This past Sunday morning in service I pulled out my blackberry and read this tweet from Perry Noble. I had read it when we picked up our morning coffee before driving to Cornwall.

“Being willing to settle for less than God’s best is the first step in allowing satan to steal God’s vision and joy for our lives!” (Perry Noble via Twitter, Mar 1/09, 4:12AM)

It was one of those that stuck with me all the way to Cornwall and during the worship service.

I am working on a couple of new things for Faith Apostolic.

1. Website - Since I am not a web programmer and there are n funds to outsource the creation of the website, I will be constructing the website on the Wordpress engine.  For starters I will just use Wordpress.com and then more it over to a self-host.

2. Funds - This is something that needs to be tackled, and I think I have a big initiative brewing.  I am taking my time with it, as I want to make sure I move in the right direction.  What does that mean? Praying about it to make sure this is the direction to go in.  There are some things that need to be done at Faith Apostolic and some funds are needed to accomplish.

Hopefully, in the next short while I will be able to announce these initiatives in more detail.

Tags: FaithApostolic, Funds, Website, Wordpress

I have made a change to my RSS Feed settings….I didn’t like the format, and switched to Feedburner….please update your favorite RSS Reader

http://feeds.feedburner.com/radiantjourneyca

Tags: Feedburner, RSS, Feedreader, RSS Reader

I installed the based on Mozilla browser - FLOCK this week.  It is supposed to be the “Social Media” browser.  There are some interesting features in the browser.  Some of them are taking some time to get used, and get a feel for.  Are they are going to be something that is a benefit to making the switch from Firefox.

Here are the features that I have used this week:

• Flock Blog Editor - I was using Qumana, while it was good, there were some things that were starting to wear on me, which may have been just my install. 
• Facebook Widget - when you log into Facebook, you get a sidebar widget.
• Twitter Widget - same as the Facebook widget…you get the recent tweet of the those you are following.
• Feeds Sidebar - This feedreader has been harder to get used to.  I had been using Google Reader and was comfortable with it, especially the “all feeds” view.  The view in this reader is not as clean, I find it cluttered.  Might switch back to Google Reader, but I will give it another few days.  I do like how this reader will open the page rather then just display the text of the post. 

Tags: Moziila, Flock, Qumana, Facebook, Twitter, Feedreader, RSS Reader, Google Reader, tweet, Firefox, Social Media Browser

Well after reading about it for a while and debating with myself if I should sign up for Twitter. I have started twittering this week. I will see how it goes….now I need some followers. If you are not signed up, give it a try, follow my tweets and I shall follow yours. Click the link below the Twitter badge to become a follower of my “tweets”. (Update: I had to correct my terminology, it seems a individual post is called a “tweet” not a “twit”.)

Continuing from this post, Reality, I mentioned that it was interesting to listen in on another conference call; after listening to the one that talked about making the stock holder’s happy.  After this week, I am sure the stock holders are happy if they are watching the ticker, which I am sure they are.

Now this other conference call was talking about all these Web 2.0 technologies, specifically social networking. Social networking tools are starting to make some in roads into our company, but there is still some big reluctance I am finding with the tools becoming more wide-spread. It was described that social computing was about connecting people, amplifying the power of working together.

The first conference was about making things more efficient, the second was about utilizing social networking tools. Yet Web 2.0 in some areas is being resisted from being implemented, because they are seen as “time wasters”.  Why is that? They do not understand the new technologies? Possible. Resistant to change? Possible. Do not see that knowledge is about people and sharing knowledge through open collaboration using blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, will make things more efficient?
Possible. Used to One-to-many communications versus the collaboration of many-to-many connections? Possible.  Afraid to speak up or let their opinions known? Possible. Just doing there job role? Possible. There are likely others as well…..those are some I think.

How does a company that is driven by performance to, in the end of all things, make stockholders happy, implement social computing? Does the implementation of social computing and promoting connecting people and empowering them to work together necessarily going to translate into the overall goal of the company?

Also, hows does social networking translate into the church? There is a interesting study done by the Leadership Network, called “Online Social Networking Tools for the Church” (Hat Tip Mark Batterson). I have not read the study, but sounds good. I am going to read this study and possible post a few comments on it.

I guess if you are reading this, you are somewhat interested in social computing.

