IPhone Wallpapers

Here are some iPhone wallpapers I have either made or found online, I'm not going to tell which ones I made...























- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Five Ways To Use Social Media

Below is an article I found on collidemagazine.com's website. As I have previously mentioned, Collide has been around for some time helping churches and ministries with the creative side of things. The Article below is by Scott McClellan, the Senior Editor of COLLIDE. Hope you enjoy... 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

A few months ago, I was asked to give a presentation on social media strategy to a group of folks in the publishing industry. As I prepared, I came to understand that what the group was looking for was a basic framework, a starting point, for wading into the wild world of social media. That's what prompted me to create this list of five ways for an organization to use social media. Each section is a verb, something you or your organization can do, and my hope is that they help you uncover the best fit for social media within the mission and needs of your church, ministry, non-profit, or breakdancing club. Whatever you're a part of, there are five things I think you can (and should) do with social media: Listen, Converse, Share, Tell Stories, and Invite.

Listen 
Sure, public speaking is a common fear, but the Web seems to mitigate that fear for most. Social media is public and it's speaking in some sense of the word, but the medium offers an empowering distance. And social media is a powerful tool for talking (in whatever format), as well as a powerful tool for listening.

Scan social media for arguments, conversations, ReTweets, Likes, trending topics, heavily-searched terms, and memes. Find out what people like, love, hate, fear, want, and hope for. Find out what people think, how they feel, what they dream about, and how they respond to different stimuli. Observe how they talk to one another and what they talk about. As a leader and a communicator, this information is invaluable to you.

Advertisements

Use search.twitter.com to see people's thoughts and reactions in real time. Use Google Alerts to track blog posts by subject rather than just author. These tools are free and easy to use for those who are willing to listen.

This may go without saying, but I'll say it anyway (because that's what people do when they say, "this may go without saying ...") — use social media to follow thought leaders, culture influencers, the people within your organization, and the people you serve. You'll get more ideas and insights about your organization or ministry than you know what to do with, and that's a good thing. You'll also get a lot of garbage, but that's how it goes. Filter it out.

Converse 
You don't have to stop at listening—you can use social media to converse. Social media can be used to establish a relationship, a two-way street, a dynamic exchange with other human beings. You can stop being a broadcaster and start being a facilitator.

Using social media, you can ask questions and get answers, you can respond, and you can participate. You can make connections between your organization and your audience (whoever that might be in your context), you can connect individuals within your audience, and you can connect your audience to other organizations.

You can use social media to find new stories or shape and supplement existing stories. Do research. Solicit opinions, testimonials, best practices, case studies, tips, and critiques. Pay attention for angles you hadn't considered. My bet is that you'll be delighted by the perspectives and experiences you find within your audience, and you'll have a better feel for what people need and their response to the things your organization is doing.

On the practical side, I think it's a great idea to have individual and organizational presences in social media. Yes, be an organization—be official, established, and credible. But be an organization made up of people—people who are accessible, relatable, and follow-able. Humanize your organization while other organizations, churches, and ministries give into the temptation to de-humanize their online presences. There are a lot of churches and companies that strike a great balance between official and personal, so do some research and see what styles and approaches appeal to you.

A word of warning: conversation can be difficult. It takes effort and intentionality. It can lead to gaffes, mistakes, fights, and other embarrassing moments, but it's worth it. Something special happens when we go from one-way to two-way communication.

Share 
If you haven't already, read Linchpin by Seth Godin. Then, read it again. Godin's book is about being indispensable to others — a quality worth pursuing. Are these "tough economic times" revealing who's indispensable when it comes to volunteerism and financial giving and who's not? Maybe so. Godin's premise is that linchpins — indispensable individuals and organizations—do two things: create art and share it generously. We'll talk more about creating art in a bit, so let's talking about sharing generously.

Social media is a phenomenal tool for sharing. Share insight, share resources, share tools, share tips, share news, share knowledge, share experience, share talent, share opportunities to get involved. Share, share, share.

