Archive for December, 2009
Better design
Posted on 28. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
I’ve had a little series tucked away in the back of my head (and several drafts written already) for the past 6-7 months. I decided that I would actually post/write these during the week between Christmas and New Year. It’s a holiday and so many people are on vacation. Since this is a Children’s Ministry blog, this series isn’t core to the topic (although I do believe it relates… which I’ll explain later), so I’ll plant to post these when most of my readers aren’t all reading. This way the content is here if you’re looking for it but not annoying the readers who are just looking for ministry related content.
So, here’s a little series on design.
I’m by no means a professional graphic designer. I did teach myself photoshop about 8 years ago (and continuing to learn) and I’ve dabbled in design both or fun and work ever since. When I was between ministry jobs, I actually made a little income from design work as well. So, I know enough to be dangerous, but not enough to design something without getting a lot of input from trusted sources (many of those are you!).
When working on my masters (Masters in Curriculum and Instruction) a few years back, one of the classes I took was a design class. I’ll explain why I had to take this class as a part of an education masters in my next post. Although I didn’t learn all that much from the course, the book required for the course transformed me as a designer. It confronted all the ways I designed in the past and helped me learn a few basic design rules I didn’t really know about. In this series, I’m going to share the four rules of design I learned from this book. At the end of the series, I’ll link to the book so you can pick up your own copy, which I suggest you should.
Continue Reading
Flickr vs Picasa
Posted on 28. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
About 6-8 months ago I started thinking a lot about all my pictures. Literally, I’ve got thousands of digital pictures I’ve taken over the last 5-7 years. Most of them are on external hard drives that aren’t so convenient to access. I felt like I needed a plan to make these more accessible as well as an effective way to manage the photos I was continuing to take. The only two options I really knew of were flickr and picasa. After a little bit of investigation, I chose flickr. It looked cheaper and it seemed like more people used flickr as it’s a pretty established entity on the web. I also use an eye-fi card (which I love) that uploads directly to any of these web services.
Here’s my main reason for using an online photo site.
- One original location for photos on the web. It was driving me nuts that I’d put photos on my blog, upload photos to facebook and then email photos to family or friends. With great plugins, I could upload photos to one site and import them to facebook or other sites and simply email links to albums or photos to family or friends. Way more efficient.
- Accessibility. I want to be able to access all our photos easily. We don’t get to enjoy our photos much, but having them on the web will make that a lot easier.
- Back-up. These photos are too valuable to us. I’d hate to loose them in a fire or hard drive failure.
So, after 6 months, here’s my impression.
Using flickr for the most part has been a positive experience. The pro account, which costs $25 a year is pretty amazing. Unlimited storage at $25 a year. I probably uploaded 20 GB of photos already. It does everything I want it to do except I have one complaint. If I were to lose my original photos and I wanted to download the original size from flickr, I’d have to do this for each photo individually. Other than finding a 3rd party hack, you can’t batch download. I really don’t like that.
Then last week I read this post from John Saddington.
John recently migrated all of his photos from flickr to google’s picasa. He had several of the same complaints about flickr that I did. In addition, he pointed out several other reasons. Flickr is owned by Yahoo which hasn’t been a remarkable company for some time. It shows as flickr hasn’t improved in years. Although it may not always be best to have all your eggs in one basket, it is convenient that I use google for so many things that having picasa manage my photos makes it nice… everything works so well together.
So I switched last week. I told my eye-fi to transfer photos to picasa instead of flickr and started uploading some other pictures to picasa as well. So far I’m really impressed. It does everything flickr does and more. I can batch download photos from albums and I found a GREAT facebook app for importing pictures from flickr or picasa called “photos 2 photos.” One cool feature is the facial recognition. Picasa searches for faces and suggest who they are. It seems to link them to contact information I have on them (I use google to manage my contacts). I haven’t played around with that a lot yet, but it seems really promising. The other huge benefit of Picasa is the Picasa application for your desktop. I have photoshop, but it’s a massive application that I don’t want to open and close every time I want to crop a picture. With Picasa, I can do some pretty cool edits and when I make edits, it will update the photo on the web album if I wish. So, as of right now, I’m a big fan of Picasa.
