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Who Inspired You Today, Anyone?

January 6, 2009 – 3:54 pm

It seems that January has gotten off to a nitro-fueled pace. We started this new series (Alive) that I am personally already struggling to keep up with. Anyone else? It is about mid-week in the first week in January so I figured by now almost everyone has given up on some of their “new years resolutions”, but in light of my post yesterday on how to be creative, I tried to keep my own list in my mind as I went through the day.

So who inspired me us to be creative today? For me, I started off the day with an unbelievable speaker, Eddie Gran, the former running back coach from Auburn. He spent much of his career with Tommy Tubberville from Miami to Ole Miss, to Auburn, and of course in light of the current coaching situation is looking for a job. He presented a great testimony which I know had to inspire many who were able to come hear him speak.

Was I able to achieve any creativity on my own. Who knows. I wanted to dive deep into my own journal, take some photos, and listen to some new music, but for this day, here is my short list of others who gave me some inspiration for the day.

Eddie Gran - Leading a Christ Centered Life (oh, and the former Auburn football running back coach too)
History of the Internet Video // (from Brad)
Anne Jackson - Talk Less - Listen More…on Church Conferences
Georgia Christal - No English Churches in Verdun

The last one requires a little explanation. I am amazed at how I keep learning from my mother-in-law. Since her death in April I have been pouring over here journals she wrote when she lived in Europe. She did what most of us are trying to do now with the Alive series, write. I have been putting her journal one day at a time in a blog called My Life in France.

I sit here and wonder what is or isn’t acceptable in worship. Why do we do this or that, why don’t we do this or that. Her entry in her journal today was short, and to the point, and really hit the spot. This is what she wrote on February 2, 1992:

No English speaking churches in Verdun so we drove to the American Cemetery located in St. Mihiel, France (where 4,000 Americans from the war are buried) and had our own private worship in the chapel there.

Now that is inspiring, at least to me.

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Journal | Also tagged inspired, worship | Comments (1)

I Have Now Joined the Ranks of Church IT?

December 16, 2008 – 10:17 am

I received something yesterday that I haven’t received in almost 15 years (other than from myself), from a man I respect more each day as we begin to work together. A paycheck. It was really kind of strange actually. Over the past almost 15 years, Deb and I have owned our own business and worked for ourselves, and pretty much worked when and where we needed to as the business dictated, until December 2008. As of December, I have accepted a newly created position as the IT Director at Cornerstone UMC, and started a new direction and routine for my household.

Joining the staff of a church, mission, or ministry and being able to serve, as a career, is something I have wanted to pursue from almost day one when I became a Believer. As usually is the case, my timing is not always God’s timing and some 15 years after making my commitment to Christ, the time and place have come together in Auburn at Cornerstone. I have been given the general task of “Leading People to Know and Serve Jesus, through technology” and I am so excited about the opportunity to serve, have so much to learn, and can’t wait to see what God has in store in the years to come.

Being an IT person, I have followed many other church IT people over the years, and now that I am a part of it, I would love to hear from or connect with other staff that are in the same position or fulfilling the same roles as I will be in the months to come.

Two posts in particular that really got me thinking about what this job will eventually mold into is Zac Smith, the IT Director at NewSpring Church, The Perfect Job and this post that shows a great example of the relationship between church IT, communications, and media, Relationship between IT, Communications & Media. I also appreciate the example Jason Powell (the IT Director over at Granger) has shown me as my wife and I prayed about this job and what possibilities IT has within the church. Jason has taken the leadership role within the Church IT Roudtable group (and I hope to become a more active participant).

There was a lot that went into this decision in my own household and a lot of it had to do with the unbelievable staff that is already in place. I will be changing some of the ways I present my blog, (some of the topics are now going to be more related to my postion of course) with a mix of personal, photography, and work related content, so I hope you will stick around and see what else the Lord has in store.

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Journal | Also tagged new, technology, the walk, work | Comments (4)

How is Your Simple Christmas Going // Friday Feet

December 12, 2008 – 5:25 pm

Our church has been going through a series called Simple Christmas and it was going well until this week. This week has been so incredibly crazy for me I haven’t even had time to do a blog post. Part of it is the photo in my Friday Feet post today. You can see a better description of this new entry into our house here.

