Money is Not Equal to Value

There is a difference between "valuing church media" and "spending lots of money on church media." Just because a church spends loads of money on a bunch of media equipment, does not mean that church values media. A church can spend as much money as they want on equipment, but if they don't know how to use it effectively to communicate the gospel, then they are back at square one.

Hiring a full-time Media Arts Director is crucial for a church nowadays. It doesn't even have to be a media arts director, just someone who is paid to commit time to communicating the gospel effectively through media.

Yes, a church can say that their volunteers are great, and that they can run the show, but having a staff of volunteers doesn't always translate into effective communication.

All I'm saying is, if a church is willing to spend money on media, that is not equal to a church valuing media. Instead of a church wasting $60,000.00 on 2 video routers, and an AMX remote panel, why don't they use that money to hire someone to actually create good content. After all, isn't the content that we produce and communicate more important than the medium that we use to communicate it?

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"

A Curveball in Life

Brace yourself for a bit more lengthy post. I'll try to keep it short, but you know how that goes.

So a ton has taken place in my life over the past 4 days, and God has thrown me a big curveball. Thankfully I can now talk about this publicly.

I have been emailing my senior pastor at my home church in Covington, KY for the past couple months. While I was still at school in Chicago he told me that he wanted to meet with me when I came home just so I could share with him some of the ideas that I had for media in the church. So I met with him this past Wednesday and it went very well. I can't really talk about all of the stuff that we discussed but it was very exciting to see how much he was willing to implement alot of the ideas that I had.

So we met for about an hour and a half and then I left. A couple hours later he found me at the church at offered me a job for the summer to do media and tech in the church. As many of you might know this was something that I had been burdened about for a while, and it came as a huge surprise that he was offering me this job. The only catch was that I was supposed to start my sports ministry internship with a soccer camp the very next day. I had no idea what to do. I knew where my desires were but I wasn't sure if those were God's desires for me. So I talked to my parents about it, I called my advisor at school, and then finally talked to the leadership at the soccer camp and they told me to sleep on it, come to training and then make a decision.

I went to the first day of training, and by the end of the day I had made my decision. I knew that my church needed me in this time, and this was where God wanted me. So I told them my decision and thankfully they were very understanding, and they didn't want me in a place where God didn't want me.

So I am now officially working for Calvary Baptist Church as the...well I don't know what my "official title" is yet, but I'll be working alot with the media and service production.

So needless to say I am very excited about what this summer holds. I have alot of great ideas, but it is going to be alot of work to implement them in the correct way, but I know I'm up to the task.

That is what has been going on in my life recently.

I've spent the past 3 days cleaning my room, and I really mean cleaning my room. I got rid of so much junk, it was ridiculous. And I had to setup what somewhat resembles an office, so its nice to have some workspace now.

I would appreciate your prayers this summer as I begin this journey into implementing alot of new technologies into the church that I believe can be very beneficial in furthering the kingdom.

Thank you all so much.

What are you doing this summer?

I Feel Sorry for the Cavaliers

So recently I have gotten interested in the NBA playoffs. In fact probably more interested than ever in past years.

Why?

Well probably because every time a new game is played I am just watching and waiting to see what amazing feat Lebron James or Kobe Bryant is going to do. What ridiculous amount of points each of them are going to score. I think it is this that has attracted me to the NBA playoffs this year. And I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of any team that is in the playoffs this year, but I will say that I would like to see a Laker vs. Cavaliers Final Series. I could care less who wins but I just think it would be a good series.

But what has caught my interest more than the playoffs in general has been how much the media has been talking about Lebron James. At first I was just hearing them talk alot about him during pre and post-game but then when I was watching a game I couldn't believe how much the commentators were talking about Lebron during the actual game. It was almost as if the rest of the team didn't exist.

And of course anyone who has watched TV in the past couple days has seen the amazing last second shot by Lebron to win the game by 1 point. This just sent it over the top. Ever since then I have not heard one name of another player on the Cav's talked about except for Lebron James. Granted he has led his team this far in the playoffs but without the rest of that team they would never be where they are right now, and it could be argued that without Lebron they would never be where they are right now. So I guess it is a two-sided coin.

