Support A School & Win A iPod Nano

Yes, I am really giving away a new 8GB iPod Nano, keep reading to find out why and how...

I attended and graduated from a christian school (Calvary Christian School) here in Covington, KY. I enjoyed my education, and am very thankful for what I learned in school, and more importantly the relationships that were built in school, with fellow classmates as well as teachers. I really felt like my teachers genuinely cared for me and my spiritual walk with God. I think this is what made my education unique and special.

I even enjoy coming back home from college and spending time at my school, watching basketball games, and visiting with my former teachers. Keeping up with those relationships is always refreshing, and a blessing.

But sometimes the downside to running a private school is the lack of money. Recently this has become a problem, so the school has started doing several fundraisers throughout the year.

The reason I am writing about this is to tell you about a fundraiser that my high school is hosting this weekend. It is called the "Bowl-A-Rama" and the students have been asked to recruit sponsors for this event. A sponsor can give $10, $25, $50, $100, or more if one wishes. All of the money that is given goes straight to Calvary Christian School and their Bridge The Difference campaign. Their goal is to raise $40,000 for this campaign, so that the school can just break even for this year.

But the question still remains, why am I writing about this? I am not even a student at the school anymore.

Well, my younger sister, Molly is a 7th grader at Calvary and she is trying to gain sponsors for this event. The grand prize for the most money raised by one student is a new Apple iPad. So I told her I would help her out, with hopes that she can win the iPad and maybe she'll let me use it if I'm lucky.

So here's the deal. I am giving away a brand spanking new Apple 8GB iPod Nano (Yes, this is the one that has a camera that records video) to a random sponsor. The winner can choose the color of the iPod and if you want anything engraved on the back.

The Rules:
(Read Carefully!!!)

1. I will not give away the iPod until at least 50 people have sponsored my sister (Molly) for $10.00 or more.
2. After 50 people have sponsored Molly then those 50 people and every sponsor after that will be entered into a raffle for the iPod Nano.
3. For each increment given by one person that person will receive another entry into the raffle. The increments are $10, $25, $50, $100, or more. So if you give $25 you will be entered twice for the raffle. If you give $50 you will be entered 3 times, $100 = 4 entries, etc.

So here is what you do:

1. Firstly, this contest ends at 2AM EST on Wednesday March 24. So all of the following steps need to be completed by this time. (I know, short notice, but I'm hoping we can raise a bunch of money).
2. Go to this link (http://www.calvarychristianky.org/HP/bowlarama10.htm) and click the "Donate" button and give an amount of $10.00 or more.
3. You will receive a payment confirmation email from PayPal. Forward this email to me at jkburns@gmail.com (This is just to prove that you actually gave money. Don't worry there is no information in the email that is harmful)
4. Tweet this: I just entered to win a iPod Nano & supported a school simultaneously. Follow instructions & RT to enter: http://bit.ly/dAtBqJ
5. Or if you don't have twitter then share it on facebook: I just entered to win a iPod Nano & supported a school simultaneously. Follow instructions & Share to enter: http://bit.ly/dAtBqJ 
6. Comment below with your twitter name, or add me as a friend on facebook http://facebook.com/jburns so that I can confirm that you completed step #4. 

And that is it. You are done. And when I have confirmed that at least 50 people have sponsored then I will enter everyone who sponsors into the raffle for the 8GB iPod Nano. 


So how do you know this is legitimate? If you are still having doubts just go to this link Bowl-A-Rama and read about the fundraising event. 

So this is not just about the iPod, although it would be nice to win, it is also about supporting a school, and giving these students, including my sister, a great education.


Remember, this ends at 2AM on Wednesday morning March 24.

There's an App for That...Even Church?

So it turns out that when you have a job that requires you to mostly sit behind a computer all day then you don't really feel like sitting behind a computer when you go home. Imagine that. So that is one reason my blog has been sparse lately. But I'm back with another fun-filled post.

Today I've been in the office working on an intro video for our Pastor's new live internet TV show that we are launching. My office is connected to our Youth Pastor's office, so we get to interact and talk alot during the day. He asked me what I was working on and I told him about Pastor's new show which he thought was really cool. He then proceeded to tell me about an iPhone app that he saw a commercial for last night from Nationwide Insurance. Apparently if you get in a car wreck then you can use the app to fill out a form, take pictures of the car and send it to your insurance company all in a matter of minutes. He was amazed by this.

