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Online backup of important data is not only the wave of the future, it’s already here. I recently helped my grandmother buy a computer from Dell and one of the options was online backup via Dell (at an extra cost, of course). There are many, many companies that offer backup services. iBackup.com is an online storage site and may have something that sets it apart from the pack. Their software creates a mapped drive or folder on your computer for easy drag-and-drop saving and backing up of your important files. Subscription plans vary based on the amount of storage needed, from 5 GB at $9.95/month or $99.50/year to 300 GB at $299.95/month or $2999.95/year. These prices are comparable to other services, and, when it comes to your important documents, pictures, and videos, it’s a price you’ll be glad to have paid.

In today’s news of the strangely true, a woman claims to have found God in an eggplant. Although she did not have a religious experience upon eating said eggplant (which you would if you’d ever care to visit Paisano’s in Georgetown), she found the actual word “GOD” spelled out in the seeds of the eggplant.

To the untrained eye, it might look like “GID”, but you, my friend, would be called a fiend for missing this sign of the time.

Brought to you by portable water filters, for all the times when you think God may just be hiding in an unwashed eggplant.

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I’ve been busy the last few weeks attempting to get my church to tread into this century. There’s more we could be doing via the Internet, but it’s difficult to steer a large group of people to adopt new technologies for communication. So here’s a list of a few things I’ve incorporated over the last few weeks:

1. A blog specifically tailored to a new Bible study class covering the book The Worshiping Artist. Why we hadn’t tried this before, I don’t know. Discussion seems to be going well thus far. Also, the leader of the study (also the Worship Pastor of the church) is updating it himself. If you’re interested, check out www.fbcgt.org/dale . I’m also working on getting staff members to blog about their points of interest.

2. A forum for all church members. It has yet to be published, but if you’re reading this then you’ll be treated to a sneak peek at www.fbcgt.org/thehub . Forums may be a little foreign to some people, but they’re highly useful once understood. They will, hopefully, be used for the multiple ministries at the church, events around our city, for each individual Life Group, and also for leaders and other groups that might require a certain level of privacy for their discussions. I may be most excited about the prospects of this forum, but I’ve also been in this position before of starting a forum for a church, only to have it’s popularity wane in relation to the amount of time it’s "new."

An aside about the forum - it’s called theHub because I’d actually already created a forum called "the forum" using different software than what I’m currently now using. I had been using bbpress, as it syncs with wordpress, our publishing platform, somewhat easily. Unfortunately, it’s not as mature as some other options out there. One of the main problems for me in regards to that is the inability to restrict certain discussions to certain people or groups. So I turned to the big daddy of forums, phpbb. While I’ve never used it before, I’m learning it and liking it. And I like the sound of "theHub." It is a central meeting place, after all.

3. Video Podcasts. We’re not doing this yet, but we’re very close to it.

Slowly, surely, and with many a technical glitch to go, the church creeps ever onward into the vast, uncharted waters of the Internet.

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Why don’t you take a Kissimmee vacation? The irony in that is that it’s close to Disneyland and I just posted about a Baptist church.

I bought a computer for my grandmother recently. Before you start thinking that I’m the best grandson ever, she bought it with her own money; I was just the middleman. We bought her a Dell because I received an email with a “Back-to-School” special that was right in her price range, even giving her more computer than she needs.

Since we wanted to install the system this Sunday, when I head up to Waco to see her and the rest of my family, and since the last time I ordered a system from Dell (a refurbed desktop) it came from Round Rock, I told my grandmother I’d have them ship it to me in Georgetown, just a few miles from Round Rock, in hopes that it would arrive via free 3-5 day ground shipping before Sunday.

After checking the tracking number, I was shocked to see that the computer was being shipped from Tennessee! I was saddened by the fact, but chalked it up to the fact that my grandmother’s computer was not a refurb unit, and, ergo, was not being shipped from Round Rock. Oh well.

I just checked the tracking number again tonight (Friday). Where is the computer currently sitting? At a DHL station. In Waco!

I’m scheduled to receive the packages on Monday, one day after I’ve gone to visit her.

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Brought to you by a drug rehab recovery center in Malibu. Really? Really.

