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Book Review – Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them

Erik — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:59:33 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading the book, Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them. I’m fairly certain this book has the longest title of any book I’ve ever read. However, this will likely be one of the shortest book reviews I’ve done.

Surprising Insights is essentially a report of the author’s (Thom S. Rainer) extensive research with a group of people he calls “formerly unchurched.” And it does live up to it’s name. Not everything was “surprising,” but it did contain a great deal of insight that I wasn’t expecting.

Essentially, Rainer makes an important and critical distinction between “unchurched” and “formerly unchurched.” Instead of focusing on reaching people who have no connection to a church, he examines the experiences of recently new church attenders and what drew them into the church. In other words…what “worked” for them and drew them into a faith community. It’s a simple, yet profound distinction that informs and directs the course of the book.

It’s a quick, straightforward book to read. But it does read like the report of an extensive survey. There are multiple anecdotal stories and examples throughout that enhance the data. These were okay, but I was mainly interested in the data.

If you’re a Pastor and you are interested in reading about some of the factors that draw unchurched people into church, I recommend it. It will give you some great perspective and likely challenge (at least some of) your current approaches to ministry.

Valentine’s Day Wallpaper

Erik — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:03:43 +0000

I’m not the most romantic husband. So Valentine’s Day doesn’t come easy for me. But last week I had an idea for a small way that I could show my love for Bethany.

I decided to create a custom wallpaper for her iPhone.

After a few unsuccessful drafts, I came up with a design that included the obligatory Valentine’s day colors and hearts. But it also included a few pictures of her and I that were located in the area of the bottom row of apps. After she went to bed, I took the liberty of loading the wallpaper and moving around her apps to make sure the images were visible.

The wallpaper can be seen below. If you’ve got a copy of Photoshop and want to tweak it for your own use, you can download the psd here.

If you end up using it, let me know in the comments. I’d love to know how it turned out.

Christmas 2011

Erik — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:44:47 +0000

Each year at Christmas I create a video to remember the season. Here’s a highlight video of the boys’ experience this year. The footage is almost exclusively of them opening presents. In some ways, I wish I had captured other video of our time, but on the other hand, I love the reactions they have as the give gifts (the beginning of the video) and then open up those toys they had been hoping for. I hope you enjoy it.

I made the following video with the Action Movie FX app for my iPhone.

In case you missed past videos, I’ve embedded them below. My personal favorite is probably the first one I made (it’s at the very bottom).

southloopchurch.com redesign

Erik — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 02:30:18 +0000

I have a very small “side business” setting up websites/blogs and customizing templates for churches and individual. Over the years, I’ve become very fond of Joomla, a content management system (CMS) that I think works well for churches and small businesses.

A couple of years ago, I set up a site for my friend, Dug Harris. He was just launching South Loop Church and needed to promote his new church online. The site served him well, but recently, he and I were both itching for a redesign.

I built the original site by slightly customizing the Bliss template from Joomla Bamboo. You can find the old site here for a limited time (some of the links are broken now due to the update, but you can see how it looked).

The new site launched this past weekend. Of all the site’s I’ve set up with Joomla and customized, it’s by far my favorite. You can see it in the screenshot below or in full at southloopchurch.com. (To see the original template, click here.)

For examples of some of the other work I’ve done or to contact me regarding putting a site together for you, visit scottpress.com.

I realize that some people may look at this and say something like, “I could do that.” And you’re probably right! Joomla is an incredibly power and free CMS. There are plenty of great developers out there that make excellent templates for an affordable price. If you aren’t interested in having me set up a website for you, but you want to do this on your own, please consider helping me out by using my affiliate links. Before you make your purchase, just click on the ads to the right. I highly recommend these companies. Thanks!

scottpress.com

Book Review – With the Old Breed

Erik — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 02:42:56 +0000

A friend lent me a copy of the book With the Old Breed several months ago. I had just started another book, so it sat on my shelf until a couple of weeks ago.

I was a bit intimidated by the book at first, because the type was small and I assumed it was going to be a history lessen in some obscure details about the Marines. I was wrong. Almost immediately I was sucked into the unfolding story of a young man thrust into the horrors of war.

