My New Year Blessing

This is my new year blessing to all those that read my blog.

May 2007 be your greatest year yet, filled with blessing, proserity, health, and inspiration. Know that you are the head, the top and from above. Let everything you put your hand to prosper. Let your storehouse be full and never be for lack of anything. Let God's light shine brightly on you and know that you are highly favored. Proserity and health will be yours. May all your expectations be reached and be blessed.

Elevate Podcast #9 - I'm Not Out-cast

Here we go...I'm Not Out-cast...Podcast #9 for Elevate Student Ministries. This week our host Juno Garcia and I freestyle in our talk show about this past year. This weeks message on the Podcast is part two of God Dwells in the Darkness and is about how to handle life when it deals a knockout blow. This message was given in our adult meeting is for anyone that is going through some bad times.


To read all the posts on Elevate click here.

Download the MP3 directly here.

Listen online here.

Best Blogs of 2006

This is tough cause I read posts to over 60 blogs but I felt I needed to boil down each of my best posts to only three..

1. Perry Noble - excellent, speaks from the hip, and is a great teacher as well.

2. Mark Batterson - Drives my creativity

3. Tony Morgan - Lots of ministry inspiration

These are the first three I look for each day and pretty much in that order as well...Props do go out to others on my Favorite Blog links; go and check them out as well. These are there cause I read them for inspiration daily.

My Best Books of 2006

Thought I would join in on some of the top thoughts of 2006 as it comes to a close.

This post will be dedicated to the top books I read:

1. In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day

This book was exciting, thought provoking, challenging and all around excellent. I loved how Mark Batterson writes in such, to me, down to earth speak write at ya language.

2. Communicating For A Change

This book has stretched me to the max. It has challenged my approach to communicating totally. Needless to say I will never be the same communicator that I was. I can't now that I read it. Andy Stanley and his team have some great principles of communication that can help any communicator go from good to great.

3. Revolution YM

Ron Luce has written an excellent book that I believe can transcend youth ministry and be applied to all areas and departments in ministry. Covering areas such as leadership and planning this book can be an excellent resource to take your department to a higher level.

Back From Vacation

So I have been absent now for 5 days from the blogosphere...Been on the farm with my parents...It has been a great few days of vacation with family. The kids absolutly love going there and this week a baby calf was born so they got to see it.

Well, I am back once again and am getting ready to fire up the fingers on some great posts for the new year.

We will be updating our podcast for those that listen with a message I gave this Wednesday night. (Now did you think I could go on vacation without doing something.)

It is part two of my God Dwells in the Darkness series. This one was a really great one that I hope to update everyone on within the next few posts. Just wanted to get my fingers warmed up.

Elfed

I'm Elfed...it's a Merry Christmas to you all...Check it out at www.elfyourself.com...Make your own as well...

The Finished Tamales

Ok they're done and boy are the delicious...What's this have to do with Making Difference Makers...absolutly nothing but the making part...just enjoying the Christmas time with family and wanted to share it with all of you.....


The finished product...


Can't keep my fingers off them...and my belly shows it.


Yumm


YUMM


Dude that was good...

The Tamale Factory

The tamale factory is in full force now...we have 8 dozen down and many more to go...The whole family is involved...except me, cause I'm fixing to grill some steaks.







Man I can't wait to eat some...

Tamales

My mother in law came over today and is in the process of making some tamales...OH YEAH...the thought of them is making my mouth salivate. This isn't one of her's. It's just a picture of one. Can't wait for later...

The Griffen Method

Over the past three days I have been utilizing the Griffen Method of blog posting perfected by Josh Griffen of Simply Youth Ministries. Don't know how everyone has liked it. But thought I would give it a try.

Don't know the Griffen Method. It is posting smaller posts up to 6 or 7 times a day.

New Post Series for 2007

Beginning in the new year I hope to start two posts series. I am thinking about developing the following two topics:

1. Personal Life Plan - Taking you through the development of a five year life plan.
2. Our Ministry Principle - Going through the 7 principals by which we do our ministry.

