ChurchApplied

Media Tools

Today I attending the Pacific Union Conference Communication Advisory in Loma Linda, California. This is for the Communication Directors of our seven conferences, as well as the Marketing Directors from Adventist Health, La Sierra University, Loma Linda University, and Pacific Union College. Representatives from Pacific Press and TAGnet are also here to talk about their products and services.

The topics and activities provide great opportunities for professional growth and peer to peer interaction.  I want to thank Pacific Union Conference Communication Director, Gerry Chudleigh and his Associate, Alicia Adams for pulling this together.

My work with Church Support Services brought me here to share how we are using web and media technologies to encourage ministry innovation among our churches.

I did a demo of the new Flip Video Mino camera that was recently improved and updated. This is a great little camera for rough and ready video interviews that can be posted on YouTube. Here's a short clip that tells more about it.

This video, made with the Flip Video Mino, gives you an idea how effective it is for web usage.

Another device that I featured is the Edirol R-09HR,an MP3 audio recording device that is about the size of an electric shaver. The audio quality is amazingly clear and it produces both wave and MP3 files.

Whether you are recording sermons, personal testimonies or doing on the spot reporting, this device is a perfect field companion for those who need something that's easy to carry, yet packed with quality performance.

Say It With Your Car

The Thousand Oaks Seventh-day Adventist Church is presently engaged in a series of evangelistic meetings and is using a marketing technique to help acquaint people with what they're offering. Using the URL, www.GPSforLife.org, they set up a website that describes the meetings, then produced a number of magnetic signs that members are displaying on their cars to help get the word out.

 

This is an interesting way to drive more eyes to any website, whether it is for meetings, your church or a specific ministry.

For more details contact pastor Michael Brownfield via the Thousand Oaks Church website.

RE:FRAME

This past weekend I attended a seminar in the Altadena Church (near L.A.) on evangelism that was outstanding. It was sponsored by the Southern California Conference and was focused on reaching  metropolitan/contemporary populations who are generally not receptive to traditional evangelism methods. Of course this includes many of our own young adults and teens who have either left, or are in the process of leaving our churches.

Proclamation evangelism has its place, but something more must be done to reach the masses of people in our large cities who are suspicious of organized religion and who shy away from religious gatherings.

 

RE:FRAME provides an opportunity for attendees to re-frame or re-evaluate their views on ministry and evangelism. The Altadena sessions were conducted by Dr. Miroslav Pujic from the Centre for Secular & Postmodern Studies of the General Conference. He lives in Great Britain which has had little success with evangelism, until recently when they started using the concepts and methods he shared.

There were between 160-170 church leaders, members and pastors present from all over. Most were from southern California, but some came from places like Marietta, Georgia, Tennessee, and Seattle. One guy came all the way from Egypt.

The ideas that Pujic shared have been put together very nicely into a series of booklets, magazines and DVD clips that seek to address the basics of what it means to love people, form meaningful relationships and be able to respond to Postmodern thinking and behaviors. It is called LIFEdevelopment. Because Postmodern thinking is so pervasive, many of our own members are affected by it and need to be ministered to as well.

LIFEdevelopment is not a program, but rather a collection of tested concepts that I believe can be used to help reach our families, friends and communities for Christ. It is perfectly suited for the fast-paced, cosmopolitan environments within North America and other western countries.

The approach is based on Christ's method of evangelism:

"Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Savior mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, 'Follow me.'" (Ministry of Healing p. 143)

NOTE: RE:FRAME is returning to L.A. on March 20-22, 2009. Watch this blog for more details.

Click here to learn more about  RE:FRAME  |  LIFEdevelopment

True Colors

According to Scripture, earth's final events will cause men's hearts to fail as they anticipate the horrific things that are coming upon the earth. Of that time, Jesus says:

"It will seem like all hell has broken loose--sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, in an uproar and everyone all over the world in a panic, the wind knocked out of them by the threat of doom, the powers-that-be quaking." Luke 21:25,26 (The Message/Remix)

The delayed efforts to rescue Katrina's trapped victims exposed a much finer line between civility and anarchy than we care to acknowledge. When conditions deteriorate to the point where people are deprived of life's basic necessities, there's no telling what they will do. That's when heros and villains emerge--some to perform God-like deeds of kindness and deliverance, and others to commit Satanic acts of selfishness and cruelty.

A nightmare come true

For some, Katrina's aftermath was a nightmare come true. They witnessed suicides, beatings, rapes, robberies and more. Michael Grabell of The Dallas Morning News, said evacuees, "told horrific tales of human suffering in every ballroom and hall of the Morial Convention Center. Of corpses draped in white sheets being pushed on catering carts and loaded into freezers. Of a 13-year-old girl being raped. Of old women having seizures. And of puddles in the carpeting by the Starbucks stand; hot, pitch-dark ballrooms [with] feces in the corner."1

But there were bright spots of hope. When the food stopped coming, Wilfred Johnson, a Jamaican chef with Big Shirley's in the French Quarter, "found frozen food and cooking oil in the convention center's kitchen – and a barbecue pit left behind in the neighborhood. So he decided to feed the masses, especially the children."

"He sauteed chicken in oil, red pepper, and garlic. He marinated ribs, sausages and shish kebabs. The spicy aromas hid the stench inside the center."

"'I'm no hero, man,' said Mr. Johnson, a lean, muscular man with dreadlocks wrapped in a red wool hat and a black coral necklace. 'I'm just trying to cook so we can survive. Everybody is a hero here for surviving.'" 2

Actually, a crisis does not make a person, it only revels who they are. Watching the tragedy unfold on television was like watching a play where every "actor" executed their part, which they prepared before knowing what would happen to them. Each victim likely responded to the crisis in ways that were consistent with their characters.

Coming hysteria

The Gulf Coast disaster is but a foretaste of what Scripture says will eventually envelope the entire world--mass hysteria and doom. But thankfully it won't end there. Just when it seems like things can't get any worse, Jesus said,

"They'll see the Son of Man welcomed in grand style--a glorious welcome! When all this starts to happen, up on your feet. Stand tall with your heads high. Help is on the way!" Luke 21:27,28 (The Message/Remix)

Those who now make God's love their controlling interest, will then welcome His deliverance as readily as Katrina's weary survivors welcomed the Coast Guard helicopters. It will be that kind of moment!

Today, in a world that is destined for ruin, may God help us be heros of faith and mercy!

1 The Dallas Morning News, Michael Grabell, Saturday, September 3, 2005
2 Ibid

Photo by Stockxpert