With the Old Breed is the memoir of E. B. Sledge, a marine who fought in some of the worst battles of the Pacific in WWII. It’s a fascinating look at the harsh realities they faced and the mental and physical extremes they endured.

It’s raw, honest and gripping…yet at times it’s tough to read–the author describes some of the horrors of war. He doesn’t do this in a sensational way, or to exploit the events, but he does so to shed light on the intense circumstances they faced and reveal the often overlooked realities of their experiences.

For someone who hasn’t done a lot of study on WWII, I found this to be an insightful and compelling read. I highly recommend it. Pick it up at amazon.com.

Immediately after finishing the book, I started searching for other information about the book and it’s author. I found the following clip on youtube. It’s part 1 (I believe you can find the rest by viewing this playlist) of a History channel show that documents E. B. Sledge and his experiences.

On Fire….

Erik — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:49:50 +0000

I had a good day today. I got up early, even though it’s my day off, and went outside to do some much needed yard work. I mowed, weed-whacked and burned some old brush that had been sitting in the back yard (left from the previous owner). I even filled in some low spots around the house (under the sidewalk, next to the egress, etc) with some extra sand from another project.

It was productive. I was “on fire” and my To Do list was dwindling to nothing.

We have one of those little, round metal fire pits that I used to burn the brush in. By about 10:30, there were no more flames, just some ashes. I let them sit there until about 2:45, when I decided to dump them into a ditch next to the tree in our back yard. This “ditch” was where the dry brush was left from the previous owner. The fire pit was cool to the touch and I didn’t think anything of it.

Until 30 minutes later.

Bethany had gone outside to meet the boys as they came off of the bus when a neighbor came up to her and said…”Do you know your tree is on fire?”

Apparently, the ashes were still not quite extinguished and with it being so dry, they ignited some of the leftover brush….and my tree.

It wasn’t too bad, but with it being so dry it could have become a lot worse.

Thankfully the Meadowbrook Fire Department was just a phone call away.

Below is a video of the damage.

o, christmas tree

Book Review – Surprised by Hope

Erik — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:37:24 +0000

After starting several months ago, tonight I finished Surprised by Love by N. T. Wright. It’s a fantastic book and I highly recommend it. With that said, however, it’s not always an easy book to read. There’s at least two reasons for this:

Wright’s writing style. Wright is smart. Very smart. And this comes out in his writing. His sentences are often long. He will often string together several clauses in order to clarify his point and build his argument. In most books, I’ll highlight a phrase here or there, or a few sentences at a time. But with this book, I found myself highlighting paragraphs (or at least good chunks of them) at a time, just to get the whole thought captured.
Wright’s thoroughness. This book starts out slow and takes it’s time picking up speed. The author takes careful time to develop his argument and make sure it’s properly supported. By the time you reach the end, the pace has stepped up tremendously, but that’s because of the framework built up in the first half.

So what’s it about? In Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright seeks to correct many of the misconceptions that modern believers have about heaven and life after death. Many people view heaven as an escape hatch out of this evil, cruel world. We long for the day when we will be rid of this place and experience some ethereal existence in the clouds.

But, Wright argues, that’s not in line with the Biblical understanding of these things. Jesus’ resurrection doesn’t teach us about life after death…but “life after life after death.” Jesus didn’t die and come back to life so that he could whisk us up to some other world. Instead, it was the beginning of the restoration of this world. In Wright’s words:

As long as we see salvation in terms of going to heaven when we die, the main work of the church is bound to be seen in terms of saving souls for that future. But when we see salvation, as the New Testament sees it, in terms of God’s promised new heavens and new earth and of our promised resurrection to share in that new and gloriously embodied reality—what I have called life after life after death—then the main work of the church here and now demands to be rethought in consequence.

Later in the book, Wright comments on our focus on heaven. He says, we’re not considering the end of the book:

As we read Revelation, we must not allow the wonderful heavenly vision in chapters 4 and 5 to lull us into imagining that this is the final scene in the story, as though the narrative were simply to conclude (as in Charles Wesley’s hymn) with the redeemed casting their crowns before the throne. This is a vision of present reality, seen in its heavenly dimension. We must read on to the end, to the final vision of Revelation 21 and 22, the chapters that give final meaning to all that has gone before and indeed to the entire canon.

