Cornerstone LIVE at 5:05 PM

After about a year in the making, we are broadcasting Cornerstone's services live, as they happen!  This may not be a huge deal to some churches, but this is big to us.  We've researched, tried, failed, researched, scratched our heads, (did I mention researched?) tested, and finally found a solution.  Now, we're proud to introduce you to "www.iamcornerstoneLIVE.com"

When you venture over to our web-cast link, you'll probably see a countdown that let's you know when our next service is about to begin.  While you're waiting, you can browse around our other links.  You can watch past lessons on our Media Player, join our Facebook group, follow us on Twitter, or watch our videos on YouTube. When the countdown runs out, it automatically forwards the link to our video page. 

Once inside, you can sing along and worship with The Ambassadors of Praise, listen to Pastor Dan speak, and also chat with other Cornerstone peeps, or complete strangers.  If you miss a few weeks and want to give your tithes or offering, you can give online by following the "online giving" button.  You can download .PDF versions of the Pastor's outlines on our website, or take notes in the space below the video.

Overall, I'm pretty excited about this feature.  We're truly "going out into all the nations" to preach the gospel and make disciples.  In fact, thus far, the UK watches our webcast almost as much as the USA!  Inside the United States, San Fransisco watches almost as much as Iowa (were we're located).  Soldiers overseas can watch us live and feel a little closer to home.

I can't wait to see how our webcast evolves over the coming year(s), but one thing I've found pretty quickly is this; I'm very humbled to be part of something so great.

Clover: Word of Mouth at 11:34 PM

I just spoke with another pastor yesterday who was looking for an easy solution for a website that he, or his team, could maintain 'in house.'  His frustration was clear, the current website (that was apart of a church that he had taken over) was clunky, ugly, and hard to navigate.  I knew right away that his solution was Clover Sites.

Just in case you're tired of me talking about the possibilities for Clover, maybe you'll listen to my friend, mentor, and boss, Pastor Dan Berry;

"Have you ever been frustrated out of your mind because you couldn't make your computer do what you know it can do?  Worked with some software that was suppose to simplify your life, but only came with migraines. No mater what, you couldn't get it to work and then someone comes along that has it figured out.  They show you a couple of things and all the anxiety disappears, and your life gets back to normal?


That's what happened with our website.  We were told so many times that THIS is what you need to simplify your website, and THAT is what you need to be cutting edge–did I mention that we were told that by three different companies!? Then came Clover– the company that showed us a few simple things that simplified our lives, removed all the anxiety,
and gave us a kicking website, check it out!"

You may or may not care for the style we've branded for our church, but you can check out other great designs that I'm sure you'll love! You can literally design your website and be up and running within a couple hours.  You can look around for the another solution, or you can use what works. (psst...that's Clover)

Clover: Media Player Upgrade at 3:50 PM

Almost a year ago, we switched to Clover Sites as the host of our website.  Now, let me remind you, I'm not really a huge HTML, CSS, or coding guy in any form.  I mean, I know a little, but in no way could I ever build my own website knowing what I know now.  Maybe you're in the same boat, yet you still want your church to have a quality website.

So what do you do?  You can hire someone, only to never get the service you thought you'd get.  You could try to make your own, with more headache than it's worth.  You could let a volunteer do one for you, and be at the mercy of their schedule. OR you can move forward with your life, and just get Clover.  NO WEB DESIGNING EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! If you can do Facebook...you can do Clover.  Anyway, this post is about the Media Player upgrade, so if you want to read more about why you should get a Clover site, Click HERE.

The new Media player offers video, labeling, podcasting, linking a PDF of the notes as well as linking the MP3's of the lessons.  The current media player allows streaming to mobile devices, but it's only audio.  On April 28th, Clover is releasing the "Greenhouse 2.0," an upgrade of their entire Greenhouse that allows so many new and great features, I can hardly contain myself!

One of the things I like about Clover's media player (current and new) is that it "pops out." meaning it opens in its own window, so I can keep it open while I work on other things, or link the URL and send people directly to the media player itself.

Listen, how about I shut up, and just show you some of the changes...


Media Player from Clover on Vimeo.


Editing Your Media Player - Part 1 from Clover on Vimeo.


(I'll embed "Editing Your Media Player - Part 2 as soon as it's available.)

If you want to check out more of Clover Sites, click HERE.  If you want to see some of the new features of the "Greenhouse 2.0" upgrade, click HERE.  Of course, if you have any questions, you can always email me!

Online Community at 2:57 PM

Is it true that you can only experience community in person, or can "community" be accomplished online? Many people have great thoughts and arguments for both sides. I think that the best way to get to know someone is in person, but we shouldn't discount real discussions that can happen online where people feel free to open up and share things that wouldn't be discussed while sitting in a room.

About a week ago, there was a gathering at The Des Moines Courthouse in opposition to same-sex marriage. The Iowa Supreme Court had legalized same-sex marriage last year without a vote from the people of Iowa who overwhelmingly oppose it. I was really surprised when Governor Culver exited the Gallery after his speech to close to 450-600 people chanting, "Let us Vote!" So, documenting the situation, I sent out a tweet (which also updates my Facebook status) about it. That one update spawned a Facebook-comment-conversation/argument that was over 70 comments long.

The conversation was between some Christian friends who oppose same-sex marriage, an atheist friend, and a homosexual friend of mine who's hoping the law will stay. For the most part, my Christian friends behaved themselves. However, with the obvious difference in opinions– things got a little heated at times.

The reality is that conversation probably wouldn't have happened if we were all sitting in a room together. If it had started, it probably wouldn't have gone as long, and some of the parties involved would have left before it was over. The great thing is that people who didn't actually enter the conversation, read along with it. One such friend said this:























Not only can online community be great for conversation, it can be great for netoworking. I've been able to get to know some really great people in the Des Moines area because of Twitter. Other church tech guys, and even authors that I admire.

So as much as you might not think online community is a valued form of making community, or establishing relationships– but it's a part of our world now, so you can ignore it, or you can leverage it.