being jake wood

It’s been about 2 years since me and Kim cancelled DirecTV and went without TV… well, sort of. About 2 years ago me and Kim purchased a Mac Mini and decided to go without “Live” TV/DVR. Our only source for entertainment has been online sources or direct movie/TV downloads. Since we have made the adjustment, we have loved it. Here are a couple of the bonuses we have seen:

1. No More Lazy TV.
   We still watch TV, but we only watch the shows we really want to watch. When we had regular TV, sometimes we would just sit down and watch whatever was on. Which inevitably led to more shows and more wasted time. When a show is really good, we hear about it from a lot of people and then decide to watch it.
2. Saved a Lot of $.
   With no monthly bills for cable or Satellite, we’re able to use that money in other places. Sure it was about $500 for the computer to hook up at first, but that paid for itself within the first year.
3. No More Kid’s Toy Commercials.
   One upside around Christmas time was that our kids never watched the 1,000′s of commercials for toy gadgets that they just “had” to have. They never bugged us about what toys they wanted for Christmas. It really is amazing how influential commercials can be on children (and us).
4. We Read More Books and Listen to More Music.
5. It Keeps My Idol In Check. I don’t think watching TV is wrong. But for us, it became an idol. Substituting family time or worse, time with God. Since the switch it has really put our hearts in check. I don’t just come home and unplug in front of the TV, but engage with my family.

Again, I’m not advocating that everyone get rid of their TV’s. But for us, it was one of the best things we ever did as a family.

JW

North Point Church in Atlanta has 3 campuses that all have their own unique flavor. For their special Christmas service they did a “live” song that linked all three services together via video. The clip above is filmed at one location, but you can see on the screens the other two locations chime in. I don’t know about you, but one thing I love about Andy Stanley and his team is their relentless pursuit of “trying new things”. I don’t know how long they must of practiced this, but it was great to watch and I’m sure even better to see live.
How about you? Do you like when churches do things “outside” the box? Or is this too flashy for church?

I saw this video and felt worry and excitement at the same time.  Excited, because the future is up in the air.  It’s an open canvas for anything to happen.  What works in churches now will not in the near future.  But this is good, because God always brings leaders to lead the church within the times.  Joshua and Caleb were visionaries leading a new generation into it’s destiny, and there are many young leaders now being prepared, and are prepared to lead this next phase of the church.  I’m worried, because I don’t know what the future will look like in 10 years and I’m the type that wants to anticipate and know NOW.  

What will the church look like in 10 years?  

What will be my role in the new promised land?  

What will my daughters role be?  

I don’t know… and I may never till I’m smack dab in the middle of it.  And I’m ok with that.  Are you?

Somewhat under the radar is Aukido. It’s a website you can visit, upload one of your music tracks, cut it to a proper length, and even do a nice fade at the end so it isn’t abrupt. I’ve tried it on a few tracks I own and it worked great. You can then download the track as an MP3, or better yet, the iPhones native M4R format. Then you drag it into your iTunes ringtone folder and you are ready to go.

The site is also crammed full of other ringtones people have created and left on the site. Your mileage may vary, but Aukido is worth a look, and an upload/download.

I’ve been meaning to blog this for awhile now, but never got to it.  I found this new photo software for my iPhone that let’s you take panoramic photos.  You simply snap a picture and then line up the edges and snap another one.  You can take up to 6 snapshots before it processes it and meshes them into one beautiful panoramic photo.  My friend Bryan was using it for the first time and snapped this picture in just a few seconds.  I think I’m really going to like this one!