There are some great podcasts out there if you are interested in learning more about utilizing technology in the church. Some of these are video shows, and some are audio, but they all have some great information about the software, tools, and technology to help you share the message of Christ.
Click on the links below to view each podcast (most of these links require iTunes to be installed on your computer)
Last night, my mom and dad brought over a Bible. Not just any Bible, but a Bible that has been in the family for a long time. My Great-Grandfather was a Methodist Circuit Preacher in the early 1900′s. The Rev. Jessee Morris traveled all around southwest Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee in the Holston Methodist Conference. He was born in 1877 and died in 1938, and was a true circuit rider. The Bible that they brought and gave me was the main Bible he used. My uncle was the last family member to have it, and he wanted to give it to me since I am a pastor.
As I held it in my hands and looked through it, I felt a strange connection. I could see his sermon notes and ideas, and it was amazing to see his thoughts. Even though we are generations apart, we believe in the same Lord and Savior. This is truly one of the gifts that I will cherish and hold on to. It’s in pretty rough shape, it was definitely well used, but I want to read through his notes and glean wisdom from what he learned. I was surprised by the number of ‘facts’ about the Bible that he wrote. Do you know what the middle verse of the Bible is? What about the middle word of the New Testament? How many verses end with a question mark? All of these and more are written in the back. I had to stop and remember that this was long, long, before computers. But the question that kept ringing through my head last night was this, “Do we spend as much time in the Word as our forefathers did?”
I’m afraid that technology has made it easier to study the Bible, but made it harder to fall in love with the Bible.
Reflect and think on that last statement, and I pray that it will have the same effect on you that it had on me.
Here are some more pictures that show the notes and the inside of the Bible. It is a King James authorized version with red letters in both the Old and New Testament. I don’t know if I have ever seen a red letter edition that also has Old Testament verses in red as well. It is truly a glimpse into the past.
I’m continually amazed at how the internet is shaping technology. I spent a couple of hours experimenting with streaming live video from church. It was incredibly easy to setup and even more importantly, it was free. We are looking at hosting a seminar at Cornerstone here in Virginia and broadcasting it live over the internet to two churches in Michigan that are wanting to join in. Our first run-through was very positive, so I think we will proceed with our plans.
I hooked up an old mini-dv camcorder to my macbook pro through firewire, and then tried out both Mogulus and Ustream.tv. Both services are relatively simple to configure and start your broadcast. The only annoying thing about both services is that they are ad-supported. Mogulus offers a pro version for around $350 a month that removes the ads, but that is out of our reach for a small seminar like we are planning.
I read recently about Watershed, which is a service of Ustream, and I think it will work perfectly. Basically, for lower usages, you pay $1 per hour per viewer. You can brand everything with your own logo, embed the player in your own website, and all ads are removed. You can read more about using watershed with churches at ChurchCrunch.
Here’s a little humor for your Friday afternoon from the Skit Guys. At Cornerstone, we’re currently in a sermon series about fear. It seems like in our society, one of the greatest fears is the fear of not having enough. Everyone wants to spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need. And then when they end up broke, they want a bailout. Watch and enjoy
Even though I live in the mountains, I really love South Carolina low-country cuisine. One of my favorite dishes is She-Crab soup. Unfortunately, you can’t find it too many places up here in the mountains (although Goobers52 does have it in Mt. Airy)
So for our soup and salad luncheon after church Sunday, I fixed a huge pot of it. I had so many requests for the recipe that I thought I would share it here. It is a artery-busting, calorie-popping delight. I did leave out the Sherry, because it’s a little hard to go shopping for wine if you’re a pastor in a small town 
And we couldn’t find fish stock, so I substituted vegetable broth with the juice from some cans of crab meat. I went by this recipe from Allrecipes.com
Enjoy!!
Proverbs 22:7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
Debt is bondage …
It enslaves you …
It holds you back …
And it keeps you from following God
If you haven’t noticed, our national economy is in a downward spiral. The media and our government want us to believe that the solution is simply spending more money. If we spend more, more jobs will be created and the economy will recover. But it doesn’t make sense to spend money that you don’t have!!
At Cornerstone we want to help you get your finances under control. We don’t want you to be enslaved to personal debt. We want you to be able to follow God when He calls you to do something. Worry and anxiety about your finances will only keep you from doing what God created you to do. So we want to do something practical about it. We have two huge events this week.
First, on Thursday night, April 23rd, we are joining thousands of churches around the country to join Dave Ramsey’s Town Hall for Hope. Come join us at 8pm at Cornerstone to watch Dave share a message of hope. Here’s a video with more info
On Saturday night, April 25th, we are excited and FIRED UP about having Joe Sangl join us live here at Cornerstone again. Joe is on a mission to help people do far more with their money than they thought possible. He believes that when you live in financial freedom you can actually do what God put you on this earth to do! Starting at 6pm, join us at Cornerstone for Joe’s Financial Learning Experience. I want to stress how much this experience can help you in the area of your personal finances. We will not be having our normal Saturday Night Worship Experience, but this is an experience that you don’t want to miss. We are asking for a suggested donation of $10 to help cover the cost of the materials. You can sign up if you want at Cornerstone’s website.
It is hard to believe that 2 years have passed since the Virginia Tech Tragedy. It had a profound effect on everyone in our community. For me, I graduated from Tech and had classes in the building where the shootings took place. For one of our former students, he lost his roommate and best friend. For other students I know who were at Tech, they went through a terrifying ordeal that still bothers them today. I know some of the police officers who are still struggling with what they saw that day. Everyone was affected in some way.
What happened two years ago was not just another headline in the news. Things like that don’t happen in southwest Virginia. But it did happen, and we still remember those who lost loved ones and who went through this ordeal. Our prayers are with you, and this just motivates me to share my faith with more urgency and boldness than ever. Because we never know …
I have shared several times in the past about Evernote, an awesome program for note taking. The great advantage to Evernote is that it is accesible from your smartphone, from your ipod touch, from the web, and from your computer. They have now added integration with twitter so that you can send a message directly from twitter that ends up in your evernote notebook. It’s probably easier to explain by watching their tutorial. It’s pretty slick, and I can see myself using this to save links that I come across in twitter.
Cornerstone Sermons