If you're thinking, What will we get in return for all our sharing? you're missing it. Sharing is about giving, not getting. Inform people, enlighten people, help them do their jobs and live their lives, teach them, entertain them, engage them. These are the things that linchpins do, and these things make them indispensable to their audience.

Use YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, your blog, live chats, Flickr, etc. to share everything you can share. In that process, you'll likely find your voice and a "tribe" (another Seth Godin term worth knowing).

Tell Stories 
Many individuals, when left to their own devices, will use social media to tell people about their cats. We can be more intentional; we can use social media to tell compelling stories. Author Donald Miller says that stories — heard, lived, and experienced — are how God changes us. And if you haven't read his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, you should.
Use social media to tell (and share) stories that are interesting, important, unique, relevant, and worth spreading. Thanks to social media, we get to go beyond words on a page. We can use social media to create a multimedia tapestry; we can leverage text, images, audio, and video in a variety of channels and formats. As a result, we have the opportunity to tell stories that are rich and engaging and experiential. As communicators, that's a huge win.

You may've heard about the story of Carlos Whittaker's "Single Ladies Devastation" video on YouTube. Yes, we wrote about it, but it was also featured on network morning shows and hugely popular blogs. As the video racked up millions of views, people noticed that Whittaker's son didn't look anything him. The media exposure gave the Whittakers the opportunity to share a small piece of the story of adopting their son from Korea. The video was certainly entertaining, but the story behind it was downright compelling.

Whenever possible, tell a story.

Invite
The next win for us, as communicators, is that social media allow our stories to spread. We have our audiences, but our audience has their audiences, their friends, their colleagues, their family, and their networks. That means they have the power to take our stories farther than we ever could. Our job is to invite and empower them to do so.

Of course, this means the onus is on us to create content worth sharing. Not all content is created equal, and not all content spreads equally. Just ask a band that only recorded one hit single or a comedy troupe that only produced one video that went viral.

The new law of the Internet is that if we give people great content and opportunities to share it, they'll do our marketing for us. Doesn't that sound like a great system? It does to people and organizations committed to relationships and storytelling. Does this really work? According to Google Analytics, COLLIDE gets more traffic from Twitter (our account plus readers' accounts) than any other referring site, so I'd say it's working pretty well.

Or consider the story of Jon Acuff. He told us recently that he let 100 people know about the launch of his blog Stuff Christians Like. On the eighth or ninth day, about 4,300 readers showed up. Two years later, more than a million readers have stopped by the site. That's the power of creating content worth sharing.

It sounds easy, right? Just five little verbs that consitute some semblance of a social media strategy. Use them and see how they work for you. Hopefully, words like “engagement” and “connection” will begin to describe the fruit of your social media efforts rather than #FAIL or #FTL. (If you aren't familiar with those terms, you aren't using enough social media.) Go ahead. Jump in.

Some Recent...

Sermon Graphics...

If you are a graphics guy and would like the PSD files to use for your own ministry shoot me an email at jhousley@salemchurch.net.

One of my...

...favorite apps to use on my Iphone and Ipad is the Acts 29 App. It is a great resource for pastors and leaders to use as well as your average guy who just wants to listen to a sermon. A few of the key features on this app:

• Search by category: Pastors, Churches, Message Topic
• Some Key Speakers: Danny Akin, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, Ed Stetzer, Wayne Grudem
• Several More Speakers

This app is an easy way to listen to great messages by some amazing leaders in the Church today.

Jh

Creative Sharing

I thought it would be a good idea to begin sharing some of the resources I use in doing what I do.  I love media and graphics and how we can implement them in our ministries. Not all things that are being done are Biblical by any means but I thought it would be good to share a simple resource I have found.

