LayGuy

When print was invented, it helped spread the Bible.  When radio was invented, it helped spread the Word.  When TV was invented, it helped spread the Evangelist.  When the internet was invented, it opened up a new way of reaching untold masses.

Enter the world of social media.  Recently social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Twitter etc have over taken even porn in terms of how many people use these services on the internet.

Social media is now seriously being considered the next revolution in terms of how humans communicate with one another.  My question is, how are we as the Church going to use this tool?

I believe that the invention of print, radio and TV combined pale in comparison to the potential online social media has in terms reaching the world for Jesus.  At the same time, I am sometimes disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm the Church has in regards to engaging the use of social media to advance the message of the Kingdom.

Sometimes we want to stay “cool” and “relevant” to our online collection of so called “friends” and miss the opportunity to spread the Word.  Or maybe we are just ignorant of the potential we have at our disposal when it comes to social media.

Let me make a very clear point here.  It’s not our efforts that ultimately produce real change in people – that belongs to Jesus and Him alone.  After all, didn’t He say that He will build His Church.  And check out the following verse to validate this even further.

“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” 1 Cor 3:7

Having said that, does that mean we sit on our bums and watch the world go by as we wait for God to provide growth? Um, that would be a big fat no – as the following versus say..

He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labour. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. 1 Cor 3:8-9

So it’s God that produces real change and real growth of His Church.  But He allows us the blessing of joining him in the process.  And with social media, we are provided an unparalleled tool to spread His Good News far and wide.

Are you on Facebook and have a gazillion friends?  Do you Tweet till all day long?  Do yourself a favour and watch the following video and get inspired at the potential you have with Jesus in your heart and social media at your disposal.

Awesome stuff!  So go nuts and put Jesus all over your social network.  You just never know who God may decide to draw to Him by using your comments or links or video’s or tweets about His Son.

There’s something about spoken word poetry that really resonates with me.  Was never a big fan of poetry on it’s own.  But when it’s spoken with passion and it talks about my King Jesus, well that’s another story.

I first came across Blair Wingo back in March this year and loved her passion and talent.  And now I’ve stumbled onto another great talent – Amena Brown.

Amena grew up without a father figure in her life and wanted to protect herself from being disappointed by a heavenly Father.  So initially she was reserved in her faith. 

So she dug deep into the Word and prayer and overcame this fear.  And the result is awesome.  We now have a talented and passionate daughter of the King who knows very well of the awesome nature of our Heavenly Father.  Hope you enjoy some of her video’s below.

Are you after a sweet app for your iPhone/iPod Touch?  The Mars Hill app is now free to download from iTunes.

And what a sweet little app this is!  The content and ease of use will blow you away.  Once again, Mars Hill have raised the bar!

So what does the app do?  The Mars Hill Church blog says you can:

• Listen to any Mars Hill sermon available on www.marshillchurch.org
• Watch any Mars Hill sermon video
• Stream any Mars Hill music
• Email sermon links to your friends
• Give to the mission of Mars Hill
• Stay informed and up to date through the blog
• Get campus locations and listings

And in typical Mars Hill fashion, all this is completely free!  Here’s a couple more screen shots to wet your appetite:

What are you waiting for?  Download it now from iTunes!

I can’t help but feel that this blog has been left unattended lately.  There is a good reason though.  I have been working on my Church website at www.citywestchurch.com.au.

I’m no professional developer nor that crash hot with what I do with websites etc.  We have migrated from Joomla and back to Wordpress.  This will allow me to train up more people to help me with this project and hopefully share the load as it’s a huge thing to do on your own.

The whole exercise has been a great learning curve to go through.  To say that this lay brain of mine has been challenged would be to understate the situation.

At the same time, if I can do this, then anyone can.  So if you attend a church without an online presence, do yourself a favour and go to www.wordpress.com and learn how to put together a website.

From a knowledge base of nothing, there now have been over 20,000 downloads of our sermons, requests to use our materials and people finding our church via the web to name a few.

Well worth the effort and a great and humbling feeling knowing that what you have done has somehow furthered the Kingdom of our awesome King.

Hot on the heals on my post on how Google can help in your serious studies on the geography of Israel with their Google Earth and Google Map tools, enter Microsoft Photosynth.  I first posted on Photosynth back in June 2007 and thought it would be great to revisit how this tool has been taken up.

And it sure has taken off!.  In a nutshell, Photosynth takes a large collection of photos of a place or object, analyses them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed 3-Dimensional space.  Sounds confusing?  Check out the following video explaining it in far better terms then I could muster up.

Very cool indeed!  For some awesome examples of how this tool works, check out the following “synths” (links you to the Direct3D viewer to get the most out of the tool.) – Sistine Chapel – Cappella Sistina & Glacier Point (Combined), Yosemite National Park, California.

But in keeping with the theme of using technology to help with your studies on Israel, let me draw your attention to an awesome “synth” I found on Jerusalem – in particular, the Western Wall.  This synth consists of a total of 746 photo’s synthed at 100%.  In lay terms, this is one hell of an awesome synth!

Having been to Israel in 1998, on place I found really touching was the Western Wall.  This section of the Old City of Jerusalem contains the wall of the Second Temple dating back to King Herod’s time.  More notably, it was this Temple that Jesus Christ frequented during his brief visit to planet earth.  Once you visit this place, you are changed.  Forever.

Here is where this technology is so powerful.  Below is a synth with 746 photo’s all joined together in perfect harmony of the Western Wall area.  Before you have a play with it, let me draw your attention to one of it’s awesome details.

This is the view of the Western Wall as I approached it after winding through a bunch of side alleys.  To walk into this open area and look at this site and let it sink in as to what you are actually looking at, is a mind blowing experience.  You won’t know what I’m talking about until you actually experience it for yourself.  As you can see, this is a panoramic view  of the entire courtyard and contains heaps of detail.  This is just 1 of the 746 photo’s in this synth.  Let me show you another..

This is a close up of the Western Wall where Jews place written prayers in the cracks in the wall of the Second Temple as they pray to God.  You just need to spend a couple of minutes watching this and you are blown away at how they revere and call out to God in the prayers.

The beauty of Photosynth is that these two photo’s and the other 744 are all joined together and form a 3D panoramic view of the entire site.  And the detail you extract from it is amazing!

I’ve embedded the synth below for your viewing and exploring pleasure.  Please note that you’ll need a fast internet connection and a new generation browser to view this.

To play with the synth in all its glory, click here to view it in Direct3D mode.