Technorati Tags: Mark_Batterson, social_computing, social_networking, Leadership_Network, Technology, web_2.0, web_2_0

Added a new feature to the right hand sidebar, IM online status.  I use both AIM and MSN Messenger.  Feel free to contact if I am online.

http://www.mutube.com/projects/wordpress/im-online

Technorati Tags: MSN_Messenger, AIM, Technology

I came across the following site New Paradigm, by Don Tapscott, the author of Wikinomics. Wikinomics has a good blog here.  On the New Paradigm site, there is a video of Don Tapscott interviewing a Net Generation panel.  Check it out, especially if you want to learn more about communicating with the
N-Generation, or Gen-Y or Gen-Next, whatever tag you want to afix.

Also, this week I have been trying out some new RSS Readers.  I was using Thunderbird from Mozilla. While I like Thunderbird for email, much better the Outlook or Outlook express.  I was originally pleased with the RSS Readers function.  However, it seems that Thunderbird has been pulling duplicate entries down from all my feeds I subscribe to, making a mess.  I fixed
it once and it is a easy process to do, but I do not want to keep having to fix the problem with a workaround.  So, I have been trying the following two free RSS Readers.

1. Omea Reader

2. Google Reader

So far, both have some quirks that I am trying to get used to.  If anyone has a good RSS Reader that you use, let me know with a comment here or send an email to reg@radiantjourney.ca or MSN me @ my Windows Live ID regbertrand@hotmail.com.

Technorati Tags: Google_Reader, rss, rss_readers, Omea_Reader, Technology

This past weekend, Catalyst class was canceled, Sr. Pastor had the class stay in the main service.  So no summary updates this week, I had photocopied the Lent books to have for the class for scripture readings etc, as described in the last post….some in the class before had asked about how I journal, and I think this would be a good thing to go through as a class; as a time of reflection leading to Easter.

My wife and kids are also doing this with me.  My kids were have decided on fasting pop till Easter.

Tomorrow night is the monthly small groups leadership meeting.  In the past month I have had to speak in the focus weekend for small groups to the leaders and last weekend to the general assembly on the purpose statement inclusion of small groups.  I have decided to continue with some of the same theme tomorrow night.  I will be posting some summary notes later this week.

I had to check into some WIFI access again, as these houses outside the city are not all within the same tower ranges as others.  Same options as posted here, one house looks like Xplornet is the only option, needs an on-site survey done, and if the line of sight technology doesn’t work because of the tree line, then Satellite service is the only other option, high cost up front.  That being said, hopefully my Bell Unplugged WIMAX can
get the signal when we go out there to test, it is right on the border of the suggested signal range, and it is not an exact science so it is a possibility.

Technorati Tags: Catalyst Class, Small Groups, Technology

Well, my Wi-Max testing was quite the adventure this weekend.  I purchased the Roger’s Portable Internet on Friday night, went to the home on Saturday we are looking at, and there was a signal for about a minute and then dropped.  So, I returned the Wi-Max kit, there was a salesman there and he looked at me like I was nut…after I told him it didn’t work, he said, “It’s Portable Internet
it works everywhere!”.  So, I had to explain to him that it works when it can pick up a signal and hold it….it has to be in the range of the tower.  but out of range, not going to work. So, he left and got the guy that sold it to me, thinking I had no idea what I was talking about…then I purchased the Bell Unplugged Internet service, which is the same modem, but has different towers then
the Rogers version. 

I brought that kit out there today, and tested the Wi-Max on location, and picked up the signal, I was able to get VPN access into work, and check my Lotus Notes mail for work….yes!

So tonight we are starting to place an offer on this house…..I asked the Realtor (who is a friend as well), have you ever had to do high-speed broadband tests with clients before an offer is placed….his response….”none, this would be the first.”  He knows I work from home and have need for high-speed.

Did some searching around and there are a couple of other options out there to consider if needed in the future, for faster speeds etc.

a) Storm Internet - High-Speed Wireless

b) Xplornet - Wireless

c) Xplornet - Satellite

Both a) & b) require line of sight to towers, and there are other newer options for non-line of sight being rolled out soon.  Then c),  the more expensive two-way Satellite version….but that is pricey.

Technorati Tags: Wi-Max, Technology

Today I went down to the Rogers Storefront and purchased a portable internet kit, WIMAX.   The speed is a little slower then my DSL Connectivity (that can be upgraded if needed)…but I need to test the range of this unit….we are looking at some new houses, more rural location 10-15 mins difference from where we are, and DSL is not there…so since I work from home High-speed access is condition on any home….so Rogers has some claims that their towers will reach one home we are looking at in particular. 
I am thinking I may switch over to this completely….would be a little handy to have the ability to take my high-speed with me when going to some appointments, and also to the church building to use in the Catalyst Class sometimes for online stuff.  The church just moved the offices to the mall across the street, so the Internet access for wireless is too far away for me to connect to through the cement floors. 

