Israel, and he had shown this to Hosea.” – J. Piper
Voice-Over
Me and Kara at Starbucks:
Me: “Kara! The Movie voice-over guy is dead“
Kara: “What guy?”
Me: [Doing voice-over voice] “IN A WORLD…”
Kara: [Gasp] “NO! How did he die?? [looks it up online] His lung collapsed?? Weird. He was just in a commercial.”
Me: “Yeah. Weird.”
[Moment of Silence for Mr. LaFontaine]
Me: “Hey Kara.”
Kara: “Yeah?”
Me: “They’re probably looking for another voice-over guy right now…”
Kara: “And…?”
Me: “It could be…ME.”
Kara: “Uh, no.”
Me: “Yes it could!”
Kara: “No. It couldn’t.”
I still think she’s wrong. I kind of wonder who I should send my voice-over demo to. Maybe I could send a card to the family with flowers saying:
“I am so sorry to hear of your loss. Mr. LaFontaine made the movie previews an event–not just an extra 15 minutes to buy popcorn. Sincerely,
-Ricky
PS: Do you know where I should send my voice-over demos?”
60 Second Movie Reviews: “Singing In the Rain” “Giant” “King Kong (1933)”
The Movies Return
Two weeks ago The Plaza Theatre (probably my favorite venue in the world) hosted its first movie festival since it’s re-opening. Two weeks of classic films that you’ll probably only ever see once (if ever) on the big screen.
In case anyone out there loves TCM the way I do I thought I’d throw out my thoughts on the three movies I saw. I don’t have time to write verbose movie reviews and you probably don’t have time to read them, so they’re short.
Synopsis: Movie star boy meets cute girl extra. Singing & Dancing. Movie star girl doesn’t like cute girl extra and struggles to cope with the demands of changing industry technology so movie star girl tries to destroy cute girl extra. Singing & Dancing. Movie star girl is exposed as fraud and everyone celebrates by Singing & Dancing.
2 Cents: Our college and career age crowd made an event out of this one thanks to the incomparable Joel Barr. Movie star boy meets girl.This one made me realize how seldom we really watch (really watch) old movies. Half the time we’re talking over the actors, cooking, surfing the net, and coming in and out of the room. I’d seen this one probably a half dozen times but realized I’d never really really paid attention. The one-liners are sharper and funnier, the dancing is more athletic, the sets are even bigger when you focus just a little bit. The huge dance number at the end is insane and borders on the psychedelic (dream sequence within a dream sequence featuring a 30ft blowing dress anyone?). What really carries this one is Gene Kelley’s boundless smile. He’s never more at home than when belting out “Gotta Dance” to the world. This little quirky (and it’s definitely quirky) movie slaps our cynical american selves out of our sarcasm with a ray of sunshine.
Watch It: Whenever it comes on.
Synopsis: Insane director sails to the Island time forgot with beautiful actress. Upon arrival beautiful actress is captured by natives and offered to a giant gorilla. Rescue mission involves dinosaur encounters, sea monsters, and very intense claymation fights. Girl is rescued from giant gorilla after giant gorilla visits death and destruction on entire village. After seeing this, director decides it would be a good idea to bring killer gorilla to New York. Gorilla escapes, causes death and destruction, then climbs tall building.
2 Cents: If this sounds cheesy…it is. But when you imagine that no one had ever seen anything quite like this before you can see why it caused a sensation when it was released. The movie is far more violent than I thought it would be (kong stomps villagers to death, eats villagers, derails trains) and is simply packed with action. The “beauty and the beast” theme manages to come through all the action and gives the film’s final pronouncement enough weight to make you feel like you watched a film worth watching, and not just a film about claymation monsters strangling each other.
Watch It: If it’s on late and you’re doing homework, you’re a film buff, or you wished Wallace & Grommit featured monster claymation fights.
Synopsis: A rough and tough Texan visits Maryland and comes home with a Northern bride. Together they overcome the challenges of marriage, racism, James Dean, rebellious kids, and tradition. [Yes, this does sound eerily like my life with Jenn. No I'm not making this up.]
2 Cents: This is the first film with James Dean in it that I’ve ever seen and I think I get why he’s a cult magnet. In this movie I couldn’t understand what he was doing as an actor half the time…making it either brilliant or insane. This is a 3hr+ sprawling epic that takes on a lot more than it can handle thematically (the anti-racism themes especially come off as a little heavy) But, it has its high points. The triangle (and later, fight) between Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James dean is brilliant. The film does capture the feel of the west Texas desert well. The score was simple terrible. Overall, I felt like the movie needed to be either longer (including more characters) or shorter (including less characters) to be great.
Watch It: If you’re in the mood for a 3hr+ sprawling epic about 2 generations of cattle and oil texans…or you like James Dean.
On Loving My City
One place I like.
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce….seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” -Jer 29: 4-7
I’ve been trying lately to grow my heart for my city. As a Christian my mission is to bring glory to God, to become more like Jesus, and to tell other people about Jesus so that they can bring glory to God and become like Jesus too. But as part of that mission I need to develop a heart for my city and for the people living in it.
For now I’m starting small. Before I can serve my city well I need to understand and love my city. Me trying to serve a city I don’t understand would be like handing out toothbrushes to homeless guys (which is a real need, seriously,ew ) when I hot meal would serve them better. And if I don’t love my city I’m more likely to throw care packages out my car window that walk up and have a conversation with someone.