I’ve got a friend who writes books and has a few blogs and is generally knowledgeable about most things and makes a living writing. Maybe not necessarily from his books (he’s a technical writer), but it’s a somewhat envious position. So when he asked if I would contribute to his blog on restaurants, I couldn’t resist. I like food. And eating it too. But I’d never written extensively about food. It would seem that the seemingly random and recent onset of the urge to watch such shows as Hell’s Kitchen and The Next Food Network Star is paying dividends, by widening my culinary vocabulary, as opposed to just offering inane entertainment as Chef Ramsey once again cusses someone out. I only save those words if I really, really, really don’t like the food. Which hasn’t happened…yet.

My most recent review, of the IKEA Cafe and Restaurant in Round Rock, TX, was also my first assignment. From the site: "This month we take a look at cafes tucked away in places you might not expect, like computer/appliance stores, furniture stores, grocery stores, and museums. If you have a favorite non-traditional eating spot, let us know." So there’s the setup. Go read the review for fun. And, if you’re not much of a reader, there’s a great pic of my wife enjoying lunch.

After the last few reviews, I could almost envision myself as a restaurant reviewer. Then again, watching our local news station’s coverage of restaurants that have failed health inspections gives me much cause for concern. Also, I’d have to start using Miracle burn or some such diet supplement if I began eating for a living. Then again, don’t I already do that?

I attended just a bit of the National Worship Leader Conference held this week at Riverbend Church in Austin yesterday due to the generosity of a fellow church member who happens to work for Church Multimedia, a company that specializes in A/V installations for church. He had a sweet rig of four remote cameras controllable by a joystick and hooked to a switcher, the kind of rig, or something close to it, that we’d like to eventually get for our worship services.

The conference is a week long, but as I had just taken a week of vacation, I limited myself to attending just one day, and I picked the right day, that’s for sure. For one, Fernando Ortega led worship with a four piece string section. I’ve always loved his music, and I’ve never seen him live. It was very, very good.

Secondly, the two main breakouts I wanted to attend were held that day, one right after the other. The first was put on by the guys at WorshipHouse Media, a distributor of mini-movies, motions, stills, countdowns, and other fun and meaningful visual media for use by churches. They showed many clips, and even some non-released ones. That’s My Money was really funny. They also have a very good video podcast showcasing the newest releases. I met Rob Thomas with Igniter Media as well (and they’re doing some cool stuff). Be sure to check out the hot dog eating contest.

After that, two guys I met a few weeks go led the next workshop: Stop Substance Abuse: Make Your Media Matter. Storme and Lee of Eleven72 live and work in Austin, and they led a mock creative session, showing how easy it is to be wholly intentional about the use and placement of visual media in a worship service. It was certainly encouraging. They’re smart and creative guys and I can’t wait to see what they’re going to produce.

Their presentation was slated to use the internet, as they wanted to do real searches for a crowd-proposed topic, but Riverbend’s wifi didn’t reach the room we were in (maybe they needed a wireless router or two). But, being the pros they are, they retooled the presentation and used example Pastor Evan Gelist of 360 Church delivering a message about Evangelism, then went on to show how much can be found online to help undergird that message.

They also showed me a Sony Xacti handheld, waterproof videocamera that I just might have to get for some interesting uses at the church. Check Eleven72’s blog for an example. Their video of "Who’s Eleven72" is pretty funny.

I’m very excited about the possibilities of incorporating more visual elements into our worship services, and creating our own content as well. I finally have all of the tools necessary to do so. Now I just need to learn this MacBook Pro (being a lifelong Windows user, more out of necessity than desire) and also Final Cut Express HD. Yeehaw!

It’s amazing to me that with the number of entertainment choices we have, we still manage to fall into watching a reality TV series during the summer. It’s unintentional, but it seems to happen every summer. This summer we’ve fallen for a couple of cooking shows, Hell’s Kitchen and The Next Food Network Star. We know it’s not really real (do all chefs cry?), that the surprises may only be surprising to the contestants, and that conflict and flailing arms apparently make for good television. Well, maybe not good, but at least entertaining. Remind me to never become a chef.

