bWsWorld

I have begun to work on my first screen capture tutorials on Quicktime X and I will be doing web apps first. One the tutorial I am currently working on is Google Forms. I just recently started to play with them and found them to be a quick simple solution to a lot of problems. Google forms are located in the Google Documents suite.

We are a growing church 120 people  on average but that is double where we were last year at this time. My budget to spend on web development is small so I have to find the best free-cheap tools I can find. Google forms provides me with a good amount of options at a great price……. free. Before I started using Google forms I was using  a form manager on my site.  We use a Content Management System (CMS) to maintain our site. The code on the form manager was sketchy and though it provided me with options it was a lot of coping and pasting code  and it would have been very hard to train  someone on. My biggest issue with it was that it was extremely difficult to database the form data once someone filled it out.

Google forms, on the other hand, are simple to make so therefore easy to train someone else to use. They can be embedded the form is many places, sent it out in email or put it in one of you MailChimp campaigns. The best is that all of the data that you collect in these forms is then placed in a Google spread sheet for easy viewing. I already use Google docs for all of the DPC staff documents so adding the form data was just a bonus. So if you have been looking for a form solution try Google forms and look for my tutorial on them, coming soon to this site!

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Okay so I was born and raised in a traditional Southern Baptist Church. I went to church Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. I was a Royal Ambassador and I was active in my youth group. My mother loved her Sunday School class and me and my sister were in one every week until I could drive. I never liked Sunday School much. Neither did most of the kids my age. I never saw the point in having school on a Sunday. Maybe the name just psyched me out but I never really got into Sunday School growing up.

So skip a decade plus a few years and here I am an adult (in age and responsibility only) in an era where Sunday school classes are beginning to fade and small groups are becoming the norm. I have been apart of my current church since it began back in 2005 and we have had “Life Groups” from the beginning. Up until this current edition of Life Groups I have not been able to connect with a group. I love the idea of Life Groups, I love what they are suppose to be but up until just recently I viewed them as a Sunday School substitute. Now maybe that’s my fault. Maybe Sunday School left a bitter taste in my mouth. Maybe I had the wrong attitude going into them.I have just been in Sunday school my whole life. I did not want life groups to become like Sunday School to me. Now the Life groups I am currently in is awesome. I am connected, I leave ready to come back the next week and my wife enjoys it too. The question is how do you get a large portion of your people to feel the way about life groups as I do about my current group? How do you make sure Life Groups do not feel like things you have to go to?

My other question is what else is there? In what way can we connect, grow and disciple other than life groups. Better yet is there a creative way to tweak the current model. What is your church doing to make your small groups effective?

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I have dropped the ball this week with post! Sorry

I dropped my iPhone flat on its face the other day and now have a huge crack in the face. The phone still works perfectly but it looks funny. Here are my favorite iPhone apps some are free some are not but they are all under $5

1. Facebook- I don’t know a ton of people who do not have facebook accounts this one just keeps me updated on the go.
2. ESPN Score Center- All the scores I need to know right at my finger tips
3. Google- I love Google, they can know what they want about me I have nothing to hide
4. YouVersion- Bible on the go. You version live is one of the coolest things ever!
5. Milpon- Remember the milk on your iphone without paying for a years subscription to RTM
6. TweetDeck- My Twitter app for the iphone
7. Flickr- I can post photos on the run
8. Shazam- This app is just fun. Let it hear a song that you don’t know the title to and it will send all the info about the song you need to know
9. Skype- Really haven’t got the to work they I wanted it to but what dies work is awesome
10. Urban Spoon- My restaurant finder. Love it.

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What a Sunday!

• The Band was Amazing. Production Team was on Point and Jesus was worshiped you can’t do much better than that.
• We talked about truth and how there is only one truth.
• Jesus said “I am THE way I am THE truth and I am THE life”. That is really powerful
• Life Group on Sunday Night was awesome! I posted on Facebook that I can’t remember being apart of a better life group!
• I stopped and watched Discover Kids for a few minutes on Sunday. Those kids have so much fun!
• Next week we start to discuss the excuses we make to sin. How we rationalize disobeying God and how to get away from that life style. 

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• We shot a TV commercial on Sunday look for it on cable networks in Rockdale and Newton County real soon!
• Sunday was awesome!  The played a new song written by some of its members called enamored. Amazing stuff
• Musicians frustrate me and amazing all in the same breath
• This week was all about Passion. Being Passionate in all you do
• Next week we begin a series called true-ish where we explore the so-called gray areas of God
• By the way God is Black and White there is no gray
• Hope to see you guys next week!

