Doug used flashpaper this weekend in the service talking about God’s forgiveness and our past. Thought this shot, captured at the perfect moment from the PICS ministry, was priceless.

Enjoyed this article in the new Outreach Magazine, some good principles about video creation and sharing on the web. Here’s a clip:

1. When in doubt, entertain. The most interesting online videos seem to be either highly entertaining or very funny. No matter what your video content, you’ve got to remember you’re sending it off to a culture that’s accustomed to entertainment. If you have a specific message for your video, do it in such a way that you creatively inform a viewer in an entertaining way. Think of it as the spoonful of sugar that will make the medicine go down.

2. Send them somewhere: At least once on the video, you should put up the address to your Web site or a Web site you want the viewer to visit. This is your golden opportunity to request that they spend a few more minutes with you, so don’t let it pass without at least asking for them to visit your site for more information.

3. Post on multiple sites: Almost all online video sites work the same way these days. Although YouTube seems to get most of the press, you should put your video on a number of different online video sites. After YouTube, head straight over to
GodTube.com. It’s a great YouTube alternative for Christians and has some other online video tools your church will find helpful. Beyond these two, put your video on Google Video as well.

JG

One of the tasks we’re rushing to complete before the start of the conference is to gather $3,500 in quarters for a challenge we’re having the students do one of the afternoons. All of the money is going to be used for an exercise, then returned to the bank. Getting that much money in change is no small feat, we stopped at 3 banks today and were questioned each time from curious tellers.

Allison and I were calculating just how much it would all weigh when we got all of the quarters together. So, the weight of a quarter is 5.670g and we would have 14,000 of them. So that’s 79,380g. And each gram weights 1 g = 0.002205 lbs, that gives us a grand total of 175.03lbs.

That’s a lot of change.

JG

We’re on the hunt for the intro music for the Simply Youth Ministry podcast – do you have what it takes? Here’s the promo video for the contest, you can check out all the rules on the official site. Fun!

Don’t know about the podcast? Grab it in iTunes today and check it out!

JG

There’s about 15 new resources on Simply Youth Ministry this week, including the Backstage series and the Teaching Guide series. If you haven’t checked out what’s new at SYM, head over that way today. Might find something useful for this summer’s activities!

Shoot … what a great game tonight on ESPN. I’ve been looking on YouTube for the crushing 1st quarter hit that had the boys and I jumping off the couch. Crunch! It was a great 2-hour break from all of the conference preparation this week, I always enjoy some summer football, even if this one was a bit of a runaway. Here’s my predictions for the rest of the AFL Postseason:

Conference Championships
Columbus at Georgia – Georgia by 8
Chicago at San Jose – Chicago by 14

ARENABOWL XXI
Chicago by 3

JG

Tony just updated the podcast with a new episode: 5 people we respect and why. Of course, at the end of the show we talk about people we don’t respect, too, which was even more fun.

JG