Praying for You
Aug 26, 2009 Devotions and Thoughts
Over the next 3 weeks I will be taking time each day to pray for each of those on my facebook fan page. I’ll be going in alphabetical order by first name starting with A and going down throughY.
Why would I do this? First,I feel called to do this because everytime I travel somewhere I ask for prayers from them, and thought this would be a good way to return the favor.
Secondly one of my goals is to use the fan page, and my blog to build community. Praying for each other is a great way to do that.
Each day I’ll put up the letters of who I am praying for. For example on 8/27 I’ll be praying for all those whose first names start with Aa-Am.
So facebook fans, I’ll be praying for you. If you have any specific requests please let me know. I’ll try to let you know a day ahead who I am praying for.
Sunday Setlist 08/23/09
Aug 24, 2009 Worship Planning
This week was a great one at WMUMC. We had blessing of the backpacks so tons of kids in our service. We handed out keychains with a flashlight and a whistle during the children’s sermon.. All the kids kept blowing on the whistles. It was a little loud but fun to watch.
Our songs were:
Tell The World- Always a good one to start off with.
Wonder Of Your Love- This is one I wrote a few weeks ago and the band liked it immediately. I have included video above.
Mighty To Save- This is where I messed up. Kept the capo on from the previous song so our guitar player started in on the correct key of A. I came in in Bb oops… The cool thing was that once I came in, he went up a step and then the whole band played the who le band caught the mistake and played the entire song in Bb.
Child of God- Kerri did an awesome job singing this one.
Jesus Messiah- Amy led this and did great. I loved the harmony we had on this song and it was nice to get the chance to sing harmony every once in a while.
Oh I’d appreciate your thoughts on the “Wonder of Your Love” song. I like it, but I wrote it, so I’d love to get some other thoughts on it.
If you enjoyed this worship recap you can read more over on Sunday Setlists!
Tags: child of god, jesus messiah, New Song, song, Sunday Setlist, Worship
My Daily Photo 8/20/09
Aug 20, 2009 Photos and Backgrounds
Today’s photo was actually taken this past week when I led worship at St Marks UMC in Houston. It is of their chancel area.
My Dropbox – Something Free for You and Me!
Aug 20, 2009 Free Stuff, How To
For about a year now I have been using Dropbox as a way to share files between my various computers. It simply works like this. Install dropbox on whatever computers you want and folder called “My Dropbox” is put into My Documents. Whenever you add or take away files from that “My Dropbox” folder, it is syncronized on each computer on which it is installed. I use this often to put files I am working on so I can open them at home and work, such as publications for church, or photos for this blog.
My dropbox is making an offer for more free space. For everyone one of you who sign up for My Dropbox, I get 250 mb of more space, up to 3 gig. But wait there is more. If you sign up you also get not only the 1G of space that comes with the free version, but an additional 250 mb also. So I would like to ask for you to try My Dropbox. Just click “Get My Dropbox” below and it will take you through the short sign up process. I would not ask, or support this if I had not used it myself. I hope you enjoy.
I found “My Dropbox” because someone else suggested it to me. What other cool, useful web tools would you suggest?
Tags: computer, dropbox, Free, photo, photos, useful web tools, work
The Best Form of Communication
Aug 19, 2009 How To, Media and Technology
One of my jobs at the church is dealing with communication. We are constantly trying to find the best way to communicate with our members and the community. We are always looking for new ways to get information out. It seems like each week we ask ourselves, “What’s the best way to communicate?” Well I finally found the answer. Whatever works best.
I know that’s kind of a weird answer but hear me out. When I took golf lessons a long time ago my instructor showed me how I should swing. He went through the stance, grip of the club, ball placement, back swing and follow through. He said this is how you are supposed to do this and showed me, and I practiced it. I did fairly well taking lessons and eventually my time was up so I began just playing on my own. After a while I noticed that as I had practiced and played over time I had made my own little adjustments to my game. Over time my grip, swing, stance, all had changed to varying degrees. I ran into my instructor later and asked if I needed to go back to the right way of swinging my club etc. His response…”Do you hit the ball straight?.. me “Yes”… him..”There is no right way, there is the way that works for you.” Over time I had found a way to play that fit me, and that gave me the results I was wanting.
I think of this a lot when I watch Major League Baseball. I watch each player go up to bat and each have a different way of standing in the box, holding their bat, and swinging. And those methods have developed over time to give them the results they desire.
