Come follow me… on Twitter… where I Tweet or something… www.twitter.com/storme

Some friends of ours, the guys who are Floodgate Productions, have put together an interesting new website called www.anapology.org. Basically, Gary Molander and the guys at Floodgate were really convicted about the way a lot of us in the Body of Christ have treated the homosexual community over the years. So they put together a site where Christians can go and post a personal apology to the gay community or specifically to gay and lesbian people who they feel they owe an apology. Here’s how they explain it on the site:

Gay and lesbian people are more than a topic. They are more than political agenda items differentiating one Party from another. They are beautiful people, created by the hand of a beautiful God.

The creators of this site recognize that Christians have, in their fervor to stand for truth, acted in ways that are completely against anything Jesus taught or modeled. Acknowledging this, we have designed a simple website for Christ-followers to do one, simple thing.

Apologize.

It’s as simple as that. Click Here to check it out.

I was just thinking… You know because we get complaints about the prices of our videos and it twists me up inside to think that people think we’re somehow gouging them when really we’re trying our best to serve them… Did you realize that you could buy a $20 Sermon Illustration every week. That’s purchase and show a $20 video every week for a year and only spend $1040. Wow. I never thought about that before. That’s a video every week for less than it would cost to produce just one single video on your own. Good stuff.

Connect With Us

I’ve gone and got myself all into all these networking sites. I know. I know. I’m about a decade late to the party. But still, I’d love to be your friend :). Connect with us, check out our videos, learn more about us, etc, at:

Facebook (Storme)

Facebook (Lee)

Eleven72 on YouTube

Eleven72 on MySpace

Eleven72 on GodTube (not much here from us… yet)

Eleven72 on LinkedIn

Beginning and Developing Your Church’s Media Ministry - Pt. 1

Greg Atkinson of Church Video Ideas is writing a 3 part series of articles for a great blog called Monday Morning Insight. The series is entitled “Beginning and Developing Your Church’s Media Ministry” and Pt. 1 is up today. I just read it and I think it will be a great resource for those of you out there who are just wading into starting this thing called Media Ministry at your church. Greg has tons of experience with Media Ministry, he’s on staff leading a Media Ministry at a church in Dallas, he used to be on staff with Worship House Media, and before that he was a Worship Leader. Not to mention he is in demand and travels the country speaking and teaching about Media Ministry at a lot of the big ministry conferences. This first article has a lot of good, practical advice about making sure to lay a firm foundation with regards to starting your Media Ministry. Seeking the Lord. Setting it up right. And always remembering that it is a ministry and that it needs to have Christ as its center. But enough from me. Click here and read it yourself.

Zentation

Zentation is a cool new web tool that makes it easy to synch video to powerpoint presentations. In our world that means it would be really easy for you to put your sermons/messages online and display both the video of the pastor speaking and his powerpoint in the same web browser window. And right now Zentation is in beta and available for free. I don’t know if I’m making sense. Hit this link and go on over to the Zentation site to have a look. It will all make sense there. Thanks to Blake Atwood at the BetaChurch blog for the info on this. I think Zentation could be a really good fit for churches looking for an inexpensive way to get their sermons up on the web.

Better Off Rock’d Debrief

I had a great time shooting video this past weekend for the Better Off Rock’d Tour. It felt so good to be behind the camera again, finding those shots, trying to capture those moments. I really love shooting life. Along the way, I got to meet some fabulous people and listen to some awesome rock n’ roll.

Some highlights:

You may not get me on this, but the way the lights hit people onstage, the contrast, the lights coming into the lens and washing the picture out, getting those extreme close ups… I just dig it so much.

The performances. In their own way, Stephen Speaks, Nevertheless, Everyday Sunday and Seventh Day Slumber all gave fantastic performances. It was so refreshing to see good bands playing good music and sharing their faith, love and passion for God.

I wasn’t really familiar with these bands before this weekend, but now I’m a fan of each and every one of them. Being out on the road isn’t easy. Being away from family and friends. I really respect what these guys do and how they represent Jesus Christ in doing it.

I picked up a copy of Everyday Sunday’s latest album, Wake Up! Wake Up! after the shows. The album is fantastic. I’m digging it and find myself worshiping and crying out to God along with the lyrics on tracks like Wake Up! Wake Up! and Take Me Out. The whole album is just plain good. I got a chance to talk to Trey Pearson the lead singer on Saturday and we had a good conversation. We talked about video, what I do, what he does. There may even be some kind of music video collaboration in our future. That would be very cool, but it was great just to meet and talk and share the experience of doing what we do.

I also really dug and respected the way Joseph from Seventh Day Slumber works his testimony into their set. He has an incredible story of how Jesus Christ saved his life quite literally and pulled him out of a world of drug addiction that had led him to jail and to life on the streets. The fact that he is up there on stage sharing that story and playing great music… Our God is so awesome.

Anyway. This post is rambling. I just wanted to share a little bit. Check out the bands, buy the music, go see them if they come through your town. You won’t be disappointed.

Backstage for Better Off Rock’d. I’m hanging out backstage at La Zona Rosa here in Austin, TX. I’m waiting for things to pick up, shooting some video here and there and anticipating a great show and a great night. I’ve been asked by my good friend Eric Klein to shoot highlights of the first ever Better Off Rock’d shows. Tonight we’re here in Austin and tomorrow night we’re at the Ridglea Theater in Ft. Worth, TX.

The lineup includes some really great Christian bands. Seventh Day Slumber, Everyday Sunday, Stephen Speaks and Nevertheless. I’m really excited. And it should be a great night. If you happen to be in Austin or Ft. Worth, you should come out and check things out. Nevertheless is coming in now to do a sound check, so I better run to get some footage.

The proceeds for the Better Off Rock’d shows go to benefit suicide prevention. It’s a great cause. Check out the Better Off Rock’d myspace page for more info.