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I just read a post over at BetaChurch.org that talks about a very helpful site called BrowserShots.org. You can input a URL and it will give you screenshots of what your site looks like on different browsers, resolutions, colors, etc. No more downloading and testing on a ton of different browsers!
For any of you who do any web work, this is priceless. It’s always frustrating to get something looking good in Firefox, only to find the IE rips it to pieces. Or that two little things work differently in Safari.
The only caveat to this is that other people can see your site in the screenshot queue (which usually isn’t that big of a deal, not to me at least).
I tried it out on our site for Amelia Church of Christ, and I found that Safari was center aligning text in two table header cells on our front page. Not a big deal, but I added a simple line to the CSS file, and now the site is even more consistent across browsers.
I’m a big fan of simple, helpful tools (especially free ones), and BrowserShots.org is great.
I just read a great post over at Lifehacker about free (mostly opensource) software.
A website called SoftwareFor.org put together a CD (which you can download and burn) full of free software for “starving students” (or whoever else would find it useful). There is also another great website that provides a CD full of opensource (free) software called TheOpenCD.
These are two great resources for some software that you might find extremely useful, but not have the budget to pay for some of the higher end, namebrand stuff. Sometimes the money in churches has to be stretched extra far, and this is a great way to help the funds go further while still using some great tools to do some really cool things.
Bottom line, with so many free and opensource options out there, there’s no excuse for churches to say that they “can’t afford” to do certain things that are tech related. Sure, this isn’t the answer to everything, but it’s just a small example of what you can do without spending any money.
I know…two posts in a row about drums. Not exactly the usual for my blog. But you’ll get over it.
Some of you may have seen this already, and I’ve seen it several times, but it never ceases to amaze me. This kid is only 12 years old.
Makes me sick.
What just happened?
That is exactly what I was asking myself yesterday after our service.
I’ve been filling in on bass for a while since we seem to be missing a bassist at the moment (not my strongest instrument, but I can keep up). Since I don’t have a bass, I’ve been using our drummer’s bass (he’s actually a bass player also, but he’s filling in on drums since we seem to be missing a drummer at the moment — notice a theme?). Our drummer didn’t make it to practice yesterday morning due to stomach issues, and since his bass didn’t make it there either, I had nothing to practice with.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that one huge weakness I have musically is the drums. I just haven’t had a chance to play them much over the past years. Quite frankly, I think I stink at them. I joke about it frequently. So I was a bit taken when Brian, our worship minister, asked me to play the drums during practice. I think he was half joking, but I sat down and told everyone to prepare for the worst.
Halfway through practice, I realized that I hadn’t screwed anyone else up yet, and I was sort of proud of myself just for that simple fact. So we finished practice, and waited for the service to start.
A few minutes before the service, Brian told me to go ahead and play for the service. Now I knew he had to be joking. There is no way that Josh Young is going to make his drumming debut on a Sunday morning. Who knows what could happen. I don’t want to be responsible for ruining worship for everyone. But he assured me that it sounded fine, and since I know he won’t feed me a line of crap, I went ahead and did it.
It’s a good thing I don’t get nervous anymore — because this would have been the time to be nervous. But I sat up there and played for the whole service — no fills, mostly the same beat on every song, but I was pretty steady. I have no idea how it happened, but it did. AND IT WAS ALL GOD. There is no way that I had anything to do with that.
Our drummer was able to make it in about halfway through the worship set, and he said that he was actually really surprised. He thanked me for filling in for him on the drums, and said that with what I’ve told him about how bad I am with drums, he expected me to be horrible (big confidence booster). But he said that I actually did really good and was steady, which meant a lot to me.
So anyway, bottom line, I just want to say thank you so much to my Lord for getting me through that because I had no idea what just happened. God must be a great drummer to have made me sound like I wasn’t totally horrible.
Amen.
I just stumbled across another cool little feature that Google has rolled out. If you do a search in Google Maps, and the organization that you’re looking for has their telephone number listed, you will see a link next to it that says “call.” If you click the link, you can enter your telephone number, and Google will call you and then call the number of the organization — thereby making it free to both parties.
I’m still dumbfounded by this. Google is just plain awesome.
Oh, and I tried it, and yes it works. And it’s dirt simple.
Note: if you’re trying to call from a cell phone, regular airtime charges still apply obviously.
Read more on Google Maps Help: Click to Call Feature
My friend, Mike, just sent me a link to this blog on “Creating an Experience.” It is definitely worth reading. My hope is that more people in the church will begin to understand this. He said several things that most people don’t (or won’t) realize.
The bottom line is that if a church wants to impact a community–IT TAKES WORK.
