Big God Little Me

April 29, 2008 at 7:38 pm (church)

If you know me personally, you probably know that Louie Giglio is one of my favorite communicators. He just seems to connect and resonate with where I am currently in my life. This Sunday, he’s back at Access with part three of Canvas.

This message is a favorite of mine. Louie takes a look at who God is versus who I think I am. This message was even the springboard for a book he wrote. It’s a great message. Hearing this idea is probably one of the first events that eventually lead to me being here at Access.

Don’t miss it. UNF @ 9:30 and 11:15am this Sunday, May 4.

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Refeshing Morning

April 27, 2008 at 3:15 pm (church)

Today is a fourth Sunday of the month. Typically, it means that Access Church does not gather together as a community for worship services. However, while we didn’t quite have all the production and “normal worship,” we did gather for a more informal worship time.

We had a great few hours of cleaning, reorganizing, and simplifying with 13 months under the belt. We were able to gather our volunteers together to have a relaxed time of spring cleaning. The production team was able to completely re-rack everything and make it all much neater and hopefully much more efficient.

After a couple hours of this strategy, we all met up and had communion and a time of prayer on the Lazarra stage. It was awesome to look around the circle at all the people who are SO involved at Access. Rich referred to last year just before launch Sunday when we all gathered on the dock and unpacked everything for the first time. I was privileged to be in Jacksonville for that and loved that day. It’s truly one of the most life changing days of my life. It was a small group of people. Many were there today. Even more encouraging, there were WAY more people who weren’t there last year. It’s always encouraging to me to see all of the people who love Access enough to help serve others gathered together.

Half way through we opened the curtain and prayed for those who we’d like to see fill the seats of Lazarra. How awesome it was to hear names of people that are being invested in and how much better will be to see God move in their lives!

Thanks to all the volunteers who continually pour out their time and energy to help Access Church continue its influence on Jacksonville. Even more thanks for letting God’s glory shine through all of them and their work - whether it’s in the big or small things!

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Seriously?! No really, seriously?!?!

April 17, 2008 at 9:30 pm (life happenings)

This is exactly how I’d like to spend my tax money and watch the dollar drop even further…

COME ON!!! You’re Congress. You have this much time on your hands?! Wow.

ESPN - Congress wants to determine if BCS is illegal enterprise - College Football

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South Florida Weekend

April 13, 2008 at 11:36 pm (life happenings)

Well, this weekend was quite a whirlwind…

After putting in a few hours at the Bux, I took off to Sarasota. My colleague, Brian, has helped to put on a conference for students the last few years. This was no different. I was only able to see a little bit on Saturday night and Sunday morning, but from what I saw he did a great job. It seemed to be going very smooth and students seemed to be impacted. That spells success in my mind.

This morning after worship was done, I jumped back in my car for another hour further south to Fort Myers. There lives one of my best friends from college - Sandy. Sandy and I became friends my sophomore year and the friendship has carried on since. She has taught in the Fort Myers area since she graduated in 2005. This was our first chance to finally meet up as fellow residents of Florida. The few precious hours we had together were great.

Sandy has always had the ability to challenge me and spur me on without even trying (and sometimes without her knowing). In our conversations, she is able to just totally make me think and evaluate what I’m doing, why I’m doing it and truly push me to think. Today was the same as usual. She is one of those people that I continually thank God for putting in my life. Thanks Sandy for always pushing me. (Yes, I’ve told her all of this before.)

After that, it was back to Jax via Orlando. Overall, it was a LOT of time with me, my iPod, and my car bonding down and up the state of Florida. The upside, it was sunny and beautiful both ways AND I was able to catch up on some podcasts. The downside… hmm. Maybe just the price of gas.

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Church and Media

April 9, 2008 at 10:41 pm (church, media related)

As I was finishing my Bachelor’s Degree several years ago, I discovered something very basic and simple. The Church long ago ran away from the arts and has since shunned them more than been willing to use them.

I have since come to the conclusion that creating “Christian media” is not the way to win back the arts. I have found that many in my generation see this Christian media as sub-par. Whether it be music, TV, or movies, it seems that all of them are just simply terrible. They are either simple rip offs of other secular media, or they are just very cheesy and outdated attempts at trying to reach a younger generation.

I also concluded that IF media was going to be recaptured by the Church and the Christian culture that it would have to be by Christians being involved in the secular environment. There are many Christians that are in Hollywood and other media centers. Some open, others not. However, they get to have a direct impact on decisions (or those making decisions) as to what media is created and supported by major studios, TV networks, etc.

Where does the Church fit into that model? I believe that the Church has the great opportunity to be a training ground for those who want to live in that environment. This means a great change in many churches. We have to be able to provide the means and the abilities for people to grow their gifts and talents within these areas. I really came to believe that this was possible when I first visited North Point Community Church. They truly give people the opportunities in their environments to hone the skills of audio, video, lighting, and other production based skills on a weekly basis. Their services are run by mostly volunteers. Even still, the volunteers are directed by staff who are more than qualified to be in the secular media market, but have chosen to be in the church for many different reasons.

Another glimpse of this idea was passed onto me today. In one of my meetings, Rich showed us the following video. It’s from Port City Community Church in Wilmington, NC. You can read more of the back story on their site, but basically the only “hired talent” are the stunt drivers.

Pursuit Intro HD from Port City Community Church on Vimeo.

They totally let their volunteers run with this (with direction I’m sure), but look at the finished product!! This is absolutely unreal!

So, all of this to really say: What are YOU doing to let people grow their gifts/talents to recapture media in today’s world?

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