Greg Atkinson

It’s good to be back blogging. I got back Tuesday night from Atlanta. We had a great trip and great meeting with Clark ProMedia. I came home to find out that our home internet was down and so wasn’t able to blog Wed. and Thurs. (I didn’t have time to go somewhere else with my laptop).

I was swamped all day Wed. and Thursday, then left Friday morning to go to Phoenix, AZ. I had a great visit with Christ Life Church in Tempe, AZ. Above is a picture of me in the middle and Jeremy (their worship pastor) on the left and Tim (their media minister) on the right. They are great guys and serve at a church with a ton of potential. I look forward to continuing to work with them. Below (besides seeing Beowulf) was the highlight of my trip. That’s right… they have In-N-Out Burger in Phoenix, too!

I came home late Saturday night, got up early Sunday and we had a great day of worship at my church on Sunday. I left the best for last - the ultimate highlight of my week was my oldest daughter praying to receive Christ on Wednesday night. Yesterday we celebrated that at my church with a rose on the platform! We took a picture of her with her rose that I’ll post in the near future.

Now it’s back to work with a short week. What are you doing for Thanksgiving? We’re staying in town and have family coming to us.

Today I left at 5am for Atlanta. I’ll be in one long meeting all day and fly home late tonight. Pray for strength. I thought I’d link you to THIS article on “Saying Thanks” - as the Thanksgiving season quickly approaches.

I created some still backgrounds that are good for Thanksgiving and the Fall season in general. They are called “Thanks Backs” and are available in standard size, as well as for widescreen. If you’re looking for some seasonal backgrounds, I hope these can help.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I can’t wait to see my kids dress up tonight. I might just sneak some candy, too!

My friend, Don Chapman, of WorshipIdeas.com has partnered with my friends from WorshipFilms on a new Christmas project called “Complete Christmas“. WorshipFilms made videos for of Don’s HymnCharts Christmas carol arrangements. This is a product similar to the Integrity iWorship series that you may be familiar with, but these are actually in normal keys that congregations can sing and use in church.

Chris Sligh, the Seacoast worship leader that was on American Idol, sang on “The First Noel”, “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”.

Here is the description of the product from WorshipFilm’s website:

• “Complete Christmas” is a unique collection of great music and great media for Christmas worship services. Included in this collection are:

- 6 Christmas songs (5 traditional carols in contemporary arrangements, plus an original Christmas worship song) - all accompanied by original videos! For each song, there is a demonstration version, a split/click track version with lyrics, a split track version without lyrics, and a chord chart.

- 6 Long Plays, taken from the accompanying song videos

- 7+ Looping Backgrounds

- 2 Five Minute Countdowns

- A video Sermon Illustration

SPECIAL NOTE: The downloadable individual song packages each contain: MPEG-1 demonstration version, MPEG-1 split/click track version with lyrics, MPEG-1 split/click track version without lyrics, MPEG-1 version of corresponding Long Play loop, and a chord chart. - which I think is pretty cool. Also note that this collection is available in both SD and HD versions!

Two quick props:

1. First off - WorshipHouse Media has a great new FREE download entitled “One Need” by Erwin Brother Motion Pictures. You can get it HERE.
2. Second - And I’m really pumped about this… eleven72 gets a huge shout out and “Job well done!” for already releasing their Christmas video. Every year I beg producers to get seasonal media out in a timely manner and it seems to get a little bit better each year.For 2007, my hat is off to eleven72 for being the first ones on the scene with their new video set to a classic/favorite Christmas song, “Breath of Heaven”. They sent it to me to check out, as well as a new video for New Year’s - talk about ahead of the pack! You can preview the Christmas video HERE.

   * As I mentioned the other day, job well done to WorshipHouse Media for launching their seasonal stores for Thanksgiving and Christmas at a great time.

EXTRA:

Was just watching “Friday Night Lights”. A girl invited one of the wild/rough football players to church. He came and it was a pretty cool scene. The song the worship team/choir was singing right before the commercial was by Dallas’ own Kari Jobe.

TechMission has just launched www.UrbanMinistry.org as a Web portal for the Urban Ministry world. Some of the sections you may be interested in include:

* UrbanMinistry Blogs: including some of the top syndicated Blogs of Urban Ministry leaders.
* Sermon Videos & MP3s including John Perkins, Jim Wallis, Noel Castellanos, Wayne Gordon, Ray Backke, Effrim Smith and Martin Luther King Jr.
* Gospelpedia: similar to Wikipedia but covering youth ministry, addiction recovery, technology and ministry and volunteer management.
* Conference Materials: including over 100 keynote talks and workshops from CCDA, Kingdomworks and Compassionworks/YouthPartnersNet (coming soon).
* Local Volunteer Opportunities: including over 1,500 volunteer opportunities from nearly 900 organizations. National partners on this site include: CCDA, UYWI, YouthPartnersNet, HLIC, Salvation Army and AGRM.
* Online Courses
* Account Registration (FREE)

EXTRA:

Cory Miller (from Church Communications Pro - and is also a part of my book) is offering people a coupon code to get Granger’s Church Communications Form Bundle for FREE. I have it and it’s great! You can get it HERE.

BONUS:

Yesterday, WorshipHouse Media launched their Thanksgiving and Christmas seasonal stores. Check them out for the best in seasonal media (new for this year and good stuff from earlier years).

I hope everyone has a great holiday. I’m chilling with my kids. Until tomorrow…

I had a good Father’s Day. Of course I always miss my dad on Father’s Day, but my children are a blessing and made it a special day for me. How was Father’s Day at your church this past Sunday? Did you do anything special or out of the ordinary?

After being sidelined for a while with a fractured foot and aching back, I was thrilled to join the ranks of the healthy last night as I played in a softball game. I haven’t played softball in over a year, so I’m sure I’ll feel it today. I appreciate all the prayers for my back and overall healing.

My family is out of town this week, so I’m living the bachelor life. After the softball game, I made it in time to catch a 9:30pm movie (it was $.50 Tuesday at the dollar theater). I saw “Next” with Nicholas Cage. I like Nicholas Cage and I enjoyed the movie, except for the ending. I thought it was a horrible ending. Has anyone else seen this movie? If so, what did you think of the ending?

EXTRA:

I forgot to mention Father’s Day resources from Angelhouse Media yesterday. I encourage you to check out their media resources HERE. They have “I Love You Dad” - which is similar to what they did for moms. They also have a countdown and loops. Check them out!

BONUS:

As you know, I love the band: MuteMath. They just recorded the theme song for the new “Transformers” movie. You can check it out HERE.

As you know, this Sunday is Father’s Day. There are a ton of great media resources for you to use in your worship service. New resources this year include media from Floodgate, eight20eight, Highway Video, FortyOneTwenty, Beamer Films and a Father’s Day Collection from Igniter Media. To sort through a ton of options, check out clearing houses like FaithVisuals, ImageVine, Meatloaf Media, SermonSpice, The Shoutable Store and WorshipHouse Media.