Part of the Glue

I use volunteers a lot in order to get my job done.  I have volunteers edit video projects, shoot events, write and collaborate with me in a variety of ways? Time and time again I get let down by these volunteers who I truly do enjoy working with.  Often times it is not intentional by them, they just let you down.  They may not show up for a shoot, or forget to drop off equipment.  I've had volunteers who have broken cameras, lost expensive stuff and wasted time editing a project that I could have done in a matter of minutes.  Some times I get frustrated and would rather not use them at all, however other times I can't get it all done by myself.  I have learned that I have to have an appropriate measure of grace when working with volunteers and remind myself they are not paid and do not have the skill/training that I myself might have.  I have also learned to double-check with them on everything.  Are you sure you are going to be there?  Just to be clear you are going to drop off the footage at this time on this day.  I have to be extra clear when working with volunteers because I can't expect them to read my mind.

Below is the video I shot when I was in honduras this spring break with some students from our student ministry.  Everything was shot on the canon 7d and the gopro.

Google Apps for non-profits allows you up to 25 users before you have to pay a dime. What's great about google apps is that you can share multiple calendars all within a single window, manage email, documents and more. Share vacations schedules, meetings and more with google's calendar and stop killing trees.

I just installed postie, a wordpress plug-in on this blog to make it easier for me to post. All I have to do now is send an email to a secret email address and bang I posted. I have found that when it's really cumbersome to login and update things I never get around to posting.

I recently got an Iphone 4 a couple of months ago and one of the features i love about it is the picture quality and ability to take pictures in reverse. I took my d_group (discipleship group) of 10th grade guys to chilis and a movie on saturday and we were able to snap a pic without a third party there to take it. When I got home I was able to upload it to twitter and facebook. Soon some of the students who didn’t participate with us chimed in and commented on the pic wishing they had joined in. Telling your story is more important than you think and thanks to technology is easier than ever before. Find ways that you can not just tell your story but encourage others to do the same.

I’ve done it all. I’ve created facebook groups, pages, twitter accounts, group text messaging services and everything in between. As much as I hope these things will communicate our information to our student ministry, a lot of times they fall short. Often I will create a facebook event for my high school small group only to find that no one has responded yes or no. This is not always the case, however sometimes its just easier to not count solely on social media and pick up your phone and call them.

Last week I had the opportunity to fly to Honduras and shoot a mission trip for our church. During the trip my primary responsibility was to photograph and video the entire trip.

Here is what I brought.

1. Canon 7D (this camera is perfect for the job, because you can show hi-quality video and pictures at the same time without toting around multiple cameras)

2. 24mm-70mm Zoom Lens (having a really nice zoom lens made it easy to have a variety of shots without having to switch out lenses all the time.

3. Go Pro (we bought this just for the trip and came in perfect for when we took our free day and went snorkeling and white-water rafting….I was able to suction cup the camera to the front of the boat and never lost it thankfully)

4. ZOOM H4N (used this device to record all of our audio from the boom mic we brought)

5. Rycote Wind Screen (came in really handy when we were shooting audio against really high wind-speeds

6. headphones

7. monopod/small tripod (the monopod came in really handy when I was walking around most of the day

After coming back from the trip there was one thing I wish I would have brought.
Digital Photo Printer (Having this would have allowed me to take pictures of the kids there and print their pictures on-spot and give them to them. This is a great way to minister since a lot of the people have never owned a photo of themselves.)
2.

Last year I took a group of students to see To Save a Life. Afterwards we went to starbucks and sat around and talked about the implications of the movie and looked at our own lives to see if we were anything like the characters in the movie. It was one of the few movies that had a Christian message that was well executed that actually got these teenagers thinking.

This year another great movie is coming in April…Soul Surfer.

If you work or volunteer at a church you should check out their resource website HERE.

Seeds Conference 2011 Promo from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

1. Hosts such as Dreamhost allow you to install the cms in one-simple click
2. Really cool themes like Pagelines end up looking like a website not a blog
3. Its so easy to update…..that you can train practically anyone
4. Tons of free and paid plug-ins that allow you to customize your site with ease
5. Websites are no longer as popular as facebook….so why spend a time of money on a complicated website when you can create a clean/simple blog?
6. Because Drupal and other CMS programs have a steep learning curve and require the continual paid services of someone who knows what they are doing
7. If you don’t believe me check out these sites I have created in wordpress and be re-assured | servantleadershipexperience.org | lorrenholliday.com | lyf.net