(Something Old) Something New

Ok--so there's limited OLD stuff out there for me.  Everything that is OLD in my reader has been featured here.  So, I'll either have to let some of these new sites set until they are OLD or just retitle this post--SOMETHING NEW.

Something New

WorshipTech Online

Brian Davis is the Director of Technical Ministries at Fellowship Bible in Dallas.  I found his site by Googling "Worship Set Design".  Great to connect with another Texan!

Grace Every Day

Beth Brawley, from Powhatan Community Church, leads her Creative Arts team in setting up some great sets and designs.  I met Beth through Fred McKinnon's site and am following her and her ideas.  Check her site out.

Brad Ruggles

Brad ended up in my reader through Creative Chaos. His byline is "I'm A Little Different, but don't worry--I'm Ok with it!"   Now that's a creative!   He's got some great designs, graphics and ideas about the church.

Something Old Something New

SOMETHING OLD SOMETHING NEW

In honor of the political conventions which have taken over our TV for the last two weeks, here are somethings that I have been reading and have discovered.

I spent way too much time this week watching the DNC convention (mostly to know what was being said) and I suppose I'll do the same this week with the RNC.

Something Old

DNC Blog

Straight from the convention, this blog was a sight of on the floor information.  Althought obviously not objective, it gave me great behind the scene information ( like the lead on the stage designer that I posted about last Monday).

Something New

RNC Blog

This will be the companion site to the DNC--although they're not giving me as much behind the scene info so far.  I hope that will change over the week.

RNC Twitter

Ok, I bit the bullet and am following the RNC for this week.  Probably won't keep it after this week.

RNC Live Video Feed

Live video feed from the convetion floor.  Just like being there.

Something Old Something New

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

Something Old:

Kuler-Sometimes as a designer, colors are the inspiration for a campaign, a brand or a theme.  Sometimes the combinations of colors spur on creativity in other areas.  This site from Adobe is one of the best in putting together color combinations and palettes.

Something New:

Kim Komando:  One of the radio shows that I try to catch on Saturdays is the Kim Komando show. Kim talks technology and computers and always gives great hints, sites and even some freebies.  I finally visited her site this week and found that she gives a lot of great tips and sites in the areas of Technology, Entertainment, Email, and Web tools.

What have you found new this week?

Something Old Something New

Vacation---Something Old and Something New

Fresh off of vacation--I thought I would focus today on somethings that helped us during our vacation time

Something Old

Caffeine For The Creative Mind

I've had this book on my shelf for over a year, and I've read it here and there.  I grabbed it before we left last week not knowing what I would do with it.   On the road I asked one of the kids to pick a random page and read it aloud.  It became our creative exercise for the morning/afternoon.  I'm going to blog about this more this week.  But the kids actually enjoyed these exercises and it passed the time on the road with a few good laughs and some even more good ideas. Try this on your next road trip!

Something New

Exlpora! Ideas You Can Touch   We spent most of Friday morning and afternoon at this hands on Museum in Albuquerque. If you are ever in the area--go.  The kids were hesitant at first, but they soon warmed to the hands on activities.  Even my 15 year old got into the act with the building of a "house" with PVC pipe (more pictures on this later in the week).   We always try to find a hands on project for us to do when we are on vacation. (like our tile projects from 2006--you can see them here)

Something Old Something New

Time for Monday's feature--Something Old, Something New again. Boy, these Mondays just roll around faster and faster each week.  Most of the new ones this week were the result of the LEADERSHIP SUMMIT and my connection with several of them through Twitter.

SOMETHING OLD:  Spence Smith

Spence is a fellow CREATOR--he attended the Recreate Conference in Franklin in February.  He works for Compassion International-setting up trips for bloggers and artist to go and experience the impact the Compassion is making.  He was also a member of BIG TENT REVIVAL ( I remember them from my Youth Minister days in the mid 90's) and an avid Tri-Athlete.  Stop by and tell Spence hello!

SOMETHING NEW-LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Blogs:

Clayton Bell- Clayton took notes for all of us who couldn't attend and kept us updated through Twitter.  Thanks Clayton!

Ryan Day- Ryan is site pastor for a new church plant in Ohio.  His comments were picked up by Willow Creek on their Leadership Summit Summary Blog.

Willowcreek Leadership Summit Blog

Something New

This week I'm devoting this post to some of the new sites and friends that I made last week at the National Worship Leader Conference in Austin.