I started using Creationswap (previously Creative MYK) about three years ago and I love it.  The web site is very user friendly and there are thousands of resources. Some of the key features:

• Photos for Powerpoint pro-presenter etc...
• Adobe files so that you can edit what you want to use and not use
• Vector art

If you are a graphics guy or just the guy who is creating things for your church, this is a site for you.

www.creationswap.com

Jh

Movie Making Made Simple

I was surfing the web the other day and came across and article by collide magazine about making movies on your iPhone. Now there is video software that fits in your pocket. ReelDirector located in the app store allows you to developed a simple video file with you iPhone. If you are a tech person or just an average guy wanting make a few videos this app is for you.

Some key features:

-import audio into the video

-drag and drop clips in whatever order you wish

-add effects and text

-add photos

-record a VoiceOver

- trim, split, crop for desired image

-share your final creation via email or camera roll

Thank you apple for being so amazing

Jh


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Why Media Matters

Here is a article by COLLIDE MAGAZINE. This has been a great resouce site for me in media ministry.  This article gives us some insite into why we use media in the church and how it can be a positive experience.

Begin Post:

Over COLLIDE’s lifespan, we’ve dedicated thousands and thousands of words to writing about media, technology, and the Church. Why? Because we believe God uses us and our tools to accomplish His good work, and so we talk about it. But even though you probably agree with us when we declare that media matters, we thought our final issue would be a good opportunity to state our case, as clearly and thoroughly as we can, for the value of media and technology in the mission of the Church. Perhaps this exploration will expand or inform the way you see media and technology in your ministry context, or perhaps it will help you better articulate why media matters to the people you serve and serve with. Either way, this should be fun.

Communication
As pastor and author Shane Hipps has often said, “Christianity is a communication event.” The phrasing might seem strange at first, and you may even disagree. “No,” you might say, “Christianity is all about a relationship.” But what if you’re both right? After all, what is a relationship? At its most basic level, a relationship is a series of reveal-respond communication events. Depending on the context and health of these reveal-respond exchanges, emotions and associations such as trust, fear, love, loathing, intimacy, and resentment are fostered. And so Christianity in its best and purest form is about a relationship (or a series of relationships—individual to God and individual to others), and the substance of a relationship is communication. Christianity is a communication event, and therefore, as we practice Christianity we practice communication.

Communication is about imparting information from one to another—a spouse communicates what he’s feeling, a teacher communicates what she thinks and knows, and a leader communicates the organization’s vision and next steps. In the Bible, we see God communicating with humanity about his character, the world he created, our tendencies as fallen bearers of his image, how we can best live this life, and how we can best relate to him. Obviously, these truths and principles belong at the heart of what we believe and practice. But beyond the theological and doctrinal implications of these communicated messages, what has always captivated us at COLLIDE is how these messages have been communicated across centuries, contexts, and media. A survey of the biblical narrative, church history, and the present-day Church reveals God’s use of art, creativity, metaphor, surprise, and technology in a myriad of outlets.

 

Multimedia in the Bible
We all know that Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden. Then came the Fall, and everything changed—direct, face-to-face communication between God and humans was taken off the table. Exodus 33 describes the unique relationship between Moses and God, and although the two met and conversed in a tent, God represented himself with a Pillar of Cloud (verse 10). Later in the chapter, Moses asks to see God’s full glory, and The Message articulates God’s response as follows: “I will make my Goodness pass right in front of you; I’ll call out the name, God, right before you ... But you may not see my face. No one can see me and live.”

In this conversation and God’s counterproposal to Moses, we clearly see the reveal-respond dynamic at work. But we also see the effect of the Fall on our communication with God—if he reveals his face, we respond by dying. In this effect we find a framework for our communication with our Creator: Because of sin, communication between God and humanity is in some ways limited by our fallen state. And yet the unseen God still has much communicating to do as an overflow of his desire for communion with us, and thus, the burning bush.

The burning bush is a fitting representation of God’s communication in the Bible. The burning bush is mysterious, awe-inspiring, and wholly unexpected, and in it God gives Moses something to look at as God speaks. The burning bush combines the words and presence of Almighty God with an odd, unnatural phenomenon—a shrubbery ablaze but not consumed. That’s a communication event.