But nonetheless, if I were a player on the Cav's I think I would be pretty angry for never getting any credit. But maybe the Cav's are just a team full of awesome sportsman-like guys who all understand that it is not about credit but about the team winning. Maybe...but I know deep-down those guys have to be wanting some of that spotlight.

I do know one thing, that team is gonna need alot more than just Lebron to win the game tonight against the Magic, and that was proven two days ago when they lost by 10 points. So I'm hoping the whole Cav's team shows up tonight and just blows the Magic out, but we shall see.

Is it just me here, or is there someone else out there that shares the same view, and feels sorry for the rest of the Cav's team?

Changing of the PCM

So today is the day...Today is the day that I change my PCM.

For the past 2 years here at Moody I have had the same PCM (Practical Christian Ministry). I have been a Jr. High leader at the Refinery youth group at Calvary Community Church in Schaumburg, IL. I got connected with the Youth Pastor through one of my friends who used to be a former student of his.

Ever since I started as a Jr. High leader I have loved it, and have felt useful and like I'm having an influence on these kid's lives, and helping them grow closer to God. It has been great.

BUT if you are regular reader of my blog then you know that recently I have had a burden for media in the local church. I have really been wanting to get involved in my church here, Park Community Church but just have not had the time to make the commitment. But I have been in contact with one of their media director's, @jasonwidney, and I had been considering possibly switching my PCM to working on the media team at Park, but I wasn't completely sure if it was what I should.

Well, tonight I attended the evening service at Park and I talked to Jason for the first time in person, and asked him if they did PCM's for Moody students, and he said absolutely. So we are going to have coffee this week, and talk more about it.

But I am writing all this to say, that today is when the PCM forms are due, and I am turning mine in and officially changing it, which I am really excited about.

I also emailed the youth pastor that I have been working with, just to let him know what I had been thinking, and he said that I am making a good decision. I told him that I'd like to still be able to come to the Refinery if possible, and he said that'd be great. So hopefully I can make it out there as much as possible, and still keep up with those kids, which would be good.

So I'm excited about what next semester holds as far as my PCM goes. I'm not as much excited about what my classes will hold, considering I have a 7:30am class, OUCH :( but at least I'll still be enjoying my PCM.

Here's to new and exciting PCM's
:)

the future

Thoughts about the future of my life have been looming in my mind over the past couple months, and especially over the past week. I went on this trip with my Camp Administration class, in which we visited 6 camps and conference centers in Michigan and Wisconsin. I was initially dreading this trip, but it turned out to be surprisingly interesting, and somewhat beneficial.

It was interesting to meet with the Directors of these camps to see how they are being run, and especially in this rough economic time. One of my interests of course was what kind of emphasis these places put on media and how they integrated that into their camp experience. There were some that put almost no emphasis on it, and others who had exclusive staff dedicated to it.

This just caused me to think more about my passions and talents and how I am going to use them in the future. I have a passion for sports ministry and reaching others for Christ through sports, and I also have a passion for media and the integration of it into different ministries and settings. So I am torn between the two.

Of course I know that these two things can be used together for some type of ministry, and I will see more specifically how this can be done this summer in my internship when I am leading soccer camps, as well as shooting and editing promotional videos.

There is also this huge burden that I have had for the local church and how it presents the gospel through media, and specifically in my home church in Kentucky. And I have had the privilege of seeing it done correctly in my church here in Chicago, so there are many ideas that I would like to take back to my church and implement.

Then there is also the desire to create my own startup doing podcasting, videoblogging, and live video. But I'm not sure how real that idea could be.

So all of these things are ideas that have been floating around in my head, and I just can't stop thinking about them, so naturally they come out in my writing on this blog. And they are all updates in the life of Josh Burns.

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?

a good reminder

I had a great talk today with a good friend of mine who is also a mother of a good friend of mine. We talked about various different things, but one topic of discussion was the church that I visited this past weekend called Crosspoint Church. Out of this conversation spawned a conversation about media in the church.

Some of you know that I have many ideas about media in the church and how it should be used. I have a burden to implement these ideas in my home church. But something I was thinking about after that conversation took place today was that this burden was not so that I could be recognized or looked at for the things that I am doing in the church, but so that the church could become better at outreaching to those around it, and eventually bring glory to God through this.

