Yes, I could!! I’m sitting in a grassy area at the Perry’s Beach Resort in sunny Daytona watching my charges from beneath an umbrella. My first youth trip in at least four years.
So far, I’ve answered several emails, conducted some business, updated the church sign, and tried to get Krissy’s car back on the road (that one will be an ouch!). And it’s not even lunch time!!
Really thankful for technology, our EBC tech team, and my iPhone right …. about… NOW.
Isn’t it kind of dangerous for a pastor to write and think something like this??? Unfortunately, I am not always in a place where I can really speak my mind. Sometimes God says no … sometimes Diana does. If I could REALLY say what I think, it might be dangerous.
After THAT dramaculous intro, here is what I REALLY would’ve said to my ACS peeps today if I’d had a little more time:
So, there is the reason behind my appreciation and love for my ACS peeps. You really make more of a difference than you can even imagine, both for your neighbors at EBC AND for 50,000 churches across the nation. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2010. That’s about 29 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 199 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 1011 posts. There were 4 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 292kb.
The busiest day of the year was April 21st with 183 views. The most popular post that day was Who is this David R. Wike?.
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, davidwike.blogspot.com, ebenezerbaptistchurch.com, my.msn.com, and thepacepage.blogspot.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for david wike, post christmas quotes, random thinker, davidrwike.com, and http://www.davidrwike.com.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Who is this David R. Wike? April 2010
The Y August 2010
3 comments
Signs you are drinking too much coffee November 2010
2 comments
Did something I don’t like to do today August 2010
2 comments
Weekend June 2010
4 comments
Better save this one … I don’t often have deep thoughts.
This week, I’ve done EVERYTHING on my iPad. All of my communication and social media (with the exception of a few tweets from my phone), wrote my sermon, kept in touch with the election and local news. The ONLY things I cannot do with this device are access Flash sites: Unfortunately, several of the video sites I use still use Flash. Hope that changes.
Because, if it did, I really could do EVERYTHING I DO from my iPad!! When I bought this iPad, I also bought a bluetooth Mac keyboard, which has made all of this much easier.
That boggles my mind. In its current configuration, there are a few things that make it necessary for me to have a desktop at work. But the day will come when something like this will be my primary computer.
Coming from a old-timer that got into this stuff in the mid ’80s, that is REALLY COOL. If I could go back to myself in college and show this, I wouldn’t believe me. (But, that is partially because I know me and, well, probably shouldn’t get into that).
And I glance over at my iPhone and wonder how long it will be before I am blogging this same type of thought about that???
This morning I rode to Raleigh with Dean and Robbie. The target?? The Church Information Technology Round Table for North and South Carolina. Very interesting to hear what different churches are doing to enable kingdom growth. Never overlook the role IT plays in this today!!
Through all of the details, nuts, bolts, ICs and LEDs, this is a MINISTRY and a crucial part of modern ministry in the year 2010. And it will only grow to play more and more of a role in the church of tomorrow!! I’m thankful for these guys and what they do to make a difference!! It’s another of those unseen and seldom-known roles that keeps things clicking!!
If you really slowed down enough to notice, there is so much that goes on behind the scenes to help a church like Ebenezer (and, really, EVERY OTHER CHURCH) do the things we do. Ed and I are very visible in the pulpit on Sundays … Andi is visible in Children’s Church … Justin is very visible in Youth Ministry … and PAM is highly visible in this unseen world of infrastructure!! Mary, Lisa, Dusty, Bill, Edwin, Jerry, and Kitty are the hands and feet from the staff that make it happen!! From the congregational side, MANY OF YOU are the ones that make this happen as well!!
And when I look at all of this from this different perspective, it makes me even more thankful!!!
By far, this has been the craziest summer of my Ebenezer years. It all began with the great lightening strike of 2010. Since then, Drew has worked (VOLUNTEER BASIS) at the church a couple of days every week!! We are almost out of the hole as far as getting everything back to normal (still a couple of issues with the fire alarms, but other than that we are back). And just in time, because school starts back on Monday.
Looking back, I cannot believe the summer went this fast. There are also several things I cannot believe happened, but I can’t blog about those … saving them for my book!!
As the school year begins for colleges, high schools, and on down the line, I hope you and yours have a great year!! I pray the same for mine!!!
I started to subtitle this post “ACS is the devil!” Yeah, I don’t believe that for a SECOND!!! ACS is AWESOME!!
Several years ago we started talking about using the ACS CheckPoint system, in which people check their children in to activities and events at our church. The software logs their attendance and prints a badge for each child and a parents badge with a transaction number that matches each kid. This number can be used to verify the identity of the parent when the child is picked up. In a VBS that is running about 450 children and adults, and many of the kids are from the community and NOT regular EBC attenders, this is the SAFEST WAY I know of to protect children. Having NO security makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER in this day and age.
I never thought anyone would ever complain or criticize the fact that we were taking measures for safety. And last night I was proved wrong. I won’t go into details, but let me just say that I do NOT believe Ebenezer is enabling the Mark of the Beast by using this system. The numbers are randomly generated and we neither keep them nor upload them to any type of national database. We are NOT taking the easy way out in this. The system works when we do it right, and it makes me feel safer as a pastor that we do it. Kudos to ACS for this system!!
And I will NOT apologize for taking steps to ensure the safety of children at Ebenezer.
Yes, you read it here first: I love it!! There are very few things I cannot do with it. Most of all, I’ve been PREACHING FROM IT FOR SEVERAL WEEKS and very few people have NOTICED!! And, I LOVE not having to shuffle papers while in the pulpit!
I know somewhere someone will hear about this and accuse me of trying to be state-of-the-art or “cool” or trying to hard to be modern, but they can just say and think whatever they wish: It really does help me do a better job at what I do.
Drew and I have hit the wall. He has gone to work with me every morning at 8am, repaired several computers, chased wiring problems, and helped me debug stuff. We’ve configured some of the replacement equipment, labeled most of the lines coming into the main switch (something that needed to be done YEARS AGO) and we both are dead dawg tired.
In the mean time, I tried to write and do a funeral and am still working on my sermon. (I’ve usually finished it by Wednesday afternoon … I am NO WHERE NEAR FINISHED)
And we have both hit the wall. Stressed out and kind of sick of it. We need a break!! And the thought that my main vacation for the summer was last week just drags me DEEPER INTO THE FUNK.
I think we will hitchhike to Hawaii. I’ve got some buddies from school over there who “need to see me!” LOOKOUT, BRYSON AND GREG!
