DISQUS

In the photo gallery. here's a link:

http://www.gcionline.org/index.php?option=com_e...

@Angela - I agree that our electoral process reflects our values as a country. Maybe that's the most difficult thing for the American Church to come to terms with: how fallen we really are.

However, I also believe that all authority comes from God. God's sovereignty extends even to the presidency. Therefore, I have to do my part as a citizen and vote according to how I think Jesus would vote. Then I rest in knowing that God is big enough to make it all work according to His plan.

This is good advice when having to confront anyone about anything that they have done that is inappropriate. Especially when you are offended with someone and need to have a "get it off my chest" conversation.

If more married couples would listen to this there would be less divorce and fewer men would be sleeping on the couch!

Great video.

My blogging story has been like most. I get discouraged and the quality and quantity goes down. Then I discover that someone finds it useful and I get motivated again.

I still think blogging is a powerful medium that holds an important place in the world. I like the immediacy of some of the newer mediums like Twitter, but there's no substitute for a good, well-written and thoughtful blog post on a topic you are personally invested in.

I have a similar dilemma as RevTim. I'm a pastor of a church that has historically been totally offline. The church is growing and it is growing with younger people who are totally ONLINE.

The challenge is in educating the older offline crowd and pulling them into the online community while not frustrating the others by making them get all their communication through Sunday bulletins and newsletters.

I love the concept of Unifyer. There are 3 reasons I'm holding off at the moment: 1) the heavy use of flash which will frustrate folks on dialup, 2) cost - would be cheap for us now but if it does it's job and the # of users grows we will not be able to afford it, 3)75% of the current membership just isn't ready for it.

I'd like to see Unifyer move away from flash and take a more Google-esque approach to the UI. The feature wish-list from M. Frazier looks awesome. I'd also like to see a pricing structure that makes more sense. Maybe a free, Plus, Pro sort of pricing scheme. Or a one time fee for the software and churches could host it themselves. I'm more comfortable hosting apps on my own server anyway because then I control my own data.

Well, our church site uses Joomla! as a CMS so I've been poking around looking for someone who has written a usable extension for Joomla.

There is Community Builder, but I hate it. It's terribly hard to set up and it looks outdated.

I'm testing out Joomunity right now and it has promise. However, it doesn't seem to be able to provide users the ability to create their own groups/meetups and there isn't a good way to disseminate communication from the church to everyone.

Jomsocial and Anahita seem to have the most promise, but neither have been released yet.

The technology is certainly out there, but no one has really put it all together yet in a workable package that I can find.

I have some of the same issues with Unifyer too. Any suggestions on alternatives (other than developing your own)?

Thanks, ded, for taking us a little deeper... I'll venture some possible answers, though I hope I'm not the only one to do so.

How does the common guy, who pretty much understands what he is told over the pulpit, learn the deeper truth of the way of love?

"Understanding" may begin for him at the pulpit, but certainly doesn't end there. The truth of scripture is digested in community. It's within the context of relationships with other people that we internalize and live-out the Truth that has confronted us at the pulpit. Does "love your neighbor as yourself" mean anything outside the context of community? I believe the breakdown in most churches is that true community doesn't exist.

What exactly is the role of the pastor in feeding this guy so that he is effective in leading his family?

Assuming a certain size of the church, the pastor shouldn't be the only one feeding him! This goes back to the concept of community. There should be a reciprocating feeding that happens. While he is being fed, he feeds someone else. I like the picture of Jesus feeding the 5,000. He didn't actually feed them, the disciples did.

Does conviction equip someone to walk in the spirit?

Nope. I'd say repentance does. Conviction should push us to repentance. Conviction w/out repentance is a hard heart. Repentance requires the enablement of the Holy Spirit to see the gospel of grace as a reality for us specifically. It requires an intervention by God.

Yeah, I feel kind of the same way. What bothers me is the thought that the people (like many people that commented at GodTube about the video) assume that the child is "under the anointing" and that because the child can do a good imitiation that God is speaking through the child in a miraculous way.

I think that is what makes me a tad nervous. I see a child that is having a good time imitating his dad or the preacher. It's cute. What's not very cute to me is so many people assigning a deeper spiritual significance to it.

Then again, who knows? God can do what He wants, right?

You're so right! Does the ball bouncing scene come from Cool Hand Luke, then? Or was that S. Mc. in the Great Escape? I can't remember now.

The Great Escape was AWESOME. I almost posted a video for that too. That scene with him bouncing the ball is iconic.

I wonder that too! I find that for me, I tend to follow the blogs with shorter posts more closely. However, when a longer blog article is written about something I really care about I always read it with interest.

I guess maybe a balance of both is best.

WARNING: Once you start, you can't stop.

NICE!

Uncle Jesse bought his own headset mic so that he could have both hands free for a more effective moonwalk during his solo.

THIS SONG IS STILL STUCK IN MY HEAD! Aaaaagggghhh!!!!

Chip's coming on Oct. 19th. Everybody come! We'll have a little reunion in K-Town!

That was such a powerful time of exultation! I'm so glad that there was a strong hedge of protection around the Casio organ that day. Without it, we would have been hosed!

Thanks for the word of encouragement, Jan. We are really blessed to have Eric Estrada on our worship team.

"Jesus is like a Mounty. He always gets His man."

I contributed that line to the song. I think it works well, don't you think?

My thoughts exactly. Sad all the way around. You have to wonder how many opportunities for reconciliation were missed by everyone involved over the years to eventually bring them all to the point of resignation and embitterment.

I feel your pain! My 2 year old son keeps pretend typing on my laptop and raking the keys off the keyboard in the process. I have discovered that eBay is a great place to get replacement keys for laptop keyboards. You can actually buy individual keys.

I've gotten pretty good at putting the tiny little pieces back together. I think I'm reaping the seeds I sowed when I was 2 when I took apart my Dad's antique grandfather clock that he inherited. You would be amazed what a little boy can do with a screwdriver and a little privacy.

It was Martin Luther that first said that all the commandments stem from the first. That if you are coveting, then you have already broken (or are in the process of breaking) the first commandment. If Jesus is the object of your worship, then you will not covet, murder, commit adultery, etc.

Tim Keller says that no one changes without worship.

Jesus sends the point home when he talks about the 10 commandments in terms of the condition of our heart in Matt. 5:21-48. He tells us that the issue is much deeper than what we DO, but extends all the way down to the condition of our heart.

I feel a sermon coming on... ;-)

Good catch, Emily! That's crazy. They fooled everybody.

Billy-Ray... interesting. He says that he didn't like that they "stripped her down", but never "had words" with the photographer or Vanity Fair about it. Nor does he think it was a mistake. The cute redneck platitudes cover the fact that he is just your typical passive father who wants to be his daughter's friend more than he wants to be her father.

Those kinds of "me and my daughter are best friends" comments are cute until your under-age daughter ends up half naked in Vanity Fair.

Well, the animation really was amazing. They did some really cool stuff with "natural" lighting that was something I had not seen before in an animated movie. If you watch it, you'll notice that there is almost never a scene that is lit with anything other than natural light through a window or something. Pretty cool to see. I don't know how they did that.

I think the writers misjudged what makes those books work so well. It's not just that George gets into messes. It's also that the Man in the Yellow Hat always shows up to save his bacon and teach George a lesson in a non-preachy way. Take that element out and you have lost the essence of Curious George and perpetuated the idea that all Dads are idiots.