PowerTech BlogBeing a techie for God's Youth

As some of you may know by now, I am trying to blog about my experiences as a Tech Guy for our youth group, but also about learning Website development as well. All I can say sometimes is, “What did I get myself into?”

Okay, seriously, there is just so much to learn and do with web development that an entire year could be spent just learning the ins and outs of one particular program. My choice so far has been Joomla for the website stuff and WordPress for the blogs. This past week for Powerhouse I added in a whole new WordPress site and set up most of it for “Podcasting” in the future. For now though I am using it to stream or offer downloads of the sermons and special events of our youth pastor.

My first experience of using WordPress was great, but finding a plug-in that works well was the challenge. So I decided to go with the one made especially for sermons. Sermon Browser has been excellent right from the start for this new adventure. I had very little problems getting it up and running the way I wanted to. I was able to use my ftp file transfer program to transfer the sermon files onto my server using the recommend links. I even went so far as to make sure some of my files were “tagged” properly using the information I had available. WOW, it was really easy and everyone of the sermon .mp3 files I added worked without any problems. (I did have to add an audio player recommended by Sermon Browser.)

The podcast program I helped set up with our church’s website was not as easy and it is still having problems. Which is probably something we are going to have to change in the future. But as with all things, this is a learning experience and the more of it you do, the better and quicker you become at it.

So now that I have that process going, the next big thing coming up for me is the website developement of our School Website. I will let you know once that has been posted and it goes live. If you want to see the demo version, you may check it out at http://acslions.ashlandgbc.org This is just a play area for now until I can go live with the entire site. Hopefully that will be happening in the next 3 weeks. So keep your eyes posted and thanks for checking this site out.

By the way, I may not post very often, but I will keep posting some of my experiences and thoughts about Chruch Tech Media. I do have a few sites that I highly recommend. Check out the links on the side for some of them!

Click on pen to

Well, here we are again, with another new edition. Sorry about the delay, life sometimes happens faster than you may think.

Snow retreat was awesome and things went very well for the weekend. We were once again challenged by Pastor Jon Summers and Ward 9 come down and lead worship for us. We were able to do a few new things this year thanks to having a few extra computers. Powerhouse purchased a new computer this past fall to use Media Shout 3.5. I have been hearing some good things about the newest 4.0 version but have not tried it as of yet. Why?

Well, for the past 10 months, our main church has been without a worship director/pastor. So most of these types of decisions have been put on hold for a while. A few weeks ago, we had a candidate by the name of Ronnie Martin come out and lead worship. Funny how God works in these areas, and that is what I wanted to share today.

One of our secretaries has been a huge fan of  a “Tooth and Nail” record label group called “Joy Electric.” So as a way to promote the school that I am also associated with, she set up a concert with “Joy Electric”, “Travelogue”, and one other group. Ronnie Martin is the lead for Joy Electric. So while he was here, our secretary was telling him a little about the church and our need for a new worship director. Not thinking anything about him being interested or anything, he called a few days later and asked a little bit more about the position. To make a long story short, he applied; our Senior pastor and our church moderator went out to hear him lead worship in his church. A month ago, they asked him to come and lead worship here. He was called as our next worship director and now the rest is in God’s hand.

I am always amazed at how God orchestrates these things according to his plan and purpose. 6 months ago, we were anxiously awaiting to find someone, almost a year later, God has placed someone according to His will.

As techies, we can never underestimate the power of God or where it will lead. We must always try to give our best, and yet be flexible enough to change at God’s prompting. So, where is that leading me today? I keep trying to work on the website for our Powerhouse group, and now it is on to the new school website. I’m not sure how soon it will be up, but I’m looking forward to watching how God will orchestrate the changes and mold and shape us, myself included, to get the job done.

Blessings and more to come soon.

Click on pen to