I should add On the Lot to that list, but it’s been given fairly bad reviews. Reformatted, it could do well and be much more engaging, but otherwise, in the words of Carrie Fisher, “um…it was good…not great…not bad…it could have been somewhat, somehow, someway, better than…well, just, uh, yeah, good job.” That about sums up the way most of the critics feel too.

The ad of the day is for truck accessories, which, if you have a truck, I assume you need accessories.

I think I can wait for the day when Reality TV actually lives up to its name, where you can tune into anyone’s live feed (a la Justin.tv). I had the thought the other day, and I expect royalties now if this become a reality, that a tiny camera should be implanted behind our eyes that continually records the last hour we’ve seen, thus capturing those moments otherwise lost, like the time your dog missed the turn and ran into the wall. And then you’ll be able to stream that to the Internet. And that will be Reality TV.

Thank God for books.

I was recently given the opportunity to have a free photo canvas made and shipped to my door from Canvas on Demand. The shipping was speedy and the canvas looks nice. There are more options than just the standard canvas that we received, some that colorize black and white photos, some that enhance your photos with artistically done brush strokes, and also the ability to choose better frames. As we were just trying out their service, we opted for the “Standard Gallery Wrap,’ which wraps your image around the frame. We also chose the 16″ x 20″ size.

Our hardest decision was choosing which picture to use. My wife is a photo nut (I just bought her a digital frame for our anniversary), so we had many to choose from. She wanted black and white; I wanted full-color. We settled on this picture (and this is the actual  frame; the photo quality is a little poor as it was taken with my cellphone). The pic is from our engagement photos, and I really liked the colors in it. Unfortunately, I did not know that the picture would be cropped. The original had us in the left half of the frame with nice fall foliage in the right half, a visual composition that I liked better than what we received, but the portrait on the canvas is still nice. I can’t complain too much since we received this for free. One suggestion would be a preview option of what the final canvas will look like. These canvases (canvii?) make a great birthday present or anniversary gift, so I’d recommend them, although you may want to go a little “higher-end” on the scale of what they offer to get the full effect.

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Georgetown was once a small town, and they’re trying to keep it that way. But progress progresses progressively. To wit, we now have the very large Wolf Ranch shopping center, with Best Buy, Petsmart, and Target, to name a few of the places I visit. We seldom travel outside of Georgetown anymore because we can finally get most of what we need in town. (Now if we could just get a Barnes & Noble).

Now there’s news of a new conference center/hotel near the same area. I think it’s great, and a necessity, as there’s no large meeting place in Georgetown. Not that I throw that many parties. Or any. Or that I have that many friends. Or any. But I’m sure there’s a need, so it’ll be met. And, judging by the pictures, it looks like it will be a nice place. Georgetown does do very well in its facades and keeping green space a priority.

All of this growth is occurring very close to the church I attend and work at. We’ve been experiencing good growth lately, even despite the lack of a Senior Pastor. But with all the surrounding growth, it makes me think I need to “up my game.” But I need to figure out what game is.

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Mark Batterson at Evotional.com and Pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C., a church that meets in a theater, says its

Pretty exciting to see the way the theater church movement has taken off in the past few years. I’m still believing for a church in every theater in America!

That’s an ambitious thought, but a worthwhile pursuit. What would it mean if something like that happened? No more building campaigns for one. No more struggling for the best A/V equipment, or even usable equipment. No more pews, just nice, comfortable theater seating. Of course, these are just behind-the-scenes concerns (which are my main concern, given my job).

But what would it mean for the world’s perception of the church? Does it become cooler? More hip? Attractive? Does it lose its otherness, its spirituality, its awe and reverence inducing factors? Or does the environment matter less than the content - the people, the relationships, the stories told and presented?

I was blessed to be involved with terranova from its early stages, but, unfortunately, could not be a part of its shift to becoming a theater church (now meeting on Sunday mornings at City Lights Theatres in Georgetown). I hear its going well, but I wonder what trade-offs they’ve seen, if any, or what feels different. I guess I just miss being "in the know" about the life of that church.

In reference to yesterday’s post about wanting to be a filmmaker of sorts, I just now remembered that my "work" has already appeared on at least 12 screens. I helped to create and edit the promos terranova gets to run before every movie appearing at City Lights. So I am famous, but only in my own eyes. Alas, Pride goes before a fall…