I have a huge list of blog entries and all kinds of new posts to do here, hopefully I can get to them over the weekend. Have a nice weekend everyone.

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Journal | Also tagged christmas, friday feet, work | Comments (2)

The Economy, Big 3 Auto Bailout, and the Church // Part 3

November 24, 2008 – 6:56 am

This is the last and final, part 3 of this particular topic. If you missed the previous two posts, check them out at part 1 and part 2.

The Church: A Response to a Bad Economy?

I spend a good bit of my day running around on the Internet, and many places I stop are with people of faith, churches, organizations and groups trying to raise funds, in a “bad economy”. There are usually two responses. One (to me) Biblical, and one not. One based on fear, the other based on belief. One worried about their 401k balance, the other excited to see a time when the need for the church among the un-churched is growing.

Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

What happened just after September 11th 2001? People ran to the church. Some because they were scared, some because they didn’t know where else to turn, some came back after a long time away, but the number of people attending church (doesn’t mean it was meaningful by the way) went up dramatically. What makes hitting people where it really counts (in their 401k’s) any different as far as possibilities within the church to help others?

I took this photo below at “Ground Zero” a few months after the terrorist attacks on New York city. They still had not torn down the last few damaged buildings that are outside the photo here, and this “cross” was still standing as well. It was incredible to me to see a cross, carved out of mangled steel, standing above all the mess that was ground zero. It was an unreal time of horror, terror, and despair in our country, and yet, Jesus didn’t change, the world did.

My church at the time in 2001 (a 35,000 member church) was trying to decide if they should start a $40 million building campaign in the middle of the 911 economic turmoil. They decided to follow God and not the economy and great things were done. Why should the church back down when times are bad? Be responsible yes, but fearful????

People are scared, people are fearful. Why? Uncertainty. If we are Believers… why are we living in fear and uncertainty? Because we can’t buy the normal $500-$1000 of Christmas presents this year? We have the most certain thing in the world. A risen Savior.

If you like the cross as a symbol you need to drive out I-40, past Amarillo, past Oklahoma City, and look at one of the largest crosses I have personally ever seen (first photo above). It is a magnificant symbol right on the interstate for all to see. We should be like this cross on I-40 in Oklahoma. Big, bold, tall, ready to reach out and help those who are hurting and searching. We should be excited to be in these “times”, they are new times of new opportunities. As the Church, let’s not watch this opportunity pass us by and wonder why we didn’t make use of this special time in our history.

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Faith, Journal | Also tagged 911, economy, new york, news, nyc, terrorist, worry | Comments (0)

The Economy, Big 3 Auto Bailout, and the Church // Part 2

November 22, 2008 – 8:26 am

This is a continuation of my rant from The Economy, Big 3 Auto Bailout, and the Church // Part 1, which I will only post one more part. Until then, here is part 2.

The Big 3 Auto Industry Bailout

Have you been watching this? Now we should bail out three of the biggest looser (profit wise) companies in the country, perhaps the world? How smart are these guys?

The chairman of the Big Three testified on Capitol Hill this week, and Reid said did themselves no favors by responding when asked how they arrived to Washington that they had each flown in on their private jets.

And now the government is talking about taking partial ownership in the car companies (they could change their name to Amtrak) like that would be a better way to make these failing companies profitable? Where does it end? If we bail out the big 3, why not just bail out the entire country person by person. I could use some bailout money myself, how about you? Would we then be looking out the window at a fire sale turned waste land?

Who is it we are trying to help here? The employees, the auto industry itself, the fantastic cars they have produced over their spam as a business??? I am certainly no economist, but, what in the world would be so bad about letting these overweight, unprofitable companies go the way of Braniff? Are you telling me these 320,000 employees will never ever find another job? Are they all that unqualified to work for someone else or is it the $71/hour the average employee makes? I know this is people’s livelihood we are talking about here, but really, are we going to be that dependent on one single company that is loosing BILLIONS?

Years and years ago this use to be the case. People would work for one single company their whole life, that company would have a nice pension for the employee to retire with and that was life. That was yesterday (as in decades and decade ago). Now people change jobs and companies like being a free agent with Major League Baseball. Many may see this as bad, but companies don’t profitably operate now like they did in the 1950’s. Companies are much more fluid and adjustable (unless you are a auto maker controlled by the UAW) and their needs change just like their employees.