Of course, the inventive communication channels don’t end there. In Numbers 22 we find the story of Balaam, a man who has conversations with God regarding some Moabites. When Balaam turns abusive toward his donkey, God enabled the donkey to talk, revealed an angel to Balaam, and then commissioned Balaam to be his messenger to the Moabite nobles. In a similarly fascinating story told in Daniel 5, God uses a disembodied hand and the translation skills of the Spirit-filled Daniel to send a message to King Belshazzar. Clearly, God isn’t concerned with our expectations regarding communication, nor is he married to a specific medium or messenger. His communication with us is the embodiment of multimedia.

Metaphor in the Bible
Metaphor is a powerful but somewhat indirect communication tool. Metaphors seek to impart information, but comparison is their means of illumination. For instance, in Genesis 15 God could’ve told Abram that his descendants would number in the millions or billions. Instead, God says, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.” Instead of dealing in numbers and statistics, God uses metaphor to communicate the enormity of his promise to Abram.

In Jeremiah 18, God has a message to speak to Jeremiah. But first, God wants Jeremiah to see something. God directs Jeremiah to the potter’s house, where the potter was at work reshaping a lump of clay. Then God gives Jeremiah a message: “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.” Again, God shows and speaks a metaphor in order to reveal his message to humanity. And then we come to Hosea.
Rather than just observe a metaphor such as stars in the sky or clay in the potter’s hands, God instructed Hosea to live out a metaphor. “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her,” God commanded, “for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.”

Of course, I could go on, but suffice it to say that creative, representative communication is one of God’s chosen methods. And that should be encouraging to us as leaders, communicators, storytellers, designers, and artists. Much of what we do through media and technology is metaphor—artistic expressions that attempt to illuminate the faith through comparisons befitting our context. In the end, it’s not about showing off or the credibility that comes from being perceived as outside-the-box thinkers. What we do is about reaching people—lost or found, churched or unchurched—with the message God gives us to share. Whether you use an anecdote, a short film, a series of monologues, a film clip, or a well-designed graphic, you’re faithfully serving the Church and following in the footsteps of your Creator. We’re called to help people see that which is unseen with our art, our messages, our work, and our lives. There’s no question about it—that matters.

Art in the Bible
In Exodus 31, God tells Moses about an artist named Bezalel:
“See, I have chosen Bezalel ... and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.”
For a lot of creative people in the Church, this passage is a source of encouragement and validation. The God of the Universe, the Creator, endows people with artistic skills and commissions them to work for him.
While Bezalel is an obscure biblical figure, David is one of the most prominent characters in the Old Testament. David is often celebrated as a warrior and a king, and the stories of his exploits fill many pages in our Bibles. But David was also a talented musician who, in addition to slinging stones at giants, could play the lyre so well that he brought relief to the tormented King Saul. Beyond his lyre chops, it appears David was also gifted with a pen. Seventy-three psalms are attributed to David, and we’re well acquainted with the important liturgical role of his art. The Psalms are a prime example of artful communication—the reveal-respond dynamic leaps off every page as poems of different genres explore the character of God, his relationship with humanity, and the spectrum of emotions that accompany faith and the human experience. This art has been an integral part of our worship for centuries. Again it seems that God both gives and celebrates art as it serves his purposes.

Media and Technology in Church History
When David faced the aforementioned giant, he had to make some technological decisions. Saul dressed the young shepherd in his tunic, armor, and helmet (presumably helpful technology for the task at hand) but David knew they would hinder rather than help him. But his sling—a long-range weapon—was an ideal technological implement for bringing down a belligerent Philistine, and we all know how that turned out. And while it might be odd to consider David transporting Goliath’s head to Jerusalem as communication through media, I imagine that it sent a strong message to the citizens there.

Throughout the course of church history, people have been charged with making similar decisions. What methods and media can best communicate the message? When the masses were mostly illiterate, the Church relied on media such as paintings, tapestries, sculptures, songs, stained glass, architecture, sermons, common prayers, and liturgically-intensive services to impart spiritual truths. The apparent prevalence of visuals and ritual has been easy to judge for modern evangelicals, but we must remember that it wasn’t an option to distribute personal Bible study and devotional materials in a pre-modern context.

