Iphone Apps for Musicians- Part 3
Jan 3, 2009 Media and Technology
This post is third in a series where I have highlighed some of the most useful apps for the iphone and ipod touch that I have found for my ministry leading worship. Here are the final 4.
Evernote-Their website says “Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.” I have just begun using this software and haven’t started using it to it’s full potential but it looks promising. The ability to sync online and iphone is good. I could definately see it useful when purchasing equipment and making comparisons.
Twittelator- If you are a twitter user this is a great app to have. It is my primary form of interacting on twitter. I can send photos, direct messages, and replies. It also supports the location feature so everyone can know exactly where you are. It does from time to time get overwhelmed if you are following a large number of people who update very often but all in all it does well. There is a free version and then Twittelator Pro which costs a few dollars.
Pandora- I wrote about this a few months ago for the desktop version. The Pandora program for the iphone works just the same. Enter a song or artist and it will create a station based around the sound characteristics of that artist or song. The result is a play list that is similar in style that you can listen to all day long. I have used this both on the edge and 3G networks as well as Wifi. As long as you have a signal you can listen. The downside is you cannot listen to it and do anything else on your phone. Until apple lets us run two programs simultaneously.
BONUS APPLICATION FOR MUSICIANS
Gigbaby- A four track recorder with drum machine and metronome? Yeah and all for under a buck. I wouldn’t produce any records with it but great for recording song ideas. This was not in my original list but I ran across it the other day and have loved it since.
Tags: application, apps, Free, iphone, Recording, twitter, work, Worship
Which Books Would You Recommend?
Dec 4, 2008 Uncategorized
Our church is starting a bookstore and we are in the process of finding which books we should include. I thought I would ask my twitter and my facebook friends for their suggestions so I posted this. “If you were to recommend a book for a church bookstore what would it be?” Here were the responses so far. (The links are to Amazon.com)
Traveling Mercies- Ann Lamott
Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot- Max Lucado
Couples Who Pray- Squire Rushnell and Louise DuArt
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World- Joanna Weaver
Velvit Elvis- Rob Bell
Free Of Charge-Miroslav Volf
Celebration of Discipline- Richard Foster
Challenge of Jesus- NT Wright
Anything by NT Wright or Henri Nouwen
Charting a Bold Course- Andrew Seidel
The Shack- William P. Young
Anything by Ted Dekker
Anything by Rob Bell
So what books do you recommend?
It’s Time For Worship, Please Turn ON Your Cell Phone
Nov 26, 2008 Media and Technology, Worship Planning
It seems that whenever we are constantly being reminded to turn off our cell phones when we go to public places like movie theaters, schools, and church. This weekend at National Youth Workers Convention at one of our general sessions we were asked to do exactly the opposite. There were several times that we were specifically asked to turn our phones on.
The first time was one of the coolest prayer experiences I have ever been a part of. The speaker would say something like, “Maybe you feel like you need to be filled up this week” and then asked those that agreed with the statement to turn their phone display on. What happened is that in the darkness we were able to see that there were others with the same struggles, while it still gave some sense of ambiguity. Each time a statement was made, thousands of lights appeared across the stadium.
The second was during a general session where we had three speakers. Each one was given 15 minutes to talk, and then we took 5 minutes to discuss what they spoke about. During that 5 minutes we were encouraged to text message questions to a number on the screen. At the end of the 5 minutes they used those questions for a Q&A session.
The final use of the phone was ongoing through twitter. Through monitoring twitter comments and sending my own I was able to interact with people sitting in various areas of the worship service, get their thoughts and respond. I was even able to follow one of the services we did not attend, getting photos, comments, sermon notes and more. (follow me on twitter @rgmmusic)
These all worked great in a large conference setting. What I am wondering though is how they could work in a smaller church setting of 100-500 people. Or would I be asking for trouble by encouraging people to turn their phones on during worship.
What ways have you used cell phones during your worship service?
What would concern you most about encouraging your congregation to turn ON their phone?
Tags: application, CD, Church, National Youth Workers Convention, Prayer, Thoughts, twitter, work, Worship, youth
National Youth Workers Convention- Part 1
Nov 22, 2008 Uncategorized
This weekend I am attending the National Youth Workers Convention in Nashville TN. I have attended many of these events in the past years, especially when I was the youth director, but now since I have moved into a different role, (I am a volunteer and work with the youth band) I am viewing this conference differently. I used to come with my seminars already chosen about being a youth director, or setting up a youth group, or the best games for youth groups. Now I am looking at things like the course I took yesterday on how to be a transformational leader, or spiritual disciplines, and things like that.
The thing that always awesome are the general sessions and times of worship and teaching that occur there. Yesterday they started off with Mercy Me, David Crowder, Joe Castillo (The sand art guy) and Frances Chan.
Well… we are about to head off to lunch and a super seminar. I hope to share some of the lessons learned with you in future posts. Oh.. and for all you twitter folk you can follow what’s going on by searching the tag #nywc.
Tags: band, How To, lessons, National Youth Workers Convention, twitter, work, Worship, youth, Youth Band
How Does Your Church Communicate?
Oct 4, 2008 Communication
Since the beginning of the year our church has moved to doing a monthly full color newsletter instead of the weekly black and white one we used to use. This has proved to be effective however we still have many members who would like to receive something in the mail weekly.
Last year we began sending out E-news, a weekly email with church information. In august we moved it from an email list to a blog and now members can subscribe via email or by rss feed.
All this to say we are still searching for the best way to communicate with our members. Part of our congregation is very much a paper generation wanting newsletters, and bullitens, part of them are a computer generation with websites and emails and a growing part are a cell phone/Pda generation using things like text messages and twitter.
To find out we did a small survey to try to see what people used the most so far. We sent this out by email so the results so far only reflect the answers of those who use the computer and receive email or visit the website. The question was “How would you like the church to communicate with you?” They could check as many as applied to them.
84% – Email
49%- Monthly Newsletter
29%- Website
28%- Mailed Weekly News
21%- Facebook Group
18%- Church Bulliten
13%- Text Message
12%- RSS Feed
7%- Twitter
My question is how does your church communicate? What means do you use to get information to your members? What do you use to get information to your visitors?
Tags: blogs, Church, Communication, facebook, twitter, websites