Merry Christmas from the Family

MERRY CHRISTMAS
FROM
ALL OUR
FAMILY

Out of This World

Wow...I never thought it would happen...not only have I been read international...but now off-world as well, someone from Jupiter has officially read my blog...Not really off-world though...Jupiter, Florida. How cool is that!!!!

Christmas

Here is wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I know many will be leaving and traveling. Be safe and be blessed in all you do. I will be traveling to visit my parents on the farm. My kids love it there. My wife would love to have one. Nope, won't be getting one for Christmas...sorry babe. You'll just have to be happy in your new ride.

Again, be blessed everyone and Merry Christmas.

Santa Claus From an Engineer's Perspective

Ok I hope not to burst anyone's bubble but here goes Santa. Thanks to Mark Batterson for the post.

There are approximately 378 million Christian children in the world according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average census rate of 3.5 children per household that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each.

Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west. This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh; hop out; jump down the chimney; fill the stockings; distribute the remaining presents under the tree; eat whatever snacks have been left for him; get back up the chimney; jump into the sleigh; and get on to the next house.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations, we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household--a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second--3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run at best 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set weighing two pounds, the sleigh is carrying over 500,000 tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the flying reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can't be done with nine of them--Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth, the ship not the monarch.

Six hundred thousand tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance--this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.

Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of acceleration from a dead stop to 650 miles per second in one-thousandth of a second, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 g's. A 250 pound Santa which seems ludicrously slim would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4.3 millions pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now.

Merry Christmas!

5 Things You Might Not Know About Me

Tonight I got tagged....I know what your thinking, "I have no clue what that means." That's ok. All you need to know is that Evan has tagged me and I need to let you and everyone else know five things about me that some of you might not know. So here goes.

5. I used to weigh 275 pounds and would wear itty-bitty bikini shorts...hey quit laughing, it was on stage as a competitive bodybuilder. (And only I have the pictures so you can't dig 'em up online somewhere. Thank God.)

4. I lettered in football my freshman year in college at then Texas A and I in Kingsville, TX. (It's now Texas A and M - Kingsville)

3. The only guy from my high school to earn 1st team all district in 5 different positions on my football team. (Ok that's enough football trivia)

2. I was a d.j. in a night club. (oh yeah I used to mix it up on the turn tables.)

1. If I wasn't in the ministry...I would love to be a chef even though I probably wouldn't eat everything I cook. (It's a vegetable thing.)

So the tag is on......Eric, Tommy, Jason (there's something about that name that I really like), PD and Cory Miller...TAG YOUR IT.

My Videos

I have several videos that we have created...some good and some better...these are our first attempts into video editing creative elements for our meetings.

You can check them out at my youtube. Go to http://www.youtube.com/user/jaycurl44

Elevate Podcast #8 - Darknesscast

Here we go...Darknesscast...Podcast #7 for Elevate Student Ministries. This week our host Juno Garcia, Joann Clouse, Josh Garza and I talk about dark times in our lives. This weeks message on the Podcast is called God Dwells in the Darkness and is about how God allows dark times so He can show up and show off. Check out The Elevate Rundown 12-20-06 for meeting & message details.


To read all the posts on Elevate click here.

Download the MP3 directly here.

Listen online here.

God Dwells In The Darkness 3

Tonight I continued to explore the whole topic of God Dwelling in the Darkness at our Elevate meeting.

We looked at David's life of how the lion, bear and giant were all events where God dwelled in some dark times and He showed up and showed off.

Many times we wonder why bad things happen to good people or why if God is omnipotent does He let us go through some of the things we go through.

Think about it...you know that David being a shepard had to have been praying prayers of protection over his flock. Prayers like "God don't let any lions or bears come and take any of my flock. Protect them." The very prayers he prayed were exactly the very things that ended up happening.

