“Hollywood does an incredible job of making fake things look real & Christians do an incredible job of making real things look fake.”
Phil Cooke’s Branding Faith H/T Kem Meyer
Christians…….
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Beginnings
Matthew 1
18This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[c] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23″The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[d]—which means, “God with us.”
What a beautiful piece of scripture….God with us. Reassuring, glorious, Creator, powerful, with us. Something to be thankful and contemplate….outside of the ‘silly season’.
Sony Vegas Tutorials
What on earth did we do before the internet?
As the steep learning curve for Vegas continues, I found myself wanting to add some video effects to a loop I was making up for our new series.
What to do…google it of course. (Does anyone else use any other browser?)
There….found about 10 different You Tube and other videos which I could watch, showing me exactly what I needed to do…which is just as well because the help files are no good. They assume a lot of knowledge….Will show you the results just as soon as the file is rendered. Sony takes a lot longer to render videos that I have been used to, something to do with the greatly increased quality I suppose!
Top Five Church Websites
Here are the top five websites decided by me…with no real credibility….just my opinion.
5. Soul Purpose
Nice use of graphics, updated regularly. Good mix of info and graphics.
4. Crossroads Church
Love the graphics and subtle use of flash
3. Community Christian
Check out the ‘about us’ page for something really creative
2.Mars Hill
Whoever does the graphics for Driscoll…is one of the best. Mix of old school ideas with funky images.
1. Inglewood Community Church
Yes its mine, thats why its number one! Apart from that, it has great contemporary colours, creative design, updated regularly and gives the right impression of the church. Some websites you may get the idea the church is huuuuge, when in fact its not. This site accurately portrays us as we are.
Website tips
Dont use animated gifs.
Dont use music
Use a standard font through out Same colour, same font, two or three sizes only.
Use Colour sparingly.
Church Vision Sunday
Today was Vision Sunday at Inglewood…..great day.
Here is a summary of what I shared……God willing….we will fulfill what He lays in front of us, we will seize it, hear His Voice, and be His people in our city.
The fool
Rob Bell’s video, “All things are spiritual” is a fantastic and inspiring piece of art and thought.
As we were watching it, he talks about a illustration of what it would be like if we lived in a two dimensional world. Rob used the example of Flatland, a story written by Edwin A. Abbott in late 1800s about the inhabitants of a two-dimensional world. When someone from 3d land tried to interact with someone from Flatland, to Flatlanders, the interaction would appear as lines and dots since the “depth” dimension does not exist; a sphere would appear as a circle, a cube would be a square, and so on. This is the illustration Rob used to illustrate how far we are from understanding the true nature of God, yet how close God could be from us and yet would we still not realize it.Two people are there, and they both see something coming toward them.
Rob uses the illustration of his wedding ring being poked through a napkin. He is in 3d…but the two people are only in 2d…what do they see?
He muses that one of them sees and feels that there is something more. The other one does not.
As we were watching it, he talks about a illustration of what it would be like if we lived in a two dimensional world. Rob used the example of Flatland, a story written by Edwin A. Abbott in late 1800s about the inhabitants of a two-dimensional world. When someone from 3d land tried to interact with someone from Flatland, to Flatlanders, the interaction would appear as lines and dots since the “depth” dimension does not exist; a sphere would appear as a circle, a cube would be a square, and so on. This is the illustration Rob used to illustrate how far we are from understanding the true nature of God, yet how close God could be from us and yet would we still not realize it.Two people are there, and they both see something coming toward them.
Rob uses the illustration of his wedding ring being poked through a napkin. He is in 3d…but the two people are only in 2d…what do they see?
He muses that one of them sees and feels that there is something more. The other one does not.
The question we asked in our small group was, “What is the difference between the two?” Why do some people see God in circumstances and nature, why do some not? It is a vexing question.
Bell references the scripture which bodly declares, “the fool says in his heart there is no God”.
So often those we consider intellectual may have actually made a heart decision. That they will not see God, even when creation screams out His name. They may be fools.
The Bible
If you are visiting this blog for the first time, or dont know me…this post may seem strange, or a bit weird…or you may think I am ‘one of those’…..but here goes.
Since when did the Bible stop being the foundation of our faith?
Since when did we start interpreting the bible as ‘just a bunch of stories’ with no practical instruction and even ‘shudder’ commands?
Since when did the Bible stop being a prescriptive document?
Is it because post modernism is pushing us too far the other way? Maybe, yet I have never resonated with modernism. Logical and rational arguments for proving God will only get us so far, we need faith. Someone wise mentioned to me the other day that we often interpret spiritual principles through a Greek mindset, to the detriment of the Hebrew one. I agree entirely with that.
Truth is that we need to understand that the Bible is true in all it affirms. And it affirms some very basic things about God, and His plan for our life.
If someone is not a Christian, thats one thing. But if someone says they are a Christian, and a church leader….then lets agree that the Bible is the place we turn to for truth, absolutes and what is sinful and against Gods nature. There is plenty of things I dont understand about God, His principles and why He operates the way He does. But I still surrender to what is clear from the scriptures, even if it sometimes grates against my culturally sensitive, post modernist mind.