ShaunGroves- Shaun is a Christian artist, blogger and descriptive writer of our times.  He taught the Advanced Blogging seminar at NWLC and gave some great tips on increasing readership to blogs.  He also works with Compassion International- setting up bloggers to go on trips with Compassion.

Russ Hutto- Russ was one of our traveling companions last week.  He is from Valdosta, Georgia where he serves as the Music and Media Coordinator at the Houst of Joy.   I really enjoyed getting to know Russ--we shared some smiles and jokes during Fred Mc Kinnon's class on Web 2.0

ChrisMoncus.Com

Chris wasn't at the conference...but gave his input via Twitter.  Chris is Media Guru at St. Simon's Community Church in Georgia.  He creates lots of graphics and loves to give them away--we love Chris!

Church Media

This is a flickr account where Church Media folks share the goods--and by goods-I mean goods. Graphics, logos, print and publication pieces--all for the sharing.  Thanks guys!

The Sticks Conference

The Sticks Conference popped up on my screen last week and looks very interesting.  Churches doing large things in small towns!  Check it out--and if you go--Blog!

What new sites have you seen this week?

Something Old, Something New

Today, I'm on the road to the National Worship Leader Conference in Austin--so I hope this will post while I make my way there.

Something Old

House Mix

This is the blog site of Jim Houser, manager for Steven Curtis Chapman.  He is giving us regular updates on the Chapmans and specific things to pray for them.  

Something New:

Shift Worship

This resource came as an ad in the last Collide Magazine.  For $99 per year you have access to their entire library of motion, still and countdown graphics. Cool!  We're using them now and at our Family Camp in 2 weeks.

Visual Worshiper

Camron Ware is an amazing artist with the video projector.  I blogged about his creations here back in March.  Camron has joined the blog world and I can't wait to hear what he's got to say.

Something Old, Something New

Something Old:

Little People-Tiny Art -I'm not sure where I got this site, but I always watch it amazed at what they come up with. They take tiny people (models) and place them in strange places.  The first picture makes it seem it's real--then they do a pull away and show you how small these things really are.  Some incredible photographs here.  Check it out.

Something New:

Vecteezy- Graphics such as these are made with vectors.  If you aren't an Adobe Illustrator genius, these graphics are quite complicated. You can find a whole gallery of them on this site.

Brillidea- You know those homes that have the synchronized Christmas light displays, well this is the place where they get some of their ideas and schematics.  Most of what I've looked at has to do with the LED lights and syncing them to music and such.  Oh that I had the time to build and create with these.  I'm thinking of O HOLY NIGHT with flashing LED's this Christmas (not really.  If any of you can help me figure these things out--I'd be grateful.

Something Old, Something New

I feel like this week I've hit the jackpot with new sites.  I'll highlight a few below.

SOMETHING OLD

RodsProd- Blog site of Rod Kaya, Programming/Worship Pastor at Journey Community Church.  Rod is always sharing what is going on in the ministry there.  Their "God At The Movies" series just completed it's 5th time around--they're heading for number 6 next year.  Check him out.

SOMETHING NEW

What I Care To Share- This is the blogsite of a fellow actor from the production I was in last weekend.  We began sharing about blogging during the breaks---now we're reading each other's blogs.    This artist has just returned to the stage after 20 years away and is adding to the artistry of her already talented family.  Stop by and say hi.

Designing For Phillistines - Dorothy and I connected last week with my post on WORDLE on Creative Chaos on Raggamuffin Soul.  She's a designer of worship experiences from Virginia.  

Wordle-Blog - Need I say more?

Something Old, Something New

Something Old

Seth's Blog-- Seth Godin writes some of the most interesting articles on marketing and organization. He always gives an insight to what is working and what is not. If you aren't reading his blog daily--you should be.

Something New:

Wordle- You have to try this site. I

was alerted through a blog this week of this great new site. I've done it for my family and for my production this week. This one below is from our Director, Craig Robertson (there ya go Craig, another Google keyword) who did one for the production himself. I'm doing one on each of the sermons in this series and will do a set up toward the end for people to walk through (gallery like) and relive those teaching moments. Go ahead--try it!

Something Old, Something New

Time for new icon...

Something Old:

EyeBeam- This site is subtitled "distilling art and technology." I find that this site is constantly searching the edge out there where art and technology collide and make beautiful music together.

Something New:

A Day In The Life of The Paper Poppy- I'm not sure how I landed on this site, but I continue to marvel at the artistry of the cardmaker on this site.  Give this one to the scrapbooker in your life.

