Church Media Team: Football With Recursive Quarter Backs

The first quarterback is setting up passes to his receivers. His receivers catch QB1’s pass and set up to pass to their receivers team and the process continues as they do the same. Much like a media team at a church. The senior pastor or speaker director sets up the plays hopefully with the guidance and input of other team members. They make passes to their directors, music, audio, video, recording, drama, ect. who set up to make passes to their team. As in football things change. People’s ideas change and last minute audibles are called. For better or worse all teams must respond to the QB’s change. It always keeps the game interesting.

Life is like Dr. Mario

Friday evening we were playing Dr. Mario. I’m not very good and some times I get backed up so bad I’m only solving one problem at time. As things build up my objective gets focused on what to do with the next pill, then the stack’s up too high and I loose.

Some days life reminds me of Dr. Mario. I’ve spent entire days solving little problems while large projects wait. Then I’m playing catch up on large projects just to keeping them moving forward. The trick is to keep small projects and problems from overtaking important projects.

Phil Cooke suggested voice and e-mail be checked one hour before quitting time. His theory is this would prioritize small problems and fires keeping important projects moving. I’m going to try this. I have larger projects I want to keep moving or I’ll never get them done. I’ll keep you informed of how this works.

If you have any tips or tricks let me know.

Seven Tricker Treaters

Annually at the end of October we stock up on candy for the tricker treaters. We live just outside Berrien Springs village limits in a small subdivision. Hoping for lots of kids, we filled a bowl with different candies, turned the lights on and waited for the little ankle biters to haul it all away. As the first pair of siblings timidly knocked on the door Katy and I quickly retrieved the bowl of candy. They each took a piece, as we admired their costumes. (Side Note: Don’t take your parents tricker treating. Parents have a way of limiting the amount of candy you get.) The next was a group of four kids who retrieved their candy from Katy. Last, a boy dressed in a bathrobe with a belt and sword. I’m not sure what he was trying to be, but the effort was there.

A grand total of seven little goblins and creatures visited our house. We could have given each of them a bag of candy and still come away with extra. (Ok not really) It was an improvement on last year when we had two scary creatures, and their grandmothers. (It was raining/snowing)

What’s this world coming to? Where are the kids dressing up in bed sheets passing them off as ghost costumes with the sole intents of making a killing in the candy market? Has this really become a satanic holiday and people are not interested? Or has candy become so cheap even a child can afford to buy it instead of beg for it? Is Christmas pushing its way back to Halloween?

Let me know what you think.

An Old Radio, New GPS, and a Solution

Recently I stumbled on IO Gears GBS301 Bluetooth Wireless Adapter for RS232 Equipment. I hope this will enable me to connect an i. Treck M3 Bluetooth GPS to my Kenwood TM-D700A. Currently I use a Magellen 315 over a wired RS232 connection to supply position information to my Kenwood. On road trips I like to run an APRS beacon as a warning we’re coming (:

The other day my father, who gave me the M3, asked why I was still using the Magellen 315. I explained to him I didn’t have a way to transfer data from it to my radio. The M3 works extremely well with my Dell Axim X50v using Street Atlas and is allot of fun to play with in that capacity. I am hoping I can use IO Gears device to connect the GPS to my radio for APRS.

If you have any experience with this product let me know what you thing.

The Biggest Pacifier Ever

In a group there’s always a person who complains so much people give in to what he or she wants. Is it worth it? Does this person really get what they want or has he or she just made a fool of themselves? People who use complaining and badgering, instead of reason and logic, build a bad name. When finally getting their way it becomes a joke among others in the group; the world’s largest pacifier put in place to stop the flow of complaints.

Can you relate?

How You Know You Can Trust a Volunteer

In the past few years I’ve seen volunteers grow into positions and others not. A key question I always wonder when I meet a volunteer is “can I trust this person?” It’s not my nature to assume just because I’ve been introduced to a volunteer at church I can trust them. Here are several things that I look for.

1) Is this person on time?
2) Is this person reliable?
3) Does this person come prepared?
4) What are others recommendations about this person?
5) How does this person conduct himself or herself while working?
6) Does this person make professional decisions?
7) Is this person eager to improve their skills?

All these are discovered over time and involve trusting someone a little more each time. Nine times out of ten this works and I get a good volunteer that is willing to go the extra mile for the ministry.

An Idea I'd Like to See Work

Today Vickie came to talk with me about a video production program WYGN was offering. She was sent to me because I'm a an active volunteer. I also know most of the production resources in the area.

Several years ago WYGN, a local low power 3ABN affiliate, offered camera and editing resources to local producers, free of charge, to create local programing. While running the program only a couple of producers used the resources, and those that did never completed their projects.

Vickie remembered the program and came to see me about an idea for a pilot. As local producers go she had her ideas planned out more than anybody and was ready to get started. I'm wondering what the possibilities of getting the program back are.