El Paso seems easy to bash. There’s a lot to make fun of. But there’s also a lot to be thankful for and excited about. And I’d much rather help where I see a need, than complain that no one’s helping. So here are some practical, imperfect ways I’m trying to love my city:
- Go to great events like The Movies Return to the Plaza Theatre movie festival. Sitting there waiting for Gene Kelly to dance onto the screen, sitting under twinkling stars in the performance hall, I didn’t want to be anywhere else.
- Keep up with loca l politics and city issues. http://newspapertree.com/ is my favorite source. (As near as I can tell the Times is run by a bunch of goldfish [Hey, I didn't say I had to love everything about my city])
- Get involved with local projects. I’m really excited about the Capture El Paso project. (And really grateful that, apparently, there are good web designers and photographers here.)
- Venture outside the chains and find great new stores and restaurants owned and run by people from my city.
- Remember it’s okay to chuckle when people make fun of the city, but don’t shy away from pointing out the good as well.
- Learn Spanish. Whew. Even after 4 college semesters I’m still bad. But I’m on an intense new program that involves watching Spider-Man 3 in Spanish so I’m hopeful.
- Learn to love the desert. Seriously, people from Europe are fascinated by the landscape here. I never really understood why but…I think I’m starting to.
- Volunteer outside of church. My next project. I’m looking for a good place to do that.
The great thing is that after just minimal effort to love my city, I see a lot to appreciate. And as my gratefulness for the people and businesses and events here grows, so does my heart to get the gospel to these people.
So, if you’re trying to do this I want to learn from you. How are you trying to love your city?
Election Meditation
Here’s a quote I’ve been meditating on during the election (Obama’s selection of Biden, McCain’s attacks, John Edwards affair, Bush’s foreign policy, etc.):
“In so great weakness of man’s nature, and especially in this crazy age of the world, we ought to take in good part any moderate happiness we enjoy by government, and not be altogether as a nail in the wound, exasperating things by misconstruction. Here love should have a mantle to cast upon lesser errors of those above us. Oftentimes the poor man is the oppressor by unjust clamors. We should labour to give the best interpretation to the actions of governors that the actions will possibly bear.” -Sibbes, The Bruised Reed, p 31
That last statement struck me especially. Though, I’m still trying to work it out practically.
Bruised Reeds & Smoking Flax
Ah, Dr. Sibbes
I’m making my way through Richard Sibbes’ “The Bruised Reed” and it is good stuff. I love the images Sibbes uses to illustrate his points (though I’m not totally sure I understand exactly how he’s getting the entire content of this book out of three verses in Isaiah 42). Reading his words, you get the feeling that Sibbes was a caring pastor that you’d love to have counsel you through difficult times.
Sibbes counsel doesn’t shy away from telling Christians that they need to be ‘”bruised” to be like their most bruised savior, but neither does he lose sight of the goal: “A set measure of bruising of ourselves cannot be presribed, but it must be so far as (1) that we may prize Chrit above all, and see that a Savior must be had; and (2) that we reform that which is amiss.”
Sibbes continues this blend of grace and mercy: “It is good in mixed assemblies to mingle comfort that every soul may have its due portion. But if we have this as a foundation for truth, that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us, there can be no danger in thorough dealing.”
And this gem of a passage: “None are fitter for comfort than those that think themselves furthest off. Men, for the most part, are not lost enough in their own feeling for a Savior. A holy despair in ourselves is the ground of true hope. In God the fatherless find mercy (Hos. 14:3); if men were more fatherless, they should feel more God’s fatherly affection from heaven, for the God who dwells in the highest heaven dwells likewise in the lowest soul (Is. 57:15). Christ’s sheep are weak sheep, and lacking in something or other; he therefore applies himself to the necessities of every sheep. He seeks that which was lost, and brings up again that which was driven out of the way, and bings up that which was broken, and strengthens the weak (Ez. 34:16). His tenderest care is over the weakest.”
Maybe I don’t realize my Savior’s love as well as I might because I don’t try to root out my sin as much as I should. When I see my sin, when I feel my weakest, God bestows His most tender care.
A Short Short Love Story & A Handover
I love really love words but…I also really love looking at things.
Sadly, I’m not a visual artist, graphic designer, filmmaker, or anything like that. I can’t even draw. (Well, I can’t even write words clearly freehand but that’s another problem…) But here are two things I’ve enjoyed looking at lately.
1. A Short Short Love Story
A filmmaker named Carlos Lascano has, apparently single-handedly, been working on a combination stop-motion and animation project called A Short Short Love Story. It’s gorgeous. A beautiful story that uses beautiful imagery to add to, but not overpower, its focus. If you enjoy watching anything, watch this.
beautimus
2. London 2012
London’s Olympic games seemingly can’t do anything without causing controversy. First it spends an obscene amount of money on a controversial logo. Then it turns the Olympic Handover Ceremony into a quas-rock concert with a blossoming bus, a 30ft dress, and a bunch of dancers that can’t decide whether they’re in The Newsies* or a modern dance class. The Guardian called it “part rock festival, part seaside outing, part Wimbledon fortnight,” and said it “offered a tantalising glimpse” of the games. But The Telegraph said “Another toe-curling embarrassment like this would be unendurable.”
Personally, I thought the London Handover had some bright flashes but didn’t come together well. I liked the introductory video better. At the very least I like the irreverent punk feel of it more than the stuffy (and at times creepy) Chinese ceremonies.
It says"2012"
almost cut my hair
It happened just the other day
It’s gettin kinda long
I coulda said it wasn’t in my way
But I didn’t and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
Cause I feel like I owe it to someone
(Thanks Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. You can make anything sound rebellious when you sing it earnestly enough–even a song about haircuts.)
(I don’t have long hair but I don’t think that’s what the song is about anyway.)