Scribes worked laboriously to make copies of the Bible by hand, and these copies were distributed to church leaders for their edification. But it was the work of these leaders to translate the words on the page into something the culture at large could engage and, hopefully, internalize. Frescoes and stained glass represented biblical narratives, and even the size and shape of the old cathedrals were meant to communicate facets of the unseen God.

When history, culture, and church politics collided in what would become known as the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther and other reformers began pushing revolutionary ideas about Scripture, grace, and personal faith. But while we’re generally familiar with the important people, places, and theses of the Reformation, some of us neglect to mention the technology that enabled the movement. The printing press put pages of Reformation literature into the hands of the growing number of literate Europeans. A new, more democratic means of communicating with the people emerged, and the Church that needed reforming no longer had a monopoly on the transmission of spiritual ideas. God sparked a monumental movement in his body, and technology was among the kindling factors.

Media and Technology in the 21st-Century Church
If you’re paying attention, you know media and technology are changing both our culture and the Church at a breakneck pace. In culture, our communication habits and consumption habits have shifted dramatically in the last decade or two—our devices are always on, we’re constantly connected, and we’re frequently downloading or uploading content. In many ways, we’re increasingly fragmented, addicted, and inundated.
In the western Church, our services are changing, our music is changing, our sermons are changing, and our venues are changing. We convene in large auditoriums, renovated strip centers, middle-class living rooms, and online water coolers. Our services are getting shorter, and our alt-indie-rock-pop-house-gospel-folk worship music is getting louder. Our sermons are growing more accessible, topical, thematic, story-driven, and media-supported. We brand sermon series, embed video testimonies on our websites, create short films designed to put a lump in your throat, and get creative with our fonts when we project worship lyrics. Yes, things are changing.

By and large, the changes in church practices described above come from pure motives—to honor God, to express who he is and what he has done for us, and to reach people who don’t know him. Media and technology are powerful tools toward those ends, and because those ends represent much of what the Church is called to be and do, media and technology matter. Even better, as I hope I’ve articulated above, media and technology have always mattered.

We communicate with both God and culture. We participate in the dance of revelation and response. We use art and metaphor to point to him. So although no one has ever seen God (1 John 4:12), we are his individual and collective workmanship, created in Christ to do good works (Ephesians 2:10). We are the city on the hill, and by our lives, love, and communication, we reveal the Great Architect. It is this great pursuit that gives media and technology their significance, and so we use them carefully, faithfully, skillfully, prayerfully, and passionately.

Thoughts on "tweeting"

Why and How I Am Tweeting

Below is a blog post by John Piper on twitter. I found it a very helpful read and hope you do too. To read more from John Piper and his ministry go to www.desiringgod.org


begin blog:

I see two kinds of response to social Internet media like blogging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and others.

One says: These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill the world with drivel, shrink the soul’s capacity for greatness, and make us second-handers who comment on life when we ought to be living it. So boycott them and write books (not blogs) about the problem.

The other response says: Yes, there is truth in all of that, but instead of boycotting, try to fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness as you can.

Together with the team at Desiring God, I lean toward response #2. “Lean” is different from “leap.” We are aware that the medium tends to shape the message. This has been true, more or less, with every new medium that has come along—speech, drawing, handwriting, print, books, magazines, newspapers, tracts, 16mm home movies, flannel-graph, Cinerama, movies, Gospel Blimps, TV, radio, cassette tapes, 8-Tracks, blackboards, whiteboards, overhead projection, PowerPoint, skits, drama, banners, CDs, MP3s, sky-writing, video, texting, blogging, tweeting, Mina-Bird-training, etc.

Dangers, dangers everywhere. Yes. But it seems to us that aggressive efforts to saturate a media with the supremacy of God, the truth of Scripture, the glory of Christ, the joy of the gospel, the insanity of sin, and the radical nature of Christian living is a good choice for some Christians. Not all. Everyone should abstain from some of these media. For example, we don’t have a television.

