VHS: Say It Ain’t So November 30, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Movies, Technology , add a comment
VHS, long the format of choice for home entertainment, is now all but forgotten, and most retailers are not stocking VHS tapes in the lucrative Christmas selling season. The format had been expected to survive until January, but high-def formats and next-generation videogame consoles hastened its final decline. I spent much of my hard-earned money in the late 80’s and 90’s renting VHS tapes — so I shed a tear at this news. The more interesting point in this news is the velocity fo technological change. While the VHS format lasted for 25 years — it is unclear how long the DVD will last….Wal-Mart, who accounts for a staggering 40% of all DVD’s sold in America, is betting on movie downloads over the internet and is investing heavily to ensure it is a major player. Who thinks we will be playing taps for DVD’s in the next 5 years? (more…)
Tribune: Real Doping Crisis is Billiards November 30, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , 1 comment so farWow! Two strong athletic sports, chess and billiards, taking it on the chin in the same day for doping…can you possibly imagine that? (more…)
“Let The Drug Free Chess Games Begin” November 30, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France , add a commentFrom humble beginnings in 1951, the Asian Games have blossomed to become the second largest sporting event in the world, only superseded by the Olympic Summer Games themselves. The 15th Asian Games, held in Doha, Qatar, will host more than 10,500 athletes from 45 countries and regions.
My favorite part? The drug-free environment mandated in the chess matches! Yes, Dick Pound would be proud of this ruthless focus on stopping the doping of chess players!
In its official press release, the organizing committee of Doha 2006 trumpets that chess players, like athletes in any of the other sports at the Asian Games, will be required to undergo doping tests in Doha. “The chess athletes will be treated exactly the same as any other sport,” said Julian Hocken, the manager of the venue where the chess competition will be held.
All the blog readers at Trust But Verify will get a huge kick out of this one…….
Joseph: The High Cost of Righteousness November 28, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Powerful Passages, Missional , add a comment
From LeadershipJournal.net:
As the film “The Nativity Story” (see the trailer) arrives this Friday to theaters to great fanfare, John Ortberg has a great article this week looking at Joseph, and the high cost of righteousness in Joseph’s life. Typically Joseph is a bit player in the Christmas story, and is relegated to a supporting role during most of our Christian Christmas pageantry. However, Ortberg really gives us an insight into the cost of righteousness. I love this article and shared this with our leaders this week — it is a powerful reminder that there is a cost to following Christ.
Volunteering Linked to Increased Giving November 27, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentPhilanthropy Today Reports:
“Charitable donations by the wealthiest individuals in the U.S. have grown over the past five years, led by entrepreneurs and rich volunteers, a new study says. Almost two in three wealthy Americans say they increased their giving over the last five year, says the Bank of America survey, which targeted people with household incomes of at least $200,000 or net worth of at least $1 million.People who amassed their fortunes through starting their own businesses were more generous than other wealthy groups, giving an average of $232,206 a year, followed by an average of $109,745 from those who inherited their wealth, says the survey, which was researched and written by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.”
VOLUNTEERING INCREASES GIVING
“Volunteering time for charity seemed to indicate a higher level of financial contribution, the study says, with the amount donated increasing as volunteer hours increased. Those volunteering from one to 50 hours a year gave an average of $31,092 annually, while those volunteering more than 200 hours averaged $132,086.”
This follows the path of our generation — we are looking for ownership in areas where we feel we can make a difference. Rather than give money to a large charity, the 35-50 year old generation is getting involved and putting both money and time where their mouth is. This is the same thing we find in our church giving — those who are involved with significant time commitments are generally those who give more of thier income.
Get 20 Million Minutes by Email or RSS! November 27, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , 1 comment so far
Are you flying around all week at work and would rather have any new posts from 20 Million Minutes sent directly to you by email or RSS? After a number of requests, we have now added both of those options to the 20 Million Minutes blog! All of our feeds have been migrated to Feedburner, which provides better options for you.
EMAIL:
You can get an email sent to you whenever there is a new post for Park leaders. Just click here to go the the Feedburner feed and choose the “Get 20 Million Minutes delivered by email” option in the upper right hand corner. Then, whenever a post is made to this blog, you will receive an email, right to your desktop. It is that simple!
RSS FEEDS:
For those of you who are more tech-savvy, and are using a newsreader program to aggregate your information feeds, you can add this manually to your RSS news reader with the following URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/stevelavey or click here to go to the feed page and just click on the graphic of your new reader for easy, one-touch adding of this feed to any of the popular newsreaders (yahoo, google, newsgator, etc).
The Book I Wish I Wrote: “Go Big or Go Home!” November 27, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Church, Methods & Strategies , add a comment
Many of the folks I work with at Park kid me about my life motto — “Go Big or Go Home”, which I have claimed as my own for more than twenty years (and I see Chevy has ripped off from me last year). However, I just came across a book that summarizes my motto and is related to church planting and church growth — maybe I will have to get it and see what it says……..
