Twitch!

I found this crazy video with a guy with too much time on his hands and too many brain cells to fry...
I feel for him as he takes a slight sigh of fearfulness...ENJOY!

A Birthday Surprise!!!

This is an old video but it is hilarious. This video was shot by my uncles employees. They played a practical joke on him on birthday. They filled is entire truck with thousands of ping pong balls. PRICELESS!

12 Ways to Reduce Stress in Ministry

12. Get Organized.
Ministry workers can tend to be a little messy and disorganized. File, organize, schedule, and clean. Trust me. Things will run smoother and you will feel less pressure when looking for a certain message you preached last year and when things are organized future planning becomes a breeze. Life just seems easier when it's in order. Take a look at our Heavenly father and His creation. Everything has it's place and order and it works amazingly.

11. Take regular breaks.
Ministry workers are usually workaholics. There are appropriate times when you need to settle down and crunch through some work, but when it’s done, leave your workplace a couple minutes. Go outside, walk around, and get some sun. You’ll be amazed how refreshed you feel coming back. A 10-15 minute break outside can really energize you to finish the rest of your work in much better time and in higher quality, too.

10. Work when you focus best.
It seems like most people I know in ministry are early-morning people. They love waking up before the sun and hitting the office early. If that’s what works best for you, then do it! However, some people, like me, think mornings are nonexistent and can’t function until lunch time. I honestly work best between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM. I stay focused and tend to crank out my best work during that time. Find out what works best for you and capitalize on it.

9. Address the work at home.
Stacks of bills, car maintenance, yard work, and home repairs can really stress you out, especially if it seems like everything else going on in life is always a higher priority. If tasks start piling up at home, take an extra day off to get it all done and set your mind free.

8. Eat healthy.
Give your body food that will keep it well nourished. Balance your carbs, fruits, vegetables, and grains. Junk food will drain your system, making you tired and unfocused. A sugar rush may give you small bursts of energy, but the crash at the end will keep you going back for more sugar all day long. I'm still working on this one.

7. Stay in shape.
It’s clinically proven that regular exercise reduces stress, gives you more energy, improves your sleep at night, and helps you stay more alert during the day. There’s really no excuse not to stay in shape, especially for people in ministry. For me it's a little tennis and racquetball here and there. And if you have tight muscles and achy joints, see a massage therapist or a chiropractor. The bill will bite you in the end, though.

6. Use your vacation days.
Many of us may be happy with our jobs, our ministries, and the work we do, but there are always small things about each job that we hate. That’s just a part of life. Over time, those annoyances can build until they become frustrating. Make sure you take a break, time to rest, time to get away, and leave it all behind. If your ministry can’t function without you for a couple days to a week on a regular basis, the ministry is way too focused on you and is unhealthy.

5. Keep ministry simple.
Lots of activity and responsibilities may make you feel more important than you really are, but it’s a guaranteed formula for stress and burnout. Know your limits and be realistic. If you have too much on your plate, delegate some of it to others or simply cut it out of your life. In my ministry, if no one steps up to help or take over something I don’t have time to do or shouldn’t be a priority for my limited time, it simply doesn’t get done. It’s really that easy. Just because your ministry is busy and active doesn't mean it's moving forward. Activity doesn't mean progress.

4. Listen to worship music.
I don’t mean just have it playing in the background, although that might help. Sit down and really listen to it. Let the Holy Spirit work in your life as you spend personal time in worship, thinking, reflecting, and meditating on Him. All the other stressful things in your life pale in comparison to a healthy reminder of who God is.

3. Say “No!”
I don’t know why ministry workers feel like they have to say yes to so many things. Maintain boundaries on your life! If the ministry is focused around you, you’re doing something wrong. You shouldn’t be out more than 3 nights a week maximum! Be at home with your family.

2. Maintain healthy relationships with your spouse.
Remember, your primary ministry is to your family, especially your spouse. Don’t wait until the relationship starts feeling dry to do something about it. Maintain the relationship so you never get to that point in the first place. Spend alone time together, go on dates, read the Word together, do random romantic acts, be sexually active. Celebrate what you have.

1. Focus on the Lord.
Regular time with the Lord is critical, but it often seems like it’s the first thing we set aside. Spend time with God on a personal level and also make it a priority for your family. You can’t serve the Lord and follow Him without knowing where He’s leading you. Otherwise, you fall into a stale rut of just “doing” ministry, rather than leading a movement of God’s people.

Entering the Digital Age

I found this gem of a video while doing some late night surfing. I think all of us can relate to this video when it comes to explaining technology to our parents and grandparents. I love you, Mom but you are not far from this....lol

BECOME A BETTER DESIGNER: RULE #1: Limit Your Fonts

Part One of Seven Easy Principles to Becoming a Master Designer.