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This is a therapeutic exercise were I admit publicly some of my faults. I helps me gets things out and it keeps me humble. I would suggest doing it even it it is not on a blog. Just get a sheet of paper and write down all of your faults and share them with some one. Ask them to pray for you. Here are a few and only a few of my confessions.

1. I have slept through sermons: I put the sermons into in the computer each week and I listen to them as I load the podcast. I hear each and every sermon all the way through several times a week. I hear and see Philip all of the time. I go to bed late and get up early everyday. I sit in the back booth of the auditorium.  So yes on occasion I have fallen asleep during a service.
2. I don’t always put my family first: This is a hard one to admit.  I love my wife and kids. I work as hard as I do for them but sometimes I lose focus on what is really important. My family is my first ministry everything else shoud come second. I am not always the Godly husband or father I should be. This is something I work on everyday.
3. I am a control freak and it gets the best of me: I want things done my way so bad sometimes that I don’t ask God how does he want it.
4. I don’t trust it unless I touch it myself: My wife hates this about me. She will tell me 4 times something is a certain way but until I see it for myself I am not happy. I have a hard time giving responsibilities in the church to people because I want it done a certain way. I catch my self doing too much because I am not willing to trust others.  I don’t trust God to bring me the right people.
5. I want to know too much: I try to stay up on the latest trends in culture and technology and it get exhausting. I need to spend more time stepping back and enjoy whats around me.

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Boy that vacation could not have come at a better time. Me and my family took a week and went to Disney World. It was a blast! It is always nice to get away, clear your mind and relax. I was off my computer for an entire week out side of my iphone. Which my wife will tell you is a miracle.

Disney World does many things well. While I was there I took the time to take in some of things Disney does well and tried to apply them to different things that the church could use.

• Signage: Disney has some of the best placed signs I have ever seen. If you get lost in Disney you aren’t paying attention at all! Same goes for the church big churches, small churches whatever size you are, when people visit your church they do not want to have to ask anyone where anything is. Many companies around the world copy the  Disney World sign model. Many churches should too. They are clear, noticeable and placed in the perfect location.
• They Stick with the classics while adding new modern features: I hate the Small World ride but my twin 3 year olds would have rode it 12 times if they could have. Some things work despite how long they have been around. Some stories, illustrations, videos ect. just work and can be used over and over again. Now if my pastor used the same illustration 10 times over a years period is it going to effect me the same way each time? Probably not. Will it help change the life of someone who has never heard it before? Maybe, and that is worth hearing it 10 times to me. On the flip side you always need to be looking for new things that work. Sticking with the classics can get real stale if you are not adding new ways to present them. If Disney was same place it was 10 years ago peopel would not go back as often. Side note I am not talking about the story of Jesus Christ becasue that should never change. I am only talking about the way you present it.
• Customer Service: This should be self explanatory. The employees are always smiling, they know how to tell you no in a nice way and hardly ever walk away form a Disney employee and think man that guy was a scrooge. I am not saying you should give in to people just to be nice but find a way to say no and walk away with out people feeling bitter.

These are just a few of the many things I observed at Disney and I will post some more of them later this.

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This was my first Sunday back in the production booth in 2 weeks and it was fun!

• I love my production team they get better every week.
• Band did a great job even with David being sick
• Community is the Funniest show on TV right now
• East to West went great. The band always surprises me
• Its always cool when Lisa sings. Her and David work really well together! Maybe its because they’re married? Maybe not?
• Philip Shared a really tough part of his life with us
• Warriors fight through wounds!
• Life Group was awesome this week! If you are not in one you don’t know what you are missing!
• Have a great week and find a life Group to be apart of!

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This Sunday was an awesome Sunday at DP!

• I love our band! What an awesome group of talented guys who love God.
• Did anyone else get blinded by the huge shiny spot on Philip’s shirt??
• I ran lights this Sunday. It is always fun for me to man a position in the booth and let the other volunteers run their positions.
• Could you imagine a service without the production team. No lights, no video. It would be weird wouldn’t it.
• I am really encouraged by the team I have in the booth every Sunday. They are always willing to learn something new.
• If I have never said this in this blog. I am really proud of Rusty Lehman. Who has not only learned the lights from scratch but he also quit smoking cold turkey. I have no idea how hard that is but I can imagine.
• Matt you will be fine next week.
• If anyone is interested in helping people come to Christ through the visual and audio elements of the service I am looking for volunteers in the production booth. NO EXPERIENCE IS NEEDED. You just need to be willing to learn something new.

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One thing on my to do list has been to create new twitter backgrounds for bwsworld and for Discover Point. I thought it would be easier than it was. I spend about 2 hours last night resizing the images until they worked on a variety of screen resolutions. Check them out when you get a minute.

@bwsworld

@discoverpoint

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