I have never said that I want to be recognized for things that I do or am going to do in media in the church, but I have never said that I don't want to be recognized either.

Today I just realized the importance of giving all of the glory to God for the things we do for/in the church. All of these media ideas that I have, that I would like to implement in the church should all come with purpose of glorifying God, and they all do, but I think I need to think more consciously about this purpose.

Just a good reminder

juntos no more

Juntos!
If you are a Moody student or attended any of the general sessions of the missions conference here at Moody last year then you will recognize this very over-used Spanish word meaning "together." That was the theme of the conference last year, and the keynote speaker felt the need to use the word "Juntos" literally about every 2-3 minutes, and if that wasn't enough he used it in about every part of speech that exists. Needless to say last years main sessions were not the greatest, we found ourselves sitting in the auditorium for 2 hours counting how many times the guy said "Juntos." So honestly I wasn't expecting much from this year's main sessions, and to be even more honest I fell asleep last night during Al Guerra's session, which was probably worth listening to but I just couldn't keep my eyes open after a very draining (both physically and emotionally) soccer game (another post for another day). But I did enjoy today's sessions very much.

Al Guerra spoke again this morning and thankfully I was able to stay awake, because he talked about how to minister to people that we don't want to minister to. He spoke out of Matthew 28. ...And brace yourself...I also took notes, yes thats right. So a couple points that he made were to 1. Lead by theology. He talked about learning what we have from our Systematic Theology classes, which I am taking right now, and work hard to apply this to real-life leadership situations. Another point he made was to 2. Study the culture. This was very stressed that we should go into a culture as learners. Don't go into a culture ignorant of their rituals and practices. I think many people do this, especially when it comes to short-term missions trips and they lose their effectiveness because of it. So the morning session was very beneficial, and I was glad that I got the extra sleep in order to stay awake.

We are also required to go to some seminar sessions. One of these that I chose to go to was called "Movies and Media: What does that have to do with Missions?" So of course, if any of you know me you know that this immediately caught my eye, and it didn't take me very long to decide which one I was going to attend. The woman leading this session graduated from Ashland College in Ohio with a videography degree and now works for a missions agency doing 50% video work, and 50% missions work. It was very interesting to hear how this worked. Half of the year she will spend traveling around the world filming and producing content for different missions agencies, and then the other half of the year she will spend building relationships with people in the area where she is living, whether it be London, England, or somewhere else, and then try to influence these people for Christ. I think this is a very interesting concept. And I just kept getting more and more interested because she has her own company which is something that I've always thought would be awesome to do, and I've done some freelance work before under the name of JSquared Productions, but it hasn't gone too far. But this session just evoked some very interesting thoughts in my mind on some cool opportunities that are out there.

Tonight we had another main session, and you'll never guess who the speaker was...Steve Saint. Steve Saint for those of you who don't know is the son of Nate Saint, one of the 5 missionaries who was speared by the Auqa Indians while trying to share Christ with them. Some of you might have seen or heard of the movie "The End of the Spear." This movie was made about this man, Nate Saint and the other missionaries. I remember seeing this movie, I believe it was my Sr. year in highschool, and after coming out of the theater just sitting in my friends car and just crying because by the time I had already felt God's call on my life into full-time missions and I didn't know if I was willing to give up my life like that for the cause of Christ. And so that movie really had an impact on my life, and evoked alot of thoughts in my mind. So it was amazing to hear Steve Saint speak and just give first hand accounts of how he felt, and how his mother felt, throughout all of this. While interviewing a wife of one of the missionary men who died, she was asked, "When this happened to your husband how did you not ask God, Why?" And she responded, "I guess I just never thought about that." ("that" being questioning God). That just amazes me. And Steve's challenge to us was to be heroes of the faith, and be willing to give my life for Christ. So tonight's session was very impactful, and exceeded far beyond my expectations, even though my expectations were very low coming into it.

With all that said, I'm tired and need to get some other stuff done, but I am genuinely looking forward to what tomorrow has to bring. Sorry for such the long post, they won't be this long all the time.

We're all in this together, juntos no more.