Last of all, Picasa is offering a nice little incentive. If you sign up for 200GB of storage or more (that is a lot of photos people), they’ll send you free eye-fi card. Since the eye-fi cards cost that much anyway, it’s like getting one year of free storage with the purchase of an eye-fi card.
Continue Reading
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-27
Posted on 27. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
- CMO: #kidmin Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-20 http://bit.ly/5kU5oI #
- CMO: #kidmin Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-20 http://bit.ly/5WfVRW #
- CMO: #kidmin Make it count http://bit.ly/5rZps5 #
- CMO: #kidmin Thoughts on Oral Robert’s life http://bit.ly/6AMJfG #
- CMO: #kidmin Forget resolutions. How about vision maps and life themes? http://bit.ly/5IFHKB #
- CMO: #kidmin Calendar Planning: Promotion deadlines http://bit.ly/8aA5NO #
- CMO: #kidmin Family ministry musings http://bit.ly/7LLWom #
- CMO: #kidmin Dedicated to my friend Sam Luce http://bit.ly/6e0dlP #
- RT @252Basics: PS: Adults wnt 2 serve in a #kidmin whr thr's excitement & stay whr thr is luv. Build a passionate team w/ a clear strategy. #
- http://twitpic.com/uqff0 guy night at mcdonalds. Processed chicken and playgrounds… What more could ya want? #
- @mattmckee Is your phone jailbroken? I like the look. If it's not jailbroken, I want to know how you made it look so pretty. #
- @ajelwind you're tweets are making me hungry. Might just go fry up some bacon… #
- CMO: #kidmin Portable decor issue http://bit.ly/4CYuvQ #
- CMO: #kidmin Too late for Christmas http://bit.ly/6nrxYB #
- Getting stuff done today. Now to just get check-in set up for all the Christmas Eve services. Woo Hoo! #
- Just finished wrapping gifts. Way past the time I should have been in bed. I'll put Titus' last toys together tomorrow night. Night! #
- The last email I got was at 9:40 this morning. Weird. #
- @jenc99 Ha! It's not an email problem… it's a holiday problem… no one is sending emails. in reply to jenc99 #
- just saw a snowflake down here in Austin… or as Titus likes to call them… bubbles. #
- Eye-Fi'd 29 photos to Picasa Web Albums. http://is.gd/5AnpK #
- Check out Gateway's Christmas services at live.gatewaychurch.com at 5:00 and 6:30 PM CST! #
- Just finished our last Christmas service. I think I'm ready to get home and sit on my couch. #
- Eye-Fi'd 4 photos to Picasa Web Albums. http://is.gd/5AKxZ #
- @samluce Seeing snow to Texas kids is like seeing bigfoot. in reply to samluce #
- Just got a Christmas card from some old friends. Ended with: "PS: Keep Twittering. " Okay. I will! #
- @gary4n OK doesn't know what 2 do w/ ice . They literally just throw dirt & sand on it. dont think they know about the salt thing. in reply to gary4n #
- Conley Update Blog: Christmas Eve http://bit.ly/4FVMQv #
- Merry Christmas… 2 minutes late. Dang! #
- Refrigerator full. Had to move stuff to my car… our backup refrigerator tonight. #
- Conley Update Blog: First Christmas production http://bit.ly/5LiRd8 #
- Slept in this Christmas morning. This may be our last year to do so until we have teenage kids… and that's a long time from now. #
- Merry Christmas people! #
- So why does Emily Elizabeth on Clifford always wear the same clothes? Does she only have one outfit? #
- @jonros Merry Christmas to the Rosales family! in reply to jonros #
- @coveredindust I'll come over and help you burn them down. in reply to coveredindust #
- Mom and dad just gave me a garmin gps for my car! Woo hoo! #
- Eye-Fi'd 2 photos to Picasa Web Albums. http://is.gd/5AKxZ #
- Eye-Fi'd 11 photos to Picasa Web Albums. http://is.gd/5AKxZ #
- Just had omlets for lunch (a Conley Christmas tradition). My parents attended via video chat. Our Christmas has been perfect thus far. #
- Now we're getting ready for our 4:00 Christmas party. If you're in Austin, come on over. Bring something tex-mex! #
- @jarrodbeckman @samluce hmmm this answer is going to require an email… I'll shoot one out to both of you in a few minutes to an hour. #