But these events were the very events that prepared him for the battle with the giant. Another battle that God showed up and showed off in his life and prepared him for even greater things in his life.

Friends God sees the end and understands the timeline of our life. It is He that knows that the very events that you are going through that are preparing you for the road ahead. A road that will be littered with exploits of a mighty God who will show off in and through your life.

The Elevate Rundown 12-20-06

Here is how Elevate went down last night, December 20th.

Worship Set:
What The World Will Never Take
Salvation Is Here
Beautiful One
The Heart of Worship
From The Inside Out

Message:
This week begins a short two week series that will be continued in the new year. Next week I'll be on vacation but Elevate will still be meeting. Tonight we talked about how God Dwells in the Darkness of our lives. This is probably one of the best messages I have ever given and answers the question of why do bad things happen to good people. Make sure you listen to this on the podcast when it comes out. The next message in the series is going to be called, "I'm Down But Not Out."

Sermon Title - Show Up and Show Off

Big Idea - God allows dark times so He can show up and show off.

Statistics:
Total Attendance-48, Total Teens-41

Service Notes:
I these were some good numbers for not meeting with Elevate for the past two weeks. I am always very fearful of long breaks cause people crave normality. This was a great message and the team worked well together tonight.


Click here to view other posts on Elevate.

Building Resonance

Some people think that position is about leadership. Although leadership does sometime come with position it does not necessarily mean that because you have position that you are the or a leader and that others will follow you.

Remember if you think you are a leader and no one is following you, you are only taking a walk.

Leadership is about creating resonance. Resonance means "richness or significance, especially in evoking an association or strong emotion." More often than not some "leaders" are unintentionally creating dissonance within their own organizations. Building resonance is a strong key to leadership and brings the people that you are leading into an atmosphere that lends itself to quality relationships.

Wanting blind submission is no longer an effective style of leadership.

This is a prime proponent of leadership through position. Follow me because I'm the boss or the pastor or the department head.

Although there may be some biblical application to headship, today's leaders can elicit a stronger leadership quotient through building resonance. This is different for each person you lead and takes work but in the long range will bring a greater working synergy within your team.

Creating Human Connection In The Church

Great interview with Howard Schultz CEO of Starbucks. This excerpt stood out to me.

We just had this level of optimism that I think we felt what we were doing and how we wanted to do it and treating people well and we just felt that the place, I want to go back to that, that America lacked a place, and if you'll look at what Starbucks is created, we really have created perhaps not since the English pub this place of meeting, of gathering and at a time in the world not only in America where there's such a fracturing of humanity and human connection and we live in such a fragile environment that human connection is important and Starbucks has brought people together.

Would would it be like if your church or youth ministry name could replace Starbucks in that quote? Could that be said of by you? Starbucks doesn't just say it they created it. In a world of fracturing humanity and human connection we must create the same type od environment where human connection is important and brings people together.

Full Transcript of Interview

Thanks to Brand Autopsy for Interview

Best of The Best Blogs

Here are five of the bests posts I read this week out there in the blogosphere.

1. Ramblings on.. talks about Change - this was an excellent post that tied in with the next best.
2. Kem Meyer talked about The World As You See It - What are you doing to learn about people today that don't see things the way you do? is something she wrote about in her blog.

These two got me thinking. Change is needed in church today if we are going to reach the lost...is what we are doing today effective? Are we currently changing the community around us or is it changing us? Jonathan Herron talked about that a couple of weeks ago when he said "to not just shape culture, but to create culture." Are we creating the cuture around us or are we allowing culture to shape the church?

3. Joseph Sangl asks "Do We Deceive Ourselves?" Ouch this one could be dangerous reading!!!!

4. Dave Ferguson wrote about "The Power of Passion" This was a great one cause I believe passion is what sets a difference maker apart.

5. Mark Batterson talked about "Weekday Faith" Hey Sunday Morning only comes around once a week but there are five weekdays and they are where the majority of our lives are lived. So live out your faith everyday.