So what does this have to do with communication? Find what fits you, church, or organization, and what gives you the results that work. Maybe that means going all electronic in your communication using Facebook, Twitter, and a Blog. Maybe that means you mail out a weekly newsletter to each of your members. Maybe that means a combination of everything.
So what do you do? Here are some suggestions.
1. Find out how your congregation communicates- This can be done by a simple survey question that says “How do you want us to communicate with you?” and then list several ways like email, newsletter, twitter etc…
2. Don’t do something just cause everyone else is- If you spend countless hours updating your church facebook page, but no one uses facebook then you are wasting time. Just because the church down the street does it, doesn’t mean it will be effective for you.
3. Do keep your congregation informed of new ways that you can communicate- Just because your church doesn’t use facebook now, doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. Hold workshops, write articles and talk with people about new ways of communication.
4. Don’t use more methods than you can keep up with- You want to use as many communication tools as you can, however it is better to do fewer things well than a lot of things poorly. If you are a social networking person then find someone else who can take care of your print publications.
5. Create once and deliver different ways- There are several ways you can combine your delivery methods that cut down on your work. If you print your announcements and news in the bulletin do it in such a way that the news sheet can be mailed out. Have your blog automatically post to twitter and facebook. Anytime you can do this, you multiply the eyes that see your information.
Those are my five ways.. what do you suggest?
Instrumental Reflections Live #1 Haunting Melody
Aug 19, 2009 Free Stuff, Instrumental Reflections
Basically this is how it works. I found a web cam I had bought a few years ago. Then I set up my keyboard, ran it into a small mixer and then into my computer. I then signed up for a ustream account and set up a show called “At the Piano.” From there I just sit down, invite some friends and just play.
Today I asked my friends to give me several notes in a random order. I took the notes in the order given and gave myself the challenge of creating a melody and chords based on the give notes.
Want to know when I play next? Follow me on Twitter and Facebook
Tags: application, CD, Chords, facebook, Instrumental, Music, piano, reflections, twitter, video, work
Instrumental Reflection #6
Aug 13, 2009 Instrumental Reflections
I return to Instrumental Reflections with “In The Midst.” This song was recorded, shortly after 9/11, at Alvin Community College when I was asked by a friend to be the “test band” for his recording class. When playing I was thinking about all the chaotic things that were happening, but that God was there, in the midst of it all. I think that’s reflected by the constant theme that keeps recurring in this piece.
Click to listen. Right click and choose “Save as” or “save target as” to save to your computer.
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To listen click play!
Tags: Instrumental
Question of the Day: Scripture
Aug 10, 2009 Devotions and Thoughts
Yesterday on facebook I posed this question:
List one scripture that has meant something to you recently and why… Go
Here are some of the responses so far
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” because I am looking for a job and it is hard to stay strong.
You do not know the plans that I have in store for you….
Pleasant words are a honeycomb; soothing to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24 It’s my girls and my current memory verse. Trying to teach them to speak kindly to each other – even when they don’t want to (A good reminder for mommy too).
delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart… it’s a promise from God that has yet to be fufilled but the fact that it’s been made keeps me going
1 Corinthians 10…God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the same time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.
LOVE this verse…because I know no matter how bad things get, God will not let me down!
So it’s your turn. List one scripture that has meant something to you recently and why… Go
Asking for Help
Aug 9, 2009 Media and Technology
For the past week I have not been writing on my blog. Not because I am tired, or have nothing to say but because I was kinda stupid. I have been looking for a new look, layout for my blog and as I was trying them out, loading and unloading them something went wrong. All the sudden I couldn’t get to anything. Forkintheroadmusic.org just brought up a blank page. Instead of asking for help I tried several days worth of solutions. Download this, upload that, copy and backup, restore… nothing worked.
Last night I gave up and asked for help. I sent a simple email to bluehost.com explaining the problem, which was human stupidity. They sent me an email saying that they had a backup and could restore it if I confirmed my password. Thirty minutes later I was up and running with no problems.
Unfortunately I tend to do the same thing in other parts of my life too. I get into a mess, make a mistake and then I spin my wheels and spend my time trying to fix it, when I should just ask for help in the first place. Maybe that help is from God. Maybe that is from a friend or family member. But the hard part is asking for it in the first place.
What do you have the hardest time asking for help with?
Tags: asking, blog, email, Family, help, late, Music, night, work