- Eye-Fi'd 3 photos to Picasa Web Albums. http://is.gd/5Cu31 #
- http://twitpic.com/vdk6x arguably one of the best games of the 90's. Merry Christmas to me!!! #
- Big fat LAZY day. The first thing I wanted to do this morning when I woke up was to take a nap. #
- Getting ready to watch a flick with my wife. Sounds like a perfect end to a Saturday night. #
- @samluce Yeah, Perfect Dark was fun too… just got funny/weird with the alien storyline… if I remember correctly. Long time ago. in reply to samluce #
- @jonathancliff Ha! Are you feeling left out? in reply to jonathancliff #
- @tj_cummins Farkle's fun… I've always known the game as "Pigs and Chickens" and it's got an interesting twist that Farkle doesn't. in reply to tj_cummins #
- @tj_cummins I'll email you the variation in a bit… It makes farkle much more interesting. #
- @jcisonline @samluce heresy! I'll admit, dk was great and Mario 64 was best overall, but 007 was best multiple player game… Period.
# - Eye-Fi'd 3 photos to Picasa Web Albums. http://is.gd/5DHZc #
Powered by Twitter Tools
Continue Reading
Too late for Christmas
Posted on 23. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
It may be too late to get this for your loved one for Christmas, but you can get an early start on next Christmas. This it totally going on my wish list for next year..
Continue Reading
Portable decor issue
Posted on 23. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
So I need some ideas. Those of you who are portable church experts might have a simple solution for us, but all are welcome to make suggestions.
Corey Schwarz, Gateway’s South Campus Children’s Pastor just rearranged where the kids are meeting. I think what he’s done is a GREAT idea. It’s better use of space and has the potential to be much more fun. However, we have one problem. Ugly trophy cases. As you enter the kid’s space, you see the check-in and welcome area. They plan to purchase a 20 foot long banner that will hang over the railing right above check-in which should look great and make it very obvious as to where to check in. However, as you walk into the kids area, you’re greeted by a giant 18 foot wide trophy case. The Early Childhood rooms are behind the trophy case, so people have to walk around it. There are two other cases on the sides, but they’re not in the center of focus like this one is. We want to hide it and that’s where we need your help.
Entry to Kids’ Quest. Our wide banner will cover up the railing including the “covington colts.” Look straight past the check-in you can see the trophy case.
Bam! There it is. You go to the left to get to 4-5′s and elementary and to the right to get to babies through 3′s.
Here it is from one side.
Here it is from the other side.
Here’s the view from the back just in case you want to know.
So here’s what we’ve talked about. A HUGE banner that is fun and exciting. In addition to the banner would be some directional signs pointing the way. Unfortunately, the school is pretty particular in what we’re not allowed to do, including screws, nails or anything that would damage the trophy case or walls above and below it. We’ve thought about pipe & drape (15 feet is as wide as it goes… case is 18 wide). We’ve talked about several contraptions that might hold up or hang the banner on, but we’re limited to what will store easily, what doesn’t look shoddy and what is easy to put up and take down.
It doesn’t have to be a banner or say “Kids Quest.” We’d just love to make the trophy case into something good and useful instead of being an eyesore. Any ideas? We’d certainly appreciate what you’ve done in the past.
Continue Reading
Dedicated to my friend Sam Luce
Posted on 22. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
This should have just been a tweet, but having an actual blog post feels more special. I couldn’t resist when I saw this. I don’t usually spend $20 on a funny t-shirt, but I can’t tell you how close I am to buying this just so that I can wear it when I’m with you next.