Ok, “master designer” might be a bit of a stretch – but you can at least become a “proficient designer” by following 7 easy principles. This will be the shortest, most informative series of blog posts you’ve ever read on how to become a better designer. Please note: these principles CAN be broken… these are not laws, they’re just general guides that I typically follow when putting together a design. Follow these simple design principles and you’ll be on your way to artistic excellence.

Principle One: Limit Your fonts. A big part of putting together a good design, as you’ll see, is making sure the over-all look is consistent. The best way to accomplish a consistent look to your design is limiting the number of artistic motifs (themes) that you use. The fonts you select are the first variable you want to limit. It;a good to just pick 2 fonts per design.

The first font can be fancy or artistic. This font will be used to give your design some flair, character and personality. It’s this font that sets the mood for the piece. Is it a fun font with swirls for a girl’s party, or is it a grungy evil font for a rock band? I would use this fancy font for the header copy – anywhere it’s big, I’ll use this font. The fancy font will be the focal point of the piece. You will usually have less copy in this fancy font, but it will be much bigger – so that’s what people will see and focus on.

The second font should be very basic. The audience shouldn’t take notice of this secondary font at all. This secondary font needs to be very easily legible. It’s this basic font that will be used for large bodies of copy. Obviously, it’s very hard to read large bodies of copy that are in some extravagantly artistic font. So, this second font is all about functionality. Here is an example of proper use of fonts in a design. As you can see, there is only two fonts used here. The fancy font is used as the headers and the basic font is used for the copy. It looks clean and consistent.

Here is a Bad use of fonts. In this case I used too many fancy fonts. It just makes the piece look inconsistent. The sub sections don’t seem like they match with the main header.

Having too many fonts in a design is the biggest mistake. Nothing looks worse than someone who has used 8 different fonts on their flyer. Even worse than that is using a very fancy font for your body copy. Here is a sample of font use at it’s worst:

That’s it for this quick post. Thanks for reading. Keep an eye out, 6 more posts coming in this series!

I.D. Check

Just wanted to get on the blog and talk about how amazing God is. This week's Identity youth service was just stellar. The kids were great, the morale was great, the worship was amazing, and God was able to use someone like me to deliver His word. I love my job. Granted, it's not easy at times and there are days you just want to quit but I can't help to think that there is nothing else I would rather be doing. This weekend is going to be one of the chances that I get to enjoy the perks of my job; planning fun events with our youth. This weekend we have created an AMAZING RACE of our own and the kids will be on a sprint around the Orlando area uncovering clues that lead them to the next one and at each stop they must complete certain tasks. It cost them a little to play but the winning team gets a BIG pay day if they have completely everything first. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Rock The Vote!

Now that I am about to be a parent pretty soon, voting becomes an entirely different thing for me. I have always taken pride in my freedom to vote but after watching this video you will understand what I am talking about. Take a look...

That Hurt...

You have got to see this. Patience is a virtue. Wait for it...Wait for it...Wait for it...


YUP! That just happened...

Nostalgically Blessed

This past weekend me and Jules visited where I grew up because an old friend of mine was getting married. It was so cool to see all of the friends I grew up with and to finally see all of us married and successful with kids on the way. There comes a point in your life where you look around and you realize how far you all have come and much you all have been through together. Not only to we have an awesome time visiting the past but as we returned to Orlando (the present reality), we had another amazing surprise from the past. Our old friends from the Campus Choir days, Larry and Kristin Kusic stopped in to visit our church on their way home from a family vacation. It's so good to have friends that you can just pick right back up where you left off and still keep connected.

This weekend, God was so good to me. He showed me how blessed we are and on top of that he showed me how faithful He is to give us life and to the fullest. Let me explain. Not only did He give us an opportunity to revisit the past He also blessed us in the now. As you all know, the economy is tight but we have always been faithful in our giving regardless. I will admit that it has been hard at time but we have stood on God's promise that "if we put the Kingdom of God firs that all else will be added." So Sunday morning I wrote out my tithe check as usual and trust that God would supply all our needs. Just as the first service ended, a new member of the church, that I don't know all that well, shook my hand and handed me some money. As the crowd began to disperse out the exits I looked down in my hand and I saw the same amount of money I had just paid in tithes. THANK YOU, JESUS! But I'm not done...Second service rolls around and I feel that if God blessed first service then I have give back to the God who supplied. So I gave again in the offering. I kid you not...later that night at a prayer and worship service someone handed me a card with the same amount of money I paid in the second service. WOW! GOD IS SO GOOD!

When the world is trembling in fear because they rely on their own resources to financially stabilize their own economy, know that we can trust in God that is faithful to follow through with His promises. THANK YOU, JESUS!

The Future of Worship Media

Now this is trippy...It's a visual worship loop that you control the speed, direction, and motion of with the slight movements of your mouse. Check it out and fun by clicking here.