When we use all this tax payer money to “bail out” failed policies or business practices, who is left in the drivers seat? The same people, right? Can they still drive that train or is it just the same old thing that has lost money in the past? If so, what makes a bailout something that will work and turn the company around? If you borrow money from venture capitalist, you are responsible to your shareholders. You borrow money from the government, you are responsible to the tax payers. What do they get? Better, greener cars? What if you don’t want to buy a GM vehicle?

What happened when Braniff and Eastern went out of business? Did all those thousands of employees never ever find another job? Or, did Southwest Airlines start to emerge as a “new” kind of airline, with lower prices, better service, while at the same time being a profitable business? Did Southwest Airlines pay as much, no, I worked there making $6.50/hour when Delta, American Airlines, Northwest, United, and US Airways all paid more per employee, and were all loosing money and going bankrupt (and they still are). I still chose to work for Southwest Airlines. It was fun, they were nice, happy people, and I could wear shorts and a t-shirt at work.

That is really one of the issues at stake here. No other auto company is going to pay a union wage of $71 per hour (that’s $150,000 a year for an hourly job, not including overtime and bonuses). They can’t, it would not make for a profitable business. Hyundai and Kia may not make the best cars in the world either, but they both moved to Alabama to manufacture cars, and are making money. They also don’t pay as much as GM and are not controlled by the UAW (as far as I remember).

So, as bad as it may sound… just let them go. If they can’t operate by loosing $5 billion a day (who could), perahps someone will step in and bring us better cars, more effieint cars, and maybe greener cars, all while making a profit, not costing the tax payers another $100 billion, and in the process, create jobs for those who want to work. Now if Ford can make a car like I saw in the new James Bond movie, and make it at a profit, great, I am all for Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars, but they always seem to be years and years behind Toyota.

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Journal | Also tagged cars, economy, gm, news, profit, toyota, worry | Comments (1)

The Economy, Big 3 Auto Bailout, and the Church // Part 1

November 21, 2008 – 7:48 am

The world is ending as we know it. If you didn’t know that, there, now you do. Anyone watching the news lately? I quit am ready to quit watching the news altogether (which is saying something for a news junkie of sorts). Every day it is a relentless doom and gloom story of the world, or America, and lately, the economy, which apparently is waiting for a bailout of everything, everywhere from the government. From the economy, to President-Elect Obama, to unemployment and everything inbetween… so, in case you were unaware (because the news hadn’t told you yet) the world as you know it, is just about over.

I am about to start a three part process of ranting and rambling, so if you don’t want to read that, just look at the photos and forget the rest of it.

The Economy: is Doomed, or it is Just a Bad Economy?

Bad economy, bad, bad boy. You can’t turn on the news or the radio, or talk to anyone these days without someone mentioning how bad the economy is doing. I think we got it already. True, no one my generation or younger can ever remember a downside in the economy unless we are old enough to remember what Regan took over from the Carter administration (which I really am not), so I am not sure what we are comparing it to if you are 30-ish.

I understand things are not as good as they have been in the past, but come on, do you still have power going to your house? Can you still watch the latest American Idol on Fox or Dancing with the Stars on ABC or are those stations going out of business due to lack of viewers?? Last time I checked, our cell phones still worked, we have electricity, running water, have something to wear, something to eat, and most have a place to sleep. I find the comparisons to the great depression idiotic at best when we as American’s have more than most.

I mean really, I paid $1.89 for a gallon of gas a few days ago and according to the news, it will drop to below $1.49 before soon. A buck fifty FOR A GALLON OF GAS! We were screaming (for good reason) when it was $4.50 a gallon, but I don’t hear anyone (on the news) excited about the price of gas? It’s like we all got a raise if we travel more than 15-30 minutes a day by car?