How’s this for bustin’ your chops?
Continue Reading
Family ministry musings
Posted on 22. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
A few weeks ago I just finished Barna’s book, Revolutionary Parenting. I bought 10 copies to distribute among church staff and leaders (not just kids staff). I just can’t stop thinking about what this book talked about. I think the premise of the book hits the nail on the head. What we in children’s ministry would truly see as success is a child who enters adulthood with a solid biblical worldview. Yet that’s not what we currently track to measure ministry success, is it?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 4-5 years, you’ve seen “family ministry” become the big buzz word among children’s pastors. Incredible new resources have been developed and powerful ideas have been presented. I love what’s happening in the world of family driven ministry. However, I can’t shake the sinking feeling in my gut that a lot of these “solutions” aren’t going to work in the long run.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m anything but a pessimist and I do love what is being developed… but I just don’t think I’ve seen that silver bullet yet. Maybe the silver bullet doesn’t exist, but I haven’t seen the thing that I can really wrap my arm around and say, “Holy Cow! This is it! Let’s throw all our eggs in this basket.” Maybe I’m being unrealistic to think that something like that exists, but maybe we’ve not discovered that “ah ha” idea yet. I think too many of us have gotten caught up in the family ministry resources like family productions, take home papers, family curriculum guides and aligned services and somehow we think that’s going to be enough to develop kids who will walk into adulthood with biblical worldviews. Yeah, I think they’ll help, but it’s not the answer.
Gateway’s a church that’s been raised out of the culture… and Austin is a very lost culture. I understand that in Barna’s research, a significant number of parents with biblical worldviews are letting their kids become adults without passing along the worldview piece. However, what do you do when MOST of your parents don’t have a biblical worldview? What does your family strategy look like to keep parents literally one or two steps ahead of their kids?
So, sorry for my wandering thoughts, just processing out loud. Any thoughts?
Continue Reading
Calendar Planning: Promotion deadlines
Posted on 22. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
A few weeks ago I wrote about the calendar planning retreat I took the kids staff on. We took about 12-14 hours to map out all of 2010. We wrapped up that retreat with a pretty clear idea of what the following year would look like (there were a few unknowns, but those would be determined within a few weeks). There’s nothing like having your year all planned out. Next year we plan to do this retreat in August or September so we have a bit more of a head start.
However, I’ve noticed a flaw in the fully planned out ministry calendar. It’s happened to me and I’ve talked to dozens of others in the ministry who’ve been plagued by this problem. What is this problem I’m talking about? It’s called the “the event is one week away and there’s literally no way we can plan for it or promote it, so we either need to push it back or just cancel it” problem. Has this ever happened to you? I know that this year, I paid a little more in shipping to get my baptism announcement cards than I usually do because the big day just snuck up on us.
So last week I had another retreat. It was our promotional calendar retreat. It was much shorter and we just met at my house for 4-5 hours. Here’s what we did:
We created the 2010 event calendar on a google calendar that everyone on my staff has administrative rights to. Then I created a second calendar and called it Kids Quest Marketing (in google calendar, you can overlap two or more calendars) We took one event at a time and worked backwards. What Sunday’s would we want this in the program? When do we want this on the website? What dates should this show up in the Kids Quest blog? Do we want to distribute postcards, mail them or hang up posters? By what date do we need to order print material or submit graphics to the communications team? How far in advance from that do I need a graphic designer to design all these materials. We schedule all these things as appointments on the Kids Quest Marketing calendar. Now we just stick to this calendar. In staff meetings, we look ahead to see what’s coming down the pipe. We share this calendar with our graphic designer so she can know what’s coming and work ahead if necessary.
Continue Reading
Forget resolutions. How about vision maps and life themes?
Posted on 21. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
So we’re a little over a week from 2010. It’s going to be a big year… I can already tell. It’s got some nice even numbers. 2010. I like it. Let’s see… we’ll do another census here in the US. Those are always really exciting. I think the Winter Games are even scheduled for this year. Oh, I’ll turn 33. It’s even cooler than turning 22.