Technorati Tags: Technology

Tonight we are preping for the trip….my house is a virtual technological land mine…I have Gameboys charging in the dining room, portable DVD charging in the kitchen, DVDs, stacked by my desk, batteries charging in my bedroom, and I am loading three MP3 players for the trip.  It took some convincing of my three kids, but I finally got them converted to MP3 versus their own Diskman’s….hey when you can’t find any of your CDs because your 6 yr daugther has them in her room with her Barbie stuff something
has to be done…..my wife is packing the clothes my job is all the gadgets. Any way, will try to blog when we are in NYC.

Here is a good resource, my wife watched this on Opera the other day, and she wants to get 5 T-Shirts.  Here is the (blog)RED

Technorati Tags: Family, Technology

Read the following over at Mark Cuban’s blog.  In the post, Cuban refers to a new site called Newsvine.  Very cool Web 2.0 News site.  I signed up, here is my link.  There are some pretty interesting features on this news
site, you can be a contributor, vote on the stories, seed articles, etc….Head over to the site, watch the quick demo….I think you will find it a good resource.

Technorati Tags: Technology

Well I have taken a look into various software for tracking the attendance for our Sr. Pastor.  Here is the conclusion that I have come to, we are going to go without an “enterprise” suite of software for awhile.  Reason, I just couldn’t justify the purchase of software, installation, training with the software until we get the data and the process of accurate information resolved.  There would be no need to go with the cost and time of implementing software and have erroneous data in the reports. 
What I will be doing as I work to correct the data, is to track everything in custom spreadsheets, with Charts/Graphs.  This will provide the Sr. Pastor with the information he needs in a usable format.  In the future, some open source web based software may be sort after, but it is just not the right time. 

Right now, the attendance is taken on a clipboard, in the future I am thinking about proposing using a handheld Pocket PC or Palm to enter the info, and connect to the WIFI network to email the reports. 

The new class name for the Single 20’s, will be Catalyst.  It is a pretty simple name, the other possible names, would have to have their meaning explained to much, and in this context we went with the straightforward name.  It looks like I will be postponing the launch of the class a week, the children’s Christmas Drama is this Sunday and with 3 kids involved, it wouldn’t be a good launch date. 

The first class in the series of “Chase the Lion”, is “Locking Eyes With your Lion”.

Technorati Tags: Faith, Technology

Added in the new template…..should have a flickr stream (one pic now) in the right sidebar…..will be changing the image mast at the top to different pictures.  Still have to add in the “Reading List” and “Current Music”, and some others.  This template with Wordpress 2.0 adds in widgets…hopefully I come across some good ones to add.

Technorati Tags: Technology

I am testing the upgrade of Wordpress 2.0 that I completed last night with a new template over the next couple of days.  The upgrade went pretty smooth, not as complicated as I thought, as my host provider had all the necessary utilities to backup my Wordpress DB and files.  Then today, my host provider deactivated my account, that was a surprise.  After a few emails to them telling them, I was not notified of the expiration date of my account,
it was reactivated. 

The latest meal that I tried last week, was Cowboy spaghetti from the Express Lane Meals book by Rachael Ray.  Sorry no picture of the meal.  The sauce was excellent, actually made the spaghetti more filling.

/continuing the journey…reg

Technorati Tags: Technology

This week I am going to try upgrade my weblog to Wordpress 2.0 before my host provider moves everybody to 2.0.  If the blog goes down, I messed up, if it works I am going to move to a new template for the weblog….supposed to be pretty straight forward.

Technorati Tags: Technology

Yesterday I posted about a question I came across on Pernell Goodyear’s blog…..

“communicating the gospel creatively in a new media environment.”

the question that stuck out to me was,

“Theology and resources of church being open source?”

So today I am going to try to put some thoughts out on this. For a full definition of Open Source, go to Wikipedia’s page on Open Source.