Here’s the publishers take: (more…)
The Birth of “On Faith” November 26, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Breaking News, The Cultural Conversation , 1 comment so farThe WashingtonPost.com has recently debuted a new internet column called “On Faith”, which hopes to provide “a new global conversation about what is perhaps the most pervasive and least understood force in human affairs: religious faith. It is a subject about which many people have strong opinions, about which many people care passionately-but about which there is, in our view, far too little constructive discussion and debate. “
It is a collaborative, moderated, blog-like site dedicated to encouraging “intelligent and respectful conversations on religion and faith” among people around the world. It looks like a good place to hear the various voices in the dialogue on some very contentious issues.
Led by Sally Quinn, of the Washington Post, and Jon Meacham of Newsweek, two (more…)
Happy Thanksgiving! November 23, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Chicago, Family, Powerful Passages , add a commentAs I sit around with friends and family, I extend my heartfelt wishes for a wonderful day for all of you with friends and family!
Today, as my father-in-law is making the turkey, I am reminded of the power of smell. I know all the Thanksgiving smells…..the turkey roasting in the over, the potatoes being mashed, the pecan pie as it warms in the oven. For us, thanksgiving is about traditions and being together as a family. Today, we have invited a couple of guys from our church to join us as we break bread together and reflect on all that we have to be thankful for. I am always sorry that we can’t have both sides of the family together but I know the Laveys are having a great get-together in Dallas.
Giving Thanks – My Quick Six (borrowed from Park!)
- I am thankful for a God who relentlessly pursued me through college and into my career, never far from me and always bringing people into my life to tell me about Jesus, especially my “prayer warrior” mom.
- I am thankful for my wife Sue, who is still a “hottie”, who loves Jesus, and who always lends an ear for my tales of adventure and woe.
- I am thankful for my family, who bring me untold joy each and every day as the kids grow and my wife blossoms as a home-school teacher.
- I am thankful for the opportunity to work and minister in this world-class city at a cool church like Park Community Church. I have done some cool things with my four companies before but this allows me to try and be significant for the Kingdom.
- I am thankful for the ability to have a city home, to do life right here in this fast-paced urban environment with all it has to offer, to expose my kids to all that is good and bad in a large global city called Chicago.
- I am thankful for our parents who have guided us well and helped us get to today – who have now turned into good friends and confidants.
You’re All Invited November 21, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Inside Park, Technology, Methods & Strategies , add a commentEach month, we review our website functionality and our website statistics, looking to see if we believe our site is being used as much as it can be, and if it is meeting the needs of our elders, staff, leaders and congregation. So far, so good this year as we add, tweak and redo different parts of the website.
One of the latest changes we have added is a link allowing our congregation to “Invite a Friend” right from the Park home page. It’s located to the right of the main Message Series graphic. In only its first three days, our folks have clicked and sent more than 50 invitations to friends, co-workers to attend Sunday services!
Go ahead and click here and send an electronic invitation!
Here is the current invitation:
New Zealand Rocks! November 18, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , 1 comment so farMy wife and I had the opportunity to take a year out of the rat race in 1996-1997 and our favorite place was New Zealand. Tonight we visited a fellow New Zealand traveller who is a sculptor here in Chicago, Jack Beckstrom, and it brought back memories of a wonderful country and an awesome four weeks, travelling through the two islands and enjoying all that New Zealand has to offer, with the highlight being a 33-mile walk along the Milford Track, that goes from sea level up and over the McKinnon Pass then back down to sea level.
Check out the interactive New Zealand video
We Love You Bo! November 17, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Breaking News , add a comment
When I was in college, I was privileged to be an equipment manager for the University of Michigan football team working with Jon Falk and coached by Glenn E. Bo Schembechler. I got to be a part of Bo’s team that one the 1981 Rose Bowl — Bo’s first Rose Bowl win (see picture above). (more…)
Fellowship One Goes Live at Park! November 17, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Church, Inside Park, Technology, Methods & Strategies , add a commentAs Park has grown, we have grown in our organizational ways like any small organization. We cobble together individual solutions by ministry and try to work together on church-wide information needs. About four years ago, we began a process with a developer in our body to build an open-source Church Management System (CMS) in conjunction with another church. Stephen Rylander poured his soul into making this CMS work for us as we expand and grow in the city of Chicago.