The Meal of All Meals

 We went to our absolute favorite restaurant in Corpus Christi tonight. After doing a little Christmas shopping we chose to drive south on SPID through Flour Bluff over the Laguna Madre and in to Snoopy's Seafood Restaurant It is actually on a pier on the Laguna Madre.

Tonight we came in and watched the sun set over the water. The Maui Maui there is absolutely awesome. You haven't had great fried fish 'til you've gone to Snoopy's. Dress casual and be prepared for some open air seating. It rocks. Ask for Larry and tell him Jason C sent ya. 

Being Held Hostage

This morning after I got to work I received a phone call from my wife and she was in a state of panic. "I'm Being Held Hostage!" was what she kept telling me and that I had to come home.

For the past week we have been on a mission to catch a new visitor to our home, a mouse. Well this morning it made an appearance. My wife opened a cabinet and it busted loose. It startled my wife and made a run for it. So she calls me on the phone to get home and find it.

This really got me thinking today. How many times in our life are we holding ourselves hostage to the potential God has for us? Think about that. We hear all the time that God wants to bless us and that He has set us free. But sometimes it sure doesn't feel like it, right? Maybe it is a habit you need to break. Or you feel like your trapped in a relationship and even though you want to get out you keep coming back to the same situation. Or maybe you have heard this before, "Well God is going to keep bringing you back to the same situation till you get it right." (Is that even really a Biblical Principle? Isn't God taking us from glory to glory?)

Some of the smallest things can hold us hostage. In fact, the bible says that "it's the little foxes that ruin the vineyard." The vineyard could be our life and the little foxes could be our current mindsets. God wants us to reach our fullest potential and for us to get from our present to that potential we got to cross a land called chaos.

Our mind craves normality. It resists and does not like change. Even when normal doesn't look like normal it is still normal to the mind. This is why people who are trapped in hurtful and damaging relationships sometimes only end up in other hurful or damaging relationships. It is because to the mind that is normal.

For us to move on we must transform our thinking as Romans 12:1-2 tells us. We must create new thought patterns and close the door on those things that are holding us hostage. Part of that process is happening right now just by realizing what is holding you back. So begin creating a new order. Set out a few traps and catch that mouse...or those small things that may be holding you back.

What if you could acheive all that God created you to be? What would your world look like if you reached your full potential? Go ahead and go for it.

Oh by the way...I caught that little sucker tonight...No more surprise calls...I hope!!!

Christmas Crazies

I love my wife and she is going to probably kill me when she reads this but I was wondering how many Christmas Crazies there are out there. As you already know I was up at like three in the morning the day after thanksgiving doing shopping...so I thought I would let you in on how many trees were in our house...

Not just one...

Or two...

Three???

How about four....

Five...

Six...


That's right...six...and if you count the one in our kitchen that is like a stick configuration and the one on the porch...that would bring it to eight...don't know if I missed one in there somewhere...

I do love that she brings such a Christmas Spirit to our home...although if I hear one more Christmas song I'm gonna look like this picture only with a fatter gut...


So does anyone out there top that????

A New Feed For My Site

First off I want to apoligize to all my readers who are subcribed through my feed...you guys are totally awesome.

I ran into some problems the other day. I went to Feedburner to check out my feeds and noticed that for some reason it does not show my feed in my account. This is lame even though everyone who is subscribing through it is getting feed from my site as well as getting feed for our podcast. But as some of you know it doesn't help in tracking how many people are getting to your site.

So today, I created a new feed and hopefully this will never change. The new feed address and this will be reflected in all of my feeds links from here on out is http://feeds.feedburner.com/MakingDifferenceMakers

If you click my little orange it should bring up a subscribe screen with the feed with some options to choose from.

For some of my readers that may be novices to blogging and still go to site front pages over and over each day this is a tip that can save you some time.

Tip: Use Google Reader (of course you can use many other readers this just happens to be the one I use and it is really simple) to subscribe and read blogs. This is very helpful and can save you time because it automatically shows you when someone has made a new post. And when you track about 60 blogs this can save you some much needed time.

