Time to give

Time Management

A group of pastors in Corpus Christi and I started a podcast this year. We recorded our 20th episode on Monday.

It’s been a fun way to connect with each other. Our larger goal was to connect our churches. As far as I can tell, our local audience is growing.

I edit the podcast.

Up until this week, I had been putting about two hours into the podcast. That’s on top of the hour we meet and talk.

What took so long was the video editing. I edited the video to highlight who was talking, trying to follow the flow of the conversation. My thought was that was more engaging for anyone who watched.

That might be true.

But two hours is a lot of time for me. So, as you can tell from this week’s episode, I cut back on the editing. For the past twenty weeks, Mondays were full of editing. This week, I was able to do tend to other responsibilities.

Hardcore viewers might not appreciate the lack of editing. But I’m not sure we have hardcore viewers quite yet 🙂

The lack of editing doesn’t get in the way of the content we want to share.

Think about that.

Is there anything you’re doing that is taking up too much of your time? Anything you should decide to stop doing or allow someone else to do for you?

Chances are, the answer is yes.

Stay blessed…john

A strange thing

Blog

I’ve had a website for about 15 years.

Go back about three posts and you’ll read that exact line.

About three months ago I deleted my website. It was an accident, of course. Since that time, something strange has happened.

If I were to guess, I averaged one post per week.

In the three months since my digital accident, I’ve posted three times.
Is it the pandemic? Am I all written out? No doubt I’ve focused my attention on other projects this year.

What should fill a pastor’s website?

That’s what I’ve been asking myself. As you can tell, I haven’t quite figured it out yet.

How do you find inspiration? What would you want a pastor to put on his website?

Stay blessed…john

I Want Jesus to Walk With Me

Music

I led a prayer meeting through Zoom this morning. It’s something I’ve done for about six months now.

We use this resource: https://www.amazon.com/Common-Prayer-Liturgy-Ordinary-Radicals/dp/0310326192

Every week there is a centering song. This week’s was I Want Jesus to Walk With Me. In my preparation for the prayer group, I found three versions of the song to use (There were, of course, many more).

I couldn’t decide which version to use. So, I asked someone from the group to choose.

Well, I have a website. So now I can play all three 🙂

Here’s the first: https://youtu.be/SGmLVIltVg4

Here’s the second: https://youtu.be/0VsjSa1X7iA

Here’s the third: https://youtu.be/QL7rLD1H3g0

You know how to work Google. Go find me a few more great versions.

Stay blessed…john

Catching up

Ministry

I was looking for a particular local Christian radio station. Since I was introduced to the station and hadn’t heard it myself, I wanted to listen in for a bit.

After a few searches, I found it online. There was a “click to listen” function.

The button didn’t work.

Well, not at first.

It was about 9pm when I first found the station on my phone. The button didn’t seem to work. So, I left it alone, and forgot about it soon thereafter.

I remembered it at 3am. That’s when a loud voice blared from my phone.

I don’t know what the issue was. Was it something on my end? Who knows?

But it did remind of one of the church’s reputation.

Ever hear how we’re pretty slow to catch up to everybody else? We let trends fly by us. By the time we’re willing to spend money on new technology, we’re a few models behind.

Even a lot of churches who boast of their contemporary music are behind. Their “contemporary” music is 20 years old.

We even let current issues escape attention.

Walking the line of new and old can be tricky. We needn’t jump on every ministry bandwagon. Not every issue a kingdom issue. But we need to be mindful of the new ways to reach the world. We can’t ignore the pains and questions of the world around us.

Too many times, however, we do.

So, how do we walk that line?

Stay blessed…john

Oops.

Blog

I’ve had a website for about 15 years.

Do you know what I’ve never done a good job of doing? Backing up said website. This afternoon, that bit me good.

With one click of the mouse I erased my website.

I didn’t cry. I did sigh.

Now, I’m figuring out what I want to do to start over. That’s not always a bad thing. I hope you don’t have to endure the loss of your website, or whatever.

But take a deep breath. It’s okay to start over.

Stay blessed…john