Okay, all that stuff isn’t really that big of a deal unless you work for the census bureau , unless you’re an Olympic athlete going to the games or you’re turning 33 as well. But the biggest thing I can think of about 2010 is the potential it holds for my life. I remember many years ago someone telling me that through this journey as a Christ follower, ever year should be better than the previous. Better in the sense that I’ve grown in my walk with the Lord or my relationship with him is closer. Although I heard that 10-12 years ago, I can’t honestly say that each year since then has been better than the previous when it comes to my relationship with God. I think there were some years where things even took a turn for the worse.
However, the past two years have been great. I have been growing in my faith more than I have had in years past and I can tell you that I’m really excited about 2010. As 2009 is wrapping up, I’ve had several things I’ve been thinking about in the form of resolutions. Then last week I read this blog post and I’m rethinking the whole “resolution” thing. I’ll probably have some goals, but I’m looking into developing a vision map and life theme for 2010. I’ll let you know what I come up with. Like I said, I’m really excited about 2010. Are you? Do you have goals/objectives/resolutions for 2010? What does your process for this look like?
Continue Reading
Thoughts on Oral Robert’s life
Posted on 21. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
Today at 2:00, the Memorial service will air here.
His passing last week has given me time to think about the significance of this man. I’ve found that over the years, the mere mention of his name (either because it was the school I was planning to attend or becasue it was the school I attended) typically brings a reaction. About 60% of the time, I get a benign response from someone who knows little to nothing of the man/school or thinks highly of the man/school. About 30% of the time I get the “look.” It’s the one eye big, other eye narrow, “REALLY, you went to that school. I’m really confused right now and I think I’m going to keep a closer eye on you now” look. Then about 10% of the time I get the full confrontational/negative verbal response. That one’s always fun.
So, regardless of what you thing of the man or the school that bears his name, let me share with you some of my thoughts to honor this man.
I’ve never met the man. Once, while in the television studio at ORU, he walked past me and put his hand on my shoulder as he walked by, but I don’t count that as an introduction. I did read his autobiography, “Expect a Miracle” before becoming a student. I remember enjoying it, but that was a long time ago. From the book, I learned about lot about the life of this great man. He had a tremendous impact around the world. I can only hope to have that kind of vision and that kind of influence. Absolutely amazing!
But here’s what I do know, and this has nothing to do with denomination, theology or experiences. I am who I am today because of the ministry of Oral Roberts and I’m so very grateful! When I was a teenager I went on several mission trips with Teen Mania Ministries. They were transformational experiences led by 20-something leaders that I wanted to be like. The common thread between (almost) all the leaders on these trips is that they all were ORU graduates. I knew next to nothing about ORU, but I knew I wanted what these leaders had. Several years later I found myself at ORU as a student.
Forget everything you’ve ever seen on TV or read in the paper about ORU for a second. Personally, everything I’ve seen on TV and read in the papers was the polar opposite I experience on the ground as a student at ORU. I visited several Christian colleges the year before enrolling at ORU, and none of them compared to ORU. There was something about students at ORU. I knew that if I just got in the middle of it, my life would change. Sure, there was plenty of garbage going on like at any school, but there was an amazing spirit among the students. I had several classes I could have lived without, but so many of the classes (whether business classes or Bible/theology) were places where I could grow educationally as well as spiritually. Classes were almost always started with prayer and often times students prayed for each other’s needs. It was beautiful. Through my time at ORU I grew intellectually, spiritually and professionally. I developed ministry skills as a director of Friendship/Adoption ministries for community outreach and I grew in leadership as a Men’s Resident Advisor which was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. Also, at ORU, I met my wonderful wife. As a result of friends and other ORU related influences, I was prepared to meet my wife and to date her until we were married. So, if you’ve ever been glad to know me or blessed by any thoughts I’ve had to offer, know that in a large part, it’s thanks to the influence of God’s worth through Oral Roberts.
I’m thankful for his long and purposeful life today.
Continue Reading
