Greg Atkinson

Mark Batterson sent me a copy of his new book, which I blogged about a while back. I’m about halfway through it and loving it. Mark just announced on his blog that his church is going to try offering “Chase the Lion” resources for FREE. They are going to experiment with an open-source message series. Here’s why: They want to equip others churches to do a Chase the Lion series… so they’re making all of their graphics and videos downloadable and customizable.

Here are some of the free downloads @ chasethelion.com:

1) All series graphics including bookmark and poster.
2) The series trailer that we played each week before the message.
3) All audio messages
4) All message transcripts
5) All of our video illustrations

A few churches have already planned a Chase the Lion series for January. NCC hopes the free resources will help. Mark also would love to know who is going to do a series. Shoot him an email at mark@theaterchurch.com.

My friends Len Wilson and Jason Moore of Midnight Oil Productions are continuing their series on “Worship Design Teams That Work” with a new article that looks at some of the problems that keeps teams of good people from taking flight. As the title indicates, “Success Is
In the Details”. Learn more HERE.

Also, have you seen MO’s Christmas Star image tutorial? This free web resource, which is also part of their book “Design Matters: Creating
Powerful Imagery for Worship“, provides source material and a step-by-step instruction manual for creating your very own nativity scene for worship. Check it out HERE.

BONUS:

Have you heard of Google Mobile SMS? It might be worth checking out. Heard of Google docs? I’m starting to try it out. Thoughts?

Yesterday WFX concluded. I got to see some friends from various ministries across the country, meet Craig Janssen from Acoustic Dimensions and hear my friend, author and speaker Rex Miller, deliver the keynote address. Rex is a truly a great guy. Besides are regular get-togethers for lunch and lively discussion, Rex once paid for my wife and I to go to a marriage seminar weekend - for which we will forever be grateful. I really enjoyed hearing him speak and encourage you to get and read his book “The Millennium Matrix”. You can check out his website HERE. I think it’s a little messed up, but you can get a feel for what his ministry is like. He works in both the business and church world - which I think is really cool. To buy his book, go HERE.

TRAVEL:

Sunday night I fly to Fort Myers, Florida to speak at the Florida Baptist Convention on Monday and Tuesday. I look forward to a good time in the great state of Florida and hope to meet many new friends in the faith. Pray for me as I share and teach from my heart at this gathering.

PERSONAL:
Last night I had the joy of celebrating my daughter’s 6th birthday. We held our first “sleep over”. I’m officially old now.

Line in the Sand Productions has a pretty cool package to jumpstart your media library. It might be worth your checking out. Check HERE for more on their mega-mega pack.

EXTRA:

For all pastors: Act now to get a FREE copy of Craig Groeschel’s new book “Confessions of a Pastor”. Craig is pastor of LifeChurch.tv, which I’ve blogged about several times.

Do you ever get sick of the bias from most media outlets? Are you not aware of it or don’t buy in to the all the hype?
The problem may be that of ignorance (you simply don’t realize what’s happening).

Bias is real and happens everyday. Dan Rather didn’t mess up just once and then lose his job. Rather has been biased for years and just happened to make a big enough mistake that his network couldn’t turn a blind eye anymore. I came across the MRC Action organization a little while back and have been meaning to blog about it. It’s a website worth checking out.

A few years ago I read the book “Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News”. This book was a huge eye-opener for me. When the book came out, Dan Rather got ticked at author Bernard Goldberg and stopped speaking to him after years of their supposed friendship. Please know I’m not pushing an agenda or a certain political party. I’m just pointing you to resources that can counter ignorance and shed some light on a very real subject. Take my challenge: read the book and then share your thoughts with me.

Tim Stevens, in his LeadingSmart blog, recently talked about various TV shows and how they portray Christians. He commented on how “Friday Night Lights”, which I recently raved about, portrays genuine, nice, normal people that happen to be Christians. He contrasted that with the new Christian character on “ER”. Why is she such a freak? She turns me off and I’m a Christian! I wish Hollywood would recognize and promote that there are normal, down-to-earth Christians. Many are actually very cool and fun to be around. Want to see what some of my friends look like? Take a peek below…

HERE’S WHAT I’M UP TO TONIGHT:

Above are some of my best friends from high school and college. I’m excited that the old crew is in town tonight. They are in a Tooth and Nail band called Emery. These fellas look rough, but really do have a heart for God and reaching youth. They’re Christians in a band, but not a Christian band. Know what I mean? Believe it or not, the bass player and the lead singer and I were in a barbershop quartet! Everytime they’re in town we get together and hang out.