Our partnering with Jesus means that begin to experience and live out the future restored life now. We, in the words of the Lord’s Prayer, do God’s will here on earth “as it is in heaven.” Our actions here matter, not simply because they will save others from hell (though they may encourage others to enter into new life with Jesus), but because “what is done in the present in the body, by the power of the Spirit, will be reaffirmed in the eventual future, in ways at which we can presently only guess.”

Instead of looking to escape or “earn” our way to heaven. We work diligently here and now because “our labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15). Our actions matter now.

What you do with your body in the present matters, he [Paul] insists, because God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Glorify God in your body because one day God will glorify the body itself. What is to be true in the future must begin to be true in the present, or it will be called into question whether you are really on track in the first place.

Near the end of the book, Wright moves onto a more practical discussion of how these truths influence Christian life and mission. With the theological and historical framework laid, he provides a wonderful view of the faith that is driven by the hope of Jesus resurrection.

Though I highly recommend this book, I do so realizing that it’s not for everyone. This is a heavy book, particularly in the first half. But I believe Wright accurately corrects and teaches a Biblically accurate view of our future hope. A view, that is too often distorted and watered down in modern Christianity.

Did Eyewitnesses Write the Gospels?

Erik — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 02:09:23 +0000

I came across this video from a post that George P. Wood made on his blog. Normally, when I see a video over a couple of minutes I don’t usually watch it, but I decided to settle in and give it a few minutes. Almost immediately, I realized that this was going to be well worth my time.

In it, Dr. Peter Williams provides some great insight into some evidence for believing that eyewitnesses wrote the Gospel accounts. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Can't see the video in your RSS reader or email? Click Here!

“Garmin or God” Series Design

Erik — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 05:26:41 +0000

Today we started a new message series at Cornerstone called, “Garmin or God: A Road Trip of Transformation.” Throughout the summer we’re going to follow the journey of the Isrealites as they wandered through the wilderness and learn from their experiences.

Right now, the plan is to create a short video element for each message in the series. You can see the first video below.

I created the graphic for the series using one of our staff member’s TomTom and a bobble head (body?) Jesus that I ordered online. In fact, I actually changed the concept after the first idea didn’t come together for me (shown below). We originally wanted to take a picture of a car dashboard with GPS and Jesus. It was just too busy and I wasn’t happy with how things were laid out.

So I scrapped all that and went with a more simple design. Granted, it’s nothing ground breaking (Myriad Pro font, white background, wet floor…Apple anyone?), but for me, it was a win.

This was the first time I did any photography for my own design, so there was a bit of a learning curve for how to take a picture and get a useable image. This was particularly true relating to the images I used for the final design. I ended up shooting them outside on a white box. I tried different lighting and darker backgrounds (like a green storage bin) but the silver springs on Jesus reflected the colors and it was impossible to work with in Photoshop.

In the end, I’m happy with it. We had a good response today and my prayer is that stuff like this enhances people’s experience at Cornerstone and gives them something to look forward to.

Need a new church website?

Erik — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:09:38 +0000

Several years ago I put my first website together using Mambo, a Content Management System who’s project forked and resulted in the creation of Joomla. A couple of years ago, I began working with WordPress as well.

Because I enjoy working with these programs and I was looking for a way to earn a little money on the side, I created scottpress.com (a Joomla-based site). It’s a business/portfolio site of the services that I provide to individuals, churches and small businesses.

Recently, I’ve been busy working on websites for two church clients. About a week or so ago, both of those sites went live. I thought I’d share the links here.

Southwest Community Church	Northside Church
Southwest Community Church	Northside Church

If you know of anyone who needs to update their web presence. Send them to scottpress.com and I’ll get them set up with a great site powered by a powerful CMS (WordPress or Joomla) and a great template like Standard Theme or one of the ones from JoomlaBamboo.