A good friend of mine sent me this article posted by Perry Noble (pastor at NewSpring Church), and I couldn’t help but post it. He is discussing the misnomer some people have that wearing a suit or dress to church actually makes you “more godly.”
Man, I could not agree more with what he is saying.
Just an excerpt:
What I am wondering is where in the world did the modern day church ever get the idea that somehow dressing up in a suit OR wearing a dress equals godliness…and those who would wear jeans and a T-shirt, or even (GASP) flip flops just are not as godly. Can we all say “insecurity†boys and girls?
Now I’m not a theologian or a scholar…but it seems to me that someone who would look down their nose at someone else for not dressing properly–when no dress code is mentioned in the Bible–is PRIDE and ARROGANCE…you know, the things that got satan kicked out of heaven!
Now, I’m not saying that you’re wrong to wear a suit or dress by any means (and neither is Perry). I know several people who wear suits every week that are some of the most godly men I’ve ever met. But I’ve also met many on the other extreme. I’m just saying that what you wear on Sunday (or any other day, for that matter) doesn’t define you in God’s eyes.
Go check out the whole post.
Perry Noble dot com – Superficial Sunday in the South
Church Marketing Sucks also had a good post on this a few years ago: Sunday Morning Dress Code
As did Monday Morning Insight: Church Dress Code Still an Issue for Many
Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Culture, Worship
Last Sunday, we didn’t have a “sermon” at Amelia. The last message in our Decibels series was brought by four individuals in our church family via video testimonies or stories.
I finally got them posted last night, so you can see all four of them on our website.
Go check them out when you have a few minutes. Several of us put quite a bit of work into them (including the four people who gave their stories, Mike, Brian, and myself), and we hope they affect you as much as they did us. One of them is even from my wife, Marie.
It was an awesome weekend, and people are still continuing the discussion even today, which is a great sign.
Great things happen when God’s people are real.
Amelia Church of Christ – Shouting With Your Story
Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Ministry
We’re back from CIY and now in the midst of VBS (it’s like the month of acronyms or something).
CIY was amazing. It was great to get to know some of our high schoolers more and to see them grow throughout the week. We have some great kids at ACC.
Marie and I also got a lot out of the week aside from the kids. The whole conference was just a great experience (just as I remember it being when I was in high school myself).
One thing that was amazing to me (and yet not surprising) was the way technology has shaped what we do at these things in the last 10 years. The amount of audio, video, lighting, etc. that was used there was staggering. It’s amazing the resources that we have now that we could have only dreamed of 10 years ago. CIY did a great job of marrying everything together to produce some amazing worship experiences. They were able to use these tools to engage a very large group of otherwise distracted and media blitzed teenagers.
Along that line, one of the electives I attended was called “Backstage Pass and Production Principles,” and it was basically a tour of the whole stage setup (back and front of house) and Q&A session with the Production Manager, Josh Maichele. Josh was very impressive. He took any and all questions, and he was a great resource to all of us there. He ran a killer production, and he was extremely nice. It was great to ask him specific questions about how they do what they do, and to see up-close all of the equipment and props they were using.
I’ll post more later on the week. I’m also working on some videos from it all, and I’ll post them once I get them finished.
CIY
Luminous Student Ministries
Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Luminous, Ministry
Our youth group is getting ready to head to CIY in Illinois this upcoming week, and they happened to be two sponsors short at the last minute due to some unforeseen schedule changes, so Marie and I decided to jump on board!
We had originally considered going months ago when the suggestion was brought up, but we didn’t think we were going to be able to at the time. We were still unsure of whether stuff was going to work out with it or not, but we decided to go ahead with it anyway and let God figure out the rest.
It’s been years since I’ve been to a CIY conference, and Marie has never been, so we’re both looking forward to it. It will be great to spend some more time with the awesome teens at our church, and it will be a great time to recharge ourselves as well. I think we both need it right now.
It’s funny how God gives you the right thing at just the right time. Sometimes it comes out of nowhere. And sometimes when you plan on something (or don’t plan on something), God gives you His plan instead.
Can’t wait for next week! Maybe I’ll post a video or something from the week when we get back.
Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Personal
Read a great post over at eMinistryNotes this morning about explaining RSS in plain English. I’ve taken a stab at it on our church’s website before, but this video (from CommonCraft) does a great job explaining things.
Check it out.