Everything is Amazing, Nobody’s Happy // Video

Normally I don’t like to re-post already shown videos, but perhaps not everyone reads Ragamuffinsoul, so this video he posted from the Conan Show about sums up the sentiment with this generation (that is us, 19-45 year olds). Louis CK on “Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy”

On a personal note, our book business has been dismal. It brought in $1,013.10 in November in total REVENUE (not profit). Is that enough? No, of course not, but if it doesn’t work, so be it, we will do something else, but take one look at me and you will know I haven’t missed a meal in years. What ever happened to the inventive nature, the entrepreneurial spirit of this country to have confidence in saying, we will figure it out. Perhaps we are caught up in trying to figure out how to get a piece of a “bailout”.

You may wonder about the photo for this post. This was a photo I took after Deb and I finished a show in Houston back in 2002. It is $20,000, in cash (those are bundles of $1,000-$1,500 each, not single bills), we earned in 4 days, from working harder in a short period of time than we did at any other time in the year (some walked out with $100,000 and on up). It was a time in our lives when we worked hard, made almost no profit, and didn’t care how much money we had. We “tried” to not base our fears and anxieties on how much or little we had. Did $20,000 in 4 days make a difference in our lives? No way.

Why did I take a picture of it (besides being a photographer)? Because I knew it would be gone in a very short period of time and all that would be left was a photo. I think our expenses for the shows we did leading up to that show all but wiped out all of it and I don’t remember anything about how we had to spend the money other than this one photo we took the day we left the show. It was gone as fast as we earned it that weekend. Funny how when you have nothing you don’t have to worry about loosing it. Before the show, we had no fear of being robbed or having our RV broken into. After the show, we had to watch where we were, what we did because we had something of value for a short period of time.

Want Something Positive on the Economy, Listen to Dave Ramsey

Want to see a totally different perspective on the economy? Go read up on Dave Ramsey and see what he has to say. This is one of the biggest times of opportunity presenting itself and manifesting itself in more ways and forms than every before. Let’s not dig a hole in the sand and bury our heads quite yet, right?

[stay tuned for part 2 and 3 coming up]

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Journal | Also tagged economy, news, worry | Comments (4)

Year in Review and a Look Ahead at Celebration Dinner

October 31, 2008 – 5:02 am

Each year our church has a special evening where they look back at the year to see where God has taken the church, and start to look at what is ahead for the next year. A lot of planning has gone into the events for Sunday night. We will be broadcasting live on Sunday night (see Celebration Dinner Broadcast), which I believe is a first for us, new videos, and some great music.

I took these photos of the rehearsal on Wednesday for Sunday night. Plan to be there if you can, it will be a great night of food and fun while discovering where the church has been and where it is going.

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Photography | Also tagged band, dinner, music, sunday, video, worship | Comments (1)

Dueling Church Signs and Dogs Going to Heaven, Now I’ve Read it All

October 14, 2008 – 9:36 am

I rarely ever post an image on this blog that is not mine, but in this case I had to make an exception. Some nice person thought I needed a laugh today and sent this set of church signs over to me. I can’t even begin to address the issues involved here and just had to laugh. I don’t know whether this is pathetic or hilarious, anyone care to voice an opinion? I do know a very predominant church in our area that has a blessing each year for pets, and many people bring their pets up to the church to be blessed and prayed over by the senior pastor.

Apparently these two churches are across the road from each other on some busy street, go figure. Don’t think I have ever seen two churches go at each other like this via signage, I just had to laugh. To see these crazy interesting church signs just click the continue link below. I couldn’t bare to post the images on the front page of my blog sorry.

Click to continue reading “Dueling Church Signs and Dogs Going to Heaven, Now I’ve Read it All”

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Faith | Also tagged churches, fued, heaven, signs | Comments (3)

Youth Day at the Lake Makes For Fun Photos

June 29, 2008 – 4:29 am

I have been a little off on my postings for the week this past week because my schedule has been so crazy. On Wednesday (18th) I spent some of the day at the Youth Day at the Lake event where, obviously, our youth spend most of the day at the lake.

Nothing can totally prepare a 40ish body for the amount of energy it takes to spend the day with the youth. I met them out at Lake Martin where I thought I would take a few shots of everyone hanging out at the lake. I arrive to find two ski boats and a wave-runner (sea-doo) and several inter-tubes.