I know this can be a pain for some of you (it is for me as well cause I have to go make sure all my links are correct everywhere)...and the old feed will continue to work but this is vital for the future of what I do. Be blessed all and know you are highly favored.

Making Difference Makers

As some of you may or may have not noticed...recently I changed the title of this blog from Jason Curlee to Making Difference Makers...let me explain that for some of you.

A couple of years ago on my journey through life and being a Christian I was challenged as to what my purpose was...in fact this happened in a staff meeting at Faith Family Church.

What happened was we had a consultant come in and challenged us to write the purpose for our lives in less than 11 words and only gave us 2 minutes to do it in. I had already been going through a stage at this time in discovering what it was that God wanted me to do in my life. So when this happened I threw down on paper in exactly 10 words what I knew my purpose was, "to influence others to make an impact in their world." Since then I have changed as follows: "to influence and develop others to make a impact in their world."

Many years ago when I became a Christian one scripture that God laid on my heart was Isaiah 62:10. I have always felt that I have been called to raise up people who are going to make a difference. People that are going to achieve all they have dreamed of. People who are going to make an impact in this world. People who are going to shake off the limits and constraints that are holding them back.

So with that I encourage you tonight. Dream big dreams and don't hold anything back from achieving them. Our God is a big God able to do more than we can ever dream or ask.

Issues In Youth Ministry

Life In Student Ministry (Tim Schmoyer) posted an interview on Issues in Youth Ministry he did with me. You can read the post here.

Elevate Podcast #7 - Purpose-cast

Here we go...Purpose-cast...Podcast #7 for Elevate Student Ministries. This week our host Juno Garcia and I talk about the purpose of Elevate and breakdown how we do ministry here.

We give great statistics on today's teenagers with the five purposes we do ministry by.

To read all the posts on Elevate click here.

Download the MP3 directly here.

Listen online here.

To check out all my posts click here

Best of the Best Blogs

As of this week I counted that I track about 56 blogs of various types. From pastors to youth ministers, marketing to branding...I read and feed myself from a variety of sources. I thought that it would be great to give you what I thought were the best of the best this week.

These are blogs that I starred in my blog reader, Google Reader. So last week from Sunday to Saturday these are what I considered to be the top ten posts that I read.


1. Church Relevance wrote "A Statistical Portrait of Fathers and Mothers in America"
2. Monday Morning Insight wrote about "Joel Who? Most People Have Never Heard of the People We Discuss Here..."
3. Joseph Sangl wrote about "Items that EVERY person needs in their financial plan"
4. Monday Morning Insight wrote about "Pastors and Pop Culture"
5. Church Communitcations Pro wrote "7 Steps to Building Your Church Brand"
6. Ministry Marketing Coach wrote "Tasks for Ministry Marketing Coaching: Deliver the Message"
7. Matt Card wrote "The power of a vision"
8. Tony Morgan wrote "Leadership Lessons from Yahoo"
9. Strategy Central wrote "Listening Broadly"
10. Matt Card wrote "A Great Story"

Youth Ministry Help

I need some help by any youth pastors, youth directors, or youth leaders.

I am trying to find out the percentage of youth attendance to the sunday morning attendance on churches nationwide. For example if the sunday morning attendance is 500 and your youth ministry runs 50 on its meeting then your percentage is 10%

If you don't want to provide all the numbers that is ok. I mainly need #1 but the other info would be great. Email it to Jason Curlee... pastorjcurl@gmail.com

1. Percentage of youth attendance to the sunday morning attendance.

2. Sunday Morning Attendance Avg.

3. Youth Meeting Attendance Avg.

If you know of any youth ministry leaders that you could send my way to help me I would appreciate it.

Presentation is Everything

Holding your attention, creating an excellent experience, and discipline in learning are just some of the keys to a presentation.