There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don’t. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don’t know where to start.
eMinistryNotes – RSS in Plain English
CommonCraft – Video: RSS in Plain English
Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Google, Tech, Tools, Web
Our new student ministries website is officially live starting today. You can visit it at www.ameliastudents.com.
We’ve worked really hard to make it a safe and fun place for our students and their friends. You’ll probably see some changes with it over the next several months as we tweak it to be even more centered on the needs of our students.
On the tech side of things, I built the site using WordPress 2.0.7 (there are some conflicts with 2.1 and the polls plugin that we’re using) with a custom widgetized template that I designed. I also integrated Vanilla 1.0.3 (forum) into the design.
Here is a list of WordPress plugins we’re using on the site:
- About Me Widget
- Akismet
- Angsuman’s Referrer Bouncer
- Auto-hyperlink URLs
- Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
- Email Shroud
- FD Feedburner Plugin
- Google Analyticator (gotta love those stats)
- Google Sitemaps
- Image Manager
- Page Links To
- Polite-ifier
- Search Pages
- Sidebar Widgets
- WP-ContactForm
- WP-Polls
- WP-Polls Widget
Here is a list of Vanilla extensions we’re using on the site:
- Account Pictures 1.1
- Announcement 1.2
- Applicant E-mail Verification 0.4.0
- BBInsert Bar 0.1.5
- Better BB Code 1.0
- Discussion Filters 2.0
- Extended Text Formatter 1.0
- Guest Welcome Message 1.0
- Hide Success 1.0
- Invite Friends 0.3
- Legends 1.0
- MarkAllRead 1.0
- New Applicants 1
- NewsMailer 0.2
- Predefined Attributes 0.3.3
- Private Accounts 1.0
- Role History 1.0
- STOP CAPS ABUSE 1.0
- Saved Searches 2.0
- Smooth Page Jump 1.0
- Yellow Fade Effect 0.1
- Comments Permalinks 1.0
For the games on the site, we’re using code from a free Miniclip.com game each month. Watch out, the game I have up as Last Month’s Game is really addicting!
Luminous Student Ministries – ameliastudents.com
WordPress
Vanilla
Miniclip.com
Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Luminous, Ministry, Web
Our very own Mike Edmisten is being featured in a Cincinnati Enquirer article called Preaching beyond the pulpit: Web-savvy pastors turn to blogs.
It’s pretty cool to see the things that have changed and the new people that have been reached because of the use of our website and Mike’s blog. He’s really embraced it wholeheartedly, and he’s committed to being real with people, which is awesome. Hopefully even more people will be reached and affected because of these tools.
Mike Edmisten: Enquirer Article
Enquirer: Preaching beyond the pulpit: Web-savvy pastors turn to blogs
Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Ministry, Web
Just a reminder for those of you in the area that Apex is back tomorrow, Saturday, February 3.
It starts at 6:00pm, and the doors open at 5:40pm.
Not sure what Apex is? You can read more about Apex on our website. We’ll actually have a video commercial online very soon (I may possibly be able to put it up tonight).
Our new theme to start the year is Building Blocks. It will cover several months.
If you’ve never been to Apex before, this is the perfect time to start. It’s a very casual, comfortable environment, and God has been doing some amazing things every month. The music’s a little more rockin’ that Sunday morning, the message is a little shorter, and it’s just a great time to get away from everything and spend some time together and with our Father. I promise you won’t forget the experience when you leave.
See you tomorrow!
Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Apex
Wow. I’m impressed.
Back in November, I posted about installing ActiveCollab so that we could try it out for our planning for Apex and the “new” website. Well, it’s now February, and we’re still using it. I think we’re all hooked on it, which is exactly what I was hoping for.
Here are some of the “projects” we’re now using it for:
- Apex Planning
- Main Website Planning/Upkeep (including graphics and transcripts for weekly messages)
- Youth Website Planning/Upkeep
- Vacation Bible School Planning
- Leadership Collaboration and Planning
- Web/IT Planning and Strategy
- Worship Ministry Collaboration and Planning
And it just keeps growing. It’s finally to the point where we’re going to move it to its own hosting account and domain, which is really exciting. I had no idea that everyone would embrace it the way that they have. It has worked very well, and it has saved us a lot of time and energy.
If you’ve been using BaseCamp or something else for project management, and you’re looking for something with more flexibility for free, then give ActiveCollab a try. I can’t stress enough how great it has been — and how easy it has been.
ActiveCollab
Apex at the Amelia Church of Christ
Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Collaboration, Organization, Productivity, Web