Something Old, Something New

This week I thought I would focus on some sub groups of blogs that I read regularly.  I'm featuring production/creativity blogs this week.

Something Old:

North Point/ Buckhead Blogs   This is the site for North Point Church and their sister site, Buckhead church in Atlanta.  If it's happening in worship production, these guys are on the leading edge. They give details of how things were concepted and executed (technology, audio, visuals)

New Cov Production Blog 

Randy Parkers group at New Covenant Community Church in Fresno always post what's going on within their ministry here.  Randy announced this week that he was leaving New Cov to head to North Point in ATL.   I'll be watching to see how things continue after Randy leaves--he's built a great team there.

Something New:

Accidental Creative    This is a creative portal for those in creative professions and jobs.  They are consultants on creativity, but give some of their tricks and tips of the trade. Very interesting--I could spend hours here.  

Accidental Creative helps those who must create to succeed (visual artists, musicians, writers, designers, idea people) unlock their creative advantage. In today’s results-driven world, it’s hard for creatives to find rhythm. Instead, we can feel forced to produce boring, uninspired stuff to feed the machine, and soon grow frustrated and lose touch with why we love to create. Accidental Creative helps creatives find that passion so they can once again enjoy what they do and change the world with revolutionary ideas.

Something Old, Something New

This week has been so busy that I haven't had much time to read or to blog.  And thanks to some snafu with SBC GLOBAL we were withouth internet for about 4 days  (some one miscoded a disconnect notice and I discovered the mess on Wednesday having spent about 4 hours on the phone with Tech support--thanks AT&T!)

Here's my list this week

Something Old:

Stuff Christians Like  Ok, we take ourselves too seriously sometimes, and things which we've always thought were necessary to Christianity--sometimes aren't (like the VBS decorating contest!)  I always read this blog and laugh and tell myself--I ain't all that.  Read and enjoy

Something New:

Smashing Magazine  A design resource that I've yet to dive into.  The topics are inspiring and creatively challenging.  You may want to take a look here.

Something Old, Something New

Something Old:

Nancy Beach  Nancy is Arts Pastor at Willow Creek.  I always learn something from her and the depths of her writing. She has such varied experiences there in Chicago and around the world. She's one that is definitely in touch with the Arts culture and the church.

Something New:
Ministers Kid-A Networking Community   Walter Johson monitors this site which is a portal to connect kids that have grown up in Ministry-(I'm one) and talk about the uniqueness that this brings to families and development.  Walter and I connected through a post I did about MAD CHURCH DISEASE.

Websites:

Think Geek   You just have to go here and check out the wild things that are available technology wise.  From appareal to office supplies---you won't believe what you can get.

Photojojo    A portal for photographers on the net.  They have the latest photographic add ons and ideas for the novice.  There's even photogames you can play by participating in their daily "idea" where they ask you to interpret a theme or thought and post it for the community to see.  Kind of a photo potpourri.  Interesting.

Something Old, Something New

Even though today is Memorial Day, I can't miss the opportunity to give my Monday shout outs to the blogs that I read and that I've recently found.  Here goes:

Something Old:  Fred Mc Kinnon   Fred is a worship leader, blogger, producer and general Renaissance guy.  He has his hands in lots of projects and is the worship leader at St. Simons Community church in Georgia.  Fred is a guy of great experience in worship and the worship community.  I'm always interested in what he has to say.

The Ballad of Mr. Fun  Reid Greven is the associate music director at North Point in Alpharetta, Georgia.  He's always giving an inside view of  the music of North Point.  I appreciate the peek behind the curtain.

Something New:

A Visual Trademark:   CJ Mills and I connected this week through a posting I made on Carlos Whittaker's CREATIVE CHAOS.  He's a creative who works for American Specialty.  He's also the proud of father of Asher (a premie baby) who's getting ready to come home soon.

What new sites have you found?

Something Old, Something New

Time for SOMETHING OLD-SOMETHING NEW. I've been doing this for a while and it's sometimes hard to remember which ones I've highlighted and which ones I haven't.  Just a note- it never fails that I hear from the blog authors on the day that I post about them. That always makes me feel good.

SOMETHING OLD:   Pied Piper Piping  This is the site of Nathan Gaddis, Associate Minister of Music at FBC Naples.  Nathan (Gaddis as we call him) is a fellow Recreate attendee and I've enjoyed getting to know his ministry.  He's a songwriter, creative and new daddy (welcome Jovie!).  I was invited to attend his staff meeting last week via Mogulus!   Check Gaddis out!

