Many of you already know this but for some strange reason if you read my blog and none of the other Church Tech blogs here’s your head’s up.  First, add some more RSS feeds of all the great Church Tech bloggers, you’ll learn much more than you will here.  Next, that’s right it’s 12:03 am, May 29th, 2008 and Biggest Loser #2 has officially begun.  This time it’s different and all you church techies are encouraged to join in.  That means any church IT, Web, AV, Tech/Production Arts staff (full or part-time role) … If you fill these roles as a volunteer you’re eligible too. Biggest Loser #1 had a total weight loss of 356 pounds and this time I plan on doing much better.  And even worse than that I’ve gained back much of the weight I loss from the first one.  So there you have it, throw in your $25 bucks and 13 weeks from now we’ll all celebrate how much better we’re feeling.

Register for Biggest Loser #2

My friend and senior pastor of Woodland Community Church, Tim Passmore, has just released his second book, One Fry Short. From the book:

Are you a fry short? Some have been described as being "one fry short of a happy meal." This is a common phrase used for those who are a little "off."…

This is real life with real application, you or someone you know will get something out of this.  Check it out on Amazon or Woodland’s website.

Saw this on the news and on then did some googling to find out finally from Reuters that Blair will be teaching for 3 years at Yale.  From Reuters:

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair will teach at Yale University in the next academic year starting in September, leading a course on "faith and globalization," the Ivy League school said on Friday.

He also plans to set up the Blair Faith Foundation, based in London, before taking up his teaching post, the university said.

The foundation aims to examine the role of religion in the modern world and to promote understanding among Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

While I’m sure I won’t agree with all that is being taught and shared, I think it will open a lot of minds to the idea of religion and hopefully finally a relationship with Christ.  I’m sure there a lot of students that will take the class just because of who the teacher is, I know I would have. 

First, I’ll start off saying that I love ebible.com and use if for my online bible tool and for studying. One of my favorite features is the friends and communities where we can go through it together. If you would like go sign-up or if you already use ebible.com send me a friend request, my email is derekjberg at gmail dot com.

Faith Under Pressure
2Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. 3You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. 4So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

Really? That’s a gift? It scares me those times when the true colors are going to be shone. I want to be mature, and well-developed, I just usually want the easy way out. Lord, let me be real in the tough times and the easy times, let those true colors be honoring and glorifying to you.

Hebrews 12:11 At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

One of the things I struggle with is the discipline to continue doing new things, whether it be reading a book, excercise, bible study, or a change in diet. They say that it takes 30 days to form a habit, at times I feel like 30 minutes to start the habit is even tougher because 30 days gives so many opportunities to fail. I need to not worry so much about the discipline it will require but look to the end of the verse and the end result, the goal, and it, it pays off handsomely. So for you and the world to see are my goals for the next 30 days:

Hebrews 12:11 At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

One of the things I struggle with is the discipline to continue doing new things, whether it be reading a book, excercise, bible study, or a change in diet. They say that it takes 30 days to form a habit, at times I feel like 30 minutes to start the habit is even tougher because 30 days gives so many opportunities to fail. I need to not worry so much about the discipline it will require but look to the end of the verse and the end result, the goal, and it, it pays off handsomely. So for you and the world to see are my goals for the next 30 days:

After blogging about the Mashup I did yesterday and getting some great feedback I decided to try my hand at my own mashup that I could control a little more and not have the advertisements on. The new mashup also gives a lot more info pulled from the Church IT survey. The markers are showing the city the church is located, please send me the complete address or latitude and longitude of the church and I’ll update to give an accurate location, especially those cities that have more than one church. I hope you find this to be a valuable tool and that it will help grow our Church IT network. If you or your church is not shown go fill out the survey and I’ll update within a few days.

Church IT Survey Map Mashup

Was playing with Google Maps and mash-ups last night and came up with Church IT mashup based off of the Church IT Survey, if you don’t find your church on there make sure to go fill out the survey.

Note: After some confusion on the numbers, I’ll clarify that the numbering on this map is only the marker number and has nothing to do with number of churches in the area. Check out the updated mashup for a better picture with more information.

I’m sure no one missed it but this is in fact a day late. I took yesterday off as my wife is still recovering from surgery and I just had to wait on the Dishnetwork guy to come and install HD before MNF. But what we’ve all been waiting for…..My weekly post of my 5 favorite posts across the blogosphere that showed up on my Google Reader.

As many of you have already seen “24″ the lost 1994 pilot

Areas I wish I had mastered — Past IT Roundtable Topics from Jason Powell

The full details are over at Jason Lee’s blog. Follow these for the breakdowns:

Anyone planning on coming from Florida – Tampa Bay area? Plan on flying in Sunday and out Friday. Wonder if there might be the option for transportation to and from the church? Also anyone intrested in splitting a hotel room? Trying to be as frugal as I can with the budget.