For far too long the church has been lazy…that’s right…LAZY. We have sat back on our butt and done nothing, asking God to “do it all†and claiming to be “led by the Spirit.†And then people walk into our boring, lifeless and predictable services and we give “God all the glory†(or the blame!)
One of the things I have realized in reading Scripture though is that Jesus was far from boring–He created experiences for His followers–experiences that they NEVER forgot…do you remember…
- Jesus walking on water…don’t think for a minute that Peter didn’t think about that moment every time he walked by a lake.
- The mount of transfiguration. Peter & John were both so blown away by this that they both wrote about it in Scripture.
- The feeding of the 5,000.
- The day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
- Bringing back Lazarus from the dead.
- Turning water into wine (the Baptist hate that one!)
I could go on–the bottom line is that Jesus was constantly creating experiences that communicated to His followers who He was in a way that they would never forget…
AND THE CHURCH SHOULD BE DOING THE SAME!!!
Why is it that if we put a lot of work into a ministry or a gathering, people accuse us of being “performance based” or “trying to make it all about entertainment”? Yes, if your motives are wrong, that’s a problem you need to deal with. But should that exclude us from doing things with excellence and using our talents in the church? NO!!!
He also makes some great points (that I agree with) about the Holy Spirit being involved in the planning process and not just during the service. Just because you plan well, doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit isn’t doing anything.
He also says:
Sure–we’ve been accused of entertaining people…I always say I would much rather entertain you than bore you!!! Jesus didn’t mind creating experiences…and His church shouldn’t either.
We know GOD is in charge–that HE is ultimately responsible for all that is happening…but we also understand that God works THROUGH people…and that He is honored when people plan, pray, work…and then sit back and watch Him make up the difference.
We are serious about making His name famous…and that just can’t happen when church is boring. (I believe a boring church is a sin!!!) SO…we are going to always do all we can to make sure that when you attend church on Sunday–that is one of the BEST hours of your week!!!
If you’ve read all of this, then you might as well read Perry’s whole post. Let’s get out there and do what we do best.
I had to share this with you guys. I wish I would have known about this sooner so I could have put it on my Christmas list!
I just wanted to write a quick post today since it’s been about a week since I last posted. I’m tired of posting with Blogger, so I haven’t been very motivated to deal with it lately. :-) I’ll be busting out WordPress soon though, so that will change (I know I’ve been saying that for a while, but other things have taken priority).
One thing I wanted to mention really quick is that I’ve gotten quite a surprise lately over the amount of e-mails that I’ve gotten on our new church website. I’ve been getting e-mails from all over the country asking me questions about our Joomla setup for the church site. It’s been really cool talking to these people, and hopefully I’ve helped them out a little bit. I didn’t realize that the little things I did would get so much notice, but I’m hopeful that God will use the little things I say to help someone else out and get their church site up and running with excellence.
So if you think that something you do is insignificant, just remember that God knows more than we ever will, and he can use everything we do for His glory - even if you’re a geek (especially if you’re a geek).
:-)
I’ve been trying to get some things better organized for the church on the web front, and the master plan I put together was approved, so now I’ve got some work to do. :-)
First, our host has been super horrible with speed and reliability over the past months, so we’re finally making a switch. I signed up with lunarpages.com, and we’ll be moving everything over this week. Everyone should notice a significant boost in performance once that happens. I’ve tried my hardest to make the site optimized as far as speed goes, so the new host should complete the package.
Second, we’ve moved Mike’s blog. He now has his own domain name (www.mikeedmisten.com), and he’s on WordPress instead of Blogger (which was a huge sigh of relief). As soon as I show him the ropes on WordPress, he’ll be back in full force with that. And his blog is on a new server as well. I went with cleverdot.com for his site. I’ve used them on almost all of the sites I’ve been involved in, and they’re great. They’re a smaller operation, but their service and support are some of the best that I’ve dealt with.
Next comes the youth site. I think we’ve just decided on a domain name, so I’ll be getting the ball rolling on that very soon. I’m hoping to finish it over the next few weeks. Look for more news on that soon.
On a non-ACC note, I also set my brother, Joel, up with a WordPress blog. He’s using our old band website, www.joelyoungmusic.com, since it was pretty much in hibernation for a year or so after we all moved and had to quit playing together due to geographical differences.
I think that covers it all. I can’t wait to get all of this finished so that I have 5 minutes to switch my blog over to WordPress from Blogger. I’m getting really frustrated with this setup. Publishing has become a royal nightmare. I initially set it up on Blogger just to see if I would even like blogging (or do it consistently). Now that I’m in the habit, I’m tired of doing this dance just to make a simple post. The switch should happen before too much longer, and I can’t wait.