SOMETHING NEW:  Radio Shakin' is the site of Matthew Singleton, who is Creative Director at Cross Point Community Church in Nashville, where Pastor Pete Wilson preaches.  Matthew is responsible for the creative elements in the service and has some marvelous examples of Sermon intros on his site (with Pete of course!).  Take a look at his work

Cool Hunting is a portal that looks for things in the realm of culture, creativity and technology.  It is always scanning for trends in design, art, exhibitions and culture that are thought provoking or engaging.  I really like reading this blog.

Any new ones in your reader?

Something Old, Something New

Something Old:Man of Depravity: This is the site of Tyler Braun, he's a student at Multnomah Biblical Seminary where he's just completed his first year of study. Tyler always posts something of great depth and interest. He's the praise band leader at his local church. He always catches my attention when he writes something, often which has been piqued by his studies

Something New:

Creative Worship: Site of Pace Hartfield, Worship Pastor at Fellowship Church in Grapevine. He posts some of the secrets of creativity that FC has stumbled upon in it's years of crafting compelling worship experiences. His Christmas post a couple of weeks ago (yeah, I know it's spring!) was interesting to see the process they went through to give a special TransSiberian effect in their Christmas eve service.

Stephen Lechner Stephen is a truly NEW discovery this week. His post on their set change caught my eye (specially since he likes to "remix" items for use on the stage). He'll be one that I watch for ideas and thoughts on worship.

What about you? What have you found new? What is a treasured "oldie" that you always read?

Something Old, Something New

It seems like Monday's just roll like the tide--I just get one of these done and it's time to do it again.

Something Old:  

BST's Blog-- This is the blog of Brandon Scott Thomas, former worship leader at Otter Creek in Nashville.  Brandon and I have only met once, but have mutal friends in Jeff Berry and Rich Smith.  Brandon is in a new season of life and doing a new work with Cruise ships and their entertainment.  Still doing ZOE conferences here and there, Brandon is always on the move.

Something New:

WithoutWax- Pete Wilson's site (pastor at Cross Point in Nashville).  Pete and I have connected through our blogs and he's fast becoming one of the people that I'm watching and listnening to. His "PLAN B " series that he's just finishing is amazing and is feeding my soul.  His title WITHOUT WAX means that there is no cover, no hidden agenda, no mask to his writing.  That is exactly true--I find his authenticity to be very real and refreshing. When we're in Nashville again, we're worshipping with my brother Pete!

Something Old, Something New

Something Old:

I'm picking two of the production blogs that I regularly read--to get ideas for creative sets, emphasis and as one blogger said "how to do it on a shoestring"

RandyParker 

Randy is Creative/Technical Director @ New Covenant Community Church in Fresno.  I've never met Randy (only via Twitter), but he's one I watch for ideas on sets and creativity.  Seems like a wild and crazy kind of guy.  You'll want to check out his new "Leadership Toolbox" bumper videos for this new series.

Drew Powell

Drew is Creative Arts Pastor at The Beachside Church in Ormond Beach, Fl.  This blog is one I connected with through Twitter.  His posting here on their "Blessed" set gives you a look at the design up close and personal.

Something New:

Serendipity

This is the blog of Scott Copeland, Associate at Ingleside Baptist in Macon.  Connected to him through "blog world".  His posting here on "BUBBLE BOY" was fantastic--expressed a lot of what I feel sometimes.

Something Old, Something New

It's Monday--you know the drill

Something Old:   Synergy4Ministry - this is the blog site of my friend Randall Hall, who is Minister of Worship at Mimosa Lane in Mesquite.  Randall is a long time friend from seminary, but new to the blogosphere.  His site is tied into a project he's working on to unite the worship community.  Be on the lookout for more information about his project.

Something New:  TeaWithMcNair - this is the site for C. Mc Nair Wilson.  He's a creative person who speaks to national corporations and has served with Disney in their Imagineering Dept.

C. McNAIR WILSON is a corporate creativity coach and popular conference speaker with clients from Apple Computer to the Salvation Army. McNair believes that everyone has a creative spirit and he is determined to get everyone on the active list. McNair draws on his work in: theatre, graphic design, illustration, creative writing, and theme park and entertainment design.

His recent article in Willow Creek's WILLOW magazine was a great insight into the process of brainstorming. If you can get ahold of it and read it, do so!  Go here.