Author: Glen

Relevant Network

I finally received the first installment of my subscription to Relevant Network this morning (I say finally because I expected it last week).

Anyway, I had wondered what I would get with my subscription, and now I know. I thought I’d pass it on in case your ministry is considering joining the network.

I got a magazine called Relevant Leader. It looks okay–it’s a guide to the resources in the kit (reviews, interviews with artists, etc) along with a handful of extra articles thrown in.

I got 5 copies of the most recent issue of Relevant Magazine. That was nice, but for some reason the magazine has always underwhelmed me. I’ve always felt that they try too hard. But then again, I tend to get annoyed at most things I’m supposed to find cool (like popular music and television programs), so that’s a clue that Relevant is hitting its demographic (for the record, I’m a NPR junkie. If there’s ever anything else on in the car it’s probably because Paula is driving).

I got 7 books (Red Moon Rising, The 250: Evangelism Ideas for Your Campus, Enjoying God, Enter the Worship Circle, Soul Survivor, What’s So Amazing About Grace — Visual Edition, and The Air I Breathe).

I got 2 study guides (one for Red Moon Rising and the other for Soul Survivor).

And I got 5 CDs (Anonymous: Accelerate in Slow Motion, Enter The Worship Circle: The Third Circle, Desperation, Anthony Skinner: Forever and a Day, and Telecast: The Beauty of Simplicity).

Not a bad deal. Not bad at all. I was worried I would be dismayed with my purchase, but I was actually quite satisfied.

I had hoped for some video clips (like the kind of stuff Highway Video puts out), but that wasn’t to be. Perhaps in future installments.

UPDATE: After a little more reflection, I realized that I was surprised at how few of the resources were actually ministry resources. Most were personal growth resources.

As I mentioned before, I was most anxious to receive tools (such as video clips) that would be useful in conducting worship services or planning outreaches or crafting sermons. Videos from Nooma, for example, would be really helpful. Two or three sermons on CD would be extremely useful. A bible study or two would be well-received.

I guess I’d prefer to see 50%+ of the resources be ministry tools and the minority be personal growth materials.

Just some thoughts.

Overall, it’s a great investment. The books and CDs I received were worth far more than I’m paying for the subscription.

Basketball, Baby!

I was on campus today and noticed a huge crowd in the Student Union–turns out that someone had set up a screen and a sound system and was showing the PAC 10 tournament.

We won our first game, by the way.

Anyway, it was interesting to watch how many students were engrossed in the game. It’s the week before finals here, and usually that means students are cramming like crazy.

I guess they just love dominating at a major sport.

Technical Glitch

For some strange reason, the MP3 encoding of last night’s message was completely blank. Not a single sound was captured.

Oh well, it wasn’t the best message I’ve ever preached anyway. It’s still frustrating.

We do have other messages for download, however.

On an unrelated note, is it just me or did everyone start wearing a lot less all of a sudden? I swear that some of the people on the Farm painted their outfits on, and didn’t use much paint in the process…

Great Week

Just a quick update. The wonderful folks at International Assembly of God up in Burlingame threw a baby shower for us Saturday evening. We got some amazing gifts and were truly blessed by their generosity. Unfortunately, I had to attend without Paula, as she was still on bed rest.

I did my best. I got really excited about the color pink and I didn’t throw away any bows. I think that’s what you’re supposed to do at a shower…

And my in-laws arrived for a month-long visit yesterday. They’ve already begun pampering Paula to death, but I think she likes it.

One more comment–I just learned that Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is going to be this year’s commencement speaker. Wow.

Side note–I just learned that she was in the same class as Chief Justice William Rhenquist. I bet the profs who taught that year are feeling pretty good about themselves.

Building On Negatives

In Food Porn, Susan Wise Bauer writes about the tendency of modern authors to critique culture without offering a viable alternative: The cover-model ideal is warped and twisted, but they can’t manage to unwarp it. I’m reminded of J. R. R. Tolkien’s orcs, who (according to the Silmarillion) were modeled on elves by the dark powers; they were fashioned “by slow arts of cruelty in envy and mockery,” because dark powers can only warp and twist, not create afresh. If you’ve never seen an elf, and you try to work backwards from an orc to its model, you’re darn well not going to end up with Orlando Bloom.

You can’t build on negation alone.

How often is our plan for being good to stop being bad? In the Biblical perspective, holiness is an addition equation, not a subtraction equation. We don’t merely seek to eradicate vices such as gossip and lying; on the contrary, we actively cultivate virtues such as love, joy, patience, and self-control.

Just some quick thoughts inspired by an absolutely brilliant Tolkien reference in an otherwise unrelated article.

Another Tolkien Perspective

I just ran across a great article that unpacks some of the differences between the movies and the books, and how it affects Tolkien’s message: The Return of the King: Best Picture, Perhaps, But Not Best Version.

In case you’re curious, we’ve got two other significant entries on Tolkien:
* Splintered Light (from Tolkien’s eleventy-first birthday)
* Saint J. R. R. The Evangelist

I’m the Video Blogger

At the Campus Ministers’ Conference in Atlanta last weekend, Curt Harlow stuck a video camera in my face and told me to be profound. You can see my best effort in a two-minute video at chialpha.com.

Before you cast any stones–try being profound on the spot. It’s not as easy as you might think. In fact, it’s only due to the editing genius of Curt Harlow that I didn’t come off looking like a raving lunatic.

Anyway, I highly recommend that you poke around the video blog archives. There’s some good stuff there.

If you’re a minister, know that there are several outstanding sermon/sunday school ideas you can *ahem* borrow.

If you want to use one of these video snippets in your meetings (as a call to worship or to illustrate a sermon point) here’s how to integrate it into PowerPoint.

1) Upgrade QuickTime to QuickTime Pro. It’ll cost you thirty bucks and you can do it online in seconds.
2) Open the mov file in QuickTime Pro and click File/Export to export it as an avi file.
3) You can now either insert it into PowerPoint or edit it in Windows Movie Maker (free with Windows XP). Be sure to download the latest version.

If you’re using a Macintosh, you can probably just insert it into PowerPoint without dinking around.

I used the one titled “Gross Stuff phone booth dvdrip ” this week to open the meeting, and it worked really well.