“Advocates in one field will often support the expansion of open source in other fields, including Linus Torvalds who is quoted as saying, ‘the future is open source everything.’” …”Often, open source is an expression where it simply means that a system is available to all who wish to work on it.” …”if needed, and redistribute them back into the community or other organizations.” (from Wikipedia, page on Open Source)

It is an interesting thing Open Source, being in the IT industry, I was once a strong proponent of Microsoft wares. When Open Source software, namely Linux made its appearance on the technology front, I didn’t think it was a viable solution. I figured the open source concept was a fad. I think it was more protecting the turf I was familiar with. Then as time went on, I have found myself more interested in this type of software, as I have seen the growth and maturity of the movement
and platforms. I now have switched from IE to Firefox, and Outlook to Thunderbird.

I often recommend OpenOffice to people instead of shelling out the big bucks for MS Office. I never thought Open source was going anywhere, but I was wrong.

Now when you read the Wikipedia page on Open Source, you read how Open Source has extended into other areas, science, culture and media for example. So the question from yesterday was how does Open Source in a new media environment apply to the church.

Here are my thoughts, I do believe the church does need to become more open source. One of the things that small groups and house churches lends itself to are the concepts of Open Source. When you are involved in small groups/house churches, you become part of the community and take an active role (or at least should for successful groups) in the growth of the members of the group, by putting into the group and receiving from the group. By contributing and collaborating with others in the group.

Another part of Open Source for the church in new media is the active self publication with Web 2.0, blogs, wikis, Myspace, and social networking websites etc. Communication via email, IM. Utilizing these technologies allows the church to communicate and work together for the greater good of the kingdom. I know through various blogs, I myself have been able to add to others and also have received from others to help to contribute to areas I am involved in.

One of the things that Jeremy and I were talking about was high cost to buy media resources such as clips that others have used, mostly self produced yet high quality clips. When you go to purchase, these prices are extremely high, now I am not suggesting that every should be completely free….but in cases like this, it would be a great thing to allow others to access and maybe modify for their setting. Instead of trying to become the next Bill Gates within our media resources, maybe open
them up into more Open Source.

Redistibute back into the Christian community, but not at prices that are so high that we start becoming the next Microsoft. I know of a few prominent churches that yes, their leader is considered one of the top leaders in the church world, they sell their DVD and CDs for around $10 and $15, and MP3 files for $4.00 - $8.00 USD. That’s crazy in my opinion.

Podcasts are a great thing that I use a lot, my iTunes on my laptop is loaded with multiple podcasts weekly, from Rob Bell to Erwin McManus and others. Gone are the days that we should be selling tapes and CDs locally for $5-$10. I know everyone tries to make a little cash for the building fund, but isn’t the point of the message to make it available to people…redistribute it back into the community, allow it to be worked with and contributed to.

One of the things that I have tried to make use of in the area of my own leadership is to have my blog become an extension of my message/lessons…posting summary notes etc, and having the leaders access them, and contribute their responses to. Helping build upon what I already have. What I have proposed in the past to our Small Groups coaches team is to create some sort of team blog (maybe it should be a wiki for content creation) to create an extension to our face-to-face meetings.
We have yet to do so, but I still think this would add some great value to our coaches. Becoming active participants as we journey together.

Here is a great resource that I came across as a link on Brian LePort’s blog. Theopedia

Those are some thoughts, what are yours….send me an email or drop a comment….

/continuing the journey…reg

Well, found the problem, I was inserting the script for the Product Previews after every Product Link, when I only need it once at the bottom of the page. When the script’s code is at the bottom, this activates all the Product Previews.

If you hover over the book images then the Product Previews will work. I will be making the code changes to the Library of Candidates and Feeders pages this weekend.

Also, the book by Craig Gross, “The Gutter”, absolute must read….will be putting a book quote up tonight….however, buy the book!

 /continuing the journey…reg

Yikes! The new code I was inserting for all the links into Amazon.com to have the new Product Previews was not working correctly and causing Stack Overflows; which seemed to freeze the browser.  If you experienced the problem when coming to my blog, sorry about that, I have removed the code for now until I figure out what I did wrong….

Hopefully later tonight or tomorrow sometime I will get to answering the survey on blogging I was sent and post here.

/continuing the journey…reg

I have just signed up for the Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I am trying this out not only for the free word processor and spreadsheet capability, which would be great savings for churches and students, and also families. I am also trying this out for the posting capabilities to WordPress. If works good, I may move to using this rather then etco…but we shall see all the capabilities before the final switch…if anyone else that is reading this post, is using Google DS for posting to their blog, let me know via email or a comment what you think so far.

Last week in our Small Groups training, we watched a Catalyst Seminar session by Tim Sanders entitled, “Love is a Killer App”. This was the 3rd time I had watched this DVD, and it is a very good session. The session is based on the book of the same name by Tim Sanders.