I was able to get some shots of all the activities (see complete shoot here) and they all had a great time (how could you not). I was completely exhausted and wondering where the energy I had to do these things went. Although I did get a little burned, even with SPF 75 on, I thoroughly enjoyed doing the photography for and of the youth that day.

Thanks for a great afternoon everyone.

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Journal, Photography | Also tagged boat, images, ski, youth | Comments (0)

Stats // Google Ranks Jesus and Church

June 23, 2008 – 7:12 am

Do you like stats like I do? Who doesn’t, right. We keep stats on our blogs, individual posts, just about everything that is run on the Internet is backed by some kind of stat. Because of the way the Internet works, stats and trends have become huge on the Internet. Once something that was important for businesses alone can now be utilized by individuals and churches too.

From Google Trends to Jesus and the Church

Google’s innovations over the past several years has been incredible, but they make everything publicly available, and for the most part free. One of the tools I really like from Google is Google Analytics. This is basically a supped up version of your basic stat counter, but if for your own site.

If your looking for something more Internet wide, you need Google Trends. So as I am looking around today, I wonder, where does Jesus rank among churches. I did this in two different formats, one utilizing Twitter’s api of words, and once with Google trends, and they both showed just about the same thing.

Are Christians Different Than Anyone Else?

I was listening to a story from our pastor yesterday, who just got back from Uganda (see Adjusting Back), about someone he was trying to share the gospel message with on the trip. Their response to Josh was “I know people who say they are Christians, and they are no different from anyone else”.

It was sad to hear because it was the truth from his eyes. But that was in Africa, surely it is different here in developed worlds, with the Internet. So I dug around a little. This chart is from a site called Flaptor, and the full data for the chart below is here. (All of these charts click through to the original data points.)

I had to shrink this first chart down so you may have to click on the enlarged size to see the detail. Basically, this is from Twitter conversations. The blue graph is for the term church, red is Jesus, and yellow is faith. Of course, those blue points, those are Sunday’s.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the church body, but I don’t think our actions should be any different on Sunday than any other day of the week, but obviously it is on the conversational minds of Twitter on one day, Sunday. So, according to this graph, are Christians different than anyone else?

Jesus and the Church According to Google Trends

The Interesting thing about Google is how broad reaching their data is and what is covers. These next two charts were just two I pulled out from the Google Trends data. This first chart shows basically the same search terms the one above showed, but for all of the Internet.

Here the blue line represents church, yellow is Jesus, and red is Faith. You can see the full data here. The peaks are mostly on Sunday here, but if you expand the date range for a year, or all time the data get very interesting. So what are the top ten cities that rank highest on the search term for church? Nashville gets top billing, Atlanta, and Dallas area has two cities that rank all by themselves.

What is interesting about the city chart to me is how high the church term ranks and how low the other three rank. I would have thought the name of Jesus being what it is would rank much higher when compared to the word church. I guess my question would be, inside those walls of the church, where does Jesus rank? I hope it is higher than the yellow mark on the cities chart above?

The Big One, the Church and Your Money

I thought I would just throw in another chart just for fun. This chart adds the search term money into the mix. Now this isn’t all the different variations of what we call money, it is just the single term of money.

No on this chart, Money is green (I didn’t plan it that way, Google just did it), blue is church, yellow is Jesus, and red is Faith. You can see the entire data chart here. Well this chart isn’t really one of a big shocker, but it still shows where we think as a whole people.

What Do We Conclude From All This?

So, what is the point and what do we conclude from all this chart and stat posting. I don’t know, I am not a statistician and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. What do you think it shows? I have been to churches where Jesus has rarely been mentioned at all, and I have been in some Jesus loving churches as well. I think without Jesus the church part is pretty much irrelevant?

To me, if Jesus is not present in the Church, it is just a place for people to go on Sunday mornings to feel better about themselves Once it gets checks off the list they are good until next Sunday. Jesus can exist in true form without the actual church building itself, but the church (as intended in scripture) can not exist without Jesus being present.

So, leave a comment and let me know what you think.

By damascus | Posted in Media | Also tagged christians, google, jesus, the walk, trends | Comments (7)

Scott Fillmer

Tag Archives: church

Who Inspired You Today, Anyone?

I Have Now Joined the Ranks of Church IT?

How is Your Simple Christmas Going // Friday Feet