A friend of mine recently got offered some great electronic products if he would review them on his blog.

It got me thinking, why am I doing this blog?

It is not to get offered electronics…although feel free.
The reason my friend was offered products is because he has a professional looking, purposeful blog…aimed at a certain activity (gardening)

I know from different sources that this blog is well read. It has been around for a while now, and built up quite the web history.
Should I get my own domain, should I switch to wordpress…should I become more intentional?

The purpose of my blog is to give me a platform to share some of my life, thoughts and hopefully have some interaction with those who may read it.
It has never been about making money, just sharing my life.
Thats not likely to change…but I am thinking about making it a little more professional.

I don’t know about you, but receiving long political emails from Christian groups you have never heard of, unsolicited, and unnamed…really cheeses me off.

Then you ask to be taken off the email list you did not ask to go on…and you are told ‘your church will never bear fruit’!

Wow!

Some people are so full of their own importance, and their own issue, they just cannot see what everyone else can.

The biggest folly though is anonymous comments or emails where they expect you to be accountable to them…that is laughable….seriously…after 20 years in ministry, I just don’t care anymore. Too busy with ministry, too much to do…to be bothered.

This month at Inglewood Church we have been dealing with FAQ…frequently asked questions.
I asked my twitter friends, most of them non-churched, to give me questions they would want churches to deal with.
The questions came…sickness, death, depression….sexual issues.
But the biggie…in my mind at least…was the one on Hell.
The eternal destiny of those without Jesus.
Tough eh?
How would you as a pastor deal with that one.
I have never preached a message on this topic.
Its just not me, I am…I hope…a passionate preacher. I believe in the gospel.
But as for actually speaking about this topic…confronting.
But I backed myself into a quarter! And it is good to preach on the whole of the Bible…not just those bits you like.
So here we go.

Worship House Media do some good stuff.
Their latest free loop download is good, and you can get it in Quicktime format. Its a nice loop of a Autumn scene.

Here

Was with my son down the shops and noticed the Amourguard security personal filling up an ATM.
What I noticed was the fact they had guns…real guns.

This got me thinking…why do we give guards who protect money…guns.
We don’t give hospital security and other guards guns. Because in the main they are protecting people, not money.

If you asked anyone, they would say that people are more important than money. Yet we don’t act that way.

Due to some interesting circumstances our church has been able to switch to Mac for our Presentation duties during Sunday services.
We have used Easy Worship with PC for probably last 10 years.
It has had its problems and plusses.
It is easy to use, volunteers can pick it up and operate it with minimal training.
Logical and well ordered.
Its limitations is in its ability to play media. While we could get it to play WMV files okay, it struggled with Quicktime, Mpeg and other file formats. If the video files was large and processor intense, we had issues.
It was not uncommon for Easy Worship to crash, despite having it installed on various laptops and PC’s, including one whose only task was to run it.

We have used Pro Presenter for one week, but I think it will perform better, as a Mac program should. All video files, including windows ones, and large, processor intense video files, play beautifully on it. It also has a crisper, clearer picture on the screen, with some lovely transitions and formats. It looks better.

One serious limitation with Pro Presenter is its inability to import Powerpoint files unless you have Ppoint for Mac Installed. This wont be a problem for me, but I can see a time when a visiting preacher will bring a ppoint file along, and we will have issues. I have Keynote installed, so you would think with Keynotes inbuilt ability to import Powerpoint, Pro Presenter could import Ppoint files, but it can’t. Seems wrong to have to install a Office product on your Mac! Moving away from Windows based OS is one of the attractions of Pro Presenter.

God is good.

Prayed about some new software I need.
My old (12 months old) laptop was stolen. Bummer
Insurance bought me a new Mac…yeh!

This meant I could gift my old (2months old!) Mac to the church and use ‘Pro – Presenter” for church presentation duties. Trying it out this Sunday, let you know how it goes.

But is also meant I had lost access to Photoshop…bummer.
Turns out I can get it for Mac, but it cost about $1000….bummer.

Then I got an unexpected cheque for $250 from someone..yeh!
Buying the education version of Adobe Suite with my wifes education discount ($400 total)…yeh!

I should not have to use one of Gates dreaded products for anything….super yeah!