Tonight I’m bringing 4 friends with me to see them play the Nokia Theatre (the best venue in town) in Grand Prairie. They’re playing with Relient K, so that’s a double blessing. Should be a fun night. One of my favorite Emery songs was recently featured on the TV show “Prison Break“. You can watch that song’s video on Myspace (Where it was one of their featured videos. It was also featured on Relevant Magazine’s website - where it was their #1 video on RelevantTV).

Their new DVD is coming out soon. For a sneak peek, look at the trailer for their new DVD HERE. Want to enter their video contest? Watch the trailer HERE.

Here’s a book that I heard Craig Detweiler mention a long time ago. I just thought about it yesterday and thought I’d mention it. If you don’t have it - get it. Filmmakers are the leaders and influencers of the future. I pray that God will continue to raise up gifted and talented filmmakers around the world.

Thinking about changing the world with your art/films? I encourage you to check out my two favorite schools: Biola and Regent. Both are top quality and are on the cutting edge of filmmaking. If you have a chance to check out either school’s film festivals, I encourage you to go. I was blessed to be at REACH last year when both schools showed films in the conference’s film festival.

What a day!

I met the Creative Synergy podcast team bright and early at my church’s studio to record Episode 2 - I think you’ll really like it. I enjoyed it. Then I scooted (not on an actual scooter) over to Fellowship Church’s Downtown campus to meet with their Campus Pastor and fellow technology lover, Terry Storch. We had a great time catching up. Terry took me to an amazing Mexican restaurant (my favorite food), where I think I broke the local record for eating the most chips and salsa at one sitting. It was REALLY good.

Terry just sent me the manuscript for his new book: The Blogging Church. I can’t wait to read it! He was telling me a little about it over lunch and I was getting pretty pumped up about it. Terry and co-writer Brian Bailey, have pulled in some very cool contributors and stories, which promise to make for a great read.

Terry also told me more detail about his new venture: Light Cast Media, which is what churches like LifeChurch.tv and Seacoast use to stream their services via the web. Also the Granger Film Festival, which I blogged about earlier, used them to post the winners of the festival. They’ve got some pretty cool stuff in the works. I’d encourage you to cruise their website and see if they might be of help to your ministry.

Also today, my new weekly column on Monday Morning Insights launched. My column is going to be called “Church Video Ideas”. I wonder where that name came from? You can see my column/article on their homepage today or go straight to by clicking HERE. I got to meet Todd Rhoades of MMI at the Catalyst Conference. I encourage you to subscribe to his weekly newsletter. I’ve subscribed to it for years.

Now, I’m finishing up this blog and then going to a meeting with the Executive Pastor of my home church - Fellowship Dallas. After that I’ll go home to see the family and pack for my trip tomorrow. (More on that in tomorrrow’s blog).

IN OTHER NEWS:

• Google Bought YouTube - It’s official - Google has purchased video-sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion. I had heard rumors, but now it’s for real. I’m jealous. YouTube’s founders, who started the company out of a garage two years ago, are both under 30. Wow!
• FREE Music - One of my favorite bands (MuteMath) has a FREE download via iTunes from their Plan B album. Hook it up!
  

Aren’t we all a work in progress? God knows I am. I am constantly learning how to let Christ invade every area of my life. I am constantly battling pride, ego and my driven/workaholic nature. Too often I find myself on my laptop at home and not spending quality time with my wife and kids. God forgive me. I just stumbled across (I don’t think it was an accident) a book I had read a while back - a book entitled “Choosing to Cheat” by Andy Stanley. This book, once again, may have saved my marriage. If you, like me, struggle with bringing work home, I strongly urge you to get a copy. It’s a quick read/small book. You can finish it in a day or two, but the insight and exhortation that you will get from it will be well worth your time.

My friend, Mark Batterson (pastor of National Community Church), has a new book releasing this Monday, Oct. 2. By the way, his church just revised and updated their website. Check it out.

Here’s the book description from Mark:

Your greatest regret at the end of your life will be the lions you didn’t chase. You will regret the risks not taken, then opportunities not seized, and the dreams not pursued. Stopping running away from what scares you most and start chasing the God-ordained opportunities that cross your path.

“In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” is inspired by one of the most obscure yet courageous acts recorded in Scripture: Benaiah chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it (2 Samuel 23:20-21).

Unleash the lion chase within!

People that know me, know that I’m a reader. I’m always reading between 3 to 5 books at the same time. (I’m also working on a book.)

My favorite read right now - that I’d like to pass on to you - is called “The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution“. I just mentioned and quoted a paragraph from this book in my lastest article which is on Relevant Magazine’s website. I don’t have to convince you of what a digital and face-paced world we live in. The article is a challenge to still seek out times of silence in the midst of noise.

This book is eye-opening and a great read. It basically affirms and claims that the record industry is “terminally ill”, but the music industry is booming and vibrant.