That’s my general disposition toward media.

Now what about Twitter? I find Twitter to be a kind of taunt: “Okay, truth-lover, see what you can do with 140 characters! You say your mission is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things! Well, this is one of those ‘all things.’ Can you magnify Christ with this thimble-full of letters?”

To which I respond:

The sovereign Lord of the earth and sky
Puts camels through a needle’s eye.
And if his wisdom see it mete,
He will put worlds inside a tweet.

So I am not inclined to tweet that at 10AM the cat pulled the curtains down. But it might remind me that the Lion of Judah will roll up the heavens like a garment, and blow out the sun like a candle, because he just turned the light on. That tweet might distract someone from pornography and make them look up.

I’ve been tweeting anonymously for a month mainly to test its spiritual and family effects on me. In spite of all the dangers, it seems like a risk worth taking. “All things were created through Christ and for Christ” (Colossians 1:16). The world does not know it, but that is why Twitter exists and that’s why I Tweet.

By his grace and for his glory,

Pastor John

When Media And The Church Collide

Today media is all around us.  Facebook, Twitter, blogging are just a few of the many ways the church can embrace media and social networking. Yet many pastors and church leaders  have been reluctant to embrace them. These forms of media have become a very present part of our culture, and while abuses and misuses are often pointed out, when used in the best ways, media is a blessing and aid to our churches, pastors, and church planters. 

Ed Stetzer presents four ways that he feels media can positively impact our churches:

1. While social media does not provide community it can assist in building it.

2. Social media can communicate news within the local church.

3. Social media can communicate biblical, cross centered messages (not that it always does).

4. Social media can better acquaint people with the life and ministry of public ministers.


Here are two comments from Desiring God, John Pipers resource website:

Stetzer's overall assessment is good. Social media is not, in and of itself, an enemy to authentic community. In fact, it can actually serve church body life. 

That said, there are two comments Stetzer makes that I hope to bring some clarifying discussion to (which I believe he would also agree with). 

1) Corporate church gatherings + Facebook ≠ real community. 

Stetzer says: 

Web services such as Facebook allow people who might see one another only during church on Sunday, or midweek in smaller community groups, to continue to share aspects of life they would not otherwise. 

This is true. Social media can give us more points of contact with one another, whether through pictures, profiles, announcements, etc. However, we need to keep in mind that gathering with other Christians only one day a week for 1.5 hours, and the rest of the week restricting our correspondence to Twitter and Facebook, is not living out the New Testament vision. Even if we gather for worship twice a week, but do not minister to and enjoy one another more informally over meals, in times of crisis, and as friends, we are not living in the fullness of the gospel community God desires for us. 

If social media replaces or even dampens a zeal for seeking out regular face-to-face exhortation, fellowship and encouragement, then it has hindered rather than helped. 

2) Knowing someone on the internet ≠ really knowing them. 

Stetzer says: 

On countless occasions, young pastors have thanked me for blogging and tweeting about my family and how I prioritize them. Many listen more readily to me because they feel they know me already. 

I understand what Stetzer means by this. The more we feel we know somebody, the more inclined we are to trust their message. However, the key word here is "feel." If you know someone only by their online presence you may feel that you know them, but you still don't know like you would if you were regularly around them. Stories abound of pastors leading a second, secret life, even while living in the same community as those they are deceiving. How much easier it is for a pastor—or anyone!—to create an online persona that is entirely different from their real self. 

We should judge the fitness of our leaders not only by what they have contributed to the web, but also by how they interact with their family, cope with stress and handle adversity in real life. It is one thing for me to tweet about how I love my wife but quite another thing to truly love her. 

With these clarifications in view, Stetzer's conclusion is right on: "Like all good things common to man, social media can be either a distraction or a blessing.

With all of that said, I personally agree with John Pipers view of social media and the church.

What is your opinion?