Monday, September 12, 2005

Did you ever want to dig a hole to China

If I dig a very deep hole!

While not entirely ministry tech related, this is a very original and funny use of Google Maps. Some ingenious Brazilian grad student has made a scrip that will show you where your "hole to China" would end up on the globe. So far I keep hitting water. The cool thing about this, and other similar programs, it that is shows the potential for Google Maps.

For the church, it would be great to see a Google Maps script that shows population densities, Christian churches, or missionary presence.
It reminds me of Romans 15:20
"It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation."

How Awesome would it be if we could see the concentration (or lack thereof) of Christian ministry presence. This could really help missionaries churches and agencies determine where the most strategic locations to place their teams.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Looking for Guest Writers and Ideas

Hey folks! Looking for anyone who would like to contribue to this blog or make recomendations. If someone wants to write short essays or lessons in regards to web design, using flash, or anything tech related, then let me know. Post I comment and let me know how to reach you.
Thanks
Jason

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Bible Study Aids

Sonic Light
www.soniclight.com

Soniclight.com is the compalation of notes and commentary of Dr. Thomas L. Constable, Th.D. Department Chairman and Senior Professor of Bible Exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Dr. Constable is one of the Godliest men I know and a wonderful teacher. His notes are the most complete collection of commentary on all 66 books of the bible. His notes on each book of the bible are free to download and so are his audio lectures.

His notes take into account the opinions and viewpoints from various theological perspectives. They have a wealth of knowledge of biblical cultural, Greek and Hebrew, and draw on Dr. Constables decades of ministry.

To this day, I do not teach on a passage of scripture with looking to these notes to help me better understand God's Word.


Net Bible
www.netbible.com

The Net Bible, or the New English Translation, is a great version of the bible that you can dowload for free.
The NET Bible (New English Translation) is a completely new translation of the Bible, not a revision or an update of a previous English version. It is being completed by more than twenty biblical scholars who are working directly from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. The translation project originally started as an attempt to provide an electronic version of a modern translation for electronic distribution over the Internet and on CD-Rom. Anyone anywhere in the world with an Internet connection will be able to use and print out the NET Bible without cost for personal study. In addition, anyone who wants to share the Bible with others can print unlimited copies and give them away free to others.


Their website also has a few hundred bible studies, illustrations, and preaching outlines available. There are some fee based services, but most of their material is free to use. I personally have used the study outlines and notes in my teaching series on the 7 Churches in Revelation.


Life Church
www.lifechurch.tv

While not necessarily a Bible study aid, Life Church has all of there web cast presentations available for viewing. Life Church has a unique ministry. They are "One Church" with "several locations" around Oklahoma and elsewhere. Each church has care pastors and worship teams that minister to the needs of their local church. On Sunday services, the message is delivered through a web cast and projected up on big screens.

All of the sermon series are packaged online for anyone to watch. The preaching is excellent and I often use them as a devotional time. My wife has been blessed on numerous occasions by Pastor Craig Groeschel teaching. The technological delivery is fantastic. I have not seen a crisper video and listened to clearer audio before.

The window the video plays in is divided into four quads. One for the video, one for the theme art work of the message or series. The third quad is the PowerPoint slides. As the sermon advances, so do the slides. A neat feature allows you to skip ahead in the sermon by advancing the slides. The last quad is for taking notes or e-mailing