I want to start off this post by apologizing to my rss readers, my twitter followers, and whoever else I annoyed when my blog blew up as my database structures got corrupted this week. As usual when dealing with code, something that took about 15 seconds to go wrong took two days to correct, but now we are up and running again.
After evaluating my “photo of the day” on Tumblr I concluded it was better served just posting everything here on my blog, and I will start off with picked back up on my Friday Feet posts from back in September of 2010. Today the photos come from none other than our local Hobby Lobby, and all the photos here were taken with my iPhone. Sometimes I just really like the every day routine photos of life. Many times we don’t take photos of just every day life, but that’s where we spend most of our time in life. In our house we are adjusting to a new normal, so anything is worthy of a photo at this point.
Along with a crazy busy week, today at Cornerstone we celebrated the life of Connie Wright. Connie loved the Lord, and she gave this love to those people she came into contact with every day. I didn’t know her well but she was always thrilled to see me every time I came in the doors of the church for work. It was a celebration of who she was and the glory of her new home. Another reminder of how short our time on this side of eternity really is, and how important it is to spend our time wisely.
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I have been using The Daily app for the iPad for about a week now since it came out and this being the first subscription based daily newspaper type of publication I thought I would do a quick review here. If nothing else, this is going to open the flood gates of countless newspapers and other subscription based publications to release similar formats.
Any company who is in the business of producing paper for the purpose of it being read by a consumer should take close notice to The Daily. If these companies continue to ignore the digital age, as many newspapers and even book publishers have done, their long term viability (or profitability) will get more and more difficult. No question about it, they are going to have to try to find a way to produce a digital product or leave the market.
For those who many not know, The Daily is a daily newspaper type (I say type because it isn’t printed so it’s not a “paper”), delivered each day to your iPad. Subscription prices are very reasonable at $.14 a day, $9.99 a week, or $39.99 a year. With the flood of tablets now coming on the market like the Droid based Galaxy Tab and the Motorola tablet, it’s only a matter of time before The Daily is produced in multiple digital formats, but for now, it’s only available on the iPad.
The Daily Pros
- New and fresh content delivered daily from professional journalists
- Price is reasonable and month and yearly subscriptions are available
- Format and design is outstanding and continues to improve
- The daily publication can be updated throughout the day with live info
- A true multi-media format that allows for video, high-def pics, caption pop-ups
- Integration with Facebook and Twitter, local comments (with voice)
- Portability and ease of reading on the iPad platform
The Daily Cons
- Can’t access archives, if you don’t “clip” the article there is no way to access the previous day’s content, hopefully this will change
- The app still crashes a bit but I’m more than willing to use an imperfect app now
- Each day’s issue takes a while to download
- Content is somewhat limited. There is no “TECH” section or “Business” section per say (although the Sports section is huge); too much “Gossip” section reporting and not enough hard news
- The app is a bit slow to respond. Although I like the carrousel view, it’s slow
Over time many of the issues I listed above will no doubt be addressed as they always are with new apps. The second generation iPad, the iPad 2 set to come out sometime around April to June should also have a much better processor and will speed everything up as well.
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I wanted to do a quick review of the book 90 Minutes in Heaven by Pastor Don Piper and Cecil Murphey because the story is so compelling I couldn’t put the book down (at least until I got about half way through the book). I had this book on my shelf for over a year before I picked it up last Saturday. The story was totally and completely unknown to me before last Saturday and it was simply the time and place for me to read this book, especially with everything going on with Deborah in the last few months.
The story is about a pastor who actually died in a car crash on the way home near Huntsville, Texas, and was then later revived. He goes into as much detail as possible about his visit to Heaven and then his subsequent recovery when God decides to answer the prayers of His people and brings him back to life.
90 Minutes in Heaven, while not a highly theological or doctrinal piece, has an incredible explanation of Heaven and that alone is worth the price of the book. Piper does only spent about 1-2 chapters on his heavenly experience, something I would have enjoyed reading for most of the book, then basically spends the remainder of the book on his arduous recovery. It was still exactly what I needed to read just at that particular time, and for that I’m grateful.
Another book I am currently reading by a different Piper, called Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God by John Piper, is a great book as well, and if I can ever get through the entire book I will post a review as well.
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I haven’t posted consistently here since November because every time I went to write something, words didn’t suffice. This week, and the past several weeks, have been so unbelievable that I really can’t describe my feelings into coherent words yet (see Deb’s blog post in brief). The ups and downs of life that have occurred is something I have never faced before, and I don’t really know where to start, other than to say we have a great God, worthy of every ounce of praise we can muster.
As a way to just get myself started unpacking the events of the last few months I thought I would start with my job at Cornerstone and go from there. I’m well into my third year (see I Have Now Joined the Ranks of Church IT), and starting in 2011 I moved into a slightly different role, one that I am really looking forward to in the year ahead. It has been quite an adventure, something I would never trade if I had to do it all over again, and this past week was a big exclamation point on that statement.
Thinking over the reasons why I love my job I started realizing there were 100′s, so in a nut shell, here are five off the top.
1. It Combines My Life Passion and My Career A “life passion” is probably inadequate to describe my faith. Being a Christian isn’t about being passionate about something, like I love Auburn football, or love to eat, it is who I am. Being able to go to work every day and play a small part in something big is huge to me, but it’s more than that, it’s the combination of the 100′s of reasons I love working for the Church.
This is a catch all reason. Everything about my faith is played out each day, for better or worse, and I have the honor of being supported by the members of Cornerstone. The support that I receive in my life, especially over the last few months, transcends a “job” and has become a way of life.
2. The People I Work With are Unbelievable I can’t say enough about the staff at Cornerstone. In the almost 25 years I have spent in the work force so far, I have never worked with a greater collective group of people than those staff and those who lead the church than at Cornerstone. I could write a post about each of them and how much they mean to me individually, and as a group.
3. Cornerstone’s Vision and Direction This is something the staff and leaders talk about all the time. Where is God leading this church, and how can we best follow His direction. Much of what goes on at Cornerstone Church comes from the statement Leading People To Know and Serve Jesus, and our jobs, whatever that job is, should ultimately work towards that goal, and I love that.
4. Margin, Prayer, and Study, are Expected Finding time to live the life we are called to live out as Christians can be hard. We get so busy with work and everything else that is life, but as a Christian we are called to live out our faith Monday through Saturday too. At Cornerstone, the leaders expect us to live out a life of faith that is taught in scripture, and I love that about my job.
5. The Willingness to Learn and Adjust An amazing quality of Cornerstone Church is the willingness of the leaders to listen, learn, try something new, fail if needed, then adjust and try again. This is no small thing at all, and few businesses, let alone churches, can stop that train once it gets rolling, or try something new to try to make a difference in someone’s life.
That’s my top 5. If you’re in the Auburn area please come by on Sunday morning (or during the week), we would love to meet you.
