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A New Adventure

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 19:15:05 +0000

My time at Bel Air Pres has come to an end. I’m transitioning out of my role as director of new media and will be pursuing other options. As they say, when one door closes, another one opens…

More to come later. In the mean time, check out this song from NeedToBreathe

4 Day Work Week

admin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:10:08 +0000

Last week I was reading Justin Wise’s blog on “Why a Four-Day Work Week Will Be the Norm”. He referred to Time Magazine’s article on how the state of Utah implemented it and is saving money and winning over people.

While I don’t work in Utah, I love having a 4-day work week. The transition happened a month ago after trading my Sunday duties at the 901 for some creative contribution to the college group. Instead of Sunday through Thursday, it’s now Monday through Thursday.

Monday 8hrs, Tuesday 14hrs, Wednesday 8hrs, Thursday 8hrs, 3 day weekend.

It helps that Foundry, our young adults service, meets mid-week and that all of my face-to-face meetings are packed into Tuesdays & Thursdays. And having that extra day actually makes me eager to get back into the office the following Monday.

But really in this age of connectedness, work emails on the iPhone, Twitter updates, and Facebook messages, are we really taking those days off?

Is There Room for Twitter in Church?

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:30:42 +0000

I wonder if this is similar to a question asked a long time ago: “Is there room for ‘musical instruments’ in church?”

We’ve integrated a live Twitter feed into our young adults service (foundryLA.org) beforehand, during meet & greet time, and sometimes afterwards. Live on the “Presbytron” and coordinated with the lighting design. People seem to have embraced it pretty well.

What Does it Do for Us?

Announcements – Obviously this is a great way for us to send out reminders to sign up for events & service projects. It’s also a great way for folks to post their prayer requests, roommate openings, and invitations to events, etc…

Connects New People – Being new in a group of several hundred people can be intimidating. This allows connections to be made. “Are you new? Text it up. We’d like to meet you…”

Real Time Interaction – Sometimes we’ll ask a question of the week. Or announce the “After Hours” location to hang out afterwards. Or get feedback on the evening’s topic before our speaker’s talk.

A Continuing Conversation – The service doesn’t end when everyone leaves. Folks are encourages to continue the connections online and throughout the week.

It’s becoming a great tool for folks to connect. The goal us that connecting online would lead to physical face to face interaction.

So What’s Next?

How can we better utilize this tool? Have anyone of you all executed or experienced anything similar? Would love to hear your feedback!

What a Crazy Week

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:28:17 +0000

What a crazy week. Lets see if I can recap:

Sunday: Helped coordinate the 901 service at Bel Air Pres, Lunch, an afternoon at the pool, and dinner with friends in Eagle Rock. Funny how it takes 7 freeways to get home- 2 south to 5 south to 110 south to 10 west, to 405 south to 90 west to pch.

Monday: I played a little Monday Night poker with the guys. 2 tables, finished 5th.

Tuesday: Staff reductions at Bel Air Pres. 25% of the staff affected with either job loss or a cut in hours. It was a crazy day- a mix of being sad for those affected, a little frustrated by a lack of communication, and relief that I still get to work in full time ministry.

Wednesday: Worked late cause I was taking Thursday off.

Thursday: Urban Hike. 3 of us hiked 16 miles from downtown Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Pier. Yeah, it was a crazy adventure through MacArthur Park, Korea Town, Mid-Wilshire, Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills, Century City, Westwood, West LA, and Santa Monica.

Friday: Body is hurting. Stayed in and was glad to not do too much of anything.

Saturday: Cleaned house and had a surprise party here for a friend. He was truly surprised.