View the link and be prepared. Keep in mind that all 21 performers are completly deaf. They perform this with cues from four trainers that are off stage. The video was recorded in Beijing during the Spring Festival celebrations this year.

Click the following link.

http://www.dharmasite.net/thousandhandguanyin.wmv

Thanks to Bert Decker for the link.

Diet Coke & Mentos

Thanks to Marko for this link. Crazy way to play with Diet Cokes & Mentos.



If you are subcribed through a reader you may have to go to my site to view video. If so click here.

Top Blog of the Day

For the "Top Blog of the Day" I found this great quote on Brand Autopsy

Taken from the book "How Full Is Your Bucket?"

“Each of us has an invisible bucket. It is constantly emptied or filled, depending on what others say or do to us. When our bucket is full, we fill great. When it’s empty, we feel awful.”

Sounds a lot about the principle John Maxwell teaches about how each of us has a pocket full of change. I think it is also emptied or filled by our actions and words. Are you filling your bucket today?

The Night Off

Tonight is Wednesday and we had the night off in lieu of a Christmas concert tomorrow night at Church. Here is what we did:

I was dubbed chef for the night cause my wonderful wife wanted her favorite dish..."Skilletini"...a dish I sort of copied from Johnny Corrino's. It is very good...In a giant skillet I cook some sliced chicken, sliced Italian sausage, adding in some cajun seasoning, garlic salt, garlic, red pepper flakes, tomato sauce and some water from the pasta...then when that's done I add in spagetti pasta...yummy...it will rock your world.

Then we, the family, watched the "Heroes" season ender. I am now waiting for January 22nd. "Are You On The List"...that is gonna be a great sermon title or series. Of course I still don't exactly know what "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" means just yet...but assume it will be revealed.

Today, I was up on three flights of scaffolding in our sanctuary ceiling hanging lights...it was scary...I know that I don't have a fear of heights...just of falling off of something very high...that would probably hurt.

The Podcast Around The World

Can you say "stupid" with me....

I'm sitting here looking at what I think are my podcast statistics and I am so geeked cause it shows that I have people all around the world downloading. I even typed out this whole email on different countries. When all of the sudden I start doing a little more investigating and realize that I was looking at an example of statisics...ok let me hear it now...."stupid"

Ok that's enough...I got it....Now back to the real world.

God Dwells In The Darkness 2

One of my favorite movie series is Rocky...so you have to watch this preview before you read on.




Oh no you don't...watch the preview first.

Last week I wrote a post called God Dwells in the Darkness...I also spoke in our adult meeting last week about it. Last night I was at our Men's Ministry when our Pastor asked me to do a devotional with about 20 minutes notice. I know I hear ya...your a Pastor your supposed to be ready in season and out of season.

Well I wasn't ready. In fact my mind was so off preaching last night...(maybe it was on those chicken wings)...

Anyway I strolled up to my office and was totally blank...I looked through all my past message titles wondering if I could use one of them(It's a good reason why I keep all of them), but that wasn't working. So I was frozen until I started thinking about my favorite verse, Micah 7:8. Here it is in the message paraphrase.

Don't, enemy, crow over me.
I'm down, but I'm not out.
I'm sitting in the dark right now,
but God is my light.

I love it.

In that trailer of Rocky...his trainer talks about all the things Rocky doesn't have to beat his opponent...You know what we don't have them either.

Our opponent has years of experience. But we do have one thing he doesn't...we have a God that is bigger. Sometimes we need to remind our adversary of the fact that "We may be down, but we are not out. It may be dark all around, but that is just where God wants us cause He is our light."

God dwells in the darkness cause He wants to be the only source of light we have.

So when you are feeling overwhelmed or that there is just a little to much on you...be encouraged...you may be down but your not out.

Say that with me, "I may be down, but I'm not out."

And Now The T-Shirt

This past week I had the honor of delivering the message for our adult service. The message was called God Dwells In The Darkness. This I feel was one of the most powerful messages I have ever preached. It is one of the messages that I have given about 3 times over a period of 10 years. I don't repeat often but this is one that many people need to hear.