However, even with his excellent skills and total dedication to the project, the team came to the conclusion after three years that this homegrown solution was good for the present, but would not take us to where we wanted to be in the future as our church pursues the vision of seeing 1% (30,000 people) of Chicago reached with the Gospel through church planting, church partnerships and para-church organization partnerships here in this world-class city. (more…)
Missional Worship - Nov 27 November 16, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, The City, Chicago, Church, Missional , add a commentAt Park Community Church, we are committed to the Arts in the city. We draw a wide range of folks in our body, from world-class painters to Lyric Opera musicians. Our Worship team is committed to taking Jesus to the streets and one way we do this is through playing gigs at open mic nights. Last month we had an awesome time at the Abbey up on Elston and Irving Park and now we turn to the Grafton for our third Music Ministry Open Mic night at The Grafton Pub, on Nov 27 starting at 9pm. This month we will be featuring:
Jim Dougherty
Rob Toal
Brian Ralph
BeckyJohnson
Luke Quantsrom
Come and bring a friend or two and join the team at:
The Grafton Pub 9PM, 11/27/2006
4530. N. Lincoln, Chicago IL 60625,773.271.9000
Let’s support these folks but more importantly, let’s be missional and keep it going strong.
You can work off some of that holiday weight by comin’ out and supporting our aspiring rock stars! This is also a great opportunity to bring a friend along who has not been exposed to a real Godly community.
P.S. We’re always looking for more acts. If you would like to be on the bill, let Mike Lee know. Our next event will be in a month or so.
Survey Says…. November 16, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Church, Methods & Strategies , add a commentAs the Executive Pastor of the growing, 1,200-attender Park Community Church on the northside of the city, I am always interested in learning more about our congregation. Every other fall, we take an extensive survey of our congregation that gives us a snapshot of who attends, their demographics, and helpful information about their spiritual journey and habits (serving, small groups, connectedness, faith-sharing, etc).
This data has proved invaluable as we grow and look for how to better serve our congregation. We also have a vision to ereach one percent of Chicago with the Gospel through church-planting, church partnerships, para-church partnerships and faith-based ministries serving the city.We did the 67 question survey right in the service, allowing 25 minutes for folks to fill it out. If you find this sort of thing helpful for your church, email me and I will send you copy of the survey.
It takes about three-to-four weeks to get the data input and ready for analysis but I will talk about the results in a later post in December.
Tour de Farce? November 15, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Tour De France , add a commentONLY IN FRANCE (AP) - The French anti-doping lab that tested American cyclist Floyd Landis’ urine samples told a newspaper it had made an “administrative error” when reporting its findings on his backup “B” sample, the French newspaper Le Monde reported Wednesday. The newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying the Chatenay-Malabry laboratory gave the wrong number in its report about Landis’ second sample. Tests on the rider’s two samples indicated that Landis had elevated levels of testosterone in his system when he won the Tour de France in July.
In a letter sent to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in September, Jacobs said the positive finding on the “B” sample came from a sample number not assigned to Landis.
“It’s incredibly sloppy,” Jacobs said at the time. “It has to make you wonder about the accuracy of the work.” On Sunday, Landis said in a French television interview that the lab made crucial errors in his tests. “Even the best people make mistakes,” he said. “I can’t say that the lab is always a bad lab, but I can say that in this case it made some mistakes I did not take testosterone.”
And predictably, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chief Dick Pound says he has complete confidence in the French laboratory that handled the drug tests on Tour de France champion Floyd Landis despite lapses in security and procedure. The French anti-doping laboratory (LNDD) in Chatenay-Malabry, on the outskirts of Paris, has come under intense scrutiny after its computer system was breached and French daily Le Monde reported that an error was made in the handling of Landis’s samples.
YouTube: Photoshopped Models November 15, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentAs a father with a seven year old daughter, I watched with fascination the YouTube video below that shows how a billboard image is actually done, starting with the original model. The 1 minute video gives you a “behind-the-scenes” glimpse of how a model is made up, with face makeup and blown-dry hair, then how photos are taken, but more importantly, how the photo image is manipulated in photoshop to arrive at a picture of a model that does not exist. This has comfirmed to me the reality of the impossible images that girls see. Thanks to the Dove Film folks for putting out this short film. Tell all your friends to check it out.
50 Years! November 10, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentToday I am off to Dallas to celebrate my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. Wow! 50 years together! What a model for us four kids and a testament to perseverance and love. What is the key to a long lasting marriage?
Here are my thoughts…I will post my parents thoughts after the weekend. My sense is that the secret of long marriages is quite simple. When my parents (and many others) got married, the wedding included a solemn vow where both husband and wife vowed this would be a lifetime commitment. The typical statement “for better or worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, until death do us part” summarizes this commitment. Alas, in today’s society, young folks who repeat these vows to seal their first marriage rarely have the slightest idea the depth of this stated commitment. They have not experienced the moments of “…for worse — sickness, or job-loss or financial worry” that with certainty lie ahead for them. When those moments hit, one or both partners decide it is too much and file for divorce.
My parents showed us what it is like to work through the lows and celebrate the highs of marriage. Congrats to Barb and Gil Lavey on a job well done! We love you.
