Random Video Thursday: How to wake up a kid

Some people are horrible at waking up.  Some people are not...

Baby Dedication Celebration

This weekend we will celebrate with some of our families the exciting birth of one of God's most precious creations.

Baby Dedication Celebration is one of my favorite things to get to be a part of.  Here is how we celebrate this incredible milestone with our families.

1. Homework.  During the 1st few months of a baby's life you are consumed with diapers, bottles, wet wipes, diapers, spit-up, no sleep, and did I mention diapers?

We want to give our families a chance to step back and take a look at the big picture for the future of their child, and how their own faith will impact the life of their son or daughter.  There are a three audio teachings that lead into two cards that have the parents dream about 18 years from now, and their own faith.

2.  Parent Orientation.  This little 30-min orientation allows us to meet new families, and share the Orange vision about how we as a church are excited to partner with them in the raising of their child.  The most exciting part of this is to get to talk about the importance of a partnership between us, the church, and their family.  We want them to know that we don't have some perfect picture of what a family should look like, but that we just want to help them take the next step that God has for them!  And we want them to know that we do not expect for them to feel like they are on their own.  This allows us to plug adult small groups.

At this meeting we also talk about the Celebration that will take place on the designated Sunday.  We get correct name spellings for certificates, and check to see which service each family plans to attend.

3. The Celebration.  At some point during the service we show a video that has Deuteronomy 6 as our families make their way to the stage.  We talk about the process that they've been through, and again cast the Orange Vision

We do this process twice a year.  This allows for us to be strategic in continually casting the Orange vision to every family that we can.

Random Video Thursday: Averagè

Feeling Great.  Looking OK.

The Power of Pinterest (Infographic)

I haven't started using Pintrest, yet.  My wife has, and anytime she's on it, I'm almost instantly drawn in to it.  Are you using it for ministry?  And how are you using it?

Managing Social Media in an Hour

I run our church's social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, YouTube, Vimeo - as well as the same stuff for our Youth.  I love it!  And I hate it.

I love it because it's another way to engage people with great content from sermons, help for parents, blog posts, events, and just about anything else.  I get a pulse on my audience.  

I hate it because it can become a time-waster.

But the lovely folks at RO4R just put out a great little helper:  Social Media an Hour a Day.

Random Video Thursday: Funky Fresh Senior Choir

They're available for weddings, private parties, and bar mitzvahs.  And not only can they do everything you'll see here, but they can also do the G-Slide, Cupid Shuffle, and the Cha Cha Slide.  Who are they, you ask?  They are the Funky Fresh Senior Choir.

Technology I Use: Open-Mesh

A little over 6 years ago I was hired as the youth pastor at Grace Fellowship.  We were a small staff, with even smaller offices (yes, that is possible).  Being the youngest on staff and a tech junkie, one of my first orders of business was to put a wireless router in our office (yes, also possible to not have one in 2006).

Since 2006 our church has grown tremendously.  We've built an addition on to our building.  Built adequate administrative offices, and continued to grow in how our technology is used each week.

But when we moved into our building we wanted wireless throughout our 11,000 sq. ft. building.  So I put multiple residential wireless routers around the building.  Some with no password security for out people, and some with it - allowing for secure access to our database and system by only our people.  But in doing so we had 5 different wireless networks in our building - mass confusion for our people (and me).

I wanted a solution like at large venues, but didn't have a clue how to do it.  So with a little research I found out that that kind of system was EXPENSIVE!

Enter Open-Mesh.  An extremely low cost, robust, cloud-controlled wireless system for our building.  And it's scalable for about any size of building you can imagine (it's designed for hotels and apartment buildings).  Now we have only 2 wireless networks in the building - one open, and one secured.  I can track usage and see if there is an outage on my iPhone.  I can limit bandwidth per user.  I can place a sign-in page once someone connects.  And, at only $80 per router/repeater, it's very handy!