I often wonder though what people hear and take in when they leave. So it was cool last week on Thursday when one of the ladies there came in wearing a t-shirt with a quote from my message. The quote said something like "Sometimes God puts us against impossible odds with no weapons but our faith in Him."

So now there is a t-shirt..hmmm...I can see the book deal coming next. LOL

New Changes

I am not a patient guy...so for the past two days I had been waiting for our podcast to upload so I can post it...well this morning I decided to go check out Podomatic.

And the decision is made. I will be using it right now as the host for our podcast. It will add a few more features that improve how we were doing as before.

There won't be any changes to my feed if you are already subscribed. I will always link the post through this site which automatically feeds my subscribers.

It is easier to upload pictures. It has a nice little player that can be added to all my sites. I can post to various sites right from it. Those are just a few things I have discovered so far.

Oh yeah...it is also free for now...I like freebies...

The Missing Podcast

For those that have been waiting on the podcast...I apoligize...I have been having problems with the server that hosts it. It will be up as soon as things are resolved.

Elevate Podcast #6 - It's All About Mecast

Here we go...It's All About Mecast...Podcast #6 for Elevate Student Ministries. This week our host Juno Garcia, Gilbert Herrera and I talk about our night. I was speaking a message to our Adult Service this night and was not in Elevate. This week Juno brought us a message on Pride. Check out The Elevate Rundown 11-29-06 for meeting & message details.

FYI - The Next Two Weeks will be special Talk Show Only Podcast because Elevate will be combining with our adult meeting.


To read all the posts on Elevate click here.

Download the MP3 directly here.

Listen online here.

To check out all my posts click here

Free Loops & Backgrounds

How many of you love freebies?

Much thanks to Church Video Ideas for this link to Eleven72.

Sign up for their email list and get a FREE downloadable package. The package includes 3 high quality still backgrounds and 2 really cool worship loops.

All you have to do is go to the www.eleven72.com homepage and sign up in the lower right part of the page, then you’ll receive a welcome email that includes a link to download the free stills and loops.

This looks great.

Countries This Blog Has Been Viewed In

As of October 20th of 2006, I have tracked my blog statistics with a tool called Google Analytics.

Below is a running list of the countries (UPDATED 05/5/2007) my blog has been read in with most viewed at the top:

1. United States
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Australia
5. China
6. New Zealand
7. Mexico
8. Singapore
9. Spain
10. Ireland
11. Sweden
12. Netherlands
13. Belgium
14. France
15. Colombia
16. Germany
17. Philippines
18. South Africa
19. Chile
20. Russian Federation
21. Greece
22. Brazil
23. India
24. Poland
25. Croatia
26. Hungary
27. Argentina
28. Turkey
29. Slovenia
30. Vietnam
31. Austria
32. Fiji
33. Israel
34. Romania
35. Qatar
36. Japan
37. Taiwan
38. Cote D'lvoire
39. Egypt
40. Portugal
41. Albania
42. Hong Kong

We have also been read in 48 states.

Now I don't know if all you guys and gals dig that but I do. It is so cool to see what you do being spread around the world. Check back here often to see where else in the world we've been.

The Elevate Podcast Format

A little bit of country...and a lot of bit of rock and roll...well maybe not but let me tell you what you can find in our Elevate Podcast if you are not already listening to it.

You can see all our past Podcasts by clicking here.

The format of our show goes a little like this:

Intro - Cool music with some info stuff by Joann.

Talk Show - This is a behind the scenes talk show of the night hosted by Juno Garcia...Gilbert Herrera and I are usually on and we have different guest each week.

Message - We then have the power-packed message from Elevate on it.

Close - More cool music with info by Joann...

And that is about it....be on the lookout for our next one coming to you very very soon.

Evangelism Linebacker

Boo---Yah...How funny is this...