He then asked me a very stimulating question. What is something that the church can do that no one else has done before? Something that is very simple and easy to use, but is very effective in helping people. It doesn't have to be an iPhone app, although the iPhone is the future, but anything that is very easy to use, and very effective.

This is interesting to think about. There are almost endless possibilities with the power of the iPhone so I think that writing an app for that would be a good place to start. But what else can be done? I think interactive text messaging is one of those things.

We also must think about our target audience. Obviously something like this is going to be targeted at the younger generation. Anyone age 60 and above probably isn't going to understand the purpose of these type of things, and might even end up getting upset over it.

Here at Calvary we must be very aware of this. It is definitely not right for people to get upset over such things, because they are definitely effective tools, but we must be able to reach out to all age groups. But sometimes we just need to forget about the people who might get upset and continue to use the tool, whatever it is.

What does your church do that is unique?

Do they use any effective tools that implement interesting technology?

A Fun Job

I started my new job on Tuesday. And just in the short 4 days that I have worked as the "media guy" at Calvary I have noticed that this job is going to be different from any job that I have ever had before. And I mean "different" in the absolute best way possible.

In the past 4 days I have worked over 30 hours. And usually with any other job that I have had 30 hours feels like 30 years. It just drags on throughout the day and I look forward to that time when I can leave to go home. But this week has literally flown by. Yesterday I worked 9 hours and it felt like it was 3 hours.

So I was thinking about this and the reason why time goes by so fast is because I'm actually doing stuff that I like doing. On Wednesday I spent all day creating signs for an event in the church this coming Sunday, and I enjoyed doing it. There was just such a satisfaction when I was done, because I knew that it was something that I had created and accomplished.

Now I realize it is only the first week, and it is all still new to me and fresh, and it may get a bit old after a while, but I don't foresee that happening. As long as there are always projects for me to work on then I don't think it will get old. And there will always be projects for me to work on. It has also been a good week because they gave me my own office, which is awesome, and today Katrina made me my own name plate for the outside of my office. I'm kinda mad I forgot to take pictures of everything, but there will be pictures coming soon.

So, moral of the story, its awesome to have a job that requires you to do stuff that you love. Imagine that. :)

How was your week?

p.s. I don't know what that picture of the penguins has to do with anything, but it is what came up when I googled for "fun job"

Geek Alert

Well I woke up on this morning of March 29, 2009 to find that it was absolutely pouring down snow outside, I couldn't believe it. Gotta love springtime in Chicago. I had some friends visiting this weekend Bill & Melody Dickens with their son and good friend of mine Joseph Dickens, and they were supposed to attend church with me this morning, but they called very disappointed to say that they were going to go ahead and drive home as to avoid the snow getting worse. So I attended the early service at Park Community alone.

WARNING: Geek Alert!
Since I went alone I decided to sit behind the media/tech booth and kinda see how their system operates, and dang is it sophisticated. When the church built their new building they just decided to go top-of-the-line with everything, and this included the media department. They had a top-of-the-line sound board, light system, and video/projection system.

It took me a while to figure out but they had an iMac and a Macbook Pro running, and it looked like all they were using the iMac for was playing ambiance music before the service and then recording the service audio. Then they were using the Macbook Pro for what at first looked like projecting and controlling the words on the screen for worship but after watching for a while I realized that they were using that machine for the sole purpose of controlling the backgrounds and videos that were projected behind the words. It looked as though they were using a completely different machine for controlling the words, but this machine was nowhere to be seen in the tech booth. So I still have yet to figure that one out, but I found it very interesting.

So anyways, I write all that to say this, I realized today that there are alot of dreams that I have for my church back home and for the media dept. but most of these dreams have come from watching my church here in Chicago, and these two churches are very different in setting and context, so maybe all of these ideas shouldn't be implemented at my church in KY.

Secondly, I realized that to do implement some of these ideas cost a very large amount of money for hardware and software, and that is money that I know my church would not be willing or able to spend for their media dept.

So I came away from the service today having learned much from the sermon about personal standards for our lives, as well as learning much about the way my church in Chicago does media. It made me want to start serving there in the media dept. so bad, and I still might, but there are just so many other commitments in my life right now. I don't think I could do it.

Anyways, I know this post might not have been beneficial for some of my readers who aren't as geeky as I, but I hope that it was beneficial for those who are interested in this area of media in the church.

How does your church do media? Do they put a big emphasis on it or not?