Last night in our small groups prayer meeting prior to our evening service, one of the cell leaders was saying that when she went to her workplace the following day she mentioned the session to her boss. Her boss then asked her if she could get the DVD and show it to the other managers. Her manager said that they need a little more of that in their workplace.

I have started the audiobook from Audible.com tonight. First time listening to an audiobook, but I figure as I work in my home office, why not listen to a book.

If you sign-up over at Audible.com for $10/year, you get this audiobook for free. Which is cheaper then buying the actual audiobook.

/continuing the journey….reg

Here are a couple of interesting articles on TV coming to the Internet….

Video-laced websites evolve into pseudo-TV Stations

And then Apple recently releases a new iPod for Video, and then also adds new content to the iTunes for TV Shows, “Apple cuts the TV out of TV Programming”.  

Google is also getting into the mix with Video online, with Google Video.  

Why post about this….kind of made me think that the age-old argument about TV amongst Apostolic’s is kind of irrelevant.  For many years people have argued about the “appliance” being the problem, using terms that try to prop their argument up, and sound as if they are “super” spiritual.  

Maybe, just maybe, it is not the appliance….maybe it is what “type” or “kind” of content that you view, read, or listen too.  

/continuing the journey….rj3b

Came across this article in a couple of different locations today.

Dogging or Blogging

I was not that surprised when I read the article.  I have come across the same type of responses in talking with people about blogs and blogging.  I have often had to explain what a blog is to people.  And yet I still get a look from them, you can tell they do not yet fully grasp the potential of this new format.

I have attempted to create a private group blog for a leadership team for the small group ministry at our church.  In doing this, the purpose was to create a place that the leadership team could connect outside of the face-to-face meetings.  There is one problem with this so far, getting people to see the potential that this “format” can offer.  Not only that, but to actually participate in the group blog.  The group blog for the leadership team is only good if people actually use it.  

I think there is great potential in using blogs for an additional function of leadership and ministry.  Right now, in many ways, this entails taking an approach of “explaining” what this format is, and what it can do.

Also, I recently subscribed to Mosaic’s podcasts through iTunes.



For more info on Mosaic’s podcasts click here.

The article also mentioned many people had no idea what a podcast was.  When looking into the church life, many churches offer up a Tape Ministry on the recording of the service.  People get the tapes and listen to them in their cars or at home.  I have noticed in the last few years, a moving towards CDs.  Now, a few churches are offering those in either regular CD format or as a MP3 file. Yet still wanting to charge 5 dollars a CD.  This is called advancing to get up to the times.  Yet we are still behind, I mean just moving to CDs now????  

Really we need to move forward and get a little more current then that, Mars Hill Bible Church offers free MP3 downloads, and archives for 99 cents.  Mosaic offers free podcasts through iTunes.  

One of the problems, is exactly what this article mentions, if you go to podcasts, lots of people will not know what a podcasts is.  But does that mean we should just continue to offer up tapes.  To continue to use the old methods, because maybe someone will not know about what we are talking about.

In this post I have talked about tape ministry in churches, but what else could this be applied to in the church and the methods of our ministry.  Hopefully, you can see what my underlying thought here is….it is not just about tapes, CDs, MP3s…..

/continuing the journey…rj3b

I came across an article on news.com today, and started to think how does this relate into the journey of faith….following after Christ….the article is titled “Intelligence in the Internet Age”. Read the entire article, send me an email or post your comments on what you think.

“If there is a good answer to the question, it probably starts with a contradiction: What makes us intelligent–the ability to reason and learn–is staying the same and will never fundamentally change because of technology. On the other hand, technology, from pocket calculators to the Internet, is radically changing the notion of the intelligence necessary to function in the modern world…

…What’s undeniable is the Internet’s democratization of information. It’s providing instant access to information and, in a sense, improving the practical application of intelligence for everyone…

…People feared the invention of the printing press because it would cause people to rely on books for their memory. Today, memory is more irrelevant than ever, argue some academics…”

Click here to read more.

I think this gives us some understanding of today’s world; a changing world. This article does talk mainly about how tech changes intelligence, however when you read it, it makes you think about how does this relate into the faith journey.

Some of us are still wanting to use the same methods and techniques. I personally think with the changes in technology this gives us additional tools to use to help reach people, teach people, and disciple people. I think it adds an additional element to enhance building for the kingdom of Christ. Articles like this, help us to understand a little more…..got me thinking about it…

/continuing on the journey…rj3b